Haunting Olivia (3 page)

“Are
you
popular?” he asked, having no idea what he was supposed to say or how best to deal with this new jealousy issue. His instincts told him to be careful with her self-esteem, give her some room with her thoughts, let her express herself without jumping down her throat.

22

Janelle Taylor

“Who cares about popularity?” she snapped. “It’s totally fake. The popular girls aren’t even nice—

except to boys. At least I’m not a fake.”

Nope, fake she was not. What you saw was what you got.

So. She wasn’t popular. But she had a couple of friends: two girls from the neighborhood who were her best friends one week, her mortal enemies the next. It had been that way since Zach and Kayla had moved back to Blueberry eight years ago. Right now, Kayla wasn’t talking to the girls, who’d dared to tell her that she had big feet.

They drove the few miles to their house, a white colonial that Zach built himself. He pulled into the driveway, hoping all the answers would magically come to him before they got inside.

“Kayla, I know you’re a smart girl,” he said, as they both got out. “I know you must be aware that smoking causes cancer. That’s not some lie parents make up to keep their teenagers from smoking.”

She rolled her eyes. “Like I’m going to get cancer. I’m only
thirteen.
And I don’t smoke that much. Like one cigarette a day. Two maybe.”

“That’s too many,” he said. “And you could get cancer anytime, Kay. Kids younger than you have cancer. I’m dead serious. And I’m going to tell you right now so there’s no misunderstanding. You are not allowed to smoke. If I catch you smoking or if I hear you’ve been smoking, you will be disciplined.

And trust me, you won’t like it.”

She bit her lip, then pouted, then wrapped a curl around her finger. “So what am I—grounded for a year?”

“I’m taking away your iPOD for a week, Kayla.

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23

And no television for a week. And no going out for a week.”

Which meant he’d have to take the week off from work to supervise her.

“What?” she shrieked. “What am I supposed to
do?
”

“Think,” he said as they headed inside. “About yourself. You can also do your homework, which I’ll make sure you receive each day. And you’ll help me clean out the attic. That should take about a week. And you’ll write a three-page term paper about the effects of smoking. You can do your research on-line.”
With me looking over your
shoulder to make sure you’re not surfing or IMing your
friends.

She rolled her eyes and let out a few exaggerated deep breaths, then flopped onto the couch and began braiding and unbraiding her baby-fine blond hair.

So like her mother’s. Out of nowhere, Olivia came to mind. Forget thinking for a second that Kayla’s mother would be better at all this than he was; aside from the fact that Olivia had never been interested in being a mother from day one of Kayla’s life, Olivia hadn’t been a rabble-rouser like Kayla was. She’d been something of a goody two-shoes. Except for dating him, of course. Until her father found out, anyway.

He quickly shook his head to clear his mind of Olivia Sedgwick. Not that it was easy. There were times—nights when he was alone mostly—that he couldn’t stop thinking about her. He was grateful that Kayla looked exactly like him, except for her hair, which was all Olivia’s.

24

Janelle Taylor

“So, since I’m grounded, I can’t eat dinner with you and whatshername and the snot, right?” Kayla asked without looking up.

“Kayla, being disrespectful—to me and to Marnie and to her daughter—isn’t going to help your case. It’s not going to help you, period.”

“Do I have to eat with you and them?” she asked, turning to face him, her expression betraying her, as it always did. She wasn’t so much angr y and petulant as she was just plain upset. Confused.

Thirteen. Her dad had been dating for one month and she was now finally old enough not to like it.

Not that he was making excuses for his daughter.

He knew what he was up against with Kayla.

“Kayla, I wish you’d give Marnie a chance. She really is a good person. And I care about her, okay?”

“Are you in love with her?” she asked, her hazel eyes nervous.

“We’ve only been dating a month and I’m still getting to know her,” he said.

She smiled. “That means no. At school if you just start dating someone at lunch, you know if you’re in love by the time the bell rings.”

He shook his head but couldn’t contain the smile. “I’m making my famous lasagna. Your favorite.”

“I’d rather miss it than sit across from that snot,”

she shot back.

The “snot” was Marnie’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Brianna, who
was
a little on the snotty side.

“Kayla, her name is Brianna. And, yes, you’re having dinner with us.”

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25

She flung her braid over her shoulder and ran into her room.

If only he had that guidebook.

Zach had just pulled the pan of lasagna from the oven when the doorbell rang. “Kayla, can you get that, please?” he called out.

No answer.

“Kayla, the door.”

No answer.

He eyed the lasagna. Perfecto. Unlike his daughter’s attitude. “Kayla, come out of your room right now.”

Her door opened and she poked her head out.

“I asked you to answer the door,” he said, his voice, his expression stern.

“I didn’t hear you,” she said, glancing away as she always did when she was lying.

He set the pan on the stove top and pulled off the oven mitts. “Well, go open the door now before our guests freeze on the porch.”

“Or we could just let them do that,” she whispered, shooting him a grin and stepping into the hallway.

He sighed inwardly. “Hysterical, Kayla,” he whispered back. “You know what else isn’t funny? Your T-shirt. Go change. Now.”

“What about your big speech last month about accepting me for who I am and my individuality?” she shot back, crossing her arms over her chest, upon which it said “I HATE YOU” in big block letters.

“Go. Change. Now,” he said.

“Fine. I’ll be who I’m not.”

26

Janelle Taylor

How about a charming, delightful daughter, just for
five minutes?
he thought, heading to the door as the bell rang again.
I’ll take that.

He opened the door; Marnie and Brianna stood on the porch, each carrying a container. “Finally,”

Brianna said.

Zach smiled. “Sorry. We were handling hot pans when the bell rang. Come on in.”

They stepped inside the small entry room, then slipped out of their coats and boots and hats and gloves. Marnie wore a fitted red fuzzy sweater and sexy jeans. Every time she lifted her arms he got a glimpse of her belly button. Zach was always surprised by how pretty, how sexy Marnie was. Once, she asked him if he thought about her a lot when they weren’t together, and he said, of course,
how
could he not,
but the truth was he didn’t. So when he did see her, the fact that she was so . . . hot always took him by surprise. She was his age—thirty—and had gorgeous long, silky, dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, yet very fair skin. And as they were both single parents (Marnie was divorced; Zach had never been married), they had a lot in common.

On the surface, anyway.

Brianna was a budding Marnie. Ten boys had already asked her to the winter dance. If anyone had asked Kayla, she hadn’t mentioned it.

“Chocolate cream pie,” Marnie said, handing him the container and kissing him on the cheek.

Mmmm . . . She always smelled as delicious as she looked. He realized he was staring at her breasts, which were huge, and he quickly glanced away.

She smiled sensuously at him. “Brianna made her famous garlic bread.”

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27

“What is it famous for?” Kayla asked, coming into the foyer, her shirt normal. “Stinking up the house?

People’s breath?”

“Kayla!” Zach snapped.

Brianna rolled her eyes at Kayla. “You’re so immature.”

“Okay, you two,” Marnie said. “Let’s make some predinner rules right now. No name-calling. No insults. Just good food, good conversation, and a good time.”

Now both girls rolled their eyes.

Zach refused Marnie and Brianna’s offers to help and set Kayla to work instead. “Be good,” he whispered as he put Brianna’s garlic bread in a basket for Kayla to take into the dining room while he carried the lasagna.

“I have nothing to lose by being bad,” she pointed out.

“Be good for me,” he said, “because I’m asking you to. Because it would mean a lot to me.”

“Fine. I won’t ask Brianna if she’s tried Clearasil on that giant zit on her chin.”

“Kayla, I’m warning you,” he said through gritted teeth.

She rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time.

“Yum, something smells delicious!” Marnie said as she and Brianna sat down at the dining room table. “Kayla, did you help cook?”

Kayla opened her mouth to make one of her famous snarky statements, he was sure, but she thought better of it. Good girl. “I’m a terrible cook.

Trust me, you wouldn’t want to eat anything I made.

I can’t even boil an egg.”

28

Janelle Taylor

“Boiling an egg is so easy,” Brianna said. “You boil the water, then place—”

“Sweetie,” Marnie interrupted her daughter,

“would you please pass the lasagna?”

“I’m only having a little,” Brianna said, scooping a small square onto her plate. “I’m entering the town’s beauty contest, and I have only two weeks before I’ll be paraded on stage.”

“
Inner
-beauty pageant,” Marnie corrected.

“There’s a big difference, Brianna. Inner beauty is what we should all strive for.”

“
Inner
-beauty pageant?” Kayla repeated. “Is that some kind of joke?”

Brianna glared at Kayla. “It’s not a joke. The pageant is for girls from thirteen to seventeen who possess remarkable inner beauty. Girls who know that real beauty is inside, not just outside.”

Marnie nodded. “That’s right, Brianna.” She turned to Kayla. “I heard that your mother won when she was fifteen.”

Zach almost choked on his bite of garlic bread.

Tell me she didn’t just say that. Please.

Kayla stared from Marnie to Zach. “My mother?

My mother won the Inner-Beauty Pageant?”

Marnie’s cheeks reddened. “I thought you would have . . .” She trailed off. “Mmm, that garlic bread smells heavenly! Sweetie, could you pass me the basket?” she asked Kayla.

“You didn’t even know your own mother won the pageant?” Brianna said to Kayla. “How weird is that?”

Kayla threw the basket of garlic bread at Brianna, clocking her on the chest, and then ran upstairs.

Zach closed his eyes for a moment.

HAUNTING OLIV IA

29

“What a freak!” Brianna screamed. “I can’t believe her! This shirt is ruined.”

Her shirt was the least of what was ruined.

“Brianna Sweetser, apologize right now!” Marnie said. “To Zach and then to Kayla.”

“It’s all right,” Zach said. “It was a reasonable question, Brianna.” He could tell that Marnie was hoping he’d elaborate on the subject of Kayla’s mother, but he didn’t. He’d told Marnie a little about Olivia, that theirs had been a teenaged summer romance, that he’d been a punk kid then and Olivia, who’d won the Inner-Beauty Pageant, had somehow seen something in him.

As for Kayla, he’d prepared an answer for her when she’d first started asking in earnest about her mother.

She was very young when you came along, too young to be
a mom, and she wanted you to have the very best life, so she
did the responsible thing and gave you to me to take care of
.

That wasn’t close to what had happened, but it was the only version of events he could bear to tell his daughter.

But weren’t you also ver y young—too young to be a
dad?
had been Kayla’s question.
Why didn’t she ever
come back? Why? How could she just walk away and
never look back?

Those were questions he couldn’t answer. Not at four, when the questions started in earnest. And not now.

As Brianna headed upstairs to knock on Kayla’s bedroom door to apologize, Marnie rushed over to him and sat down on his lap. What he wouldn’t give for a half hour alone with a naked Marnie, to lose himself 30

Janelle Taylor

inside her, to forget everything, just for a little while.

But tonight was going to be about damage control.

He breathed in her sexy perfume as she trailed kisses along his neck.

“Sorry about all that,” she whispered. “They’re at such a tough age, and Kayla must have so many questions about her mom.”

He took a deep breath. “I think we’re going to have to make this a short night. I need to get up there and give her some answers.”

“You know,” she said, pressing her breasts against his chest, “when you’re ready, I’d like to have some of those answers too. There’s so much about you I don’t know, Zach Archer.”

At the sound of Brianna’s footsteps coming down the stairs, Marnie scooted off his lap, and he missed her warmth and perfume instantly.

“I said I was sorry and really sorry and double sorry, like, three times,” Brianna said, “but Kayla told me to go away and wouldn’t open the door.”

“Sweetie, why don’t we pack up two portions of this delicious dinner and eat at home,” Marnie said to Brianna. “I think Zach and Kayla need some time alone to talk.”

Score one for Marnie. He’d never appreciated her quite so much.

Chapter 3

Olivia darted up in bed, the dream already fading. The boy and girl, standing side by side, staring at her with unreadable expressions, were gone.

No matter how she tried to hold their faces in her mind, she could never fully remember them. She’d been having the dream for years, since she’d been pregnant. The boy and girl, around three or four in this dream, never spoke. The girl wore a bathing suit, pink with yellow flowers on the straps. The boy was holding a stuffed cow.