Page 96 of Love for a Lifetime

He settled onto his side, and she turned to face him. Pulling her knees to her chest, she bunched the blanket in her fists and tucked it under her chin.

Dawson gently skimmed the pad of his thumb over her temple before rubbing over her hair. The touch forced her eyes to close, and any willpower she had to open them again dissipated.

Dawson started talking, but the words were barely more than a whisper. She wasn’t sure when he stopped, but the next time she opened her eyes, the morning sun streaked through the windows, filling the small cabin.

She lay on her other side facing the room and blinked until her eyes adjusted to the light. The pounding in her head was gone. The air mattress was inflated on the floor beside the bed, but the blankets were neatly folded on top of it.

“You okay, Liv?” Lauren asked softly.

Olivia rolled over to where her friend lay in the spot where Dawson had been the night before.

“I’m much better.” She stretched her arms above her head and yawned. “What time is it?”

“Barely daylight. Maddie got up about half an hour ago.”

Olivia searched the room, but there was no sign of Dawson. When had he left? How long had he laid beside her?

His sweetness from the night before had more than butterflies fluttering in her middle. He’d carried her to bed and given her everything she needed to wait out the storm of a migraine.

She loved helping others. Working for her community fed her soul and filled her cup, but she wasn’t usually the one on the receiving end of the kindness.

Did anyone appreciate it when she helped them out like this? Gratefulness swelled inside her and pushed against the walls of her chest until she was afraid she’d burst open.

“Liv? What’s wrong?”

Moisture stung behind Olivia’s eyes, and she covered her trembling chin with her hand.

Lauren rubbed Olivia’s shoulder. “What do you need?”

“Just…Thank you.”

Lauren chuckled. “I just got you some water.”

“And Dawson?”

Smiling, Lauren propped her arm up and rested her head on her hand. “He stayed with you a while. We switched places when it was time for bed.”

Olivia swallowed, getting a grip on her raging emotions. “You think he’s awake yet?”

“Yep. He texted me for an update on you about five minutes ago.”

Olivia rubbed her eyes, trying to brush away the last of the deep sleep. “I’ll go find him.”

“He’s a good one, you know,” Lauren said. “He cares about you so much.”

“I care about him too. We’re just…It’s all really new.”

Lauren nodded. “And there’s Anna.”

Anna’s feelings for Dawson weren’t exactly a secret within their friend group. There’d always been an unspoken rule not to mention it to him or their guy friends, but it was obvious Anna wanted Dawson to notice her.

Olivia fidgeted with the hem of the blanket. “I don’t know how to tell her. Or what to tell her. Where do I start?”

“I wish I could tell you it’ll be easy to just share the truth, but I don’t think it’ll go over well. At least not at first. Anna is a little blind with a crush.”

“It’s not a crush,” Olivia corrected.

“It is a crush. Anna might not agree right now, but it’s not love. You and Dawson are complements. You understand each other. You work well together. There are dozens of reasons why you two make a better pair than Dawson and Anna. She’s stuck in a fantasy that she’s created. It isn’t real.”

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