Page 32 of The Playboy's Most Unexpected Baby

“Oh — you don’t need to waste it on me.”

“I already opened it,” he told her. “You might as well drink it now. And besides, it’s not being wasted. I figured I’d open it when something exciting happened, and we’re there. We got the light switches replaced and two whole rooms painted. This seems like a huge moment to me.”

“Well, if you say the time is right, who am I to argue?” She took a sip of the wine. “This is really good.”

“It’s my favorite. This vineyard is out in California. Maybe I’ll take you sometime.”

“To California?”

“We might find time for that,” he said. “We have a few months together before we’re able to list the house, and after that, who knows how long it will take to sell? We might have time to take a trip out west together.”

“Well, maybe so,” Olivia agreed.

“Would you be willing to go with me?”

“Willing, yes, but I don’t know if it would be very practical.”

“Because of your family?”

“Someone has to look after Izzy. Get her to school and back, be there for her in case she needs anything…”

“I don’t understand,” Charlie admitted. “I would have thought your mother could do that sort of thing. You’re a very good sister, Olivia, but you’re not Izzy’s mother — and yet you act like you are. You act as if you feel fully responsible for her, as if everything she needs is your responsibility.”

“It is that way,” Olivia said. “In a lot of ways, I raised Izzy, and I do still feel responsible for her.”

“But why? I know you lost your father, and that had to be hard. But you still have your mother. Isn’t she involved?”

“Of course she is,” Olivia said. “Mom’s great. I don’t know what we’d do without her. But at the same time, it’s hard.”

“What do you mean?”

“Being a single parent is tough,” Olivia said. “She’s had to raise the two of us on her own, with no help. I helped as much as I could, of course, and that’s a big part of why I feel so responsible for Izzy. But there’s also the financial side of things.”

“The financial side?”

“Izzy doesn’t just need someone to pick her up from school. She talks about going to college, and we want that for her, of course — we want it to look just like she dreams it will, even if I hate the idea of her going away to California. But that’s going to be tough to afford.”

“Oh,” Charlie said. “I didn’t think about that.” He was quiet for a moment. “This is what you meant, isn’t it? About me never thinking about things that don’t affect me? I never considered how my education was going to be paid for because it wasn’t an issue for me.”

“I don’t fault you for that,” Olivia said. “It makes sense that it isn’t top of mind for you. But wehaveto think about it. We think about that all the time, and a hundred other monetary things as well.”

“What about you? You must have gone to college.”

Olivia raised her eyebrows. “Must I?”

“I guess I just… assumed.”

She smiled. “I’m giving you a hard time,” she said. “You’re right. I did go to college. But it wasn’t like what Izzy is talking about. I needed to be around because Mom works nights. Izzy can be on her own at night now, she’s old enough, but when I was in school she was just a little kid, and we didn’t want to leave her alone. So I lived at home and took classes at the community college. I probably would have had to do that anyway, because there was no chance of Mom sending me away, even to a state school, on the money she earns. The only reason we can even have the conversation for Izzy is because now we have my income too. But Mom still has to work two jobs to keep the family afloat.”

Charlie was beginning to understand. “That’s why you want to sell this house so badly, isn’t it?”

“It would change everything,” Olivia said quietly. “Even the twenty percent you promised me would turn our lives around. Mom would be able to quit her night job — I can’t tell you what a difference that would make. She works herself to the bone right now. She would be able to get her social life back, get a full night’s sleep… it would be everything. And Izzy could go to school anywhere she wanted. We probably wouldn’t even have to take out student loans.”

“I didn’t realize this was so important for you,” Charlie admitted. “I guess I thought you just wanted to advance your career by putting the sale of this place on your resume.”

“Well, don’t get me wrong,” Olivia said with a smile. “I want that too. It’ll definitely have a great impact on my future opportunities. But that’s not the main reason I have for doing this, and I’d want to do it even if no one could ever know I had been involved. I want to provide for my family. I want my sister to have a carefree college experience — not like my own.”

“Was your college experience bad?”

---