I found Olivia standing behind me, looking between us with enough scrutiny to make me wonder how much she’d heard.
Family parties mostly consisted of my two uncles and their families, sometimes a few neighbors, but we had more extended relatives in attendance today. They knew Carla and her family but didn’t have any real insight into the strife Olivia inflicted upon my life.
Donnie, however, knew and had witnessed most of it. He looked between Olivia and me with a quick grimace.
“I think so. Nice to see you, Olivia. If you’ll excuse me, I better go rescue Cassandra,” he said, motioning behind him. “Uncle John has her ear and is probably asking her why she’d marry a computer nerd.”
“A computer nerd who can afford to close a restaurant for a night.” I slapped his chest.
“And you own a successful business.” He shrugged. “Why do we pay them any mind? Fuck them, right?” He tipped his chin toward the smug bastards in the back of the yard as they laughed at something—most likely us.
A laugh slipped out despite the sour feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“Yeah, fuck them.”
Donnie went back to his fiancée while I tried to forget about Olivia standing behind me.
“What do you think about trying to get along like our mothers always begged us to? Could we learn to be nice to each other—or civil at least?” Olivia asked before she had the audacity to sigh.
I turned, eyes wide.
“We could if we were two different people. Do you really want to be nice now? Sorry for not buying it.”
“Let’s talk, just for a few minutes.” She waved a hand for me to follow her.
“Fine,” I sighed and nodded toward a couple of empty chairs in the yard, an annoyed gust of air leaving my lungs as I waited for her to go, following her even if it was the last thing I’d wanted to do.
I’d expected a long and irritating afternoon, but there wasn’t an open bar or cooler big enough for the mess I’d walked into today.
TWO
TYLER
“Okay, I’ll admit it,” she said, chuckling as she settled into one of the lawn chairs, “maybe I did have a little fun aggravating you growing up.” She shrugged with a tiny smile. “Arguing was our thing, but maybe I pushed too far sometimes.”
Her seemingly genuine remorse made me stumble for a moment. I recalled our elementary school days when the two minutes we’d play without fighting came to an abrupt halt when I wasn’t doing things her way. She’d run to our mothers in tears, and I could only shrug.
As we got older, the fights only got worse.
“Hey, Bennett, isn’t that your cousin or something?”
My friend Louis motioned to where Olivia stood next to the field exit. Poor Micah had no clue that he was being used in one of her little ploys to get to me. He was too busy drooling over her. She leaned in close to whisper something in his ear, throwing her head back and sneaking a glance back at me, a devious side smile playing on the side of her mouth.
Why the hell did she have to come to every single game? Her school wasn’t even playing us today, but she and her entourage were almost always here.
The one good thing about her presence was that it made it easier to get a hit sometimes. I’d channel the rage she’d set off into a line drive and watch it sail.
“She’s not my cousin, she’s not something. Olivia is the daughter of a family friend, who I can’t seem to get away from.”
“You want to get away from her?” He snickered before an odd recognition flashed in his eyes. “Oh, I get it. You hooked up with her, and she comes here to piss you off.”
“No, she likes to piss me off for sport,” I spat out. “She’s good like that. Come on, let’s go put Micah out of his misery.”
“He doesn’t look miserable to me.”
I didn’t look back as I strode to the exit. She was gorgeous, but after sparring with her for my entire life, I knew that behind those doe eyes and sinful lips beat a black heart. Her mission was to antagonize me as much as possible, and she’d had a perfect score so far.
“Tyler,” Olivia said, folding her arms over her chest, knowing full well it pushed the swells of her breasts over the neckline of her tank top. “I was just telling Micah how long we’ve known each other.” She cut me a look and turned to Micah and saying in a loud whisper, “He doesn’t like me very much.”
