Page 738 of Not Over You

“I guess I better get started,” I teased. Standing, I walked over to her chair and pulled her up. “Olivia Lewis, you’re it for me. Always have been, always will be.”

Her cheeks flushed pink as she darted her eyes from mine, then back. I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as I leaned down and kissed her.

God, I missed her lips. Kissing her again after the weeks we’d been apart was like rain after a drought.

When we pulled apart, she buried her face in my chest. “I feel so stupid. I’m sorry.”

I cupped her face, lifting it back up so that she’d look at me. “We can’t change the past. Right now, we have to focus on the future. Our daughter needs us now more than ever, and I need to know that we’re in this together. No more running.”

* * *

“No more running. Even though I left, I still came back to visit her. I arranged for every other week with Tim and Emily before …”

She didn’t finish the sentence. I nodded my understanding, knowing what she meant and that she didn’t want to say the tragic words out loud.

I rubbed her back as we both looked over at our daughter. “What comes next?”

Liv sighed. “I don’t know. I haven’t really had time to process everything yet.”

“Are you planning on going back to Charlotte?” I asked, hoping that Piper’s accident changed her mind about things; about us.

“Yes. I’ll have to in order to get everything situated.”

My brow furrowed. I didn’t want her to leave, afraid she’d run again. “For how long?”

“I’m not sure. My mind is all over the place right now. I don’t even know where to begin.” She sighed, taking a step back and sitting down in the chair.

I didn’t want to overwhelm her more, so I didn’t press her further. I kneeled in front of her and placed my hands over hers. “We’ll get through this, Liv. Together.”

The next couple of weeks were a whirlwind. Liv stayed in Beaufort, using some of her vacation time so that she could stay with Piper in the hospital as she recovered, then at my place once she’d been discharged. We’d gone to a couple of hearings concerning Piper’s case since the accident, and things were looking in our favor.

When I came home from work one day, Liv was browsing on her laptop next to Piper’s bed as Piper napped.

“Hey,” I greeted as I entered.

Liv’s face lit up with a smile. “Hi.”

I gestured to the laptop. “What are you up to?”

Her eyes went back to the screen. “Looking for a job.”

I sat down next to her, raising my eyebrows in intrigue. “Oh, really?”

She nodded. We hadn’t really discussed what came next for our relationship; we’d focused on Piper, hospital paperwork, and trying to get her belongings from her house to really sit down and hash out everything between us. “With everything that’s happened, I decided it would be best to move back here.”

I grinned, trying not to get my hopes up, but failing. “Are you serious?”

Liv shut the laptop and placed it on the table. “Of course. Piper needs me.” She glanced over at our daughter, smiling softly. “And I need her.”

That thrilled me because I needed both of them. Out of the tragedy of the accident came a gift I wasn’t sure I deserved, but I wasn’t going to take it for granted. “And what about your job?”

She shrugged. “I haven’t quite figured that out yet, but I have a bunch of vacation time saved up. I’ll keep using that while I look for a job here. I’m going to apply at the Coastal Reserve.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “And what about us?”

Her cheeks flared with heat. She darted her eyes away, then back as she cleared her throat. “Well, I was hoping that we could pick back up where we left off and be the family that Piper needs.”

I didn’t think I could possibly smile wider, but I did. I felt like we’d been in limbo since the accident. My chest tightened as emotion welled up inside me. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to hear you say that.”

---