Page 97 of Anchor Point

A shuffle behind me brought me back to the present. A blanket landed on the grass next to me, and then Olivia sat. I couldn’t look at her beautiful face anymore, so I stared out over the water.

“Hey. You okay?”

I couldn’t believe she was asking me that. “No, I’m fucking not okay.” The words came out gruff, laced with hurt and anger.

“Mac. Talk to me.”

Good God, would I ever get over hearing her voice? I swallowed thickly, still searching the water, unable to conjure a response.

“Mac, hey.” She dragged my hand off my knee, gripping it with both of hers. I stared at the place we were connected, not understanding how we could fit so well together and still seem so far apart.

“Mac.”

I watched as her hand squeezed mine. Strong, capable hands, with fingers that knew when and how to be delicate. Fingers that were now shaking. Fingers with busted knuckles because she’d fought like a champ. I imagined those knuckles healed, and those fingers decorated with my ring.

Then she pulled my arm aside and slipped over my legs, straddling me. Releasing my hand and cupping my jaw, her thumbs tracing over my cheeks. I closed my eyes because she was just too beautiful to look at when my heart was so raw.

“My sweet man,” she whispered, dropping a soft kiss to my lips. “I love you so much. You have the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever known.”

I swallowed thickly, realizing she was wiping tears from my face, feeling like the biggest fool in the world.

Her arms slipped around my neck as she pulled me close.

Finally, my body responded, my arms wrapping around her. I buried my face in her neck, breathing her in like she alone could sustain me.

“Liv,” I choked out. I didn’t know what I wanted to say—so many things, but none of the right words to say them.

I squeezed her tighter, unable to stop myself from clinging to her. Her head fell to mine, her gentle breath providing the calm that eventually seeped into me.

She shifted, her lips trailing my ear. “Sweetheart,” she whispered. “Tell me what it is. What’s wrong?”

“You can’t—” My voice broke on a sob. Fuck, I couldn’t even say the word.

She squeezed me tighter. Her body shaking against mine. Was this unbearable pain something we shared?

Her breasts rose on an inhale. “You think—” She paused before continuing, “Of course it is. You thought it meant that I wanted to leave.” Her palm skimmed my face, and she pressed a kiss to my forehead like the fucking child I was. “Mac, I’m so sorry. It’s killing me to see you so upset.”

I pulled back, the need to see her eyes urgent. “You’re not going anywhere,” I declared. “We’ll figure it out.”

Something slipped through her eyes as she leaned in to kiss me. “Come on back to the house. Rosie is worried.”

I let her pull me to my feet and walked arm in arm with her back to the house. Rosie had set the table and prepared supper and was oddly quiet. Buster lay at her feet.

Under her watchful eye, I forced myself to eat her meal, having to chew each bite twice to get it to go down. But I couldn’t get the image of the three of them driving away out of my head. Because I knew that if they did leave, I’d send Buster with Rosie.

We watched a little TV and spent a quiet night with the three of us snuggled on the couch, one under each arm, stretched out with our feet kicked out in a line on the ottoman. I couldn’t quite make it past the two smaller sock-clad feet flanking mine to pay attention to whatever show they’d picked.

My mind spun the whole time.

When we went to bed, Olivia made love to me gently, sweetly. My heart decided it was another goodbye.

We dressed, me in my sleep pants that she loved so much, her in her silky nightgown. When she curled up next to me, pressing her back to my front, I held her tightly in my arms and lay there listening to the sounds of her deep breathing, sifting my fingers across the soft fabric of her nightgown as she drifted off to sleep.

The glow of the moon lit the bedroom enough for me to tell when the door opened quietly. Rosie peeked around the doorway. I lifted my head to let her know I was awake.

She padded closer, fidgeting.

Without a word, I rolled to my back and lifted an arm out to her. She curled up, head on my shoulder, her body giving a soft shudder every once in a while.

---