Distractions (The Rebound Series) (9 page)

Her mom poked her head out the door and whistled loudly, “Food’s up, everyone!”

Olivia bit back a smile, but managed to escape the kitchen and into the backyard before she was run over by the pack of hungry relatives.
 
Alex spotted her and smiled warmly, his dark eyes taking her in as he lifted his beer to his lips.
 
The group that he and her father had been talking to dispersed when her mother called everybody inside.
 
But her father was still plating the cooked hot dogs and burgers.

She spotted Miles out of the corner of her eye watching as she walked passed him, but she didn’t turn.

Her father was just turning off the grill when she reached them both, a massive platter of meat carefully nestled in his arms as though it was a child.
 
“Looks good, dad,” she greeted.
 
“You’ve outdone yourself.”

“I like him,” her father declared, not even bothering to respond to her compliment.
 
Her father was a straight shooter and hated bullshit.
 
But his statement still caught her off guard, nonetheless.
 
“I can even overlook his love for the 49ers.”

“Wow, football talk already.
 
I don’t think I left you two alone for twenty minutes even,” she murmured, glancing at Alex.
 
He hid his grin well.

“Do you need help with that, John?” Alex asked politely, nodding towards the platter.

“No, no.
 
I’ve got this.
 
But I better go hand this off to the missus.
 
See you two in there,” he said.
 
And then he walked away, carrying the heavy platter inside.
 
Her father was the last to disappear inside the warmly lit house.
 
The darkening backyard was completely empty now, save for the two of them.

Alex wrapped his arms around her as she walked into his chest.
 
“You’re alive,” she observed.
 
“No battle wounds?”

“Your dad’s harmless, darling.
 
Even if he did give me the ‘I have a gun if you break my daughter’s heart’ speech,” he murmured into her hair.

Olivia groaned, “He didn’t.”

Alex laughed, “Oh, but he did.”
 
He was quiet for a moment.
 
“He really loves you, though.
 
I can tell.”

She sighed into Alex’s chest, inhaling the familiar smell of him as she thought over his words.
 
Her chest ached as she pondered the shattered relationship he had with his own father.
 
She wondered now if it was damaged beyond repair, but Alex hadn’t told her enough for her to determine his stance on that.

He seemed a little sad, so to brighten up his mood, she said, “He will try to get you drunk later.
 
Just giving you fair warning in case you want to give me your car keys now.”

Alex laughed, humor dancing in his dark eyes as he gazed down at her.
 
“I’ll be okay, darling.
 
I think I permanently built up a resistance to alcohol in college.
 
So don’t worry about me.”

“Frat boy?” she guessed, her eyebrows raised teasingly.

Alex shrugged and grinned, “Something like that.”

“
Something like that
,” she repeated.
 
“Oh my God, you were.”
 
With his good looks and his charm, Olivia imagined he would have been a very
effective
frat boy.
 
A sudden thought occurred to her.
 
“How many women have you slept with?” she asked abruptly.

“What?” he asked in shock, laughing.

“I want to know,” she said, determined.

Alex shook his head hesitantly, gazing down at her with an unreadable expression, “I don’t think you’ll like the answer.”

“Alex,” Olivia warned, “Tell me.”

“How many men have you slept with?” he asked instead, deliberately steering her away from her own question.
 

She cocked her head to the side and smiled, “Two.”

Now it was his turn to stare.
 
“What?” he asked in surprise.
 
“
Two
?”

“Two,” she confirmed.
 
“You’re the second,” she said matter-of-factly and easily.
 
His gaze softened and then it was her turn to pounce.
 
“Tell me.
 
I won’t be mad, I promise.
 
I’m just curious.”

He pressed his lips together as he studied her.
 
“Nine.
 
There were a lot of girls in college.
 
But there have only been a few afterwards.”
 
Olivia didn’t know how she felt about his confession, but true to her word, she wasn’t angry.

He felt tense, so she smiled up at him, letting her fingers run down his solid chest.
 
“Relax.
 
You’re acting like I’m about to go crazy on you.”

He looked at her carefully, “You’re really not upset?”

She reached up to run her hand through his neat hair and felt immense satisfaction when a black lock fell over his forehead.
 
“As long as you’re not sleeping with
a lot
of girls
now, I’m not upset,” she answered truthfully.

He blew out a breath, his dark eyes drawing her in until the backyard and the noise from her mother’s kitchen fell away and it was just the two of them.
 
“You know there’s no one else,” he murmured softly.
 
“Just you and me,” he repeated, the same words he had promised a couple of nights ago in Olivia’s bed.

Her heart melted and she stood on her toes to give him a quick kiss on his full bottom lip.
 
“I know,” she whispered, smiling.

“Good,” he replied, satisfied.
 
He gazed around the now-dark backyard and then back down at her encircled in his arms.
 
“Now, let’s go eat, darling.”

Olivia let him pull her towards the house by the hand.
 
But, with her heart fluttering in her chest and her body still warm from his words, she was thinking that she was halfway in love with this man already.

And for the first time, that didn’t scare her.

“Where are we going?” Alex asked as Olivia pulled him up the stairs of her childhood home.
 
“Dragging me off so you can have your wicked way with me, Miss Ward?” he guessed teasingly.

“If only you were so lucky,” she murmured back and Alex chuckled, half-hoping he guessed correctly.
 
Okay, more than half-hoping, if he was being honest with himself…

“It’s awfully naughty of you wanting to have sex in your childhood bedroom,” he said lowly.
 
She shot him an exasperated look over her shoulder as they reached the landing of the home’s second story.
 
“But I’m definitely up for it,” he suggested, tugging her body into his to nuzzle her neck.

“Stop it,” she hissed, glancing downstairs to see if anyone saw.
 
He released her, laughing as she attempted to regain her footing, with her face a little flushed.
 
“I just need a break from everyone.
 
They’re driving me nuts.”

They walked down the hallway and Olivia opened the first closed door on the left side.
 
“It is a little draining,” Alex admitted, remembering the herd of relatives and friends he had been introduced to over dinner.
 
He was usually pretty good with names, but he could never even hope to remember everyone here.

Luckily, there were so many people here that they had yet to come face-to-face with Miles.
 
And Alex, honestly, hoped it stayed that way.

Olivia’s bedroom was feminine, just like her apartment.
 
It was a small bedroom, but cozy, with a twin sized bed, a neat desk, and a chest of drawers.
 
And there were even more knick-knacks and pictures in here than at her apartment.

Alex stooped down a bit to scan some framed pictures on her dresser.
 
Some were of a clearly younger Olivia in high school posing with friends.
 
Alex smiled at the picture of Olivia with braces but she slammed it face down, a warning in itself that Alex shouldn’t tease her about it.
 
He came across an older man with white hair, an arm wrapped around Olivia’s shoulders.

“That’s my grandpa,” she said fondly, reaching out to touch the frame.

Ah
, Alex thought.
 
He studied the picture as he silently remembered the intense moment between them only this morning when Olivia told Alex about this man.
 
She had clearly loved him very much.
 
Grief had been etched deeply in her features when she had mentioned his death.

“I’ll always be a little sad.
 
It’s okay if I am.”

Alex remembered her words clearly, remembered the sadness in her eyes as she looked at him.
 
And he remembered the way he felt after she said them.
 
Something had shifted inside him, like a lightbulb clicking on, even as old memories had surfaced.
 
Memories of his father shutting him in the dark basement as punishment.
 
Taunting him from outside the door when he heard muffled sobs from his young son.
 
Memories of his father humiliating him in public, yelling at him and calling him weak.

Alex felt Olivia touch his arm lightly and he focused on her warm hand as he pulled away from those unhappy memories.

“Alex?” she asked, her tone hesitant.

“I like your parents,” he said abruptly.
 
He glanced at Olivia, wondering if she knew how lucky she was to have parents like them.

“I like them too,” Olivia said softly, a small amused smile playing on her lips.
 
“They’re one of the reasons why I moved back up here.
 
In college, I was so homesick, even during my final year.
 
I couldn’t imagine not being within driving distance to them,” she explained.

“I moved back up here for the jobs,” Alex admitted dryly, glancing around her room once again.

Olivia bit her lip, watching him carefully.
 
“When was the last time you saw your parents?”

Alex shrugged, not meeting her eyes, “Months.”

Alex could practically feel Olivia’s hesitance and he felt a little guilty for it.
 
But it didn’t prevent her from asking, “Do you ever miss them at all?”

Alex swallowed thickly, feeling anxiety close up around him.
 
But he pushed past it, not wanting to shut down on Olivia again.
 
She didn’t deserve that and he wanted to be as open with her as he possibly could be.
 
“I miss my mother,” he said.
 
And some perverse, sick part of him missed his father, but he didn’t admit that to Olivia.
 
“I used to have dinner with her occasionally when my father was out of town on business.
 
But he hasn’t been traveling much lately, so I haven’t seen her for a while.”

Olivia was quiet for a moment before she asked, “And that doesn’t bother her?”

He didn’t know.
 
She was closed off most of the time too.
 
His mother wasn’t one to show her feelings, but he didn’t know how to explain that to Olivia, who grew up in a lively household with parents who openly loved her.
 
“It’s difficult with my father.
 
But I know that she’ll always choose him,” he finally said.
 
He knew they were harsh words.
 
The stricken look in Olivia’s eyes told him so.
 
But they were the truth.
 
Alex had known that his whole life, from the moment he could understand and process his mother’s refusal to interfere with her husband’s “punishments.”

But for some reason, he still loved her.
 
Maybe it was the weak part of him that his father had always pointed out.

“Don’t say that, Alex,” Olivia said, the space between her brows pinched.

“I know she loves me,” Alex corrected, reaching out to touch Olivia’s cheek, needing to feel connected to her someway.
 
“That’s enough for me.”

Olivia’s eyes turned sad so Alex pulled her close for a kiss.
 
Tangling his hands in her dark hair, he kissed her thoroughly and slowly.

“Don’t do that,” Olivia mumbled against his lips a few moments later.
 
“You always do that,” she said, sighing, pulling away from him.

“Do what?” he whispered, stroking his finger across her cheek.

“You try to make me forget something by kissing me,” she replied.

“Does it work?” he asked, a small smile appearing on his lips.

Olivia sighed.
 
“Only if you want it to,” she vaguely replied.
 
“Let’s talk about something else,” she decided and Alex felt a rush of relief flow through him.

“Thank you,” he said, grateful that she understood his reluctance to talk about his parents.

But it just so happened that they didn’t have time to talk about anything else because there was a loud knock at the door a moment later.

“Hey, you two, what’s going on in there?” Olivia’s father asked through the thick door, his booming voice only slightly muffled.

“Nothing, dad.
 
Jeeze,” Olivia muttered, tugging open the door to reveal her father standing in the entrance.

“Just checking,” he said defensively, but his eyes quickly scanned the both of them, no doubt making sure they hadn’t been fooling around under his own roof.
 
Alex wondered how he would react if he ever found out all the activities that he and Olivia had participated in.
 
But he figured her dad would probably shoot him dead before Alex ever found out.
 
“Your mom said to come down.
 
It’s cake time.”
 
His eyes shifted to Alex.
 
“And then you and I have a date with some Irish whiskey.
 
But since you have to drive my daughter home, I’ll go easy on you.”
 
It was a direct challenge.
 
But then he turned and walked back down the hallway.