“She may not be my daughter, but she’s more like me than she is David. I have to admit, it’s a little scary.” He ran a hand over his face. “If I send her your way, you’ll take care of her?”
“You know, I will.”
“There are rules.”
“Oh, yeah?” I asked, laughing.
“No PDA in front of me. I don’t want to know about any of it.”
“Tell her that,” I muttered, and he glared. “Okay, okay. I’ll make it happen.”
“And don’t ever bring her to Voyeur. At least not while I’m there and again, I never want to know about it. I give you full permission to lie to me.”
He stretched his fist out, and I hit mine against it. “Done.”
“Good. Now, have another drink and wish me luck. Olivia is like me in how stubborn she can be, and I’m going to need every ounce of luck I can get to get through to her.”
30 Olivia
“You’re going to your family dinner tonight,” Oaklyn proclaimed.
“No.”
“Yes. Callum and I haven’t had sex since you got here. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and we almost got caught in his office before we could finish. I love you, but I need you gone.”
“What if Daniel and Kent are there?”
I hadn’t seen either since that day in the hotel. God, what a mess it had been. I’d replayed every nightmare-ish moment over and over. I was haunted by the look on Daniel’s face when he realized it was all my fault. That I’d seduced Kent. The moment he realized everyone was right and Olivia Witt was good at being pretty and using her body to get what she wanted.
I shuddered at the thought of having to see that face again.
“Then you act like the mature adult I know you can be, and you face them. I’ve held your hand and let you mope, doing my best to support you, but it’s time for tough love.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Oh, shit is right, Olivia. You’re better than this. You’re stronger than this. You’re smarter than this. You know Daniel loves you and thinks the world of you. You know he would never think less of you. The only person who thinks less of you is you. So, be honest with yourself. If you want to feel sorry for yourself, feel sorry for yourself about the right thing.”
“And what’s that, miss know-it-all?” God, I was snotty.
“You’re scared.”
“Of course, I’m scared. I don’t want to lose Daniel.”
I’d already lost Kent. He’d made it clear more than once that he always chose his best friend over any woman, and I’d been a bitch and pushed him too far. Hell, watching Daniel attack Kent, I may have been the catalyst to end their friendship. All because I wanted to sleep with Kent.
Of course, I was scared. All the outcomes of that night, I could imagine, never ended well, and I wasn’t ready to face the consequences.
Oaklyn rolled her eyes, looking like she wanted to bang her head on a wall. “You’re scared of being hurt by Kent.”
“I’m already hurting because of Kent.”
“Yes, but you’re controlling it. If you give in—really give in—that opens up a world of possibilities outside of your control. Possibilities that could leave you hurting more than you are now.” She gave me a sad smile. “And you’re scared.”
I tried to scoff, but she wasn’t wrong. Leave it up to Oaklyn to shine a light on my darkest corners.
I really was scared of losing Daniel’s support. Who would I be without it? It was why I hadn’t wanted to tell Daniel about Kent and me. I didn’t want to give him an opportunity to look at me differently.
But with Oaklyn’s overly bright flashlight glaring down at me, I had to face the other fear. If Daniel gave us his blessing, I’d have nothing stopping me from going all-in with Kent. Nothing from stopping me from falling headfirst and being consumed by the amount of love I have for him. And what if I lost that. I’d been changed and hurt by Aaron, and he was nothing. What would happen if I loved Kent without hesitation and lost it? What would happen to me, then?
That fear was the bigger shadow lurking behind all the others.
“You’re a bitch,” I said without any heat.
“A bitch that loves you and wants you to be happy. Sometimes that happy comes with a crap-ton of holding our breath and hoping it works out. If you think I’m not doing the same thing with Callum, you’re delusional.”
“Callum loves you. He’d never hurt you.”
“No, he wouldn’t. But sometimes life happens, and we have to embrace it. Stop hiding, Olivia. Put yourself out there and grab it. Be the bold bitch I know you can be and take it.”
I crossed my arms and sank back into the couch, doing my best to pout. But it was hard to pout when your friend was right. “I hate you.”