Page 23 of Last Chance Christmas
Nicola reached forward and squeezed his shoulder. “She’ll be just fine once she gets home. You should come in…have a drink with us. I’m sure Olivia will want to rest, but we can grill some steaks and get to know each other.”
Izan didn’t reply right away. He needed to think so he didn’t insult her or make a promise he would regret. “I’m probably as tired as Olivia since I worked last night. With everything that happened today, I didn’t have a chance to rest myself.”
Olivia picked up right where he left off. “Sounds like we all need an early night. After all, I might be on medical leave for a couple of days, but there are dangerous men out there that need to be found. There has to be something I can do to help.”
“Sounds exciting,” Nicola said. “Maybe I’ll call the girls and we’ll go out searching. Find us a dangerous man.”
Olivia let out an exasperated sound. “Leave it to the police. You could get hurt.”
Izan pulled onto their street. The apartment complex was at the end, the same one where he’d nearly been blown up a few weeks ago. Amelia had dragged him out, then gone back for Zoe. Seemed like forever ago, but it wasn’t that long. He’d had no idea at the time that it was where Olivia lived with her mother.
Olivia told him where to park, sounding exhausted but grateful. He wanted to offer to carry her inside, but her mom would probably request the same treatment. She’d been doing things like that since she’d shown up, but Izan tried to treat her like any civilian at a fire scene. Respectful, polite, and aloof—because he had a job to do.
He came around and opened the door for Olivia, holding out his hand. She took his hand and straightened out of the car. He heard a whispered “Thanks.”
“Anytime.”
Having a second they could whisper to each other made him want to do it more. A lot more.
But her mother came over and broke the moment. “Izan!” She flung her arms around him, catching Olivia up in the hug as well. Pressing them both against him. “Hate to love you and leave you, but this one needs to get to bed.”
She wound her arm through Olivia’s and tugged her away, taking the car keys with her. “Don’t be a stranger.”
Yeah, not having her drive had been a good call. He wondered if Olivia had ever called a unit to pull over her mom for a DUI. Given how much it had taken for her to tell him about her mother, he figured she likely hadn’t. Or she’d done it anonymously so no one knew it was Olivia who had called cops on her mom.
His sister pulled into the complex.
Izan slid into the passenger seat and, before he’d even buckled his seat belt, said, “Why does she still live with her?”
Ainsley twisted around to look at him. “Want to start at the beginning with that one?”
“Sorry.” He ran both hands down his face and gave her the abbreviated version of what Olivia had told him about growing up with Nicola as a mother. “She’s been neglected her whole life, always taking care of herself. Now she’s an adult. She’s a cop. Why does she still live with her mother?”
Ainsley pulled out of the complex. “Codependency?”
Izan didn’t want to think of it like that.
“Olivia figures her mom will be safe if she’s there to take care of her. Plus, she feels a little responsible for her.”
“So it’s about protecting her mom from herself and protecting everyone else from her?”
“Isn’t that what you do? Protect the town from fire. Save lives with your medical skills,” Ainsley said. “We all deal in our own way with where we’ve come from.”
“I said something similar to her,” Izan said. “But that was before I knew she still lives with her mother.”
“Is it a deal-breaker?”
He didn’t know the answer to that.
Ainsley said, “You’re tangled up with a cartel. Maybe that’s a deal-breaker for her.”
“I’m not tangled up?—”
She cut him off. “I know that, but I’m making a point. You have things you don’t want people to know about who you are and where you came from. You’ve never brought anyone home to meet your family. Maybe she’s just doing the exact same thing. Keeping her personal life private because she doesn’t want to be judged. Or she was judged so many times, she keeps it on the down-low these days.”
“If she’d agreed to go out with me, we could’ve talked through all these things.”
“Would you have brought up the Sosas?”
