Chapter Two
Olivia
I pull into the back of the parking lot outside Liberty Falls banquet hall and turn off the car. My windows are down, and the scent hits my nose immediately.
Lilacs in bloom.
And the nostalgia…it’s so strong my throat aches.
I was sixteen, caught between being the baby of my family and studying my ass off to be the first one to go to an Ivy League business school.
Jenson was gorgeous, three years older, and my best friend in the world. I used to sneak out at night and meet him underneath the covered bridge in the center of town. The lilac bushes grew on either side of the bridge, and while Jenson was giving me my first kiss, the incredible aroma of the flowers in bloom was overwhelming my senses.
Then he was taking me to second base, and I was giving him my heart.
But before I could give him everything, we stopped. And we waited.
We waited for me to turn eighteen and legal. He was always three steps ahead of me, so when I was sixteen, he was already legally too old to date a minor in Pennsylvania. Add to that the fact that our families would have highly disapproved and tried to do anything to avoid the judgment and scandal of the mayor’s youngest daughter falling for her “cousin.” Even though Jenson isn’t actually my cousin, nobody seems to remember that little fact.
None of that could stop us from feeling the way we did about each other.
But we found love young, too young to know just how rare and precious it was. Jenson waited for me to catch up to him, but when I did…
Life got in the way.
I swallow down the pressure building in my throat and force myself to exit the car.
It’s time. Time for the party where everyone will ask me about my failed marriage and remark on how I’m not getting any younger. No matter that I’m still in my twenties; to my family-oriented relatives, I was halfway to finished when I didn’t have a baby on my hip by twenty-four.
I tried to keep my divorce under wraps until Auntie Sue’s party was over, but word spread within minutes of me receiving the papers. I don’t even know how, or who, spilled the news.
But that’s what it’s like living in a small town with a large family where everybody knows everything about everyone. There are no secrets except for those truths buried so deep no one seems to think they exist anymore.
I’ve taken two steps through the parking lot when I run straight into my aunt.
“There you are! You poor thing!” Aunt Edna rushes me with two arms outstretched and grips me hard.
“I’m fine, Edna,” I say. “I really am.”
Mom is right behind her. “She’s strong like steel,” she says to her sister-in-law. “But I’m telling you, Olivia, thank goodness you didn’t get that job you applied for in New York. Imagine if you’d moved there with”—Mom shudders—“that awful ex-husband of yours? And then you found out he was sleeping with his colleague? You would have been a victim of circumstance and stuck in the Big Apple all alone!”
I pat her arm. “Mom, please relax. I’m okay. I really am. And honestly, I’m glad I went to New York for that interview. Otherwise, I may not have caught Nate cheating.”
Aunt Edna’s eyes grow round as saucers.
“I’m fine,” I say quickly.
“But you must be so lonely,” Aunt Edna opines as the three of us finally turn and start walking toward the banquet hall. “To not even get kids out of the deal—now you’re in your mid-twenties with a ticking clock!”
“A time bomb, I call it,” Mom says in a hushed tone as we step underneath the awning and head for the door. “When you were married and taking your time, Olivia, things were fine. But now you have to start over completely! Finding the right man could take years all on its own. Then, you have to plan the wedding and hope his sperm are fast swimmers so you can start your family by thirty.”
I think I’m going to throw up.
I turn away from my mom and Aunt Edna and catch my bright blue eyes reflected in the window next to the heavy wooden door leading into the banquet hall. Jenson would stare into my eyes for hours by the moonlight during the cold Pennsylvania winters of our youth. I clench my teeth, wishing for the millionth time that we had thrown the rulebook out the window and just played for keeps. But that’s all wishful thinking. Jenson’s in Pittsburgh, I’m here, and sixteen and innocent has come and gone.
Mom opens the door to the building. “Showtime, ladies.”
As the flash from the cameras hits us, I tug at the spaghetti strap on my silky silver dress and walk into the large open room filled with people already seated at tables. This is a simple birthday party for the matriarch of our family, but because my father’s the town mayor, the local paper has sent a crew of photographers like they do for every family event we hold. Harold Graham has been involved in the political landscape of Liberty Falls my entire life, and I’ve grown to expect that every choice I make will be examined and judged under the harsh, but well-meaning, light of my small, conservative town.
