Page 20 of Naughty by Nature

With a sigh, Cheyenne turned away, vowing that she would teach her girls to react to situations better.

* * *

Olivia waitedat the door until she heard the woman leave, then slipped out to the main room. There was a small fridge in the kitchenette. She retrieved a bottle of water and returned to her bedroom. She picked up the phone and pressed it to her ear as she cracked open the bottle. “I’m back.”

“Who was that?” Hannah asked.

Olivia sighed. How to explain it?

“It’s Ms. Lowell from school.”

“Wait,” Hannah interrupted. “In your house? At your door? Is your dad dating her?”

“No,” Olivia snapped, horrified. “Apparently her ex-husband was in prison and now he’s out but he might be after her so Dad moved her and her three daughters in here so they’d be safe.”

“Oh, okay. Freaked me out for a minute there. I mean, if they’re just there for a little while it won’t be bad, right?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Olivia murmured, taking a swig of water. “It was just weird, though, because I walked in and they were all eating pizza around my mom’s table like they were a family.”

“No, way,” Hannah hissed.

Olivia could imagine the expression on Hannah’s face. Her big gray eyes would be super open and she would be shaking her head.

“That doesn’t seem right,” she finished.

Olivia sighed. No, it didn’t. She was glad she wasn’t the only one to think it was odd.

She looked at the pizza. Maybe she wouldn’t eat it. She’d just leave it on the plate on the counter upstairs.

Her tummy rumbled. No, that was stupid, she decided. Good pizza shouldn’t go to waste.

“Sounds like the set-up for Parent Trap. Remember that movie? Lindsay Lohan was the redhead. That was back before all her llama-drama. But you’ve got four of them to deal with,” Hannah snickered. “Red-heads, I mean, not llamas.”

Olivia tried to swallow the huge bite of pizza in her mouth. “Is that the one where the kids tried to get the parents together? My dad’s too smart for that.”

“Well, you never know. Maybe their mom and your dad can get together and you can all live together happily ever after.”

“Yeah, right. Like that’ll happen.”

After Olivia hung up from Hannah, thoughts of what she’d said started to worry her. Dad had had the hots for Ms. Lowell for a while, now, so the two of them hooking up wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility.

Olivia hadn’t had Ms. Lowell as a teacher, but the kids in school had loved her, and it was obvious her daughters loved her. They hung on her and touched her a lot.

It made Olivia miss her mom. The three of them had been great together. They’d travelled as much as they could and done cool things, and they’d talked about everything.

Her dad used to have this amazing laugh. Big and deep, and hearing it made you smile. It had been a while since she’d heard it.

She’d have to play it by ear. This wasn’t a happy ever after scenario, like Hannah hoped, but if it made her dad happy for a while she’d be okay with it too.

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