The One: The Complete One Series Collection (13 page)

CHAPTER THREE

A couple hours later, we still hadn’t left the bed. Dinner would be ready soon, but the only thing I was hungry for was William and I’d already had him. More than once.

“We have to go downstairs eventually,” I said, pressing against him. William was still naked beneath the thin blanket I had pulled around us but once we had come down from our coital high, I had hastily pulled on my underwear and his old t-shirt. Despite a perfectly functioning furnace, the third floor of his mountain home was drafty and even his body warmth couldn’t quite chase away the chill. “Your mother doesn’t strike me as a very patient woman.”

“Ten more minutes,” William said lazily. He continued to comb his fingers through my hair in a steady rhythm. It was an action that calmed both of us so I didn’t push any further. It wasn’t like I was excited to see his family again.

“Have they always been like this? So… hateful? Or is it just me?” I couldn’t look at William because I didn’t want him to see how much his mother’s words had bothered me.

“No, they haven’t always been like this. But it’s not you.” William’s hand left my hair and he tucked it under his head as he stared through the glass ceiling at the night sky. I rolled over so that I could see the stars above us. “You asked me earlier if there were any other siblings I should warn you about. You were joking around, but you were right on the money.”

“You have another sibling?” I flipped over again, propped up on my elbows.

“
Had
another sibling.” William kept his eyes away from me but I could see a buried pain within them. “I had another brother, Christopher. He was my twin.”

My mouth dropped open. “You had a twin brother?”

“Obviously it’s not something I like to talk about. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone. Until you.” He looked at me pointedly. “Like I said, you’re under my skin.”

William and I weren’t exactly known for our personal confessions so I wasn’t about to let him move on without getting the full story. “What happened to Christopher?”

“He was killed.” William’s blue eyes grew clouded. “Murdered, actually.”

My jaw dropped again. “Holy shit.” I knew that William hadn’t always been as rich as he was now. But I’d been to his parents’ home, and while it wasn’t a mansion, it was definitely upper-middle class and located in a nice neighborhood. People that lived in nice neighborhoods didn’t usually get murdered.

“He and I used to cause a lot of trouble. Chris had tons of energy and he was so adventurous. I had a hard time keeping up with him.” William’s smile was wistful and sad. “There was this park a few miles from the house where we lived as kids. Chris and I used to ride our bikes there after school. The day he died, it was unseasonably warm and we couldn’t resist the chance to play outside. We had been there for a couple of hours before we got separated. It was getting dark and I went to look for him. I found his bike in the parking lot but he was gone.

I could tell that William wasn’t with me anymore; he was in the past, with Chris. “We were only ten. Still young enough to not understand the depths of the evil in the world, but
old enough not to trust everyone. But for some reason, he left the park, and he hadn’t gone alone.”

I had so many questions I wanted to ask, so many things I wanted to say, but words escaped me. William’s story was terrifying and unbelievable, yet it had happened. We were lying only an inch apart but I felt the need to connect with him, to let him know I was there and I wasn’t going anywhere. My hand landed on his chest, just over his heart, and he sucked in a breath.

“They didn’t find him right away. We looked for him for nine months. Do you know how long that is when someone you love is missing?” William’s hand covered mine. “They never caught the man that killed him.”

“I’m so sorry, William.” I don’t know how anyone recovers from a tragedy like that in their childhood. Losing my parents had been hard enough, but William had lost a sibling in a horrifying way.

“The worst part was the guilt. It could just as easily have been me.” William’s voice was thick with emotion as he blinked at me. He was trying hard to keep tears from his eyes. “It should’ve been me, Olivia.”

“Don’t say that.” I grabbed his hand and gave it a tight squeeze. “It shouldn’t have happened at all.”

William closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. When he opened them again, their pure blueness had returned and he was back in the present. “Stop looking at me like that,” he said with an embarrassed smile.

“I can’t help it.” I shook my head in disbelief. “We just had a moment.”

“We did. And you’re still here.” William kissed my forehead.

“What can I say, I like guys that are emotionally unbalanced. With a hint of being totally fucked up.”

William poked me in the side and I squealed. “And I like my women damaged. With just a touch of crazy.”

“Guess that makes us a perfect fit then.” I got on my knees and stretched. Dinner must have already started by now.

“I think we’ve proven that on more than one occasion.” He grabbed for the hem of his shirt that I was wearing but I squirmed away. I recognized his playful smile and if I gave into him now, I would miss dinner completely. And I was starting to get hungry. “That shirt looks a million times better on you.”

“I disagree.”

“You may be right. It would probably look even better crumpled up on the floor right now.” William reached for me again and this time I slapped his hand. “Ow.”

“We have to go downstairs. Your mother will stab me with a steak knife if we don’t make an appearance.”

William groaned. “Five more minutes. I promise. Just give me five more minutes and then we can face the firing squad.”

He opened his arms and tilted his head, making it impossible for me to resist him. “Fine. You win.” I curled up in his arms and closed my eyes. This was where I belonged.

Downstairs was were only masochists belonged. We were ten minutes late to dinner which meant everyone was almost done eating by the time we arrived. Jean took one look at me and almost threw up everything she had just eaten. I was still wearing William’s t-shirt, at his insistence, albeit this time with pants on. But nothing else. We had decided to make good on our promise to wear less clothes.

“Nice of you to join us,” Jean said, her face about ready to crack from how hard she frowned at me. William’s father, Bill, gave his wife a pointed look that she chose to ignore. “Did you lose your watch, William?”

William pulled out a chair for me and gave my shoulders a squeeze as I slouched into it. It was a weird sensation to be sitting at the dinner table with William’s family wearing his shirt and feeling my jeans rub unobstructed against my most sensitive area.

Jean was still staring daggers at me, but now she turned her anger to William. “Of all days, how could you behave this way today?”

“Mother, don’t start.” William reached for his water glass and I could see that his hand was shaking.

“Bob took the kids out of school to be here.
Cessily left work to be here.” Jean shrugged away Bill’s attempt to place a calming hand on her shoulder. “I will not calm down. Not today. I don’t think it was too much to ask for you to spend the day with your family instead of screwing a stranger in your bedroom all afternoon.”

“Mother. You’re out of line.” William stood up, knocking over his water in the process. No one made an attempt to clean up the mess. “Olivia isn’t a stranger. She’s the most important person in my life right now and I needed to be with her today. You think this day is only hard for you, but you’re wrong. You aren’t the only one that misses him and feels guilty about what happened.”

As William stormed away from the table, his siblings all exchanged a look. I felt completely out of place among them. Jean left the table only seconds later and Bill begrudgingly went after her.

“I’m sorry, what’s so special about today?” I asked
Cessily quietly, hoping the others wouldn’t overhear.

“I assume William told you about our brother, Chris?”
Cessily had unshed tears in her eyes. “Today is the 25 year anniversary of the day he disappeared. We decided to meet on this mountain because our family used to vacation here every year. It was one of Chris’ favorite places.”

“Well, shit.” That explained a lot. It explained why William had been so nostalgic and willing to share with me. It explained why his whole family was gathered on a random weekend in January. And it explained why Jean was so angry about my presence. “I so don’t belong here.”

“Oh, Olivia. No. Don’t let Jean get to you.” Cessily squeezed my hand. “William needs you here. You’re the only person in 25 years that he has let into his life. Please don’t go.”

I was conflicted. This was clearly an important weekend for the family, and they didn’t need a stranger poking around, making things awkward. But
Cessily seemed so sincere, and William was on the edge. I couldn’t exactly leave him now.

“I’m going to see if he’ll talk to me. Excuse me.” I stopped by the kitchen and grabbed two glasses and bottle of scotch. If ever an occasion called for no ice, this was it.

I checked the first floor and came up empty. William’s bedroom was also deserted, but the door leading out to the deck was cracked open. I found him leaning over the railing, staring down the side of the mountain.

“Don’t jump.” I noticed that his shoulders sagged at the sound of my voice.

“Because you would miss me too much?” His voice sounded impossibly sad.

I set the glasses on the railing and opened the bottle of scotch. “Yes, but also because then I would have to drink alone. And that’s just pathetic.”

I poured two fingers worth into each glass and handed one to William. He laughed as he took the glass and my heart jumped at the sound of his laughter. Seeing him so tortured was misery for me.

“Sorry about the freak out downstairs.” He took a long, slow drink.

“Please. That was nothing.” I leaned against him until he put his arm around me. His body was warm and I was freezing in his t-shirt. I burrowed against him and held him tight. “You forgot to mention the whole anniversary thing to me. That was an unpleasant surprise.”

“Yeah… sorry about that. I don’t know why I didn’t tell you that part.” William pressed his lips to my head, just at the hairline. They grazed lightly over the faded scar that ran all the way to my ear- a gift from Paul.

“It’s okay. We all have scars we try to hide,” I said.

“Indeed.” He trailed kisses along the scar until his lips reached my ear. “I have something else I want to tell you, Livy.”

“I’m listening.” I really hoped he didn’t have another dead sibling. I didn’t think I could handle another revelation that deep.

William went even deeper. “I’m in love with you.”

I literally stopped breathing. The silence was deafening. At least in Chicago when you can’t think of what to say, the city provides a nice soundtrack of traffic and people. At the top of a mountain, the only thing you hear is your inner voice, screaming at you to say something.

“Anyway,” William said, coughing uncomfortably. “I just thought you should know that.”

“I’m glad you told me.” I wanted to smack myself in the forehead.

“We should go back inside.” William’s arm slipped away and I was overwhelmed by the cold. “I’ll start a fire.”

“William, wait!” I stopped him at the door. Suddenly, I heard my friend Lana’s voice, telling me not to have any regrets. The old lady from the airport was back, too, yelling at me not to fuck up this moment. “Me, too.”

His head cocked uncertainly and I reached for him, wrapping my arms around his neck and lifting up on my tiptoes so that my face was level with his. “I’m in love with you, too.”

William exhaled as if he had been holding his breath for days. “Thank Christ,” he said with a relieved smile. “This night was about to get really awkward.”

I laughed and kissed him hard. “Let’s get that fire started.”

We started plenty of fires the next couple of days, both in the fireplace and in the bed. William seemed determined to spend the minimum amount of time with his family. He even convinced me to attempt to ski, but after falling for the fifth time, I called it quits. Just a few minutes after I returned to the house, William showed up. He claimed that the runs were too icy, but eventually confessed that he missed me. We both knew that when we got back to Chicago, we had to resume our real lives. William would go back to being my boss and our relationship would be a secret again.

On our final night in Utah, I forced William to stay downstairs with the rest of the family. His family might hate me, but they loved him. And I suspected that deep down, William loved them, too.

I backed into the far corner of the room, nursing my glass of wine and watching the Connors behave in a semi-functional manner. Bill and Bob were watching a football game on television. Tina was buried in her phone like always. William was crouched on the floor, playing a made-up game with his niece and nephew. The game involved both monster trucks and Barbies, and as I watched William tickle his niece, I felt a little weak in the knees. If I hadn’t already admitted it to myself, that would’ve been the moment that I realized I was madly in love with William Connor.