The Kiss: An Anthology About Love and Other Close Encounters(15)
Except now that rainbow is chipping.
“Olivia,” she says, lowering her voice. She sits beside me on the bed and lifts her hand to my chin, pulling my focus to hers. “You knew when you came that this wasn’t an option. Not with my age and my health. I’ve been completely honest with you since the moment we met, haven’t I? I’m moving in with my daughter now so she can help take care of me. I’m getting too old to take care of myself, much less you.“
I nod and try to appear understanding. She has been honest with me, I just didn’t expect to…to love her. I try to turn away from her but she places her palm against my cheek and refocuses my attention back in her direction.
“Remember, Olivia, you need to be strong.” She taps the area over my heart, looking me in the eyes and says, “You need to be strong in here.” She moves her hand up to my temple and taps it. “And especially in here. Your happiness isn’t determined by where or who you live with. Happiness comes from within, and only you can control that. No one else.”
I squeeze my eyes shut as soon as I feel the tears building. Her arms go around me again, and I melt into her this time. “I’m scared,” I cry into her shirt. “I’m so scared. What if they don’t like me? What if they don’t want to keep me? What if I just keep getting moved from family to family like I have been all year?”
She continues to hug me and strokes my hair. The feel of her hands against my head instantly comforts me. I’ve never felt as secure in my whole life as I do when she strokes her hand across my hair. I wish my mother had been a mother that would do that. I don’t ever remember her touching my hair. If I ever have kids, I’m going to make sure I stroke their hair every single day of their life.
“Oh, Olivia,” she says, squeezing me tighter. Her voice cracks when she says my name, so I instinctively pull back and look up at her. She’s crying, too. I’ve never seen her cry before. Her expression softens and she smiles at me, then pulls out the collar of her own shirt and wipes her tears away. It makes me giggle, seeing her do the very thing that she tells me not to do. When she realizes what she just did, she laughs, too.
“You see?” she says, smiling. “That right there is why I don’t worry about you. You always find the positive in every situation. That right there is why you shouldn’t worry about you, either.” Her eyes narrow and her smile fades. She takes my hands in hers and brings her face down until it’s level with mine. “You have been dealt a very tough hand in life, Ms. Olivia King. A very tough hand. But you know what? Instead of spending the rest of your life complaining about the hand you were dealt, you are the type of person who will spend the rest of your life feeling lucky that you were even dealt a hand. And that, my dear, is what will make you rather than break you.”
Sometimes the things Mrs. Katie says don’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but I try to remember them anyway. For some reason, everything she says seems important, so I always try to repeat her words in the back of my mind.
“I’m going to miss you so much, Olivia. So, so much. But as much as I’ll miss you, I’m not going to worry about you. I know for a fact that you’ll be just fine.” She stands and picks up my suitcase. She holds out her hand, gesturing her head toward the bedroom door, indicating it’s time to leave.
I don’t know why I believe her, but I do. No matter what happens or where I go from here, I’m going to be just fine. I know I will, because Mrs. Katie said so.
Chapter One
Names mean a lot to me, which is strange, considering I don’t even go by my own birth name. No one calls me Olivia anymore, and I’m perfectly okay with that. I’ve been going by Eddie since shortly after I left Mrs. Katie’s, thanks to an early-life crisis. I tried to find Mrs. Katie a couple of years ago to let her know what an impact she’d had on my life, but sadly, she passed away just a few years after I moved out. I’ll never forget the wisdom Mrs. Katie instilled in me, though, which is why I named my own daughter after her.
And now that Layken and Will have had their first child, they’ve done the same by naming her something that means something to both of them. They agreed on Julia, after Layken’s mother. Julia was an incredible woman, so their baby is lucky to be named after her.
She’s two weeks old, but I’ve only seen her twice since they came home from the hospital. Katie has been sick, and Gavin and I didn’t want to pass it on to Layken and Will, so we’ve kept our distance. Tonight is the first night we’ll actually get to spend time with the gang again, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss it. I insisted they come over here for a change and let me and Gavin cook for them, but Layken has something to prove, I guess. She said she wants to cook because it’s been weeks since their kitchen has been used, so I conceded. She’s stubborn and I’ve learned not to argue with her once she gets something in her head.
I open the front door to Will and Layken’s house, but as soon as I step inside, I do a quick double take. This house doesn’t seem like the same house from before two weeks ago. This house looks like a hurricane tore through it.
There’s laundry piled on both couches, there are unopened gift boxes piled in the corner, and the worst part is, both Kel and Caulder are in the kitchen, looking like they’re about to lose their minds. Kel is running a pot from the stove to the sink and Caulder is staring down at his hands in disgust, which are covered in what looks like a thick paste.