Chapter Twenty-Seven
Mark
“Okay, so what do you think that means?” Olivia asked Justine as she leaned over her homework book with her. Her hair hung over her eyes, but I could still see the sparkle there. She looked wonderful. If only we hadn’t had real life to deal with, she would be back in my bed right now. I wasn’t ready to leave, but we had to. Still, at least I could watch her from across the room while she worked with Justine. “What’s your opinion about it?”
“Erm, well, I think the boy, Alfie, shouldn’t have ripped up the invitation just because he didn’t want to go to the party.” Justine looked down on her book, furrowing her eyebrows. “It was mean, and he upset his friend.”
“Mhmm, so what should he have done instead? What would you do if that was you?”
“Oh, I would go!” Justine replied excitedly. “But that’s because I love parties.”
“Yeah, so do I!” She and Olivia laughed. “So, why don’t you write a sentence about that here?”
While Justine got to work, Olivia lifted her eyes to meet mine, and we shared a cheeky smile. At least she wasn’t furious with me like she was the first time we slept together. When she left my room without saying much, I was scared that we would go back to that place of tension, especially since I’d overstepped the mark a lot, but as she grinned, it seemed that it wasn’t. Thank God. I much preferred it as we had this little sexy secret instead.
“Thank you,” I mouthed to Olivia, but for what she had done with Justine. My daughter never used to socialize with the rest of us. I hadn’t ever seen her doing her homework before, which was my fault as much as hers, so it was great. I liked seeing her learn. It made me see a whole different side of her. “Thank you so much.”
She nodded and smiled before walking across to the coffee machine and pouring us both a drink. This reception was so much warmer; I hoped that it would last. If we could have this little thing just for us, however dangerous it was, then at least we wouldn’t have to avoid one another. This was more of what I wanted.
“So, how have things been?” I asked Justine as she looked up from the page. “You don’t have to answer it if you’re busy, but it seems like forever since I’ve seen you.” I let out an awkward laugh. “Right?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” She shrugged, barely acknowledging me. “When did I last see you?”
“Last week before I went to Tokyo.” I shook my head in a bemused manner. “I haven’t been gone forever.”
“Oh, well we had lots of sleepovers on the couch…” Justine told me with a little giggle.
“Hey!” Olivia interjected. “We weren’t supposed to tell him that.”
“Daddy won’t care! He’ll be jealous that he didn’t get to sleep on the couch with us and eat popcorn.”
I gave them both a mock annoyed look, but inside I did feel a little jealous that I wasn’t there. It sounded fun! “Oh wow, I can’t believe I’m gone for just a few days, and you’re sleeping on the couch! Madness.”
“And I went to see Susan the other day…” She spoke about her new therapist in such a casual manner that it stunned me. Olivia had definitely been right to change the person that she was speaking to. I should have listened to her sooner. About a lot of things. I guess this was why I hired her, because she understood grief.
“Yeah, she suggested that the two of you go away together!” Olivia informed me. “For a holiday.”
Immediately my brain darted towards Tokyo. I had already half been planning to take her there anyway, but I wasn’t sure that was the best plan just yet. And anyway, I didn’t have to be the one who decided. This trip wasn’t just about me and what I wanted. It would be good to show the therapist that I cared anyway. I had a feeling that while Susan wasn’t necessarily judgmental of me, she could tell that I hadn’t always been the best.
“We can go away.” I smiled at Justine. “Where would you like to go?”
“To the beach!” she almost yelled. “I want to play in the ocean. Where can we go and play in the ocean? Oh, I know. I saw it on the TV.” She jumped up from her seat and bounced around like a crazy person. “That TV program with the mermaids where they change in the water, oh, erm, what’s it called?”
“Hawaii?” Olivia’s eyes widened in surprise. “Yeah, that could be quite nice for the both of you.”
Hmm, I had no work in Hawaii, no business contacts at all, but maybe that was a good thing. If there was anything linked to work there, then there couldn’t be any temptation. I could be all about Justine, which I suppose would be the point. Actually, that was perfect. “I’m happy with Hawaii, that could be totally amazing.”
“I could make a trip back home while you’re away…” Olivia said a little distractedly, tapping her finger thoughtfully against her chin. “I still have some loose ends that I could do with tying up anyway…”
“No, no, no!” Justine’s entire body froze up with panic. “You can’t go home; you have to come with us.”
Olivia bent to her knees, and she stared into Justine’s eyes. “Sweetie, this is for you and your dad to—”
“Have some time, I know,” Justine replied rapidly. “But we can still do that as well. I want you to come.”
The whole room filled with a thick silence as we all remained in that awkward moment. In all honesty, I was more than happy for Olivia to come with us, but it wasn’t really up to me. She had to make that choice.
“But it’s a family thing, isn’t it? And I’m the nanny. I’m not really needed for a family vacation.”
Justine clung to her as if she couldn’t stand the idea of going anywhere without her. That was the first moment that I really saw the deep bond between them. It wasn’t just a usual nanny and kid relationship; there was some real love there. Whether she could see it herself or not, Olivia was becoming a part of the family.
“I want you to come,” Justine whined. “Please don’t let me down. I want you to be with us.”
Olivia gave me a bit of a hopeless look, but I happily shrugged at her. “Hey, this is Justine’s trip.”
“So, does that mean she can come?” Justine looked on top of the world. “Oh, Olivia, come.”
Upon my agreement, Olivia didn’t have anything else to argue. “Okay, yeah sure. I can come.”
She pushed herself upright and came over to me. Justine shot me a smug look as Olivia did because she had got her own way. Still, it wasn’t like it used to be, there wasn’t so much of a brattiness to it, just a satisfied smile. It made me laugh to myself because there was a connection there between my daughter and me. One that hadn’t ever been there before. That was thanks to Olivia and her incredible presence. If she didn’t come into our lives, then things would still be painful and uncomfortable. Justine and I needed her, more than both of us knew.
“Are you sure about this?” she hissed quietly to me. “Because I don’t think I can really afford it and I don’t want you to pay for me because that isn’t fair. I can just tell Justine that I can’t…”
Her words trailed off as she saw a dark look in my eyes. This wasn’t going to be me and her having a sexy weekend away, but now that we were, hopefully, a little more comfortable with the idea of hooking up, maybe it could feature a little bit. Since she wasn’t completely shutting the idea down, I had to think that maybe she was a little bit into it too. My heart raced with excitement at the thought.
“I will go and make arrangements now,” I told her quietly. “It’s going to be one hell of a trip, isn’t it?”
“Hmm, yeah.” Was it just me or did her face look blissful for a second then? “Okay, sure. If you’re sure, then I’m okay with it too.” A smile spread across her lips. “Hawaii, should be truly awesome, right?”
I left the room and walked into my office with a smug smile on my face. Hawaii with Justine and Olivia. Almost like a little family vacation. It was going to be very interesting. Coming back from Japan early had surprisingly turned out incredible for me. I didn’t expect any of this to happen, but now I was over the moon.
I grabbed my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed Holden’s number. I paced the room while I waited for him to answer. He usually napped after we got home from traveling, but maybe I had a chance.
“Hey there,” he answered sleepily. “What’s going on, Mark?”
“I just want to talk to you about going away…”
“Ah, shit! Things went really bad with the nanny? You might have to fire her now.”
“No, no,” I smirked to myself again. “Things went really well actually; this doesn’t have anything to do with that. I want to go on vacation with Justine and potentially Olivia as well. It’s a therapist thing.”
“Oh, right.” I knew that would get to Holden. Therapists and talking to people scared him in a ridiculous way. “Yeah, sure, you do what you got to do. The business is absolutely fine as it is. You can take time off.”
“Is there anything coming up that I need to work around? I know I could just check the schedule on my cell, but I haven’t been amazing at updating it recently, so I don’t want to screw up…”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed. You have been a little distracted lately… I guess it’s the nanny, right?”
I didn’t have any answer to that, so I just didn’t give one. “So, is there anything or not?”
“Nah, nothing that I can’t handle alone. I’ll be just fine. Don’t you worry about that. You just have a good time doing whatever the hell it is you’re doing at the moment.” He chuckled. “It sounds pretty crazy, but whatever. If it makes you happy, then so be it. You just carry on…”
“Thank you; I’ll keep you up to date with whatever plans I sort out, okay?”
“Yep, awesome. See ya later. Now you have to leave me alone for a while because I need sleep.”
“I know you do, and I’m sorry that I interrupted. It won’t happen again, honest.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he mumbled back. “Speak to you soon.”
I hung up the phone and smiled to myself, happy that everything was working out. Then I grabbed my laptop, and I turned it on, ready to book all the tickets right away. While we were all pumped about the idea, I figured it was best to sort it out now, or the idea might trail off, and we wouldn’t end up going.
I needed to go to Hawaii; we all did. I had a funny feeling that it would solidify whatever was to come next for all of us. Plus, getting Olivia away from real life and spending more time in the little bubble that we existed in would be awesome. Every time I got a release with her, it didn’t sate me enough. I needed more every single time. Perhaps a weekend or however long we could be away would help me with that.
Or maybe it would make me worse; by the time we got back, we would be even more obsessed with one another. Who the hell knew?