Page 2 of Olivia's Only Pretending
I crossed my arms, biting my lip. “Deal.”
“What’s left on the to-do list after this?”
I swallowed. Over the last five months, we’d spent nearly every evening and weekend together, sweaty, dusty, paint on our clothes, laughing hysterically over messy, drawn-up plans going sideways but in the best ways. I loved coming home and finding him and Watson here. I was basically Watson’s co-parent now.
I licked my lips. “Um.” I wasn’t sure what else I could afford after paying for this deck, but I wasn’t ready to let him go. “Maybe …” I squinted into the house.Should I repaint something?I glanced back toward the yard.Maybe …
Working with him had become a sort of addiction. My sister, Lucy, kept asking,How’s the Victor habit going? What new job have you come up with for him today?
Victor broke into my thoughts. “You know we talked about how you need a bookshelf dedicated to all your schoolbooks?” Victor had been teasing me since he caught me unpacking my multiple boxes of textbooks on history, classical antiquity, and languages like Greek and Latin. I’d gotten a PhD in history and classics and refused to let go of any of my books.I pored over those, I’d defended my stacks.Each one holds a different memory. Plus, I still come back to them for different lesson plans.
I’d recently finished my degree while working as a professor at the college where I was completing my program. I’d been Professor Rhodes on campus for years, and it still felt like a happy little shock when I was referred to as Dr. Rhodes.
He'd nodded and told me they needed their own shelf then.
“That’s right,” I said now, the wind rustling through the elm trees lining my backyard. I felt my body relax, knowing that this bought me more time with him. “A shelf for my textbooks.”
“We also need to get you one for all those cartoons,” Victor said, his grin playful. He referred to my romance collection as cartoons because of their animated covers.
“Ah, yes, mycartoons.” I sat down beside him and Watson on the deck.
Victor scooted closer to me, bumping his shoulder against mine. My stomach flooded with warmth.
“So, two new bookshelves?” Victor looked sideways up at me, under his dark lashes. “Oak? Walnut?”
“Walnut,” I said. The temperature was dropping as the sun set. I rubbed my arms. “My sisters are going to want to have our margarita night out here tonight.”
“Aren’t margarita nights usually on Fridays?”
Victor knowing my schedule and routine made my chest squeeze. I’d memorized his, too. Somehow, over the summer, he’d wiggled his way into becoming one of my most important people.
“Yeah, but I’m swamped. The history department’s Fall Seminar Series kicks off this week. And I have a fancy faculty dinner on Thursday and the Fall Festival on Friday, so we had to move margarita night up.”
“Fancy dinners for my fancy baby girl,” he said, messing up my copper hair.
My ponytail was barely hanging on now. I shoved him.
“Not the baby girl thing again,” I groaned playfully. It was a nickname he’d given me just to get under my skin.
“It ain’t going anywhere.” He squeezed my side, making me erupt into laughter.
“Am I interrupting?” Lucy said, apparently having let herself in through the front door. She leaned against the glass door to the porch, with the curtain rippling in the breeze. Her wild red hair was piled atop her head in a messy bun.
“Just interrupting Victor being annoying.” I shrugged.
“Ouch.” Victor grasped his chest.
I tried to ignore how his T-shirt pulled tight across it.
“How can you burn me like that?” Victor said, trying to suppress a grin. The way his whole face lit up when he smiled, even just a small half smile, did something to my heart.
I glanced over to Lucy, shaking my head at Victor’s drama. She simply raised a bottle of tequila in the air, and then a bag of limes.
Mom, Lucy, and I stood in the kitchen on the shiny hardwood floors, blending our margaritas, while my younger sister Gracie’s big blue eyes and strawberry-blonde hair filled up my phone screen, propped up on the kitchen island.
“Lucy, did you tell Adam that he has to come with you to my spring show?” Gracie asked. She was a senior in college, gearing up for her final dance performance.
“Adam? I thought it was going to be agirls-onlytrip.” I scrunched my freckled nose at the phone. Adam was Lucy’s boyfriend and Victor’s boss.
