Learning To Love (The Griffin Brothers Book 4) (26 page)

“I had to.”

“You had to? Like
your life depended on it?”

“No exactly my life…”

“Stop talking in
fucking riddles all the time, dammit!”

“Things are
complicated. I can’t give you an easy answer.”

“I’ll uncomplicated
them for you, then. We’re done. Over. I never want to lay eyes on
you again. Is that easy enough for you?”

I know I’ve been way
too loud, and you could hear a pin drop around us, it’s so quiet.
Olivia’s shaking, and the presents she was holding have fallen to
the ground. I don’t think she’ll say anything, but then she does.
“You-you’re perfectly clear. I’m going to leave now.”

She turns and runs.
Rose starts to go after her, but I grab her. She starts hitting me.
“Let me go.”

“No.”

“Let her go, Uncle
Luke.”

I do, and she races
around the side of the house. People are talking around me now, but I
don’t hear what they’re saying. My mom comes over and puts her
arms around me and it wakes me out of my trance. I see Scott and Ryan
dragging Blaine from the backyard with his parents following. His mom
gives me a sad smile.

I go inside with my
family. I need to be away from the rest of the guests because I’m
seconds away from another meltdown. A few minutes later, Rose comes
inside. She looks like she wants to murder me, and I just don’t get
it. I’m the one who was wronged here. She stops about a foot away
from me. “You’ve just killed my sister. I hope you’re happy.”

“You need to calm
down, Rose. Your sister will be fine,” my dad tells her.

“Fine? Did none of
you see her? See how her dress was practically falling off of her?”

“She did look pretty
thin,” Chloe says.

“Thin? I could feel
her bones poking out of her skin when she hugged me at the
graduation. She promised me she’d eat at the party, but obviously
that didn’t happen.”

“I’ll go to her
place and bring her some food, Rose.”

“She has no place,
Maggie. When I went out to see her, she was pulling away, but I saw
that her car was full of her stuff.”

That finally makes me
speak up. “She’s living in her car?”

“I think so. She’d
never tell me, though.”

“Luke will give her a
good settlement in the divorce.”

“Ryan, if you think
my sister will take anything from him, you obviously don’t know
her. She refused to even let me give her food from his house when I
offered. She was worried that Luke would get angry and kick me out,
too.” I flinch at her words, and the fact that Olivia would worry
about me doing that. She already told me she thought that, but
hearing it again, when I know how bad things are for her, makes me
want to slam my head against the wall. Repeatedly. Rose isn’t done
yet, though. “She’ll never sign the divorce papers. She loves
Luke too much.”

“She kissed Blaine.
She’s obviously over me.”

“She hates Blaine.
Hates
him. If she
kissed him, it was because she had a good reason to. She must have
had
to do it. I don’t
know why, but I do know she would never voluntarily get within ten
feet of that jerk.”

My mom shares a look
with Chloe and Yasmin, who both nod. I don’t know what’s going on
there, but I can’t think about that right now. I have to try to
think about what’s going on with Olivia and me. Rose is right.
Olivia can’t stand Blaine. For her to kiss him is really bizarre.
For her to be out of money is even weirder. I know she had a good
chunk of moneyin her savings account.

“I can’t think
right now. There’s just too much going on. Too much I don’t know.
I’m not sure how much I want to know, honestly. Is marriage really
supposed to be this hard?”

“It’s not
supposed
to be, but you’re not communicating with each other right now, so
it’s bound to be bad. Trust me, I know,” Scott tells me before
smiling at Yasmin.

“Am I making a
mistake, here? Honestly? I need you to tell me.” I look around the
room at all the people I care most about in the world. Well, except
for one.

My dad answers first.
“I don’t know. There seems to be a lot going on. More than we
know. Neither one of you have handled these situations very well. I
don’t like that Olivia made you hide your relationship, but I also
think you should’ve talked to her before today.”

“I agree that there
seems to be more going on than we know about. Especially if she’s
living in her car,” my mom says and then looks at Chloe and Yasmin
again.

“I’m really angry
at her, but I don’t want her to suffer. Can you try to find out
where she is, Rose? I’ll go to her and talk. If we can’t work
things out, I’ll at least make sure she has a place to stay and
food to eat. I won’t take no for an answer.”

“I’ve been trying
to text her, but she’s not answering. Let me call her. She has
Bluetooth, so she should answer if she’s driving.” She dials and
then shakes her head. “It went to voicemail. I’m scared.”

“Uncle Luke, we have
to find her. Can we all split up and drive around town?”

“We’ll do it after
the party. The two of you are supposed to be celebrating, and there
are guests outside still.”

“But, Grandma…”

“A couple of hours
shouldn’t make that much difference. Now, all of you go out and try
to enjoy yourselves while I talk to Yasmin and Chloe.”

“If it’s about
Olivia, I want in on the conversation, too.”

“Candi should be
included, Maggie,” Yasmin says.

“You’re right.
Candi can stay. We’ll see the rest of you soon.”

That was a little
strange, but we all go with it. My mom wouldn’t tell us if we
asked, anyway. She’s like a vault. One that my dad has learned to
try not to open sometimes.

As soon as I walk back
out to the party, Nikki and Michelle rush up to me. “Are you okay?”
Nikki asks.

“I don’t really
know.”

“So that was your
wife?”

“Yeah, Michelle, that
was Olivia.”

“She kissed that
other guy?”

“Apparently.”

“I’m sorry, Luke. I
was really looking forward to meeting her, but that’s just wrong.”

“Yeah, Nikki, it
really is.”

We talk for a few more
minutes and then I go mingle with all the people who are looking at
me with pity in their eyes. I don’t want anyone’s sympathy. I
just want answers. Unfortunately, I just made the person who has
those answers leave. Again. I’m obviously not learning from my
mistakes.

The party seems to go
on forever, but the guest finally leave. We all meet up again to plan
where we’re going. Rose still can’t reach Olivia, and it’s
wearing on her. Ryan gets out a map of the city and we split it up.
I’m taking Rose with me.

Four hours later, and
no one’s found Olivia. Granted, Las Vegas is really spread out, and
we’re just a few people, but we were all hoping for some luck. Rose
is crying openly as Alex hugs her, and Candi isn’t holding up much
better. Honestly, neither am I. I know I have to put on a brave face
for Rose, though, so I tell her everything’s going to be okay. Now
I just need to believe it, too.

Olivia

It’s been a few days
since the disaster that was my sister’s graduation party. I’ve
avoided all her calls and texts, as well as Candi’s. I wanted to
throw my phone out the window at times. I just can’t deal with what
happened yet. I’m glad I didn’t get rid of it, though, because I
just got a call for a job interview. The only problem is that I need
a shower, and I’m not willing to kiss anyone for it.

I know what I have to
do. I don’t want to do it, but I have to call either Candi or Rose.
I decide that Candi will be easier to deal with right now, so I try
her first. My call goes to voicemail. She must be napping, or doing
something with Hope. I take a few deep breaths and then dial my
sister.

“Liv. Oh my God. Are
you okay?”

“I’m…well, not
really okay, but I think I will be.”

“Where are you? We
tried looking for you!”

“We?”

“Me, the Griffins,
and Candi.”

“Oh. You shouldn’t
have gone to the trouble.”

“You’re my sister.
I need to know you’re safe. I saw your things in the car when you
drove away.”

“That’s kind of why
I’m calling. I need a favor.”

“Anything. You know
that.”

“I need to take a
shower so I can go to a job interview later today. Do you think Luke
might be gone for a little bit so I can come over there?”

“He said he was
meeting a friend for lunch, so sure. You can come around noon.”

“A friend?”

“Yeah.”

“Is it…never mind.
It’s none of my business.”

“He’s not over
you.”

“He should be after
all I’ve put him through. I’ll be over at noon. Thanks.”

“You don’t have to
thank me. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

I hang up and make
myself some ramen for breakfast. If I said I was getting really sick
of it, I wouldn’t be lying. But it’s better than no food at all.
I drive to a hospital closer to Luke’s house and sleep for a couple
of hours.

When I wake up, I see I
have a missed call from Rose. She also texted. Apparently Luke left
earlier than she thought and said he’d probably be back by one. I
turn on the car and drive as fast as I can without getting pulled
over. I overslept a little and it’s already after twelve.

I park a couple blocks
down the street, and Rose is running towards me before I have the car
off. When I get out of the car, she covers her mouth to try and hide
her sob, but I hear it. I know I look a mess, but it is what it is. I
smile at her and walk over.

“Oh God, Liv.”

“It’s okay, Rose. I
just need a shower.”

She doesn’t look
convinced, but she nods and pulls me inside. I almost start to walk
up the stairs when I remember that I can’t use my old bathroom.
It’s not mine anymore. Rose catches me as I correct myself and
reaches out to squeeze my hand. I follow her to her bathroom.

I know I’m supposed
to be hurrying, but the hot shower feels so good that I can’t get
out yet. I know I’m pushing my luck, though, so I reluctantly step
out a few minutes later. The room is completely fogged up, so I crack
the door to get rid of some of the steam. I’m turning back to the
mirror when I hear a girl’s voice. It’s not Rose. I stop to
listen.

“Thanks for lunch,
Luke.”

“Anytime, Nikki. I
appreciate you being there for me the past couple of days.”

“Of course. Anything
you need. You know that.”

“I’m a lucky guy.”

“Don’t you forget
it. Your house is great, I can’t wait to come over again.”

“I’ll put something
together soon. In the meantime, do you want to get together again
next week?”

“I would, but I’m
going on my annual summer road trip. When I get back, we’ll hang
out for sure.”

I don’t hear anything
else, so I know they’ve walked away. Probably to the front door.
Well, Rose was definitely wrong. Luke’s over me. So far over me
that he’s already dating. I get dressed as quickly as possible and
then sneak into Rose’s room. She has her headphones on but takes
them off when she sees me.

“What happened, Liv?
You look as white as a ghost.”

“Luke’s home.”

“Did he see you?”

I shake my head and
look away. “He brought a girl here.”

“What? No.”

“Yeah. They went to
lunch and he made another date with her, plus said he’d put
something together for her to come here again.”

“I’m so sorry. I
can’t believe this.”

“I’ve got to go.
Can you distract him so I can leave?”

“Sure. You’ll call
me later, right?”

“Yeah. I will. Be
good for Luke, okay?”

“I’m not promising
anything.”

“Rose.”

“Liv.”

“Fine. Just don’t
torture him too much.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

* * *

Luke

Rose asks me to see my
office. It’s a little weird because she’s never been interested
before, but she
is
living here, so I lead her upstairs. She closes the door when we walk
in, which is even weirder. I stand a little bit away from her as she
takes everything in.

“My sister did all
this?”

“Yeah.”

“It must have cost a
ton of money.”

“I guess.” I start
to shrug and then freeze as I figure out the answer to a question
that had been keeping me up most nights. How it took me so long, I
don’t know. I’m in here every day.

Rose must see that I’ve
put it together. “Yes, Luke.”

“I didn’t ask you
anything.”

“Because you’ve
figured it out already.”

“She spent all her
savings on this room.”

“Yeah. She didn’t
think it would be a problem since she had a good job, and well, a
place to stay.”

“Until I took that
away from her.”

“It wasn’t all your
fault. You know that. I love my sister, but she did things wrong,
too.”

“But I took her house
from her—oh shit!”

I drop into my desk
chair and wake up my laptop. I go to my bank website, but instead of
logging into my main account, I log in to the account Olivia added me
to. I see what I thought would be there, and it makes things even
clearer. I drop my head into my hands as I realize why she’s living
in her car.

“What is it, Luke?”

“When we moved in,
your sister wanted things to be fair. She insisted that she pay half
the bills. Since I bought the house, she wanted to take care of the
first month’s utilities, cable, and insurance. All those payments,
along with what I’m guessing are the last bills from her apartment,
along with her cell phone bill, came out of her account about a week
and a half ago. All of it, with deposits and the fancy cable modem
and shit, cleaned out her account.”