Olivia's Ride (Sawyer Brothers Book 4)

by C. A. Harms

  I was surprised Jeanette told Keeton I wasn’t here when he showed up Friday night, again on Saturday afternoon, followed by a third time Saturday evening. But I know it was only because she got the chance to be a bitch, not truly because she wanted to be a friend. Her comment about finally not having to deal with the nauseating happy couple any longer made sense, too.

  I was half asleep on Sunday morning when Courtney stopped by and Jeanette allowed her in our room just as she was leaving. I watched her with caution as she approached and sat down on the edge of my bed, eyeing me with curiosity.

  “What?” I mumbled as I curled my legs up tighter and tucked the blanket against my chin. Suddenly I felt the need to hide from one of my best friends. She appeared irritated.

  “He’s been camped outside all day,” she finally spoke. “He looked so hopeful when I walked up, then it faded fast when I told him you still didn’t want to talk.”

  I was so damn mad at him for lying to me. I hated when people lied.

  “You gonna tell me what happened between the two of you?” she asked, and I just remained curled tightly on my side with my face snuggled into my big fluffy pillow. “Because looking at the both of you, I can tell you’re equally miserable. Ignoring the issue isn’t gonna solve nothin’.”

  I still remained quiet. To some this all may seem stupid, hell, I had even asked myself a time or two if I was overreacting. But he blatantly lied to me, yet that little bitch of a neighbor knew everything. He had no problem letting her in, but here I was, his girlfriend, and he just kept pushing me away.

  When I still lay there choosing to remain quiet, she huffed in frustration. “Okay then,” she said sarcastically. “This was a real nice talk.”

  I didn’t even make an attempt to argue, as she turned and walked toward my door, leaving me without another word. I just didn’t have it in me, not right now anyway. It had been more than forty eight hours since my fight with Keeton and I still didn’t feel any better about the way things played out.

  I wasn’t ready to brush this under the rug like nothing happened. Ignoring it was not going to fix a damn thing, or stop it from happening again.

  I could feel the tears threatening to spill over and damn it all to hell, I did not wanna cry.

  I needed someone who would give me a kick in the ass. I wasn’t the girl to cry over spilled milk; I was the girl who turned that shit into a party and had fun with the mess.

  When I reached for my phone, I was shocked to see the amount of missed calls and text messages from Keeton. There were a few mixed in from my dad and Gran, plus one from Amber. But right now in my current state, I had the need to speak with one person in particular.

  We each have those people we turn to in life when we need certain things. And right now, I needed a swift kick in the ass and a sliver of attitude to remind me I didn’t allow anyone to knock me down.

  I couldn’t help but smile when my Aunt Bailey answered her phone. “Hey, Liv, whose ass do I need to beat?”

  “Why do you assume that’s why I’m calling?” I asked with a laugh. It was the first time I had smiled in days. But with Bailey and her spunky attitude, it was hard to avoid.

  “Because darlin’, I got you figured out. You sent out a mass message to us stating you were studying for finals. You’ve neglected to respond to any messages that followed, and that spells out one thing. Trouble on the college guy front.” I could hear a baby squealing happily in the background. “So I’m gonna ask again. Do I need to catch a plane to Texas and beat the shit out of this Keeton guy I’ve been hearing so much about?”

  It was that damn radar—they all consumed it. It was impossible to hide from the Sawyer clan.

  “Okay,” I gave up. “I don’t need you to kick his ass, but I need you to kick mine.”

  I sat up in my bed and for the next ten minutes I told Bailey everything. From the time I met Keeton up until the events of Thursday and Friday night. The quick version, at least.

  She remained quiet the entire time, just listening to me ramble on and on about the way he made me laugh and how being with him felt so right. It just flowed from me in massive waves of truth.

  And when I was finished there was only silence.

  “Are you there?” I asked, because it wasn’t like Bailey to remain so quiet.

  “Um, yeah,” she said in return. I could hear clicking sounds as if she was typing on a keyboard. “I’m just checking flights to Texas, because this Lacy bitch needs to meet your Aunt Bailey.”

  I laughed because it was impossible not to.

  “I just need to hear that I’m not crazy for being upset. I need to hear that I have the right to be mad.” I asked because there were so many times over the last couple days I felt like maybe I was being immature and needy.

  “Damn straight you have the right to be upset. That girl obviously threw all that shit in your face to wind you up. I’ll tell you what, if Jackson would have given a key to his place to Phoebe, I would have ran his ass over with my Jeep. What was Keeton thinking, still allowing her to come take care of his dog? Does he not see how that would make a girl feel?”

  Aunt Bailey was going strong as I sat back and allowed her to give me that kick I needed. “And last, what the hell is he hiding? And why can she know but not you? His ass needs to get his shit straight because he’s done gone and pissed me off now. He better just hope for his sake that your Uncle Jackson don’t catch wind of this.”

  “Don’t say anything,” I said in a panic.

  “I won’t,” she assured me, and I knew she wouldn’t. She and I had exchanged more than our share of talks over the years that she kept secret. She was the person I went to for details on how to handle my first time with a guy. I figured with the track record her and Uncle Jackson have, being unable to keep their hands off one another, she would give it to me straight. And boy did she; that woman knows her stuff. I left her place with a whole new outlook on the female/male anatomy and how you could use them to gain pleasure. I learned so much more than I bargained for that day. I still flushed thinking of her explicit details on what to do and how to do it.

  Still to this day I have yet to use ninety percent of her advice when it came to intimate moments. I was actually quite terrified to put her theories to the test.

  “I know I need to talk to him, but I’ve been hiding out this weekend trying to gain the nerve,” I confessed.

  “What you need to do is let his ass know that the shit from Friday ain’t happening again. And then you need to set that bitch straight. If I know anything, it’s that girls like her won’t give up until you set them in their place and stake your claim. You remember how persistent Phoebe was, don’t you?” Oh boy did I. That woman was a freak and I mean that in the worst possible way. Aunt Bailey took all she could before she made it clear that she wasn’t going to allow Phoebe to get within five feet of Uncle Jackson; unless, of course, she wanted her eyes clawed out.

  “I refused to let the woman intimidate me,” Bailey said. “You need to make this Lacy realize she won’t run you off.”

  I sat silent, letting everything Bailey said sink in. “If he’s who you want, Liv.” I bit down on my lower lip. “If Keeton is who you want, then you have to show her he’s yours.”

  “I do,” I whispered. I had never felt about anyone else the way I felt about Keeton. But my fear was that the man I was already falling for was a man I didn’t even know. He had obviously held things back from me, and that left a sick feeling in my stomach. “But what if I’ve just been a pastime for him?” And of course there was that fear too. There had to be a reason why he felt he couldn’t fully open up to me, why he was holding back from letting me in.

  “Well then, honey, I won’t be able to hold up my end of the deal,” she replied. “I’ll be forced to tell Jackson and in turn he’ll tell Noah and your dad. And we all know exactly where that will lead. The three of them will be on the first flight out of here.” She laughed to lighten the mood. “If that boy knows what’s
good for him, he’d be smart to make things right with you. Whatever that may be, he needs to figure it out now.”

  I knew she was right. The last thing I wanted to happen was for those three knuckleheads to catch wind of this and make a trip to Texas. I could hold off one at a time, but the three of them together—hell would surely break loose.

  “He’s been trying to make things right,” I confessed. “But I’ve avoiding him.”

  “Then it’s time to face it,” she added. “Things won’t fix themselves without a lot of words. If you need to yell and fight it out so be it, but avoiding him ain’t gonna fix anything sweetheart. You can’t run from it, Liv. You need to face him.”

  She was right; it was time to stop hiding.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Keeton

  I’d given up waiting outside her dorm; it was obviously not getting my ass anywhere. And people were starting to look at me as if I was some kind of fucking creeper.

  I spent the majority of my weekend sitting outside just waiting for her to emerge, or enter. Hell, I had no idea where she was hiding out but something told me her friends were covering for her.

  I took Duke home and ignored Lacy as she passed me in the hall. Even when she asked me if I planned to ignore her every time I saw her, I still said nothing. It was my friendship with her that started this damn mess, and right now all I wanted to do was fix things with Liv. I would worry about the rest later.

  Olivia was the only person I wanted to talk to right now. Nothing else seemed to matter.

  I went to work at noon, even though it was my day off. I just needed something to pass the time and keep my mind busy.

  All the texts I sent over the last couple days were still unanswered. There was nothing left to do. I felt like I was going insane; the waiting was damn near killing me.

  I had been at work for a few hours, hidden beneath the front end of a Toyota Camry, completely engrossed in the task at hand. The radio playing loud through the shop blocked out all other noise. Suddenly someone nudged my foot and I lifted my head just enough to see a pair of black boots only a few feet away. Just to the side of those familiar boots stood another set of footwear I recognized. A bright pink and black pair of Nike running shoes, leading up to a pair of sexy tanned legs that gave me flashbacks of times they were wrapped around me.

  Slowly I slid out from under the car and wiped my rag over my face to clear away any grease that may have accumulated there. Looking up, Olivia came into view, standing at my boss’s side.

  “You got a visitor,” Nate said with a smile. He knew what was going on, because we had more than one talk about everything involving Liv. “Why don’t you clean yourself up and take this pretty lady out to dinner? It’s supposed to be your day off anyway.”

  I nodded my head as I sat up and started wiping my hands clean. “You got it,” I replied without looking at him.

  As he walked away I pushed myself up from the ground and my stare locked on Olivia.

  She didn’t resemble that broken girl who left my apartment only days ago. Now she stood tall, her shoulders squared as she showed no signs of defeat. That stubbornness had returned and I could feel myself fighting not to smile.

  I loved her confident side. It was admirable and sexy as fuck.

  “I don’t really feel like dinner,” she said and my stomach dropped with the thought of her showing up here just to end things with me. I could feel that empty panic inside me threatening to take over and have me begging for her to give me another chance. “But I do think we need to talk.”

  “I agree,” I held out my hand to the left, attempting to lead her from the shop. If I could just get her to listen to me, maybe I could still fix this.

  She turned around and walked away as I followed close behind. I tried not to focus on the sway of her ass, but I am a guy and she had a sweet ass, so it happened.

  She abruptly stopped and because I hadn’t been watching I bumped into her back as I reached out to steady both her and myself. And for a moment, she remained close, allowing me time to breath in the familiar sweetness of her perfume, her lotion, and the smell of her shampoo. All the things I had grown to love and the things I had missed over the last couple of days.

  She suddenly stepped away; that action alone felt like I had been kicked in the stomach. I didn’t like not being able to touch her. I had never had to keep my distance because she always welcomed my touch. I thought she, too, relied on the physical contact just as I had, until now.

  “I miss you,” I said without thinking. It was true; I had missed her, so much it made me feel sick.

  “You don’t miss me; you just miss the idea of me,” she insisted and I couldn’t stand her thinking that her words could be true.

  “I’ve never had someone like you in my life,” I whispered as I sat down on the retaining wall that separated the bays just out front of the shop.

  “What are you talking about?” she asked. She stood in front of me, with her arms crossed. There was entirely too much distance between us and I wanted nothing more than to grab her and pull her close but I knew she would only reject me and right now I didn’t know if I could handle that.

  So instead, I fisted my hands and focused on explaining just what my words meant.

  “I’ve never had someone who cared so much. Someone who made me feel safe.” I looked up at her, hoping she believed me. “So when I say I miss you, I mean that I miss you. I’m sorry I didn’t let you in, but it was never because I didn’t want to. It was because I didn’t know how, because I was worried it would change the way you looked at me.”

  The hardness in her eyes softened but I didn’t give her a chance to say anything. I needed to get this out before I chickened out and missed the chance.

  “I don’t want pity, Liv, and your heart is too damn kind not to feel the need to comfort me. That doesn’t make you wrong; it’s just something I don’t want—I can’t. I left a lot of shit behind because I don’t want to live it daily, not anymore.” I took in a deep breath, trying to gain the strength to continue. “No man wants a woman he cares about to look at him as weak. And for years I was weak. I let my father beat me because he had nothing better to do. I let my brother bully me, and they both sat back and laughed like the entire thing was a comedy.”

  “This right here,” I pointed to my lip, “this was from my father. He showed up wanting money, and when I refused to give him any, this is what it got me.”

  I could tell she was fighting against the sadness this news brought her.

  Olivia was a compassionate person. She hated the idea of anyone or anything suffering. I don’t know how many times I watched her cry at those commercials showing hungry children in other countries, or animals being neglected. She had the biggest, sweetest heart. I knew it was killing her not to express her sadness at the things I was sharing with her.

  “I don’t like sharing the things of my past,” I confessed.

  “But you shared it with her?” Olivia whispered.

  Lacy, I knew, was someone who made her uneasy. I could see it every time we passed her in the hall, or whenever her name was brought up.

  “I didn’t share it with her the way you think I did.” I slid forward and reached out, taking her hand. I could feel her resistance, but I needed to touch her. “Lacy witnessed the abuse first hand on more than one occasion. She called the cops when my brother showed up one night at my place. She was also the person who chased my drunken-ass father off with a baseball bat after he smashed in the windshield of my truck.”

  I took in a deep breath and shook off the sick feeling in my stomach. Every time I thought of my past it made me feel disgusted, but right now it was just something I had to suffer through. If I wanted to hold on to Olivia, she needed to know the things I went through. She deserved to know all this had nothing to do with how I felt about her. It was because I cared for her so much that I chose to hold back. I didn’t want my tainted past to dim her light. She was too fucking good.

&nb
sp; “Baby, my past is not pretty,” I whispered, pulling her in just a little closer. “My mom left when I was young, and though we talk on occasion, it is nothing like a relationship should be between a mother and a child. I left my father’s three weeks before I started college, and have only gone back over time to gather my things that were still there. But that hasn’t stopped the two of them from making my life hell.”

  “They’re evil,” she whispered. “And I won’t say that I’m sorry you had to go through all those things, because it’s the last thing you want to hear from me. But I will hope that karma comes back and bites the both of them in the ass, because they deserve to suffer for what they’ve done to you over the years.”

  I smiled, but never felt its full effect. I knew there were still things hanging over us and those things had to be sorted out.

  “You have to understand that before I met you, Lacy was who I counted on.” She immediately looked away; I placed my hand against her cheek and forced her to look back at me. “As a friend.” I allowed my hand to fall away and when she didn’t look away from me I continued. “She takes Duke out for me before she heads to work because I get home from work so late. That’s all.”

  “I could’ve taken Duke out, but you never asked.” I sensed her nervousness with how her voice vibrated when she spoke. I shouldn’t have found her reaction cute, but I did. Not very often did I witness Olivia in a timid state. She was always so wired and straight forward.

  “Sweetheart, if you want to take Duke out, you can.” I smiled, standing up in front of her as I gripped her hips and held her close. “It was easier because she is right there. I never thought of asking you to do it every day, and I’m sorry that created a problem.”

  “I know I shouldn’t let it bother me, but it did. She doesn’t like me much and I’m not gonna lie and say that I’m her fan either, because I’m not.” Olivia loved everyone; well, almost everyone with the exception of Jeanette, but we all felt that was warranted. “She said things she didn’t have to Friday night and she loved the fact that I knew nothing about you.”