Warrior (First to Fight #1)(28)

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re probably right.” He nudges my shoulder and ambles out of the shop.

I wipe my face with one of the greased up rags lying around and toss it back onto the countertop. There’s only an hour or so before closing time and it’s been slow as hell, so I rest against the counter, my head hanging on my hands. The headaches are less frequent these days, but if I push it, I get fatigued easily and dizzy. The seizures have slackened off too, and hell if I want a repeat of those.

A tap on my shoulder sends my responses into overdrive. I spin around, heart racing with a combination of fear and automatic shame.

The guy trying to get my attention throws up his hands, keys jangling, and says, “Whoa, there guy. Didn’t mean to freak you out. I called your name a couple times and you didn’t hear me.” His eyes flicker to my hearing aid and back at me.

“It’s fine. Can I help you?” I make sure to keep my good ear facing him.

“Yeah, uh, I need the oil changed in my SUV, if you can. Do you know about how long it will take?”

I rub a hand over my neck. “About a half hour. We’ve got a waiting room around front.”

“Alright, thanks man.”

He turns to leave and a woman steps into the garage doorway. I have to squint my eyes for a second because at first I think I’m seeing things. The bump on the head can cause visual disturbances, not that I’ve had the pleasure of those…yet. Blinking doesn’t erase her presence, though. I knew it would only be a matter of time before we would run into each other. I just thought I’d have more time to get the f*ck over her before I did.

“Hello, Olivia.”

The guy stops and looks between the two of us with a stupid look on his face. “I gotta take a piss. I’ll see you in the waiting room, yeah, babe?”

“I’ll meet you there, Chad,” she tells him.

I wonder if this chump is the kid’s dad. Fuck if I can picture her with a dumb shit like this guy, but what the hell do I know?

Chad leaves and I turn back to find Livvie glaring at me.

“Please tell me that you didn’t do what I think you did.”

I grab the keys Chad left on the counter and head out to pull the car up. Livvie follows close behind. “Hey,” she says. “Hey!”

“What do you need, Liv?” I ask, pausing by the SUV.

“Tell me that you didn’t put an offer in on my dad’s house. Please, for the love of all that’s holy, Benjamin Hart. Please tell me you didn’t do that.”

“How could you possibly know that already? It’s barely even been eight hours.”

She growls in frustration. “It’s a small town, Ben. People talk. Now answer my goddamned question.”

I stare at her, cheeks red with anger, her bright red hair shining in the sunlight. I look down to where she is holding a baby carrier-type contraption, a sleeping baby boy inside of it. “I’m sorry to hear about your dad, by the way. He was a good man.” I look up at her to find that my words have caught her off guard. Her anger seems to lose steam for a second, just a second, before her emerald eyes narrow at me. “And as for the other thing, there was a house for sale. And I put an offer in on it. Simple as that, Olivia.”

Her eyes spark with rage. “You can’t do that. You just can’t disappear and then reappear and buy someone’s house!”

I slip into the car. “Someone’s? It was no one’s house. Pretty sure that’s what the For Sale sign meant. So, sure I can. I’m going to be living here now. And you frankly don’t have a say in what I do or do not buy. Happens to be a good investment. Unless you can beat my offer, I’ll be the proud new owner of a house on McCormick Lake.”

“Dammit, Ben.” Her voice breaks, but I stand my ground. “You know—”

Chad pokes his head out the door. “Hey, babe, everything okay?”

She settles me with an icy glare. “Yes, everything’s fine. We’re done here.”

Olivia turns to storm off and I let her, watching her hurried steps as she stomps away from me. And for the first time in over a year, I smile. The action feels almost foreign to my face which has seen a gamut of emotions over the last year, happiness definitely not being one of them. She might be a mom now and she might be slumming it with some other chump, but my little spitfire hasn’t changed one bit.

Something else makes me smile as well, and that is the knowledge that Olivia and I may be a lot of things, but we are so very far from being done here.




Seven Years Earlier

“You’re not wearing that,” Jack says, his voice sharp.

I turn from my vantage point by the truck to see what’s holding us up. Jack is standing by his truck, arms crossed over his chest, glaring at Olivia and Sofie. Sofie is smiling widely at Olivia, who is scowling at Jack.

“C’mon man,” I tell him. “The concert is going to start before you even get your ass in the truck.”

Jack turns to me and throws an arm in the girls’ direction. “Do you see this shit?”

Olivia blushes, but doesn’t back down from my stare. She’s dressed in booty shorts that truly deserve their name, as they leave very little to the imagination. The tank is skin tight and a deep purple that sets off her emerald green eyes, even from where I’m standing. She sure as hell hadn’t looked like that before I went off to boot camp. But telling him that would mean that I wouldn’t get to stare at her legs all night. Probably because he’d use his famous right hook to blacken both my eyes.