“Kathy said not, too. That we are customers today.”
Olivia waved her words off. “It will only take a moment.”
Ivy didn’t respond. She started shoveling food into her mouth faster.
“Slower bites. I don’t need you choking.” Olivia chided, taking her plate in the back. Good lord, the kid was eleven, but she acted three sometimes with food chipmunking it. The doorbell chimed, signaling someone was coming in or leaving, and for once, Olivia didn’t look to see who it was. She wanted to clean her dish, so she could get over to Abigail’s office. She was curious what kind of job Abigail could help her find.
Chapter 27
Heath found himself standing outside of the diner, looking through the window, after wandering aimlessly down the street. He could see the women standing around talking to Olivia and her daughter. They all looked like a cozy group. He should have known the women would have joined together. They didn’t care Olivia had a kid, and the more the merrier in their opinion.
Cora liked the idea of someone already going through childbirth in the group. Heath didn’t care about any of that. He could still only fixate on the fact that she blatantly lied to him about having a kid.
Last night, he hardly got a wink, thinking about Olivia and playing the woulda, shoulda, couldas in his head. Despite everything, he still wanted Olivia. He couldn’t even take the brunette home last night, feeling guilty for even looking at another woman. Heath was forever comparing the two women, until he gave himself a headache.
Mike’s advice repeated in his head. Heath wasn’t exactly ready to be with someone with a kid, but he didn’t want to let Olivia go either. He had to make a choice. Either let Olivia go, or accept her and Ivy. So, that’s why he was here, but it wasn’t going to be easy to win her back. Heath had said hurtful things to her. It had taken a month to get Olivia to agree to go out with him the first time. This time would be even harder. If he had any chance, he had to talk to Ivy.
The bell above the door next to him rang, and all the women piled out. Each one glared at him, as they walked by. They were still pissed off at him for last night and leaving with another woman. None of them knew he didn’t go home with her. It wasn’t their business.
“You have a lot of balls showing up here.” Kinsley glared at him. She was only a few inches shorter than him.
“My business is with Olivia not you.”
“You want to get to Olivia, then you’ll have to go through me. You broke her heart, Heath. That isn’t something we take lightly.” Kinsley took a defensive stance, widening her legs and placing her hands on her hips.
Kinsley had a lot of anger issues from being blown up twice. Once by and IUD and another a warehouse exploded, burning half her upper body. It didn’t take much to irritate her, and apparently, she decided to become Olivia’s bodyguard.
“She lied to me, so don’t think that was all sunshine and rainbows for me.”
“Boo fucking hoo for you, manwhore. Like you don’t lie to women all the time.” Kinsley said dispassionately.
If he was going to get through her, he couldn’t use Olivia’s lying as an excuse. “I’m not going to explain myself to you.”
“And he doesn’t even deny it.”
“How would you feel about Carter lying about having a kid to you?” He snapped.
“I wouldn’t be thrilled about it, but I wouldn’t be a dick about it like you. I actually like kids.”
“Kinsley, back down.” Hannah interjected and stepped in front of the group. “Why are you here, Heath? If it’s to hurt Olivia, we won’t allow it.”
“I want to apologize to her.”
“For what, cheating?” Kinsley scoffed. Abigail elbowed her in the ribs, before rolling her eyes. “What?”
“I didn’t cheat.”
“Liar,” Kinsley accused with a pointed finger. “We all saw you leave the bar with that woman.”
“I didn’t do anything with her.” He admitted to Kinsley, before looking back at Hannah. He always liked talking to her more. Hannah was always calm and collected. She didn’t have emotional outburst or threaten people. “I want to be Olivia.”
“What about Ivy? They’re a group package. You can’t have one without the other.”
“While I’m not thrilled about there being a kid in her life, I want to be with Olivia, so I’m willing to try.”
“How big of you.” Kinsley muttered, earning her another elbowing. “Would you quit that.” Kinsley swatted Abigail.
“You have a lot of groveling ahead of you. I hope you’re prepared for that.” Hannah said in all seriousness.
