Chapter Eighteen
Olivia
Sunday
“I sail through the waatters!” Meghan sang loudly to some song from the latest animated film that she loved. I kept trying my best to join in but since I didn’t know the words I kept getting shot down. “Because I am a princess!”
“I think the cupcakes are done!” I told her in a sing-song tone of voice as the oven dinged. “Are you ready to try them?”
It took me a while to find a cookbook that served Meghan’s food allergies, but now that I had, I was more than happy to try everything from all of the pages. She enjoyed it, too; it was the first time that we had been able to bake together, and I could tell that she loved every moment of it. Now, this was something we could do together more often.
“I am, I am!” she gleefully exclaimed while clapping her hands together happily. It made my heart swell with joy to see her smile so brightly. “I can’t wait. I like cakes that don’t make me sick.”
“Me, too,” I told her sadly while rubbing the top of her head. “I like it, too.”
I didn’t know if her allergies were just a freak thing that had just happened to her or something that had come from her father’s side of the family. Since I didn’t know anything about anyone he was related to, I couldn’t be sure. I tried to ask him the first time that Meghan ended up in the hospital with a terrible allergic reaction, but he couldn’t be bothered enough to send me a message back. He didn’t even care enough to check that his daughter had survived the attack, which was when I knew for sure that he was worthless.
Still, he lost out, not me. Meghan was worth all the struggles in the world. Ben could give his new family everything, and I hoped for his other child that he did. He would never get to know his amazing firstborn, and that wasn’t something that he could ever take back. It was too damn late.
“Hot, hot, hot!” Meghan squealed, dropping the cake on the table. “It’s too hot.”
“I know that it’s just come out of the oven,” I chuckled. “You need to give it just a moment to cool down. You can’t just eat it right away, unfortunately.”
“Oh, I didn’t know.”
“Well, now you do, so just be careful sweetheart,” I told her while kissing the end of her nose.
“There are too many for just us,” Meghan told me thoughtfully. She tapped her chin and examined the cakes. “Shall we take some to Zack?”
My stomach twisted at the mere mention of Zack’s name. I didn’t know how the hell I was supposed to feel about him. Both times we slept together I kept telling myself that it wouldn’t happen again, but the magnetic draw was still there. Even when I wasn’t with him, I continued to think about him all the time. I tried to push him from my mind, but he was there all the time.
And, that stint with my G-string! I didn’t know how to feel about that at all. I could not believe that he’d pushed them through my door in a brown paper bag. It was just lucky that it was me that found them, not Meghan or Drea. I wasn’t sure how on Earth I would even begin to explain that one away, especially since there was a little note attached.
Still, as much as I was annoyed with it, it sent a thrill racing through my body. It was a crazy little secret, a taboo act which made it all the more exciting.
“We could just save them,” I said innocently with a shrug. “Have them later on.”
“But we can make more,” Meghan insisted. “I like baking; we can bake more.”
I sighed loudly and nodded. “Alright then, as soon as they cool down we’ll take some over to Zack. We better go and change out of our pajamas then; we can’t go across looking like this.”
Meghan raced over to her bedroom quickly, singing the same song over and over again. I shook my head and giggled to myself at her adorable innocence. She couldn’t seem to understand that there was a real awkwardness between Zack and me, which was fair enough since I shielded her from it. But the problem with that was I kept getting drawn back in without me even meaning to.
Once Meghan had her favorite dress on, and I was wearing a much more presentable jeans and tee shirt combo, we made our way to the hall to Zack’s apartment. My heart pounded in my chest with anxiety, but I tried my best to hide it with a bright beaming smile.
“That’s enough, Megs, you don’t have to keep knocking,” I told her quietly as she continued to pound on the door. “Zack might not even be in.”
As the door swung open, I sucked in a deep breath of air, but as I spotted Lark there looking back at me, I blew it back out. “Oh, hey, Meghan. Hi Olivia. You okay?”
“Yeah…is Zack in?” Something felt wrong, there was something off about the feelings between Lark and me and I couldn’t quite work out what it was. It made me worried about Zack and his leg. “Is he okay?”
“He’s sick, actually,” Lark told me regretfully. “I think it might be flu. I don’t know what happened; he was okay one minute, just complaining of a headache, and the next he was totally wiped out.”
“Has he seen the doctor?” I didn’t like the sound of that, it was worrying. I hadn’t ever had the flu myself, nothing worse than a terrible common cold, but it didn’t seem right. “Should he not be in the hospital getting some real care?”
“Yeah, yeah, he’s just been told to rest. Zack doesn’t like the hospital because he hates being in the spotlight. I’m just hanging out here to look after him, get him stuff as he needs it.”
Spotlight? Why would Zack need to stay out of the spotlight? He was ex-military, wasn’t he? Not someone famous. Unless he’d been lying to me about that, but I certainly didn’t know him. I wanted to press Lark, to ask him for more information, but since he didn’t volunteer anything, it didn’t feel right to ask. Maybe that was something that I would just have to discover later on. I certainly didn’t think that was a comment I would forget anytime soon.
“Do you want a break? I can always check in on Zack if you want?”
“I and you can play games!” Meghan insisted, completely missing the point of my offer “Hang out while Mommy looks after Zack.”
“Oh no, I meant while Lark went home…”
“No, I like that plan. We can all hang out here.” Lark stepped to one side, and he invited us in. “I would love some company if you really don’t mind?”
Meghan raced in past Lark, excited to play games with him again which left me with no choice. Not that I minded, I wanted to check in on Zack. I wasn’t a medical professional, but I still needed to see that he was okay. I didn’t want to admit it, but it was more for my peace of mind than anything else.
I poked my head into the bedroom to see Zack’s steaming hot, sweaty body tucked under the sheets. He was asleep, but he didn’t look rested. His expression was one of strain and pain. My heart went out to him – the poor boy had enough agony in his life, he didn’t need more. I wanted to do something to take it all away from him, but it looked like Lark had done a pretty good job of taking care of his friend. He had endless drinks, snacks, and air pouring into the room.
“Olivia,” Zack mumbled, making me jump. “Olivia.”
“Yes, I’m here,” I told him quietly. “What do you need?”
But he didn’t answer me, and as I stepped closer to him, it became acutely obvious that he was still sleeping. Maybe he sensed me for just a moment before drifting off to sleep, or maybe he was dreaming about me. Either way, he clearly didn’t need me now, so I would have to tear myself away, just for a moment.
“He seems okay,” I told Lark with a smile. “I mean, still sick, but alright for the moment. I’ll keep going in to check on him while you play.”
“I don’t know if I want to keep playing Megs, she’s better than all the pros!”
“I keep forgetting you play professionally,” I said as I started to pour everyone drinks. “That must be pretty exciting.”
“I like it,” he shrugged. “It gets me around a lot. I’ve been in Las Vegas a lot recently which is always fun. I am pretty good, too, which means I win a lot… The prize pot is good.”
“Yeah,…it sounds fun.” Lark didn’t sound totally convinced by it, which confused me. Surely as a gamer, it was his dream life, so why did he seem like he wanted more? Unfortunately, we didn’t yet know one another well enough for me to ask that question. “Do you do a lot of playing in New York?”
“I don’t, actually.”
“Oh, so why do you stay? Why don’t you move with the gaming?” His answer surprised me. It seemed a bit counterproductive to remain somewhere that work wasn’t.
“It’s my home,” he replied tightly. “And Zack is here, too. After his accident, a lot of his friends peeled away without really meaning to, so I wouldn’t leave him.”
My heart thumped for Zack. It was so unfair of him to go through so much in such a short space of time. An accident that ended his career and took his friends away from him. The mental anguish of all of that probably hindered his recovery and made everything much slower. “Well, thank God he has you,” I said seriously. “You’re a good friend, Lark.”
“Yeah well… If he wants to stay here to keep under the radar, then I will, too.”
There it was again, the suggestion that Zack had something to hide. Now that Lark had brought it up again I felt more comfortable with asking him what he meant. I opened my mouth and went to speak…but I didn’t get a chance to say anything.
“Do you want to watch a movie?” Meghan interrupted quickly. “Do you want to watch my princess film? We can eat cupcakes.”
I expected that to be the limit for Lark, he didn’t exactly look like the sort who would sit around and watch animated princess films, but to my surprise, he nodded enthusiastically. “That sounds awesome, Meg. Movie and treats…so much better than being on my own.”
“I’ll go and get some popcorn from home,” I told them both. “I’ll be back in a moment.”
As I snuck back home, I typed “Zack Taylor” into the Internet on my phone quickly to see what dirt I could dig up on him on my own, but nothing appeared. That only piqued my interest more as an exciting list of possibilities filled my mind. There was something about Zack, something that I needed to find out, and although I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to go about that without being too damn obvious, I knew I would find a way.
After all, the man was in my life now – he was in my daughter’s life. It was practically my duty to discover everything that needed to be known.
Or maybe that was just my way of justifying being nosy. Either way, I would still find out the truth.