Suddenly Love

by Carly Phillips

  She pulled out her phone. “Olivia—I call her Livvy—is at her father’s for the weekend,” Lissa said as she hit some buttons, obviously looking at the text message. “Or not.” She let out a groan.

  “What’s wrong?” Trevor asked.

  “Her text says Have a cold. And At grandma’s. I need to call my mother.”

  “How do you know she didn’t mean the Bankses?” Trevor must be growing up, because here he was, suddenly curious about her relationships and family dynamics.

  “Because Livvy calls Lyla Grandmother Banks.” Lissa wrinkled her nose at the formal term.

  Trevor agreed. “What a bunch of assholes,” he muttered, rising to his feet.

  Before Lissa could react or reply, she gestured to the phone. “Hi, Mom. It’s me. Livvy’s with you?”

  While Lissa was busy, Trevor escaped into the bathroom to wash up and regroup while he was at it. He splashed cold water on his face and brushed his teeth, stalling while he pulled himself together. Talk about being in complete denial for the last twenty-four hours. While he’d been losing himself in Lissa, thinking he’d found the missing pieces of his heart, he’d somehow managed to completely block out the thing that had broken them up to begin with.

  Her daughter.

  Brad’s daughter. He shoved that thought away before he could dwell on it too long.

  The fact that she lived in Serendipity, and he lived here.

  Hell, if he kept thinking, he was sure he’d come up with a whole lot more things that could keep them apart.

  Trevor stepped out of the bathroom in time to hear, “Hey, baby.”

  Lissa spoke into the phone, her tone warm, sweet, and filled with pure love. A tone Trevor had never heard from her before and despite himself, he was intrigued.

  He grabbed a clean pair of underwear and jeans, dressing while she finished her call. “No, baby, I’m not coming home until tomorrow. You have a cold and grandma’s going to take good care of you, okay?” She grew silent, then said, “I love you, too. Bye.”

  Clearly bracing herself, she straightened her shoulders and met his gaze. “Sorry about that.”

  Trevor shook his head. “No need to apologize for reality,” he said. “Kids need their mothers.” And their fathers, which brought up another question nagging at him. “If she has a cold, why didn’t Brad just keep her with him?”

  She frowned. “My guess? Sunny doesn’t want to catch it. That’s Brad’s fiancée. She’s twenty-two and more of a child than Livvy,” Lissa said with a roll of her eyes.

  “Does Livvy look like you? Or her father?”

  Lissa blinked, obviously startled at his question. So was he. But he wanted to know, even as he knew the answer might hurt.

  “My mom thinks she looks exactly like me.”

  The vise squeezing his chest eased. “Then she must be beautiful.”

  “She is.” Despite the obvious awkwardness of the subject, her eyes glowed with pride and happiness over her daughter.

  Her pleasure was contagious, sparking a flame to life inside him. One he wanted to squelch and fan at the same time. But he’d come this far. He’d made love to her. If he turned back now, he’d never know what could be.

  “Do you have a picture?”

  She nodded. Reaching for her purse once more, she pulled out her phone and showed him the background photo. A beautiful girl with Lissa’s green eyes, black hair, and olive complexion stared back at him with her mother’s wide smile, squeezing something inside his chest.

  “She’s gorgeous,” he said, his voice thick.

  “Thanks. I think so, but I’m biased.” She closed her phone and slid it back into her bag.

  “Lissa?”

  “Hmm?” She looked up, a curious expression on her face.

  “Do you remember what we argued about that last time?” he asked, bringing up the subject they’d been avoiding. The breakup that had led to the end.

  Lissa’s eyes filled with tears and she turned away. “I remember you being in a foul mood and I was just so tired of it. I knew school was hard for you, what with football practice and games, and you working at the gas station when you had free time. Still, we had a fight and agreed to take a break.”

  She wrapped her arms around herself and walked to the window. “Actually, I suggested the break, hoping you’d tell me I was crazy. Instead, you told me it was a good idea.”

  Trevor closed his eyes, remembering that argument clearly. As usual, her ex-boyfriend Bradley Banks had gotten under Trevor’s skin. The captain of the football team and supposedly all-around good guy from the right side of the tracks, Banks was really a bastard beneath his moneyed looks. He’d always played on Trevor’s insecurities, doing things like deliberately spilling a drink, then laughing and telling the rest of the team that Trevor’s dad, who was the high school janitor, would clean up his mess.

  “I’d bought you a necklace for your birthday.” He vividly recalled the gold-plated heart with rhinestones around the edge.

  “I still have it, tucked away in the back of a drawer,” she admitted.

  He’d wondered if she’d forgotten all about him over the years. Now he had his answer and his heart pounded harder in his chest.

  Trevor looked over her shoulder and out the window, the glorious view a complete one-eighty from the small house he’d grown up in. The side of his house practically butted another home. When Trevor looked out his bedroom window, he could see the O’Reillys’ back porch, so he’d had to keep his shades shut tight. Maybe that explained why he’d been drawn to this view, he realized now.

  Lissa remained quiet, obviously waiting for him to continue. She stood alone, wearing his big shirt, as lovely and vulnerable as he’d ever seen her. But she still wasn’t looking at him.

  Well, this wasn’t any easier for him, but it had to be done before they could ever move forward. If they could ever move forward.

  “Do you remember what was bothering you that day?” she asked him.

  He’d never told her.

  He expelled a harsh breath. “Brad was giving me shit in the locker room, telling the guys I bought you a piece of junk at Sears and it was just a matter of time until you’d be sick of my poverty and back with him.”

  Though Lissa also lived on the “wrong” side of Serendipity, with her gorgeous face and luscious body, Brad had always seen her first as a prize, then as a challenge.

  She turned around, eyes wide and angry. “That son of a bitch. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  He rolled his stiff shoulders, managing a shrug. “Because it was the same song, different refrain. The guy was a broken record and I have to admit that after a while, it got to me.”

  The man Trevor was now knew how stupid he’d been, but back then, he’d been humiliated and overwhelmed. “I guess I just needed to get away from the pressure for a little while.” He stepped up beside her and pulled her into his arms. “I never meant I needed to get away from you, but I let it happen.” She tipped her head back, leaning against his chest. “I figured out what an ass I’d been and tried to call you all weekend.”

  “But I didn’t take your calls because I’d already…” Her voice trailed off, both of them knowing the end of that sentence.

  “Melissa Mayhue’s parents were away and she had a party. I was upset and Brad and his friends were there. He passed me drinks and I took them. Can’t blame him for that,” she said, too much self-hatred in her voice. “And when I went to get my things to go home, he offered to drive me.”

  He stiffened, drawing on everything in him not to get angry and pull away so he could smash something and pretend it was her ex. The bastard had preyed on her vulnerability and taken advantage of her being upset that night. Then she’d gotten pregnant. Neither of them had been old enough or mature enough to understand it back then. It was still hard enough to accept now.

  As much as he wished things had played out differently, he couldn’t change the past. And it drove him crazy knowing that though Trevor thought Ban
ks had done the right thing, in reality he’d merely given the Banks family the best public face while privately making Lissa as miserable as possible.

  “I’m sorry,” she said in a broken voice.

  “I know you are.” He turned her around, forcing her to look at him. “And so am I, sweetheart. So am I.”

  She sniffed. “Really?”

  He nodded. “We share the blame for what happened. Hell, I realize now I bear most of it. If I hadn’t agreed to split up, you’d never have been with him.” Trevor knew that now as well as he knew his own name.

  Her eyes shone with surprise and gratitude. “Thank you for that,” she said, yet she moved out of his embrace.

  In front of his eyes, she mentally and emotionally pulled herself together, internalizing the emotions she’d allowed to surface. “I’m glad we finally talked about this. I’m glad we had… closure.”

  Trevor blinked in shock at her stark words and suddenly cool tone. He’d thought he needed closure, too. No longer. Yet somehow she’d decided they’d wrapped things up between them in a nice bow.

  But as far as he was concerned, things were even messier now than they’d been before. Because Trevor knew what meaningless sex was like—and what he and Lissa shared was a hell of a lot more. No way was he willing to let her just walk out of his life as if last night meant nothing.

  “I don’t know where you got the idea that last night was about closure,” he said, folding his arms across his chest as he faced her down. “News flash, sweetheart. We’re not close to over.”

  Lissa blew out a long breath and stared at him as if he’d gone mad. “So… what? We’re going to be together for another twenty-four hours, torture ourselves with what could have been… and then what? I’ll go back to Serendipity, to my daughter—to Brad’s daughter,” she said bluntly. “And you’ll stay here. Why prolong the agony?”

  He couldn’t deny she had a point. When it came to obstacles, they had plenty. Nor could he say he was ready to deal with everything her real life had to offer, including her daughter, her ex, and Serendipity.

  “I don’t have all the answers,” he told her honestly. “The only thing I do know is that if it’s going to hurt that much to walk away, it means there’s something meaningful there to begin with.” He held out his hands and waited, holding his breath.

  “Damn it, Trevor,” she muttered, and walked into his waiting arms.

  He held her close and suddenly her stomach growled. He heard as well as felt the vibration and laughed.

  “I’m hungry,” she said.

  “Let’s go out and get breakfast.”

  She stepped back and gestured to his see-through shirt and her bare legs. “I have this and a formal gown,” she reminded him.

  “Personally, I like this.”

  She wrinkled her nose at him and he laughed. “Fine. Go shower. I’ll give you a heavier shirt and a pair of sweats and socks to go back to the hotel in. You can change and then we’ll go for breakfast. Better?”

  She nodded. “Thanks.”

  A few minutes later, she’d shut herself in his bathroom and turned on the shower, while he lowered himself onto his bed and groaned, running a hand through his already messed-up hair.

  He meant what he’d said a few minutes earlier. He didn’t have any real answers for the future, but he’d just bought himself twenty-four hours with Lissa.

  For now, that was enough.

  FIVE

  Still stunned by their heart-to-heart and the fact that Trevor wasn’t letting her just leave, Lissa found herself sitting across from him at a small crepe place he said he enjoyed. She ordered an apple cinnamon crepe and they ate in a silence that was oddly companionable, considering the safe world she lived in had crumbled around her. She was facing interminable heartache and yet here she was, sitting across from him anyway.

  “So what are your immediate job plans?” he asked.

  She patted her mouth with the napkin and met his gaze. “Well, after I interview you, I have to go home and get to work on Ethan Barron. Do you remember him?”

  He nodded. “My sister told me he came back to town after ten years, bought the Harrington estate, married Faith Harrington, and surprised the hell out of everyone in town by being a millionaire.”

  “After his parents died and he disappeared, everyone thought he’d end up in jail… or worse.”

  “Helluva story for you to write, though,” Trevor said. “Then what?”

  Lissa shrugged. “So far it’s been freelance. I’m hoping something permanent will come up, but even this way I’m making more money than I was at Cuppa Café and writing the town obits.” She lifted her coffee cup and took a long sip.

  “Which means you aren’t committed to staying in Serendipity because of your work?” he asked.

  Her hands began to shake and she grasped her coffee cup for something to hold on to. “Serendipity is my home,” she said, hoarsely. It was her security. “My family is there. My friends…” Hard-earned friends, she might have added. Because Lissa didn’t let people in easily. In fact, she was better at driving them away. “Livvy’s life is there.”

  Trevor shot her a knowing look, one that said he knew she was panicking. “Who are your friends these days?” he asked, smoothly changing the subject.

  She didn’t know why, but she was grateful not to have to think beyond right now. “You’re really interested?”

  Again, that knowing yet patient look crossed his face. “How else can I get to know you again?” he asked.

  She sighed and shook her head, unable to deny him even the simplest of answers, even if he wouldn’t like what he learned about her. “For awhile, I was lucky I had friends,” she admitted. “I was unhappy, Trevor. Around Livvy I put up a good front, but when I wasn’t? I was a raving bitch to most people.” She couldn’t meet his gaze, not proud of the woman she’d become for a while.

  “Unhappiness can drain you.”

  He sounded like he understood, but she still couldn’t look at him. “I’m lucky Kate Andrews decided she liked me. She’d come into the coffee shop, buy herself something, and hang out at the counter, talking to me when it was quiet and I wasn’t serving.”

  “Kate…” he said as if trying to place her.

  “Long, reddish-brown hair, best friends with Faith Harrington,” she said, to jog his memories of their high school days.

  He nodded. “I remember her. She was always outgoing. Nice.”

  “And persistent,” Lissa said, wrinkling her nose at the memory. “She insisted I leave Livvy with my mom and come to Joe’s with her and her friends on Wednesday nights. It’s still Ladies Night. Soon Wednesdays became a ritual, and so did book club once a month. We rotate houses.” She shrugged. “After spending most of my time holed up in the house, eventually I had friends again.” She smiled at the thought of her small clique. “There’s Kate and some other girls from high school, Stacy Garner and Tanya Santos.” And now she even considered Faith Harrington one, too.

  “And then Faith came back and your career took off…” he said, as if reading her mind.

  Lissa shook her head. “It wasn’t quite that simple.” Drawing a deep breath, she recounted to Trevor how godawful rude she’d been to Faith on her return to Serendipity.

  “When Faith got together with Ethan, I took great pleasure in reminding her that though he could wrap a woman around his finger, he didn’t know the first thing about sticking around.” She winced at the reminder, knowing she’d said far worse to Faith—and God, she regretted it.

  “Are you trying to scare me off?” Trevor asked, reaching across the table and grasping her hand.

  His heat seared her skin but the warmth in his eyes undid her, crumbling defenses she’d tried so hard to build. “I just want you to know who I am, so there are no surprises.”

  He grinned. “You’re forgetting I’ve seen you at your worst. I also know you only act out when you’re feeling jealous or threatened.”

  Lissa’s cheeks flushed wi
th embarrassment. “Yeah, well, maybe I was jealous. From the outside, it seemed like Faith had it all. Even with her father in jail, she came back and opened a business, immediately fell back in with her old friends… and things were so difficult for me at the time…” She trailed off, thinking about Faith’s story. “I didn’t know how hard it had been for her until the interview. Not that anything excuses my behavior.” In fact, she’d punish her daughter if she ever treated anyone the way Lissa had Faith.

  “Maybe you were afraid that since Faith had returned, she’d take Kate away from you and you’d really be alone?”

  Trevor’s perceptiveness took her off guard.

  She was mortified he’d homed in on the one thing she’d never admitted out loud—or even to herself. Faith’s return home had threatened the life she’d built, but how had Trevor known? It was so scary, how well he got her, and yet he wasn’t running away as fast as he could.

  She didn’t understand it. Her life never went the way she wanted and so she couldn’t begin to trust this fragile thing they were building. Yet Trevor was persistent—with his words, his understanding, and his gentle touch. Even now, he maintained contact, his thumb rubbing circles over her wrist.

  “I’m guessing that didn’t happen?” he asked gently. “Kate stuck around?”

  Lissa managed a smile along with a nod. “Of course Kate ripped into me for how I treated Faith and she was right, too. But Kate’s persistent. She just kept including me and including Faith. We even did karaoke together at Joe’s.”

  Trevor grinned. “I’d have paid good money to see that.”

  Lissa grimaced. “Not something I want to repeat.”

  His expression sobered as he said, “But Faith gave you that interview when she could have called on any well-known reporter who’d have killed for her story. There must have been a reason.”

  Lissa shook her head, still dumbfounded by that. “To this day I don’t know why, but I’ll be forever grateful that she did. Faith taught me about humility and forgiveness and so many other things.”