taking her home now,” Matt said to his mother, who stood behind him.
“You’re going to be sorry for this,” Vivienne muttered under her breath.
Matt knew she was keeping her voice down because she didn’t want to make a scene in front of Thea. Nor did he, and he knew Olivia felt the same way. They might have their issues with his mother, and she might be extremely misguided, but she was still Thea’s grandmother, and Thea loved her Mimi and Poppa.
“Mommy!” Thea shouted. “I said I want Unca Matt!”
Olivia, meeting Matt’s eyes, finally let Thea loose, and she ran into his arms. Matt picked her up and held her close. Laughing, she wrapped her little arms around him and snuggled in. If someone had asked Matt how he felt at this moment, he wasn’t sure he would have been able to put his emotions into words. His heart was too full. Right here in this room were the two people in the world who meant the most to him, and somehow, some way, he had to figure out how to keep them both safe forever. But at the present moment, he just needed to get them out of here.
“Where’s Dad?” he asked his mother as he motioned for Olivia to precede him out of the room.
“Playing golf,” his mother said coldly. “Where else?”
“Tell him I’ll call him later.”
When she didn’t answer, just gave him another icy stare, then turned and walked down the hall toward her bedroom, he sighed and followed Olivia down the stairs and out to the car.
As Matt drove Olivia and Thea back to the festival to pick up Olivia’s car, he apologized in an undertone for the things his mother had said.
“Forget it,” she said. “Thea is safe, I have her back, and that’s all that counts.”
That was the most important thing, yes, but Matt knew there were going to be repercussions to this episode. However, no matter what it cost him, he’d already decided he’d do everything in his power to make sure none of those repercussions affected Olivia. The guilt for this debacle lay at one door, and that door wasn’t hers.
When they reached Olivia’s car, she thanked him. “I don’t know what I’d’ve done if you hadn’t been with me today. I—I would have put off calling your mother because...” Her voice trailed off.
“I know.” He wondered how long his mother would have kept Thea without notifying Olivia. He wanted to think she would have relented and done the decent thing, yet would she? Surely, when his father arrived home she would have had to tell him what she’d done.
But maybe not. Maybe she’d have made up some story and his father would have been none the wiser. It wasn’t as if Thea had never spent the night with his parents. Olivia had been generous, even when his mother had not. That quality—Olivia’s generosity—was one of the many things about her he’d grown to admire.
“I’ll always be there for you and Thea, Olivia,” he said, reaching out and squeezing her shoulder.
That brought a smile to her face. “Thanks, Matt. Eve said something similar last night. I’m lucky to have you guys, I know that.”
Not that lucky, he thought. But he smiled, too. “That’s the Olivia I know. A glass half-full girl.”
“Yeah, that’s me. A cockeyed optimist.”
“Nothing wrong with that.”
“Mommy, put me down,” Thea said, struggling to get out of Olivia’s arms once again.
“Thea, you know you have to be belted into your seat,” Olivia said. “So you can be safe, and we can go home.”
“I don’t wanna go home. I wanna go back to the festable. With Unca Matt.”
“Festival,” Olivia said.
“That’s what I said! Festable!”
Matt wanted to laugh. Thea might be sweet and loving most of the time, but she was also a very bright, very determined and very stubborn four-year-old with definite opinions of her own. “I’m not going back to the festival, honey. I’m going home and you’re going home, too, because your Grammy and Aunt Stella and everyone is waiting for you. I think you’re having birthday cake, right?”
“Uncle Matt’s right,” Olivia said. “Grammy will need help blowing out her candles.”
“Candles!” Thea said with a delighted smile, obviously forgetting all about the festival. “Presents, too?”
“Yes, presents, too,” Olivia said.
“For me!”
“No, honey, not for you. You’re not the birthday girl today. Grammy is.”
Thea gave her mother a look that said that didn’t seem fair. “Unca Matt’s coming, too.”
“No, sweetheart, I can’t.” He wanted to say he hadn’t been invited, but he knew that wasn’t fair. He’d be putting Olivia on the spot.
Thea looked as if she was going to protest that, too, but she didn’t, and finally allowed Matt to get her buckled into her seat and kissed him goodbye.
Once Thea was safely settled in her Camry, Olivia turned to him. “Thanks, again, Matt.” She lowered her voice. “Do I need to call anyone, do you think? Like Chief Donnelly? Apologize for everything?”
Barton Donnelly, the chief of police in Crandall Lake, was a crony of Matt’s father. Matt would be sure to apprise him of what had actually happened. No way was he letting Olivia take the fall for any of this. “I’ll take care of it,” he assured her. “Don’t worry. Just enjoy the rest of the weekend with your family, and we’ll talk tomorrow night after Eve’s gone. She is leaving tomorrow, right?”
“That’s the plan,” Olivia said. “Luckily for her, she has her husband’s plane and pilot at her disposal.”
Matt could see the weariness returning to Olivia’s face. The stress of everything that had happened today had exhausted her. He gave her a quick hug, careful to make it brotherly and not lover-like, then stood watching as she walked around to the passenger side of her car, got in and drove away.
As always, when they parted company, the world seemed less bright with her gone. If only he could always be there for her in the way he wanted to be, but if today had shown him anything, it had shown him how hopeless his situation actually was. For even if Olivia should ever feel the same way about him that he felt about her, the only way they could ever be together would be for him to break all ties with his family, and for him and Olivia and Thea to leave Crandall Lake behind forever.
And that was impossible.
For them...and for him.
Wasn’t it?
Olivia wasn’t quite as forgiving as she had pretended to be. She just hadn’t wanted to cause any
