Page 46 of Cocky M.D.
Damn.I never should have listened to my parents about childcare. I hadn’t known what to do, but I always knew my life was shallow. I hadn’t had a window to another life until Olivia came. “I’ll try to do better.”
“Whatever.”
The next day, I would have to plan something better than a wedding. I owed him more time and attention.
For the moment, I followed his orders and left. Somehow, I would make things right with him. Something whispered inside me that he’d been right.
If I went to Olivia, she would close the door on me forever. I’d humiliated her, and she deserved better. I knew better than to go and just say, “I’m sorry.”
In my bedroom, the adjoining doors, which I’d ignored since we moved in, called to me. Part of me hoped she was still there, but when I opened the door, the room was quiet and empty.
I called for the staff. When the maid came, I told her, “Please pack up Olivia’s things to be delivered as she requested.”
“Very well, sir,” she said, and I closed the door.
It was better that we were over, though I wished I felt better about what had happened. But it was better to shatter delusions of love, as those could never be real.
Chapter Seventeen
Olivia
Drivingup to Georgie’s house seemed surreal. A year ago, I’d visited her once a week for dinner, but she’d moved across the country to be with her husband. The last time I’d seen my sisters was at Nicole’s wedding. My nerves were shot, and it wasn’t a happy moment for me.
Once again, I was the one that didn’t live up to all they’d done. They were all driving luxury rental cars and had changed their entire lives. Even Stephanie had up and moved away, yet the house was where we had all grown up.
Change was sometimes good, though, and I was the only one still with the same car and living near a home that no one lived in.
I locked my car and knocked on the front door. Georgie waved me in, and I found only my sisters, no husbands or children. Ridley poured me a glass of wine and waved for me to join them at the table.
When we were girls, that very table was where we’d sat and listened to our parents. We’d all signed our share of their house over to Georgie, as she’d been pregnant and alone at the time. She’d recently moved to Tulsa, and I’d intended to rent the house from her once my lease ended. I would probably have held back, though, as I would feel lonely there all by myself, or so I feared. Georgie had been different. When she’d lived there, she’d made it more her home for her son, until she’d moved on.
I took my wine and sat next to Ridley, who’d moved and now had a nice tan from living in Texas.
“So what happened?” she asked.
I took a sip and saw five sets of eyes staring at me. I put the white wine down and stared at it as I said, “He didn’t love me. I can’t marry a guy who doesn’t care about me.”
Indigo looked at my hand and said, “Wait. What? That ring is gorgeous.”
I put my hand under the table. My face and hands tingled. “I have to send it back. I forgot to take it off when I stormed out.”
Stephanie leaned forward and said, “You could sell it and have the down payment for a new place.”
Of course the two accountants in the family equated dollars with love. I sipped my wine and continued staring at my drink. “You know I can’t do that. It’s not honest.”
Georgie put popcorn bowls in front of us, and I reached in like I was still a girl there for movie night. “So can you tell us what happened?” she asked.
I finished my handful of popcorn and shifted in my seat. Then I looked up and said, “Yeah. It was a huge mistake. I went to pick out a wedding dress where he’d told me to, and the clerk told me she had no payment on file for me. I’d never have gone there on my own, and I didn’t want to call any of you. I figured out he was testing me about money and confronted him.”
Indigo asked, “You told him you saw through him?”
My face heated. “Yeah.”
Georgie said, “Good.”
I brightened for a second then realized I missed him still. “I guess.”
Ridley patted my back and said, “You guess, because you love him?”
