Olivia sat up and frowned at her grandmother. “There’s nothing to get better, Grandma. I lost him a million dollars. Not to mention, he cheated on me.”
“I don’t believe that for a second,” Ruby said with a cluck of her tongue. “You of all people should know how a tabloid photo can be manipulated, Olivia.”
The conviction in her grandmother’s words caught Olivia off guard, as did the reference to their family history. Through the potent fear of succumbing to her parents’ fate, she’d only drawn parallels to the pain of being gossiped about in the press. Until this moment, she had not seen the similarity her grandmother had pointed out. That the infamous photo of her and her parents that initiated the scandal had been packaged in lies to fit the narrative. The truth behind it, she now knew, was something else entirely. The same could have been true about the photos of Chuck.
She didn’t know what to say, so instead, she sat there with a complicated well of remorse roiling inside her.
Ruby reached for her hand and squeezed it. “Olivia, I don’t mean to discount your feelings; the situation is upsetting for many reasons. But is it possible you are interpreting it as something it’s not because it will build another wall around your tender heart?”
Olivia blinked and suddenly felt naked. She glanced at Mansi, who gave her a knowing nod like she agreed with Ruby. “What?” she asked in surprise.
Ruby took a deep breath and came back in a gentle tone. “Olivia, I did my absolute best to raise you with all the love and care that you deserved, but I knew from the start that I would never replace your parents. You were going to have a hole in your heart no matter what. I wish I could have filled it for you—and I hoped from the time you were a little girl that you would someday find a way to fill it yourself. But as I watched you grow up, I saw you learn to protect it, to shield it instead of trying to fill it. And I can’t blame you for that; no one can. When you live with pain, you do everything you can to protect yourself from more pain, even if you don’t realize you’re doing it.” Her voice pinched up with tears, and Olivia felt her own throat constrict. “You’ve been protecting yourself with Chuck. Preventing yourself fromtrulyallowing yourself to have feelings for him because you don’t want to get hurt. I’ve been around long enough to know that what couples argue over is never really what they are fighting about. Missing a dinner date? Not doing the dishes? Drinking the last of the coffee? Those are scabs to pick at because they are convenient and easy. You and Chuck use them as an excuse to keep your distance. With the way that boy looks at you, and the way you look at him—don’t think I don’t notice—I can guarantee you’ll like what you find when you let each other all the way in.”
Olivia was too stunned to respond. It was perhaps the most personal conversation she’d ever had with her grandmother, and Ruby was pulling no punches.
“These photos are another opportunity to push him away,” Ruby said. “I struggle to believe he would ever betray you like this. Theremustbe an explanation, and I think you owe it to him, and yourself, to hear it.”
That reality weighed heavily. If there truly was more to thestory, there was only one way to find out. She thought back to the desperate plea on Chuck’s face the last time she’d seen him. In that anguished moment before she’d ruined everything when he’d given her a look pained in more ways than one. She knew him well enough to trust there was something beyond the situation’s surface.
“I agree,” Mansi said astutely. “I think you should hear him out. There are obviously things he hasn’t told you, and Ruby’s right that you have to actually talk to him to find out what they are.” Mansi was never one to let emotion run over logic, so Olivia trusted her judgment that there was more worth considering. “Also,” Mansi added, “I hate to tell you, but she’s right on the other front too. Your track record with Chuck suggests that you want to fightforhim more than with him.”
“Of course she does,” Ruby said. “Love is always worth fighting for.”
Love.The word sent tingles prickling Olivia’s skin and hollowed out her belly only to fill it with a floating feeling. It was something she and Chuck had never said to each other. In all their months of dating—all the lust, the passion, the fighting, the making up—the feeling that neither of them would name hummed at a frequency they chose not to hear. They’d come close but labeling it would have cracked open the superficial shell that allowed them to keep ignoring their problems and live from one tryst to the next. All along, they’d shielded themselves from the vulnerable pulse at the heart of their connection.
On some subconscious level, or perhaps a selectively ignorant one, Olivia had known it was there. And now she couldn’t deny it given just how exquisitely her heart hurt at the thought that things might be irreparable between them.
She loved Chuck Walsh. Horribly. For better or worse.
“This is all my fault,” she said, and buried her face in her hands. “I messed up so badly. I just…got scared. I don’t want to end up like my parents with my life picked apart in the media. I panicked, so I ran.” She looked up and took a shuddering breath. “You’re right, Grandma. I do protect my heart. To my own detriment sometimes. And now I’ve ruined everything.”
Ruby leaned forward to squeeze her hand. “You haven’t ruined anything, sweetheart. There’s still a chance to set things right.”
“Speaking of setting things right, and while we’re on the topic of tabloid photos,” Mansi said. “Liv, I got that contact you asked for.” She eyed Ruby and sipped her tea. “The, um, old movie star?”
It took a moment for Olivia to catch up. “Wait, Astrid Larsson? She’s willing to talk to me?”
She heard her grandmother suck in a sharp breath.
“No, Grandma, don’t worry. I only wanted to know if she’d be willing. I’m not going to—”
“She is willing,” Mansi said. “Eager, actually. Well, that’s what my guy who knows a guy who knows a guy said.”
“Oh my god,” Olivia blurted right as someone knocked on her door. She popped wide eyes at Mansi. “You didn’t invite her over, did you?”
“No!” Mansi said with a laugh. “Are you kidding? I’m sure that woman has strict requirements for any face-to-faces. You’ll probably have to get on a waiting list and pass a background check. I have no idea who is knocking at your door, but I hope it is a certain B-lister coming to win you back.” She winked, and Olivia frowned as she climbed from under her pile of blankets. Her body had grown stiff from two days on the couch. Her joints popped in protest.
“Ilost, remember? In multiple ways…” she muttered as she made her way to the door. For a fleeting second, she truly hoped it was Chuck. Rather than looking out the peephole to confirm and give herself an opportunity to hesitate, she threw the lock and swung open the door.
It was not Chuck, but rather, his sister. And a familiar-looking blond girl in jeans and a tee shirt standing behind her.
“Chelsea?” Olivia said, blinking in surprise. “What on earth are you doing here?”
“Hi, Olivia. We need to talk to you. Can we come in?” Chelsea stood shorter than her brother but was still lanky and fair. Her pale hair hung over her shoulder in a thick braid dyed pink at the bottom. She wore sage green overalls and combat boots and had gained a new nose piercing since the last time Olivia saw her. She stepped inside before Olivia answered her question and left the other girl awkwardly hesitating in the hall.
Although all the pieces were staring her in the face, Olivia could not connect why Chuck’s younger sister had shown up on her doorstep and why Madison Bilton was standing in her hallway blinking at her like a terrified animal.
“This is Maddy,” Chelsea said, and waved her in.