Chapter Thirteen
Eric
It had been almost a week since our first date, and although I didn't want to say that I was missing Olivia, I kind of was. I had seen her the previous day when I'd dropped off Emma for daycare and again when I'd picked her up. And I'd seen her that morning as well. But I wanted more than those two-minute interactions with Emma there in the background. I didn't know how to approach the subject, though.
On Tuesday evening, when I stopped by to pick up Emma, no one answered my knock on the front door of the house. If I listened carefully, I realized I could hear Emma's excited laughter coming from the backyard, and I smiled to myself, making my way around the house. Sure enough, there were the two of them, playing with a bubble machine.
As I watched, Emma squealed and chased after some of the escaping bubbles, popping as many as she could. Her grin was a mile wide, and Olivia looked amused as well, a cute little smile on her face.
I couldn't take it anymore, I decided. I marched straight up to her and caught her arm, pulling her around the house, where Emma wouldn't see. “What are you—” Olivia began breathlessly, but I cut her off with a kiss.
The kiss was positively filthy, full of pent-up desire and nervousness. Our lips were hot where they pressed against one another's, and when I nibbled at Olivia's lower lip, she moaned shamelessly and opened her mouth to me. I wasted no time in delving my tongue inside, eliciting sweet little whimpers as I found the tender spots.
When we broke apart, Olivia had a glazed look in her eyes. “Hi,” she whispered breathlessly.
“Hi,” I echoed, pulling her into my arms, my hand cradling the back of her head. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I want to go to dinner with you tonight,” I told her, staring seriously down into her eyes. “That is, if you're free.”
Olivia stared up at me for a moment, a question in her eyes, but then she nodded. “Okay,” she said. “Harlan's still here; his mom is picking him up late today. But I should be free in an hour or so?”
“Sounds good,” I said.
“Let's go back to the Italian place,” Olivia suggested. “I already know where it is so I can drive myself there. That way, you don't have to drive all the way back over here to pick me up.”
“The town isn't that big,” I protested, but the added benefit of not picking her up, I realized, was that none of the neighbors would see me swing by, pick up Emma, leave, and then return to pick up Olivia for our date. “I'll see you there. Around 6:30?”
“That's perfect,” Olivia breathed. She bit her lower lip uncertainly, glancing back toward where Emma's giggles could still be heard. “We should get back,” she sighed.
“I know,” I groaned, unable to resist the urge to pull her hips against mine for a moment. I was already hard and wanting, and it was going to be hell getting through the whole night sat across from her. But there wasn't anything I could do about that; it wasn't as though I could take her right then and there.
Finally, I had to release her. “Later,” Olivia said.
I nodded my head in agreement and went to convince Emma that playtime was over for the day at the daycare, but that it was time to drive over to Nana's house.
I was the first one to the restaurant, and I waited impatiently in a secluded booth at the back for Olivia to show up. When she finally did, she looked positively radiant in a soft, red cotton dress and black heels, with her hair cascading down her back.
To my surprise, she slid into the same side of the booth as me. “This way, we can share our plates,” she said. Then, she looked sheepish. “If that's okay with you, that is.”
“That's fine,” I said faintly. I actually kind of liked it, having her there beside me, our legs pressed against one another's.
As we enjoyed our meal, stealing little bites off one another's plates, I placed my hand on Olivia's thigh. “So you've been living in Chicago?” I asked, trying to be nonchalant.
“Yeah,” Olivia said. She frowned. “I really moved back because of Mom. Because of the cancer. I knew that things had to be more severe than she was letting on.”
“Any luck talking to her about that?” I asked, even though I didn't want to mix business with pleasure. I hoped Olivia didn't think that the only reason I'd asked her to come to dinner with me that night was that I wanted to talk further about her mother's health situation.
But from the way I could feel her shifting her hips needfully at the way my hand was resting on her thigh, I could tell that she was turned on and thinking more about sex than medicine.
“I tried to talk to her about it, but she says it's a closed topic of conversation,” Olivia sighed. “I honestly don't know how to proceed from here. Maybe it would be better if you talked to her.”
“You're her daughter,” I reminded her. “I'm sure you'll figure something out. For all my talk of things needing to happen right away, you do have a little time to figure things out.” It was a lie, but I didn't want her to get stressed out and start crying again. I wanted her to enjoy this just as much as I was.
Fortunately, Olivia seemed keen to drop that topic of conversation. “I'm happy to be in Tamlin, though,” she said. “I didn't realize how stressed out I'd gotten, working in Chicago. Things just move so fast-paced there. I've lived there for most of my life, but it just started to get a little overwhelming. I can see why Mom was so happy to move back here.”
“Move back here?” I asked.
“She was born here, and she lived here for part of her childhood,” Olivia told me. “That's why she knows nearly everyone in town already. But it's been a while since she was back.”
“What about your dad?” I knew I shouldn't pry, but I was curious.
Olivia shrugged. “It's been just Mom and I, for as long as I can remember,” she said.
“Single parenthood,” I commented, nodding my head. “I know a thing or two about that.”
Olivia smiled and put a hand on my thigh as well, and it was only then, when she did that, that I realized my hand had been creeping dangerously high on her own leg. I blushed a little and started to retract my hand, but then I checked myself. She didn't appear to mind: if she had minded, I had a feeling she would have been very upfront with me. Instead, she almost seemed to be making this into a challenge.
I smiled to myself and dragged the pads of my fingers along her smooth flesh for a moment, hearing her breath hitch in response.
She forged gamely ahead. “So what do you do, anyway?” she asked. “When you're not off being a doctor or a dad, or dragging poor, unassuming women off to terrible performing arts shows.”
I laughed. “Hobbies,” I said. I grimaced. “To be honest, I don't know that I've had many hobbies since Emma was born. It feels like every spare moment I have has been with her. At least, until I'm utterly exhausted, but by then, she's usually in bed, and it's nighttime, and all I have the energy to do is put on a movie and fall asleep.”
“What kinds of movies do you like?” Olivia pressed.
“Don't laugh, but I kind of like cheesy romances,” I admitted. “And classics, I love a good black and white film. Anything that doesn't require me to focus on it.”
Olivia hummed an agreement. “Those kinds of movies are the best,” she said. She paused. “Maybe we should go out to the movies sometime. I haven't been in ages; it's so expensive in Chicago. But Mom said the theater here does decent matinees.”
“They do,” I agreed, nodding at her. She shivered as I slid my hand higher.
“Do you want to get out of here?” she asked breathlessly.
I raised an eyebrow at her, but it wasn't as though I could hide how turned on I was. Especially not as her hand crept higher against my inseam, grazing against my member. My eyes fell shut for a moment, as I concentrated on just breathing.
“Are you all right?” Olivia asked innocently, and I opened my eyes to give her an unimpressed look. She giggled in response, entirely unrepentant.
“I swear, next time we have sex, I'm going to tease you mercilessly until you're practically crying for it, just to see how you like it,” I growled in a low voice, watching as her eyes grew dark.
“Oh yeah?” she asked. “You started it.”
“I don't care,” I said.
Olivia grinned and leaned in for a quick kiss. “To be honest,” she said as we broke apart, “after you avoided me last time, I didn't think you were even considering having sex with me again.”
“For the last time, I wasn't avoiding you,” I said, even though I still felt guilty about that. But I had a way to make it up to her. I was pretty sure. “You know, I know this motel that's not far from here. What do you say we get a doggy bag for the rest of the food and head over there?”
Olivia's mouth dropped open, and I could tell she was into the idea. “We're both adults,” she reminded me, though. “Why not just go home? Unless that's some sort of fetish for you, anonymous motel sex.”
I burst out laughing, unable to help it. “No!” I said, pulling her into a quick hug. “But last time we had sex, some of the neighbors noticed my car in your driveway late at night. As much as I like what we're doing, I'm not ready for the whole town to be in on our business just yet, if that's okay with you. If we go to a motel, we can keep things under wraps for a little while longer.”
Olivia pulled away from me. “Wow, that makes me feel really good about this,” she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “You don't want the town to know that you're interested in someone like me?”
“That's not it at all,” I said earnestly, twisting my fingers in hers. “But I'm a widower, Olivia, and my mother-in-law, not to mention my young daughter, both live in Tamlin. As well as your mother, and Ernie the gossip, and a bunch of other people. I'm just not ready to open that can of worms yet.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Olivia admitted.
“It's not forever,” I assured her. “Just for now, until we've settled into whatever it is that we're doing with one another.”
“All right,” Olivia said at last, shaking her head. “So where is this motel?”