A Blast from the Past (A Second Chance Romance) (6 page)

"Don't
you ever fucking call me that again," I snapped. "My name
is Olivia. Do you hear me?"

"I'll
call you whatever I want. Do you hear me, woman. You'll always be
Livie to me," he snapped back.

I
let out a loud huff and turned to walk away from him. He reached out
and grabbed my arm. I winced and pulled away, as I rubbed the scar on
the spot he had grabbed.

"What?"
he asked in a soft voice. "Why did you just wince when I touched
you?"

"Don't
worry about it, doctor. It's all good. If you had been there when I
needed you, you would have known what that was about. I need to go."

The
look in his eyes was so intense and filled with emotion. I needed to
get away from him as fast as I could. His hair was so soft, and his
body looked so good. The worry on his face was almost enough to get
me.

"What
the fuck happened to your arm?" he asked.

His
voice was so deep and there was darkness in his face. I saw his hands
clench at his sides.

"Did
he hurt you, Li," he stared, but I held up my hand.

"Olivia,"
I said sternly. "Call me Olivia, Zander."

I
could see his chest rising and falling under his dress shirt. He was
angry. What the hell was he wearing dress clothes for again, I
wondered? He was wearing them earlier in the day when he came back
with his mom as well. Didn't the man own a pair of jeans anymore? Was
he a stuffy ass now, I thought?

"I
have to go," I said. "I'll see you tomorrow. Since you're
here with Carol, I'll just see you at the viewing. I'm really sorry
about your dad."

"You're
so mad that I stopped talking to you," he snapped and got to his
feet. "I didn't hear you ringing my phone. There's no way you
would have ever visited, but you could have at least called me. You
didn't even tell me you were marrying him. My mom told me. I had to
find out from someone else. Why didn't you tell me yourself?"

"You're
something else, Zander," I said with a smirk. "You think
I'm this small town girl that could never find my way around a big
city. I have news for you. This small town girl went to New York the
week before I agreed to marry him."

I
turned and began walking away.

"You
were in New York?" he asked from behind me.

I
kept walking faster than before.

"Stop,
Livie," he yelled after me. "What do you mean you were in
New York?"

I
moved even faster, pulled my door open, and quickly shut it behind
me. My body slid down the door, and I wrapped my arms around my legs
as the tears moved down my face like a waterfall.

Zander

What
the fuck was she talking about, I wondered? The first thing I needed
to figure out was what the hell happened to her arm. It better not
have been Mike. If I found out he touched her, I knew I would end up
in jail. I'd crush him if he hurt Livie. She might not have thought
it was my business, but she was wrong. It was very much my business.
She thought I didn't care about her. It hurt when she said I wasn't
there when she needed me.

I
sat down on a chair and let my head fall to my hands. She said she
had been to New York. I couldn't figure it out. Why was she there?
Where exactly in New York had she been? She said it was a week before
she accepted Mike's proposal. I couldn't believe she went by herself.
She wasn't a big city girl at all. I remember her saying she would
never go someplace that big. Maybe she was just pulling my leg, I
thought. If she had been there, why the hell didn't she come and see
me? How could she go that far and not visit me? I thought about her
all the time. There were times I turned around and thought I saw her
or thought I heard her voice. It never ended up being her though. I
was always disappointed.

Seeing
her looking up at the stars pulled at my heart. We used to lean back
on our elbows next to each other and try to connect the stars to make
shapes or animals. Her eyes were closed when I walked up, but she had
a smiled on her face. It was killing me trying to figure out what she
was thinking about. When I saw tears in her eyes, my chest felt like
it was caving in. I felt like I couldn't breathe. She was my Livie. I
could never stand to see her cry. The way she snapped at me when I
said Livie was another life changing moment. That was what I had
always called her. It was my name for her. How could she say that to
me? There was no way I was calling her Olivia. It took all I had not
to take her over my knee and spank that perfect ass of hers. She
didn't need to be talking to me like that.

I
jumped when I heard a car door shut. The sun was shining through the
trees. How did I sleep all night in a chair, I wondered? I stood up
and walked out of the woods. When I looked up, our eyes connected.
Livie was getting ready to back out of the driveway. Her face was
serious. There wasn't even a hint of a smile on it. She backed out
and was gone before I knew it.

My
mom wanted to get a new dress for the funeral. I wanted to make sure
everything went exactly the way she wanted it. She needed to feel as
if she had done everything she could for him. I knew it was important
to her. My feelings about him were being put aside the best that I
could. She loved him so much, and I loved her. When she mentioned
Livie or her mother going with her, I suggested Livie's mom go. It
bothered me that my mom took every bit of help Livie offered her
after everything she had said to me over the years. I knew she meant
well. I knew she wanted what she thought was best for me. It still
pissed me off.

Livie
had called her mother and said she needed to stay late so she could
bake things for the funeral. My mom needed to get shopping, and there
was no way I was going with her. My mom offered to have me watch the
two kids while they went. When she walked in the door with both kids,
I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them. They watched
television for a little bit. I pulled out some cards and a couple of
board games that were in the closet. They were actually very good
kids. I was surprised how smart and well-behaved they were. Livie was
doing a great job raising them alone.

I
heard her car door shut and walked to the door. She walked into her
house and came back out moments later. I hurried to the kitchen and
pulled stuff out of the fridge for sandwiches. She was going to think
I had let her kids sit hungry. That wouldn't be good. She was already
so mad at me. I had kept track of her, but she didn't know about it.
Apparently, I hadn't done a good enough job. Something had happened
to her. The way she pulled away and rubbed her arm left a sick
feeling in my stomach.

When
she knocked on the door, I took a deep breath and opened it. She
looked around me to see her kids sitting on the couch watching a
cartoon.

"Why
is April and Jack here?" she asked sternly.

I
was slightly shocked by her attitude. She could have at least
appreciated that I was with her kids. I had made it clear the entire
time we were close that I didn't want children. Instead, she stood
with her hands on her hips acting like them being around me was the
worst thing in the world. It was very offensive.

"My
mom needed a new dress for the funeral. Your mom took her to get one.
She was going to wait for you to get home so you could take her, but
I figured after all of the baking you were already doing for us, you
really didn't need to be shopping with her all night," I said.
"I was just making them sandwiches. Why don't you come in and
have one."

I
moved to the side for her to enter, but she didn't. She had no idea
how close she was to going over my knee. The women I spent my time
with weren't difficult. One of the things I liked about her growing
up was that she never took shit from a guy. In that moment, I wasn't
finding it to be such a good quality. Being difficult with me wasn't
something that had ever happened before.

"If
you'd like, I can send them home when they're done eating," I
said.

"Why
are you wearing suit pants and a dress shirt?" she blurted out.

She
seemed to always take me by surprise those four years we spent
together. I knew I shouldn't have been surprised she was still doing
it.

"What?"
I asked.

"I'm
just curious," she said with a shrug. "By the way, I can
make my own decisions. There's no reason for you make them for me.
You don't get to do that. Maybe I wanted to take your mom shopping.
I've done it so many times. I'm not really happy about the fact that
those two ladies decided to let some strange man watch my kids."

"Some
strange man," I snapped, as my eyes narrowed at her.

"My
kids don't know you. They know your mom, but they've never seen you
before."

"I
wasn't thinking about it. I'm sorry. You're right. They should have
asked you if it was okay," I said. "I wasn't making
decisions for you. I think we both know you do what you want. You've
always been that way."

She
pushed passed me and walked into the kitchen like she owned the
place. I smirked when she went into the fridge and poured herself a
glass of soda.

"What's
that smirk for?" she asked. "I'm here every day. You'd know
that if you were ever around. So, what's with the suit? You going
somewhere? I don't think there are any patients to see or meetings to
go to. You do know where you are, right? Is that all you brought with
you?"

"No,"
I said.

I
could hear the attitude seeping out through my words. Who did she
think she was, I wondered? She was acting like I wasn't the same man
anymore. Just as I went to say something, a huge smile crossed her
face.

"I
don't believe you," she said, as she took off around the corner.

I
was right behind her all the way up the stairs. She rounded the
corner into my room, walked over to my closet, opened my dresser
drawers, and burst out laughing.

"Do
you even own a pair of jeans anymore? I bet you don't. You're
probably too good for that. Is that it? Is it beneath you kind sir?
Are you too good for jeans and t-shirts? Maybe it's not that. Have
they turned you into a stuffy, boring man? Do you sit around with
your pinky out while you drink? I bet your place is boring too. Are
all the walls white? Is all of the furniture black? Have you turned
serious? Is there any Zander left in there?"

I
heard a growl come from deep in my chest and saw her shiver in
response. She stopped talking with her mouth wide open. My eyes
narrowed and stared right into hers. I watched her shift from foot to
foot under my gaze. She didn't realize she was holding her breath
until she let it out.

"No,"
I began in a stern voice. "I'm not boring and stuffy. This is
how I dress for work. I'm sorry that you don't approve. I do own a
pair of jeans."

"A
pair," she said sarcastically.

I
took a step closer and heard her breathing speed up.

"I'm
not the same man I was before, Livie," I said. "That's
true. You're not the same woman either. I can see changes in you as
well."

When
I took another step closer, she put her hand up and I saw the long
scar on her arm in the light. As soon as my eyes landed on it, she
dropped her arm back to her side. I could feel her mind going and
stepped to the side so she couldn't run from me.

"What
do you do for fun?" she asked with her head held high. "Tell
me what you do all day."

"I
work," I said. "I work a lot. When I go home, I work out.
It helps relieve any stress or tension from my day."

"What
else do you do?" she asked.

I
really wasn't sure what to say to answer her question. There wasn't
much else. I worked, worked out, and screwed. That was it.