After a long, lazy morning in bed, Cole handed her the car keys the next afternoon. “There are two things besides your artwork that you need to bring back with you.”

“What?” she asked, perplexed.

“A bathing suit.”

“For?”

“Duh. To swim? In the hotel pool?”

“Oh, okay. I forgot there was a pool. What else?”

“Something to wear out to dinner tonight. Something a little… fancy.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want to go out tonight.”

“What if I want to take you out?”

“It’s our last night.”

Resting his hands on her shoulders, he said, “This time. Not ever.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Bring it just in case.” He tipped her chin up so he could see her eyes. “For me?”

She could deny him nothing when he asked liked that, and he knew it. “Okay.”

“One more thing,” he said, touching his lips to hers.

“What?” she asked, breathless.

“Hurry back.”

The moment she was out the door, Cole picked up his cell phone, furious with himself for not taking care of this sooner. He dialed a number that, for now, was programmed into his speed dial.

Brenda, his bartender girlfriend in Miami, picked up on the third ring. “Hey, baby,” she said with the sultry purr that used to fire him up. Now it just left him feeling panic-stricken that Olivia might find out he had other women in his life. Had being the key word. By the time she returned, they’d all be history.

“Hey,” he said, as the reality of what he’d failed to do hit him hard and fast. He should’ve cleared his decks before the weekend with her—not during. His only excuse was that he’d never expected to fall in love with Olivia—or anyone else, for that matter.

“I hope you’re calling to tell me you’re in town.”

“Um, no. I’m not in Miami.”

“Oh, damn.”

Cole could picture her pretty mouth forming a perfect pout. Thinking of her thick auburn hair and sultry green eyes, he tried to remember what he’d found so enchanting about her. Oh yeah, right… She was a tiger in bed. He swallowed the lump in his throat and pushed those memories aside.

“So, listen, I hate to do this over the phone, but—”

“It’s over, huh?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“I figured something was up when you stopped calling.”

Cole winced. He hadn’t given her a thought in weeks. “I’m sorry.”

“What happened? I thought we had a pretty good thing going.”

Cole rubbed the back of his neck, hoping to loosen the tight ball of tension that had lodged there. “I met someone.”

“We aren’t exclusive. Why start now?”

“Because.” After a long, pregnant pause, Cole said, “Are you still there?”

“Don’t tell me you’re actually planning to give monogamy a whirl.”

“So what if I am?”

She laughed. Hard. “I give it a week. Maybe two.”

He closed his eyes and conjured up Olivia’s lovely face. Brenda was wrong—very, very wrong. What he had with Olivia would last a lot longer than that. Maybe even forever if he played his cards right. “I enjoyed the time we spent together.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Save the ‘I wish you the best of luck’ speech.”

“I do.”

“I’ve got customers. Gotta go.”

“Bye, Brenda.”

The click of the call ending served as her reply. He removed her name from his speed dial before scrolling through the list again and hitting “Send.”

“Hey, Diana, it’s Cole.”

* * *

In the still new-smelling rental car, Olivia drove the short distance to her parents’ house in a dreamlike state as she relived the night with Cole. And the morning. She shivered with delight. Dark clouds hung over the area, but she barely noticed. Until she remembered that by this time tomorrow, he would be gone and she’d be on her way to work—just another Monday after the most extraordinary weekend of her life. Would he think of her as he went through his days? Would she invade his thoughts as he navigated jetliners through the sky? Oh, how she hoped so.

She pulled onto Commonwealth Avenue and found a spot on the street. With a double beep, she locked the car and went up the stairs. Inside, she heard voices coming from the kitchen and started toward them. Just outside the door to the kitchen, her father’s raised voice stopped her.

“Goddamn it, Mary! I can’t believe you did this!”

“You took away my other one,” her mother said petulantly. “What was I supposed to do?”

“I took it away because we’re on the verge of bankruptcy, and you’re spending money like I’m printing it on a press in the basement!”

“The card is in my name. I don’t get why you’re so mad.”

“Your name!” he roared. “Our credit!”

“None of this would’ve happened if you hadn’t lost your job. Why couldn’t you have just shut up and done what they told you to do?”

With a hand over her mouth, Olivia muffled a gasp. She glanced into the room and saw a stack of bills on the table.

“Because those cars were crap, and I couldn’t, in good conscience, tell my valued customers to buy them.”

“So instead you got yourself fired. I hope your good conscience is pleased with itself.”

“Must be nice to be you, Mary.” Olivia had never heard such bitterness in her father’s voice. “You sit in this house day after day, year after year, hiding from life. No responsibilities to anyone but yourself, accountable to no one.”

“You know I can’t help it,” she spat back at him.

“I know you won’t help it. There’s a difference. A big difference. We have to sell the house. It’s the only way we can fend off the creditors until I get a new job. And you can’t buy a goddamned thing. Do you hear me? No trinkets, no do-dads, no nothing. I’ll buy food, but nothing else.”

“We’re not selling the house.” Mary sounded truly frightened. “We can’t.”

“We don’t have any choice.”

She began to cry. “What about Olivia?”

“I’ll take care of her, just like I always have.”

Olivia stepped into the room. “You lost your job?”

Stunned, Jerry spun around, and the devastation on his face broke Olivia’s heart. “Honey,” he said. “How long have you been there?”

“Long enough.” Olivia glanced down at the papers on the table, most of them stamped with “Overdue” in bright red ink. “When did this happen?”

“A month ago,” Jerry said with a sigh.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want you to worry.” He ran a weary hand through his gray hair. “I thought you were away for the weekend.”

“I came by to get something.”

“I don’t want you to worry, sweetheart,” he said more emphatically this time. “We’ll work this out.”

“How?”

“I’ve got a few irons in the fire with some of the other dealers in town. I’m hoping something will open up in the next few weeks. But even if that happens, there’s no way we can hold on to the house.”

“Maybe Alex or Andy could help,” Olivia said, referring to her brothers.

Jerry shook his head. “Andy’s getting slammed with alimony, and Alex just bought a house. I’ve already asked them.”

He looked so defeated and humiliated that Olivia crossed the room to put her arms around him.

“I’m sorry you had to find out this way,” Jerry said, smoothing a hand over Olivia’s long hair.

Mary’s sniffles grew into sobs. “There has to be something else we can do.”

“There isn’t,” Jerry snapped as he stepped back from Olivia. “I tried to tell you a year ago that you had to stop spending money or we were going to end up exactly where we are.”

“Sure, blame me. Like you mouthing off to your boss had nothing to do with it.”

“It is your fault!” Olivia said to her mother. “All he does is work and all you do is buy worthless shit that no one wants or needs! Now we have a houseful of crap but no house. I hope you’re satisfied.”

Mary stared at her daughter with hard eyes. “This is none of your concern. A woman your age shouldn’t still be living at home anyway. It’s time for you to grow up and get a life.”

Olivia gasped.

“Shut up, Mary,” Jerry said in a tone Olivia had never heard before. “My daughter is welcome in my home for as long as she wishes to be here. No matter where I live, there’ll be a place for her. You, I’m not so sure about.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Figure it out.” He guided Olivia from the room. “I’m so sorry, honey,” he said when they were out of earshot of the kitchen. “I hate that you were blindsided by this.”

“You’re leaving her?” Olivia whispered. “What happened to ‘for better or worse’?”

“That was before I found out she’d run up twenty-five thousand more on yet another credit card I knew nothing about. She’s got us a hundred fifty thousand in the hole, Liv.”

Olivia blanched. “What?”

Jerry nodded, his expression grim.

“So even if you sell the house—”

“It probably won’t be enough to stave off bankruptcy.”

Olivia sat on the bottom step. “God.” She dropped her head into her hands and tried to absorb it all. “What’re you going to do?”

“First, I’m going to sell the house. Then, I’m going to get her into a treatment place, which is something I should’ve done a long time ago. After that, I have to find another job. And fast.”

“I wish I could help,” Olivia said. “There’s absolutely nothing I can do.”

He sat next to her and put his arm around her. “There is something you can do.”

“Anything.”

“Stay in school, get your degree, live your life. This is not your problem.” He kissed the top of her head. “There’ll be a place for you wherever I end up.”

“She was right about me still living at home at my age.”

“Don’t listen to her,” he scoffed. “You’re living here to save money while you go to school. That’s the wise thing to do.”

“I’ve gone to such great lengths to avoid loans. I didn’t want to live outside of my means the way she does. But maybe it’s time to look into some loans.”

“Don’t do anything drastic just yet. Nothing’s going to happen overnight.”

She rested her head on his shoulder for a long time. “Are you going to be all right?”

“Sure I am,” he said with the charming smile that had helped him sell a lot of cars over the years. “I always land on my feet. You know that.” He squeezed her shoulder and whispered, “Where’s your pilot?”

Olivia couldn’t believe she had forgotten she was supposed to hurry back. “At the hotel. I just came by to get some stuff.”

“Go ahead, honey. You don’t want to keep him waiting.”

“Will you let me know what’s going on or if you need anything?”

“You’ll be the first to know. I promise.”

With a kiss to his cheek and a heavy heart, Olivia stood and trudged up the stairs. She felt like a robot as she packed the things she had come for. How could all this have happened right under my nose? Am I so self-absorbed that I failed to notice my father had lost his job?

She included the best of her paintings as well as the sketches she had put aside the other night for possible inclusion in the portfolio. She grabbed a swimsuit, and after a few minutes in her closet, found something she could wear to dinner, although she still hoped she could convince Cole to stay in. Five minutes later, she went back downstairs where her mother waited for her.

“Where’d you get that car?”

“I borrowed it.”

“Did Jenny get another new car? Must be nice to have all that money.”

Her mother’s rants about Jenny’s parents and their money were old news to Olivia. Jenny’s father was a corporate attorney, and their family had always been well off compared to Olivia’s. It was something she and Jenny had never let come between them.

“It’s not hers.”

“Then whose is it?”

“My boyfriend’s,” Olivia said, raising her chin defiantly.

“Boyfriend,” Mary scoffed. “Since when?”

“A couple of weeks.”

“And you’ve already gone from kissing him on the street to sleeping with him?”

Olivia was glad her hands were full. Otherwise she might’ve been tempted to smack her mother. “That’s none of your business.”

“Men don’t respect girls who give it up too easily.”

“Save your maternal advice,” Olivia snapped. “It’s too little, too late.”

“If he’s so special, why didn’t you bring him with you?”

Olivia snorted as she looked around at the chaos. “Yeah. Right.”

Her face set into a hard expression, Mary opened the door. “Don’t let me keep you.”

Olivia started out the door but stopped to face her mother. “You need help, Mom,” she said softly. “You can’t live like this anymore. None of us can.”

“Go to your boyfriend, Olivia.”

With the heat of her mother’s glare on her back, Olivia went down the stairs and loaded her things in the car. As she got into the driver’s seat, she glanced up to find Mary still watching her from inside the house she had made her prison.

If Olivia had driven home in a dreamlike state, she returned to the hotel in shock. Could her timing for a quick trip home have been any worse? She found a parking space on the street in front of the hotel and rested her head on the steering wheel. The whole situation was so ridiculous, so ridiculously pathetic. She had no idea how much time passed before the driver’s side door suddenly swung open, startling her.

“Baby, what’s wrong?” Cole’s arms slid around her. “What happened?”

Unable to speak, she fell against him but couldn’t find the words she needed.

“Are you hurt?” His hands coasted frantically over her face, almost as if he was taking inventory. “Did someone hurt you?”

She shook her head and held on tight to his hand.

“I walked down to Giant to get some beer, and I was on my way back when I saw you sitting here.” His voice had gone from anxious to soothing. “I couldn’t get to you fast enough.”

“Sorry,” she said, breathing in the clean, fresh smell of him, trying to cleanse herself of the ugliness.

“Liv, you’re kind of scaring me here.”

“I just need a minute.”

“Come on.” He eased her out of the car. “Let’s get you inside, and you can have all the minutes you need.”

“The stuff is in the back.”

“I’ll come back for it.”

He kept an arm tight around her but didn’t say anything as they made their way inside. In the lobby, a woman wearing a predatory smile approached them.

“Not now,” Cole snapped.

“Jeez, what a jerk,” the woman muttered as she walked away.

Once they were in their room, he settled Olivia on the sofa. “Can I get you anything? Some water? A stiff drink maybe?”

Against all odds, she smiled. “Water would be great.”

He disappeared into the bathroom, reappearing seconds later with a glass of water. After handing it to her, he sat next to her.

“Thanks.” She took a long sip and put the glass on the table. When she sat back, he slipped his arm around her and guided her head to his chest.

“Want to talk about it?”

“Not really.”

“Okay.”

Because he didn’t push, because he didn’t insist on knowing, she found herself telling him anyway—from the twin babies her mother lost when Olivia was five to the scene she had interrupted at home. And by the time she finished, the room had grown darker but still he held her.

“Do you know what I wonder sometimes?” she said softly.

“What’s that?”

“What would’ve been different if they had lived? I would’ve had a sister and another brother. I always wanted a sister. I had Jenny, but that wasn’t the same. She had two of her own sisters, and even though she was closer to me, they came first, you know?”

“Yeah, I can see what you mean.”

“I also wonder what kind of mother I would’ve had if they hadn’t died. I remember little snippets from before. There was a birthday party once. I’m not sure if it was for me or one of my brothers. My mother was laughing and carrying a cake that blazed with candles. There were no more parties after she lost the babies. There was no more of anything.”

“Liv,” he sighed. “I’m so sorry.”

“I never understood why the three kids she had couldn’t have been enough. I can only imagine how devastating it was for her to lose the twins, but did she want them so badly that she could just forget about the three of us after she lost them?”

“I don’t know, honey. Grief does funny things to people. I’ve seen that in my own family since my mother died.”

Olivia gasped. “I can’t believe I’m saying all these awful things about my mother when yours died so tragically.”

“One has nothing to do with the other. Everyone has different experiences with their mothers.”

“I was sure lucky to have Jenny’s mom. She’s my father’s sister, and she was always there for me when I needed her. But she had five kids of her own.”

“So you never came first with her, either.”

Olivia shrugged. “It was better than nothing.”

With his hand on her chin, he turned her face up. “You come first with me.”

His eyes were bluer than they had ever been and full of love—for her. She was still getting used to the miracle of that.

“Always,” he added.

How could he know what that meant to her? How could he ever know?

“Thank you,” she managed to say.

“Do you know what you need?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“A swim.”

“Now?”

“Why not? You’ll feel better if you get your mind off this for a while.”

“I’m sorry.” She sat up. “I’m ruining our last day. I didn’t mean to—”

He stopped her with his fingers on her lips. “Don’t do that. Don’t apologize for leaning on me when you needed me. I don’t know what I can do for you, other than make sure you have some fun because I think you need it. That’s the only reason I suggested a swim.”

She caressed the cheek she had watched him shave that morning. “I love you.”

“Good,” he said, his voice heavy with emotion. “Because I love you, too. And I hate to see you unhappy.”

“I’m a lot better now that I’m back with you.”

He kissed both her hands. “Will you be okay for a minute if I run out and get your stuff?”

She nodded, and with a quick kiss, he left her.

While he was gone, Olivia went into the bathroom to freshen up. What am I going to do? She washed her face and smoothed on some moisturizer. You’re going to apply for student loans and get an apartment of your own. As much as it pained her to admit it, her mother was right. It was time for her to be out on her own. A few loans to get her through the last year or two of school wouldn’t kill her.

Satisfied she had a plan for herself, her thoughts shifted to her father and the enormous task he had ahead of him. Whatever he needed, she would be there for him, she vowed, just as he had always been there for her.

By the time Cole returned with his arms full, Olivia felt a little better. It always helped to have a plan.

“I’m dying to look at this,” he said, holding the bag that contained her artwork. “But not until we have some fun.” He handed her the other bag of extra clothes. “Is it too much to hope there might be a bikini in there?”

She smiled. “Nope.”

Groaning, he nudged her toward the bathroom. “Hurry.”

His playful mood helped to further improve hers as she changed into the skimpy, black crocheted bikini Jenny had bought her as a joke for her birthday the year before. Olivia had never worn it but had brought it knowing Cole would like it.

As she tied the top behind her neck, she worried that maybe it was too skimpy for a hotel pool. With a nervous laugh, she adjusted the tiny triangles that made up the bottom half of the suit, amazed by how uninhibited she had become after only a couple of days with him—albeit a couple of monumental days.

When she emerged from the bathroom, Cole was checking the messages on his cell phone. He had changed into navy-blue board shorts and had a dark T-shirt tucked under his arm. Olivia walked up behind him and kissed his back.

He startled. “Hey, I didn’t hear you come out.” Stashing the phone in his pocket, like he had just gotten caught doing something dishonest, he turned around.

“Everything all right?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said, but there was… something… in his eyes.

Her stomach twisted. “Cole?”

“It’s nothing.” His eyes skirted over her as he finally noticed what she was wearing—or what she wasn’t.

“Wow.” Releasing a long deep breath, he added, “Wow.”

“Yes, you said that.”

“Did I?”

She waved a hand in front of his face. “Hello? Swimming?”

“Right. Swimming.”

When he still didn’t move, she wrapped her arms around his neck and went up on tiptoes to kiss him. “Or not.”

He fell into the kiss with abandon that made her head spin. Lifting her to him, he made her breathless with deep, sweeping thrusts of his tongue. Then, all of a sudden, he stopped and pulled away.

“What is it?”

“I’m sorry.” He rubbed a hand over his mouth. “We were going swimming.”

Olivia looked up at him as she laced her fingers through his. “We don’t have to.”

He smiled, but it seemed forced. “I promised you some fun.”

She slipped on a T-shirt and a pair of flip-flops and followed him from the room, still wondering what was going on with him.

The pool was deserted when they arrived.

“Hot tub or pool?” he asked.

Olivia eyed the hot tub.

“Hot tub it is.”

“Oh, I like this,” she sighed, easing into the steamy water.

Cole flipped a switch on the wall to turn on the jets before he joined her.

“Feels good, huh?”

Tilting her head back, she said, “Mmm.”

“Are you doing a little better?”

She opened her eyes and nodded. “Thank you. For listening and everything.”

“That’s what I’m here for.”

“You know…” She ran a finger along his jaw and down his neck. “I’m here, too. For you.”

“I know.”

“You’re sure everything’s all right?”

“Well, let’s see.” He reached for her. “I have you wearing a barely there bikini and a hot tub all to ourselves.” He guided her onto his lap so she faced him. “So yes, everything’s all right. In fact,” he said, cupping her bottom and pulling her tight against his erection, “I’ve never been better.”

As the water bubbled around them, Olivia reveled in the moment. Being in love was a heady rush of emotion: excitement and fear and dread. The thought stopped her cold. Where had that come from? Sitting here, with his arms tight around her, was everything she had ever dreamed of. So why the dread? Because she worried it would end somehow, someday. That he’d find someone he liked better.

Cole rested his head on her shoulder.

She curled her arm around his neck. His hair brushed against her face, and his lips coasted over her shoulder.

“I really, really want to take you out tonight,” he said softly, his kisses sending shivers through her.

“You don’t have to. I’m perfectly content to stay in and do nothing as long as I can do nothing with you.”

“Humor me?” he asked, sliding his hands up over her ribs, stopping just under her breasts.

Olivia clung to him, wanting him desperately. “You really want to?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Okay,” she said with a sigh.

He slanted a crooked smile at her. “You’re not overwhelming me with your enthusiasm.”

“I’ll work on it.”

“While you’re doing that, we also need to work on your portfolio.”

She tightened her arms around him. “Five more minutes?”

“How about ten?”