Page 58 of Moonlight Feels Right
"I don't know, but things will change." The pretend family life she'd been living with Hunter and Olivia was going to end, and she would miss that.
On the other hand, she and Hunter would no longer have a six-year-old chaperone within earshot…so things might get interesting in a different way.
"Still as spartan as ever when it comes to decorating," Bree commented as she gazed around Hunter's apartment, which was actually far more cluttered than it usually was because Olivia had been accumulating more stuff by the day and most of it was spread around his living room.
"Mommy, come see my bedroom!" Olivia tugged her mother's hand, pulling her toward the bedroom. "Hunter got me unicorn sheets, and he put all my drawings on the wall!"
Bree followed her daughter into his bedroom, and he could hear Olivia telling her everything as fast as she could. It was almost as if Olivia wasn't sure her mom would stay long enough to hear all her stories, so she had to get them out fast. He hoped that wasn't the case, because Olivia needed to be with Bree.
He walked toward the bedroom, hovering in the doorway as Olivia showed her mother her family picture, saying that Daddy was looking down from heaven on all of them.
He could see the emotion in Bree's eyes when she realized she was in the picture with Hunter and a woman she'd just met. She shot him a look. "Who exactly is Emmalyn?"
"She's a friend."
"Emmalyn is so nice," Olivia added. "She made pancakes for me just like yours."
Bree gave him another questioning glance, then turned back to Olivia. "Pancakes? Does Emmalyn stay over?"
"She lives upstairs," Olivia said, then grabbed her mom's hand and pulled her back to the bed. "I named my monkey Captain Bananas, after Daddy."
"After Daddy?" Bree asked in confusion.
"Because of the monkey Daddy made friends with," Olivia explained. "Hunter told me all about him."
"Okay," Bree said. "I don't think I heard that story."
"Hunter could tell it to you."
"Why don't you give your mom a chance to catch her breath?" he said. "It's almost bedtime. Get in your PJs and brush your teeth, and then you and your mom can talk before you go to sleep."
"You're not going to leave, are you, Mommy?" Olivia asked, worry in her eyes, as if she was afraid that if she took her gaze off her mother, she would disappear.
"No, I'll be here after you change," Bree said.
Olivia looked relieved, but he didn't like Bree's answer. She should have said she wasn't going anywhere ever again.
They walked into the living room as Olivia went into the bathroom.
"Is Emmalyn your girlfriend?" Bree asked.
His jaw dropped. "Seriously? That's the first thing you want to ask me?"
"She seems to be very close to Olivia."
"She's been helping me out since you dropped Olivia off and disappeared more than a week ago. You shouldn't have done that, Bree. It wasn't fair to Olivia."
"You mean it wasn't fair to you."
He shook his head at her hard words. "No. This isn't about me. I can take whatever you want to dish out. I know you're angry and in pain, and I'm in the middle of that. But Olivia was confused when you left her with me. And you should have returned my calls. I had to take her to a new school. I had to get her a backpack and a lunchbox. How could you just leave her without any information or instructions?"
"I'm sorry. I was overwhelmed and panicked. I thought I left you a list, but I wasn't thinking clearly. I just had to be by myself for a little while. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't function. I was falling apart, and I had no one else to leave Olivia with. I knew you would take care of her."
"How are you feeling now?"
"Better. I found a new therapist, and I've spent the last week talking to her a lot. I've been writing in a journal and trying to actually sleep at night and just breathe." She paused. "I know you think I'm selfish, that I abandoned Liv, but I knew I wasn't right in the head, and I just had to take time for myself. I never had a chance to grieve Gary because Olivia needed me so much, and then my parents started falling apart, and I felt really lost and also pissed off at the situation I was in. Gary wasn't supposed to leave me alone. He always promised he'd come back, and I know it's not his fault, but I've had trouble accepting what happened."
He could relate to that. "I've had trouble, too." His heart went out to her as he saw the genuine anguish in her eyes. "I should have saved him."
