Page 102 of To Bring You Back
The post could be another game, another bid for attention.
But he’d missed so many signs with Fitz, and he couldn’t afford to do that again.
Everything was already falling apart. The band. Adeline. He couldn’t allow any other disasters.
The clothes Harperhad bought for Adeline still hung in the little room off the main living area. Adeline sorted through them while Olivia huddled in the doorway, arms folded over herself.
“You don’t have to call my dad, do you?” Tears smeared her black eyeliner.
Adeline found a slouchy cardigan that would cover Olivia from neck to midthigh and slipped it from the hanger. Gannon had said he’d find a ride for the teen, so Adeline didn’t plan to call Joe. Better to break the news after he had her back safe and sound. “Were you really in a bar?”
“Well.” Olivia clamped her mouth shut and exhaled through her nose. “It’s not like, you know, we … It was a special occasion. Not everybody gets to live here with them. How else was I supposed to meet him?”
“Matt? I thought you liked Gannon.”
Olivia shifted. “He’s into you, and John hardly leaves the property, so Matt seemed like the best bet.”
Adeline held out the sweater. “Was he worth meeting at that cost? That guy who was with you was trouble.”
He should’ve been suspicious of her age, regardless of where they’d met. Even if he’d believed her to be at least eighteen, Olivia had tried to push him off, yet he’d persisted.
“The drinking, the drugs?”
“I didn’t do any drugs.” Olivia pulled on the sweater, and the scent of cigarette smoke wafted off her before she folded the cardigan shut over her cropped tank.
“What if Gannon and I hadn’t come in when we did?”
Olivia shrugged. “I was just hanging out.”
“You were drinking, and you were in danger.” Adeline’s stomach churned. Given even just a few more minutes, the guy may have managed to separate Olivia from the group. And then what?
Lord, is that why I wasn’t supposed to kiss Gannon?
If only.
The peace she didn’t feel about Gannon was over something else.
“I was cool for once.” Olivia’s mouth trembled, and her nostrils flared. In her big, sad eyes, Adeline recognized the girl who’d squealed over meeting the cat her family had adopted earlier in the summer. The wide-eyed innocence was so incongruent with the outfit under that sweater, with bars and partying and Matt.
“I’ve always thought you were cool. You don’t need any of this.” Adeline guided her to a chair at the desk. She rubbed the girl’s shoulder, thin and angular even under the sweater, until the door swung open.
Gannon stood in the doorway long enough to motion Adeline to join him in the great room.
As she did, she pulled the door shut behind her, closing Olivia in the office.
“Tim’s getting her a ride home, but I’d like someone she knows and trusts with her until she’s dropped off.”
Adeline nodded, accepting the assignment.
“Harper’s out somewhere. I’m worried she’s in danger, so I’m going to help them look.”
“Danger?”
His mouth settled in a grim line, but he didn’t elaborate.
“Okay.” She pressed her hands into her pockets. She’d rather go with Gannon—to be close to him, to see that nothing happened between him and Harper. But Adeline had insisted on being friends, leaving him free to pursue the actress in whatever sense he wanted to.
Gannon set off for the garage, and she returned to Olivia.
