Page 30 of Hold My Heart

Renee clutched the neck of Olympia’s sweater and she struggled to focus on the bleary-eyed man. Besides the bump, he looked all right. “Are you okay?”

“I came in to get my paycheck andshesaid they weren’t done yet. Got in my face.” Paolo belched and she could tell he’d been drinking. Maybe that was the issue. “I need that money. My ex-wife...she says she needs it. For clothes. For food. I have to give it to her.”

Olympia turned to stare up at Ashleigh for a moment, making no move to hide her disdain, before flipping her attention back to Paolo. He looked like a man on the edge and when he breathed she could make out the sour stench of old liquor. He was having one of his moments again, where he went on an all-night binge and blamed his problems on his ex-wife. Olympia was usually there to talk him down off the ledge and deal with him. But she hadn’t been there for him today.

“Checks won’t be cut until Monday morning, you know that,” she said softly. “Why didn’t you just call me if there was a problem? You have my number.”

Paolo hiccupped.

“You’re taking his side?” Ashleigh asked, astonishment in her tone. Her hands were on her hips, and Olympia was reminded of a teenage drama queen from her high school days. “He came in heredemandingto be paid. He wasn’t supposed to be here today, and when he refused to take no for an answer he tried to attack Mrs. Palmer!”

“I didn’t attack her. She got up in my face too.” Paolo bobbed his head and pulled from his jacket what looked like a bottle of water. Olympia suspected there was something else inside. “I need my check because she’s buying new clothes for the kids and doesn’t have enough. It’simportant.”

“And if you keep carrying on like this you’re going to make yourself sick.” Olympia reached out through the crack in the door with her free hand and took the bottle from him. “Come on. Let’s get you out of there. I’ll write your check a day early, but don’t get any ideas. You can’t cash it until tomorrow morning.”

The rest of the crowd backed up when Olympia struggled to her feet and then helped Paolo to his.Good. Let them run away like scared little ducks, she thought nastily.

It might be the exhaustion talking.

There was little doubt in her mind Carl would fire Paolo after this. He’d been given multiple warnings about his drinking problems. Olympia wouldn’t always be there to cover for him, but she did the best she could because, alcohol and problematic ex-wife notwithstanding, she knew him to be a responsible man who believed in the value of putting in a hard day’s work.

They went into her office and she balanced Renee in her lap as she sat at her desk and wrote out a check for him by hand. Ashleigh watched from the doorway as though she were afraid to be in the same room. She later claimed she had held back because of a headache. Olympia attributed the attitude to something more permanent. A stick shoved far up the girl’s rear, maybe.

She’d say this for Paolo—he was a brave man. She knew if given the chance he would be back to work Monday night. She wondered if there was some way to spin this incident off as the product of a few overactive imaginations trying to push the worst possible scenario.

The moment Paolo was out the door, Ashleigh opened her mouth, nose in the air. “I cannot believe you’ve let him stay so long. You saw how he acted. He put everyone in danger.”

“He’s no more danger to you than I am.” Olympia stood, adjusted Renee to her hip, suddenly feeling exhausted, her arms shaking. This wasn’t how she’d planned her day to go, especially considering the marathon sex she’d had last night slash early this morning. The harder Renee clung to her, the more she wanted to run out the door and never come back. Her office felt smaller. More confined. Less like a paradise and more like a prison.

The gallery used to give her such pleasure. She’d thrown herself into the work after Dan died, and as it was her only solace, she hadn’t minded one bit. Now everything rubbed her the wrong way. In the span of a month, she’d gone from wanting a promotion, wanting more money, wanting more responsibility, to feeling like it no longer fit. Feeling like there were more important things out there than working herself to death.

With Ashleigh staring her down from the doorway, Olympia began to reconsider her priorities.

Then all hell broke loose.

Harlan strode down the hall, catching a glimpse of her through the door and reversing immediately. His hair was in disarray, his shirt buttoned wrong where he’d managed to skip one in his haste, and to her he’d never looked more attractive. There were two bright red marks on his cheeks. Probably from getting worked up.

“I was worried! I didn’t know where you were!” he burst out. “I went by the house to check on you and you were both gone. I mean, I figured if Renee was worse you had to have gone to the emergency room, and if that wasn’t it then you must have come here, but for a while I was out of my mind.”

He sent a hasty nod to Ashleigh before excusing himself and slipping past her. She stared open-mouthed.

“She shouldn’t be out of bed.” He held his hands out for Renee, who, upon realizing who it was, reached for him.

Olympia happily handed the baby over and was glad to give her arms a break. Parenting, as she was coming to find out, was not a single player sport. “I know. I’m sorry.” Then, unsure why she was apologizing, she fixed him with a look. “I don’t need you checking on me.”

“I’m not checking on you. I’m checking onher. I had brought a hot lunch and now it’s going to be cold.” He traced circles along Renee’s back, the universal “feel better” pattern. “You not feeling well, little girl? Poor thing.”

“Olympia, I’m not sure you’ve introduced me to your friend here.”

Jeez. She’d forgotten all about her assistant.

Ashleigh was oozing smile, all charm and grace. Suddenly she wasn’t just Olympia’s annoying underling. She was a very pretty blond woman in a red striped dress that clung to her figure like a sausage casing. Young. Vibrant. On the prowl. Single?

Her hips worked overtime and she might as well have held a sign up over her head that she wanted Harlan. It would have been a subtler way to get her point across. Subtler than the way she licked her lips like she wanted to eat him.

Olympia tried to stop her teeth from grinding together until they resembled powdered sugar. “This is my nanny...manny...er, babysitter, Harlan Anderson. Harlan, my assistant, Ashleigh Schweitzer.” She said the last bit with enough sickening sweet charm to down a rampaging rhinoceros.

Harlan didn’t care. He nodded, shifting Renee away from Olympia and cuddling her close.

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