Page 120 of Love for a Lifetime

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DAWSON

Dawson stared blankly at the TV screen as Bugs Bunny tricked Elmer Fudd into thinking he’d missed rabbit season. Looney Tunes was usually a surefire way to lighten Dawson’s mood, but the cartoons failed to take his mind off Olivia.

He checked his watch and stared at his front door. She was going to try to talk to Anna again today. Was it a good sign or a bad sign that he hadn’t heard from her yet?

Half an hour. He’d give her half an hour before he called to check on her. Maybe she hadn’t showed up yet because she and Anna were having a long talk and patching things up.

Fat chance. Anna hadn’t answered Olivia’s calls or texts all week, and knocking on her door hadn’t gotten her an invitation inside either.

All of Olivia’s and his good intentions blew up like an ACME bomb when Anna caught them at the farm. He’d known the second he laid eyes on her that she was hurt.

Olivia hadn’t fared well either. She’d barely eaten or slept, and the only thing she could think about was Anna.

Dawson muted the TV and turned his recliner to face the door. Crossing his arms over his chest, he settled in to stare at the space where he desperately needed Olivia to appear.

Intermittent glances at the TV told him half an hour had passed, and he unlocked his phone and called Olivia.

“I’m almost there,” she said in answer.

Her voice gave nothing away other than she wasn’t crying.

At the moment.

“I love you.” His constant reminder had done little to cheer Olivia up lately, but he wouldn’t give up.

“I love you too.”

Less than five minutes later, her engine rumbled outside, sending Dawson to his feet.

He met her on the porch and held the door open for her. She walked through it without lifting her chin from where it sat on her chest.

Well, that was as much of an answer as he needed.

“How’d it go?” he asked as he closed the door behind him.

Olivia looked up wide-eyed as if she’d just realized he was there. “I’m sorry.” She slid her arms around him and tilted her chin up to press a kiss to his lips. It ended all too soon as she stretched the fakest smile he’d ever seen and asked, “How was your day?”

“Peachy. How was yours?”

She tilted her head from side to side. “Could’a been better.”

Dawson brushed a hair from her face before letting his thumb trail down and over the darkness under her eyes. He hated those shadows. “How’d it go with Anna?”

“Not great. She said she didn’t want to talk about it yet.”

“Yet? That’s a new word. Is that hope I hear?”

Olivia let her forehead rest on his chest. “I don’t know. All I know is I can’t keep doing this to her.”

“Doing what to her? You didn’t do anything wrong. We were going to tell her. She just found out first. We didn’t even know she was back in town.”

“The way she saw us together.” Olivia huffed and shook her head. “She must be so mad at me.”

Dawson tilted her chin up. “Once again, we intended to tell her. We can’t help our feelings. Even if you and I weren’t together, I wouldn’t be with Anna. She’s nice, but we have nothing in common.”

“Oh, like the dozens of things we have in common,” Olivia muttered.

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