by Darcy, A. J.
“Hello, sir,” the girl politely greeted him.
The teenagers looked at each other while Officer Greene studied Olivia and her green eyes.
Clearing his throat, Henry interrupted the policeman’s thoughts, “We were just getting some ice cream and were going to the lake. Tell Winnie that I said ‘hi’ when you talk to her.”
Off they went, in typical Henry fashion, or at least the way Henry would hurry off when he knew somebody or something and did not want to share what he suspected. Henry had noticed the similarity of their green eyes but did not want to share this observation until he had more evidence. He did not want to get Olivia’s hopes up only for them to end up smashed into a million tiny pieces.
For the rest of the afternoon Weston thought about that tall teenager. Henry had confirmed that she was Victoria’s daughter. She would be around Henry and Winnie’s age if she was hanging out with Henry. More than anything he wanted to be angry that Victoria had never told him. He could not help but remember the time after their break up when she found him and tried to tell him something. He remembered that Beverly saw them talking and did her usual possessive act. He remembered how the normally confident Victoria had wilted and then vanished with barely another word. It was the last time he had seen her.
No, Weston admitted to himself, if he became mad over it now then it would be counterproductive towards the goal that he really wanted: getting Victoria back now that she had returned to town.
Chapter Five
A few days after seeing Henry and Olivia together, Weston Greene had his chance. The blue car with the Shelby county license plate was caught on radar doing ten miles over the posted speed limit of thirty miles per hour. Flicking on his lights, Weston hid his smile behind a poker face as he pulled Victoria Whitmore over. He managed to catch a glimpse of a dark head of hair in the passenger seat.
“Mom, I told you not to speed. How fast were you going, anyway?” Olivia sighed, looking out the window of the car instead of at her mother.
“Don’t you worry about it,” Victoria smiled at her daughter. “Get my registration out of the glove box, will you?” Glancing in the rear-view mirror, her smile quickly faded when she saw Weston.
It was not possible for Victoria to keep Weston from figuring things out if he really wanted to figure it out; her daughter did inherit her brains from him.
Tapping on the window, Officer Greene motioned for Victoria to lower her window. It had been almost eighteen years since he had last seen her, somehow managing to avoid her during her summer visits with her father. And he had tried to ignore the later tales of the daughter that she brought home with her.
Glancing at the passenger seat, he was startled to see the daughter looking back at him with those striking green eyes and dark hair. She was clearly studying the situation without a word.
“Weston,” Victoria whispered.
“Office Greene,” he corrected. “License and registration.” He looked at the papers before handing them back over. “Do you know why I pulled you over?”
“No, Officer,” Victoria smiled right as her daughter spoke up, “Speeding.” She glanced over at the daughter, “Olivia,” she hissed. “I told you to leave this to me.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” the girl, Olivia, leaned forward and had to brush some brown hair out of her face. “My mother is a couple of months along and she’s desperate to get home to go to the bathroom. She normally never speeds when I’m in the car. I think it is anxiety about George and moving up here that has her worried.”
“George?” Weston asked, looking at Victoria.
“Her ex-boyfriend. He was a real jerk when she told him that we needed to move up here to take care of Grandfather.” Olivia was being extremely helpful in sharing information. “I don’t think she’s told him about the baby yet either.”
“So,” he looked sharply, “you have a habit of leaving your boyfriends and not letting them know that you are pregnant, do you?”
Olivia looked at her mother questioningly, wondering about what he meant with those words.
“Please, don’t do this right now,” Victoria whispered. “She doesn’t know.”
“Mom?” Scenarios raced through her already overloaded brain.
“Tomorrow,” Weston answered as he looked right at Victoria. “Noon at the café. Have a nice day, ma’am.”
Nodding at them both, he handed back the papers and returned to his cruiser.
He took his time getting to the café the next day. In fact, Weston might have intentionally been ten or fifteen minutes late.
Checking her watch, Victoria sighed, knowing that even if she stood up and left that he would only track her down at the house and then demand the answers that she was not quite ready to tell her daughter. Or him.
Panic made her not notice when he walked into the café, looked around for her, and then went to wait in line, further delaying their meeting.
“Why are you back, Victoria?” Weston asked, setting a cup of herbal tea in front of her and sitting down, causing her to jump. “Why didn’t you tell me about our daughter?”
“Olivia pretty much said it all. I’m back because of George and my father. I just found out I was pregnant and I did not like the way he had been looking at Olivia.” Victoria looked down at her tea. “I was concerned that it was only a matter of time before he attacked Olivia and I would be in no position to stop him.” Sighing, “I didn’t tell her that though. I don’t know if she was aware of how he was looking at her.”
“So you left?”
“He’s possessive. I was so busy paying attention to Olivia and her welfare that I didn’t notice that he has an unhealthy obsessive personality.” She took a sip of tea, looking up in surprise when she realized it was tea instead of the decaf coffee she suspected he would give her – that is if he still remembered her drink preferences.
“And Olivia?”
“I didn’t know I was pregnant until you had left to go camping with your father,” she lied. “We had already broken up by then.”
Weston just stared at her as if he suspected she was lying.
“At first you were gone on your trip and nobody could reach you. When you finally came back I tried to contact you, but you were with Beverly and I couldn’t ruin that.” She mumbled something else that he could barely understand.
“What was that?”
Jerking her eyes away from the cup and making eye contact for the first time since he sat in front of her, Victoria started to explain. “Your mother threatened my family and me if I continued dating you. She said she would get my scholarship pulled if I called one more time.”
Sighing, “That sounds like the crazy bitch. She set me up with Beverly, her best friend’s perfect daughter.” He snorted. “I wish you would have tried to contact me differently. That marriage lasted six years and ended in a not-so-friendly divorce where she cheated on me, blamed me for everything, and took Max.”
“She took Max?” Victoria gasped. “But he was your dog.”
“Exactly.” He chuckled, “Three weeks later Max was returned to me. She never thought about the fact that every time I went for a jog I took Max with me. He tore up her new apartment because he was a fur ball full of energy.”
Victoria looked up at him, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about her.”
“Does she know?”
“No. Well…I don’t know. She can figure it out if she looks hard enough and I don’t doubt that she will be looking if she hasn’t been already. She does have Henry on her side.” Victoria sighed, taking a sip of the tea. “She has your eyes and hair and I’m beginning to think your height and your innate inability to lie.” Smiling, “Olivia also has your sister’s ability on stage.”
Weston smiled. “I suspect she will get along with Winnie then, even if they likely to have a competition against each other for roles.”
“Winnie?”
“Melissa’s oldest. She’s seventeen. Melissa married Chase right after you left and
had Winifred shortly after.”
“Winifred, really?”
“Chase’s grandmother’s name.”
The two continued sitting there for a bit longer, letting silence settle around them like a comforting blanket. He had a serious question that he wanted to ask and Victoria knew that it was coming.
“Are you going to tell her?”
Victoria grabbed her things. “When the time is right I will; when she asks,” was her answer, impulsively kissing him on the cheek. “She’ll ask soon. Knowing her, she will snoop around with Henry a bit longer before she gives up.” Before she walked away she whispered, “Olivia Nadine, after Shakespeare and my college roommate.”
Again he suspected she was lying. Nadine was also his mother and grandmother’s name; it was a name that he had suggested when they had been together.
The bells chimed after the door closed behind Victoria. From the other end of the room a dark haired woman stood up and walked over to join Weston. Taking the recently abandoned seat, “Was that Victoria?” she asked.
“Yes.” Looking up at his sister he carefully added, “Make certain that Winnie gets to know her cousin. Apparently she gained the drama gene.”
Melissa smiled. “When do you get to officially meet her?”
“As soon as Olivia asks; hopefully soon.”
Chapter Six
The Present - July
Staring dejectedly at the small pile of yearbooks that were now stacked in the middle of Henry’s bedroom floor – the bed was considered off-limits and the door was propped wide open – the teenagers both leaned against the foot of his bed.
“I thought we would have had some type of a clue in these books,” Henry groaned. “The only evidence that your mom even existed is in the required class photos. There are no candid or posed shots of your mother anywhere in any of these yearbooks.”
“What did you expect to find?” Mrs. Hayes asked, standing in the doorway. “Victoria was not exactly popular because of her mother’s family.”
“That’s just silly,” Olivia whispered.
“But it happens,” Henry pointed out. “It even happens today. People leave Heather Morris alone because her father can’t hold a job and threatens to shoot anybody who offers them any help.”
“That’s horrible!” Olivia cried.
“That’s being a teenager,” Mrs. Hayes commented. “Don’t worry too much about it; Heather has friends.” Looking back at the discarded pile of yearbooks, “Why were you looking for your mother?”
“I was hoping to find out who her high school boyfriend was,” Olivia admitted, staring at the carpet. “I was hoping to figure out who my father is.”
The teenagers looked up when Mrs. Hayes laughed. Looking at each other, they wondered why she was laughing about something so important.
“Why didn’t you just ask?”
“Because I don’t know how upset my mom would be if she found out that I was looking for the identity of my father.”
“You could have asked me.”
Henry looked at his mother. “You know?”
“Everybody in town knows. We have a running bet going on for about when you would find out and another bet going for about when your father would find out you existed.” She looked at Olivia, “Martin Andrews won that second bet last week.” Olivia still looked confused. “Sweetie, your father is Officer Weston Greene.”
Olivia bolted out of the room while Henry glared at his mother. They both had different primary reactions to her revelation.
Olivia rushed home.
Henry stared, “Why did you never say anything?”
“Nobody asked so we thought that Olivia was okay with not knowing. It was not my secret to tell.”
Shaking his head, Henry took after Olivia.
Eighteen Years Ago
Once again Hope McCall was telling one of her not-quite-funny jokes where everybody was still expected to laugh. Victoria tried not to roll her eyes at her best friend and instead focused on getting her things out of her locker.
Shutting the door, she turned and caught a glimpse of a group of junior boys. It was the very action she had avoided since she turned fifteen and had been warned extensively about being careful when she looked at any boy.
Her friends simply assumed that she was shy around boys and that was why she never looked them in the eyes.
Today, however, the earth shifted as she made eye contact with Weston Greene. Her mouth went dry and her brain shut down as she tried to look away and refocus on Hope and her bad jokes. By then Hope knew something had just shifted and that her best friend would never be the same girl again.
“Victoria?” her best friend asked, tugging on her sleeve. “Are you okay?”
“Do you remember that thing I told you about?” Victoria whispered urgently. Hope nodded her head. “It happened.” Her expression was filled with dread.
Normally it was easy to ignore the boys. At least half of them had been warned about the Mason witches and they knew that Victoria was part of that family line. Last names told more stories than words ever could. The entire town knew about Victoria’s parents, more precisely about her mother, and nobody was allowed to forget it. It was not as if Nadine Greene ever let anybody else think any differently about the varied and untrue rumors that her mother had started a generation before.
That made the earth shifting and then settling back into place ironic.
“I just accidently made eye contact with Weston.” Victoria breathed out hurriedly, jumbling her words together and hoping that he did not hear it. “The earth moved.”
“Oh, this is too funny!” Hope laughed loudly.
Victoria was as stiff as a board while Weston moved past them, still looking at her, still wondering what had just happened that managed to shift his axis.
He knew who she was; they had several classes together over the years and his mother had been clear that he was supposed to stay as far away from ‘the manipulative witch’ as he possibly could.
It did not stop him from looking at the girl. She was now forbidden fruit and his mother’s demands were more than enough to make him at least think about Victoria. It would have been better if his mother had never mentioned Victoria Whitmore at all. Mentioning Victoria, her family, and the story about how his mother was wronged and forced to settle on his father was enough to make him interested in the forbidden.
Suddenly he understood how Martin Whitmore felt when he first laid eyes on Emilia Mason. Everything had bottomed out and righted itself in a matter of seconds. If his world had not already rotated around his crush on Victoria then he would have been shocked at the slightly unsettling feeling that happened right when they made eye contact for the first time since her fifteenth birthday. If he had never heard the story about Martin and Emilia so many times he would have been confused.
“Hey,” a male voice grumbled from behind her. It had been a week since they had made eye contact and Victoria was trying really hard to avoid him. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
He smiled at Hope. Her traitorous friend smiled and then managed to disappear, narrowly missing bumping into Nathan Hayes. Hope definitely missed Nathan turning back to watch her walk away.
“That depends. Is it about homework or something else?”
“Something else.”
“Then no,” Victoria coldly answered, shutting her locker door carefully. She did not want to attract more attention than necessary to this tableau. There was enough trouble as it was with a Greene being her supposed soul mate or at the very least the being the father to her future daughter.
“I think we both know that resistance is futile,” Weston laughed. Leaning in closer, “The earth moved,” he hissed. “I’m not stupid. I know what it means for the earth to move when you make eye contact with a Mason witch.”
“I’m not a Mason witch.”
“Your mother was.”
“My family are not witches,” she hissed, bumping into him to make him move. “We
have talents and the unfortunate ability to know who is going to be the father of our first child. He’s a soul mate of a sort if you want a simplified explanation.” Turning to face him, “Are you certain you want that to happen anytime soon? It usually happens the first time anybody gets together with one of ‘my kind’ as your mother would say.”
He grinned at her snarky comments.
“Bull,” he whispered back. “Your mother was married for years before she became pregnant with you.”
“Yes, because she was married first. The Fates knew that her having a child was a certainty at that point therefore there was no pressure on making it happen right out of the gate. Think about that before you start chasing after me.”
Victoria slid past him, leaving him alone in the hallways. Some students looked at them funny but knew better than to comment. Nadine Greene would have a field day if she ever found out that her precious son was talking to Victoria Whitmore. It amused some of them.
Weston watched her walk away before turning around and walking in the opposite direction. It would not be easy, but he would succeed in winning Victoria Whitmore regardless of what his mother had to say.
It was not the first time that Weston had scaled the tree outside of Victoria’s room. Hormones were going wild and neither of them really wanted to stop. “You know what is going to happen,” Victoria whispered, trying to slow things down.
“We’ll be careful,” Weston promised, pulling the foil packet out of his pocket.
“Awfully sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
“Hopeful,” he smiled.
“We need to talk about this,” Victoria insisted.
Weston pulled back and looked at her. “I don’t care about what my mother thinks. I love you and I think that I have ever since I first saw you and I don’t mean in the hallway months ago. If you do get pregnant, great! She can’t keep us apart. We will be happy together. You even said it was fated.”
“It’s fated for us to meet, not necessarily be together,” she protested. “Mother is the only Mason woman to ever get married.”