I chuckled to myself.
“What?” she asked.
I picked up her hand, lacing my fingers with hers. “Since I decided to open the bakery, no one has cared about it until you.”
She reared back, crinkling her nose at me. “That’s not true. Helen talks about it all the time.”
I shrugged. “Now, maybe a little, but back then, both her and my father thought I was crazy. Only recently do I see her getting a little excited for me. If I told either of them about expanding, they’d tell me it was too soon and I shouldn’t get ahead of myself.”
“Well…” She rose from the chair and planted herself on my lap, skating her hand down my bare chest. “Replace their nagging voices in your head with mine. The one that keeps telling you how talented you are and this is only the beginning.” She wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed her lips to mine.
I laughed, dropping my head to her shoulder. “You’re something else, Sanchez.”
She was everything. The girl I couldn’t stand had become the woman I couldn’t live without in what seemed like the blink of an eye.
I could tell Olivia anything, except how in love I was with her. Words were always hard to come by for me—the right ones anyway. All I felt for her was too important to blurt out, but keeping it inside was another reason I was wide awake at two o’clock in the morning.
“How about you try to get at least an hour of sleep before you have to get ready for work?” She climbed off my lap and extended her hand. I was about to take it when I noticed a radio and a pile of CDs scattered across her end table.
“I didn’t notice those,” I said when I stood, motioning behind her.
“Mom dropped them off yesterday on another cleaning binge. She found my dad’s old radio and CDs and brought them down here in case I’d want them. I don’t have the room for them or the player I need to listen, but I haven’t brought myself to look through it all yet.” She trudged over to the pile, smiling at whatever she plucked off the top.
“Olivia Newton-John’s greatest hits.” She flipped it over to the back. “My namesake.”
“Is it?” I made my way over to join her. “I don’t think I knew that.” Which wasn’t surprising. After spending my life knowing Olivia, I only actuallyknewher over the last five months.
“He had a huge crush on her and was such a dork about it.” She chuckled, shaking her head. “When I’d agree to go jogging with him, he’d sing‘Let’s Get Physical!’to me on the rare times I’d manage to catch up to him.”
When Olivia talked about Javier, I didn’t say anything. I wouldn’t press for more or ask questions. I just let her get out what she needed to at the moment.
She opened the case and inserted the CD into the top. “Wow, the batteries still work. That’s amazing.”
“What song is this?”
“‘Magic.’ FromXanadu.” She flipped the CD cover over. “My big, deep baritone, former-high-school-wrestler father played this soundtrack on a loop in his car, and we were the only ones who knew. The reason I say that is that my uncle would have given him serious shit about it.”
“To me, that makes your dad even cooler.”
She nodded without looking up. “It’s not a bad soundtrack though. I haven’t heard this song in years.” Her hand lingered on top of the CD player. “I guess I’ll give this away. I’ll keep the CD though.”
I caught her hand before she pressed Stop and twirled her arm over her head.
“What are you doing?”
“Dance with me.” I yanked her flush to my body, her confused gaze searching mine.
“In the middle of the night? Why?”
I shrugged. “Why not?”
The Olivia I thought I always knew was a big, bold pain in the ass. And while she was still all those things at times, the part of her that I’d gotten to know recently was someone who thrived on love instead of attention. I had all the love in the world for her, and I wanted to make her feel it even if I couldn’t say it.
“That’s the second time you’ve shocked me by wanting to dance with me. Usually at parties, you’d hide from me.” She laughed, running her hands through my hair as we swayed back and forth.
“I did,” I agreed, sweeping her hair off her shoulder where her robe began to droop. “But I always saw you. You may not believe that, but I did.” I drifted my hand down her chest, letting it drop to the silk belt, and untied it. “I remember your sweet sixteen.”
“Me too. You grunted a happy birthday at me and sat in the corner with a couple of guys from your baseball team. Not that I looked for you or anything.” She batted her eyelashes at me and flashed me a wry grin.
