“I know you don’t need me fighting your battles. Hell, you don’t need me at all.” A muscle jumped in his jaw. “But I protect the people I care about, Livvy, whether they want me to or not. So you’ll have to deal with it.”
“Protectme? I’m not in danger. This is my place of work, for God’s sake. How would you feel if I swanned into your restaurant and told your manager, Aaron—”
“Technically Pat’s my manager.”
She felt a stab of shame that she hadn’t known that when he knew everything about her work. “What if I demanded that Pat stop being mean to you?”
“She isn’t. Never would be. She’s the one who let me come in late today so I could see Stuart.”
“You toldherabout my business?” The anger continued to surge. “What are you going to do next, put an advert in theTimes? ‘My girlfriend’s being bullied at work and needs a big strong man to help her because she can’t sort it out herself’?”
He stared back at her, gaze unflinching. When he finally spoke, his voice was level, even. “I told Pat I needed to take care of something. I wouldn’t have said that about my girlfriend because I know she’s strong and immensely capable. Far stronger and more capable than I am. But you can only control your own actions, you can’t control mine. I went to see Stuart not because I thought you needed me to but becauseIneeded to.”
Oh, boy. Anger that had burned bright a moment ago deflated under his quiet words. “Is that the same voice of reason you use when Ellie throws a tantrum?”
He let out a low laugh. “Probably.”
“It’s good. Very good.” Taking in a breath, she let the tension flow out of her. “I’m still cross with you coming into my office without telling me first. But I appreciate you did it from a place of caring and not because you think I needed the help.”
“I should have told you, but I knew if I did, you’d stop me.” He rubbed the back of his neck, the leather straps shifting on his wrist. “I’m going to fuck up again, do things that piss you off.” His eyes settled on hers, expression earnest. “It’s one thing learning how to be in a relationship. Another being in a relationship with a woman who’s strong and smart and so capable, I’m struggling to see what I can bring to the table. It’s going to take some getting used to.”
In the space of ten minutes, he’d sent her emotions in a total one-eighty, from anger to holding back tears. “I don’t need you bringing anything to the table. I just need you turning up and sitting at it, like you did last night. Listening to me, talking to me.”
“I can do that.”
“I know you can, because you already do, and it helps. Really, really helps.” Sod who might be watching. Standing on her tiptoes, she planted a soft kiss on his mouth. “Now I need to get back to work. And so do you.”
It was a different woman who walked back inside. No longer angry, but reflective. He wasn’t the only one finding his feet in their relationship. It was sobering to realize how much he gave, pushing her to take better care of herself, listening to her gripes with Stuart, picking her up when she was down. Even today, he’d come because he cared, wanted to help. Yet what had she given him? How much interest had she paid tohislife?
It was Friday night, two days after he’d shown up at Olivia’s office without telling her and chewed her work rival’s ear off. Connor wasn’t proud of what he’d done, not now he’d been forced to look at it through her eyes. But he’d not been able to sleep, his mind replaying the sight of her when he’d walked out of the lift at her place. His tough, confident, courageousI can move mountains all by myselfgirlfriend had lookeddefeated. He’d be damned if he’d let that creep do it to her again.
Still, he’d been rash. Irresponsible, as his parents would say. He’d not considered how it would look, her boyfriend storming in like some thug. He’d wanted to support her, fight not for her butwithher, but in doing so, he’d made her look weak.
It would take him a while to forgive himself.
Tonight, though, he opened his front door to let Olivia in, and when she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, he knew she, at least, had forgiven him.
He sank into her embrace, inhaling her, pushing her against the wall of their tiny porch, and returning her kiss with everything he had.
“Much as I want to continue,” he mumbled, trailing kisses down her neck, “I don’t want Mrs. Briggs opposite having a heart attack when she lifts those net curtains.”
She laughed and bent to pick up the case she’d brought and dropped to the ground during the kiss. Immediately he took it from her.
“I can carry it myself, you know,” she protested. “I managed on the tube.”
“I respect your need to be strong and independent, but you need to respect my need to be a guy. And guys carry women’s cases.”
She rolled her eyes but let him take it.
“Ellie, Livvy’s here!” he shouted down the hallway.
Immediately his daughter barreled out of the living room. “Come and see my new ball.” She grabbed Olivia’s hand and led her to the front room, where the new exercise ball he’d bought, on the recommendation of the riding school, was planted in front of the TV next to the floor mop and broom. “I bounce on the ball and hold the sticks and it teaches me to keep my hands still,” Ellie explained as she wriggled onto the ball and grabbed the mop and broom handles. “See?”
“That’s genius,” Olivia exclaimed as she watched Ellie go up and down. “And you look really good, those elbows are doing a perfect hinge. Have you had a go with only one handle? See if you can keep the free hand steady without holding the stick.”
Smiling at their interaction, Connor retreated to the kitchen. He was about to start prepping the gnocchi with miso butter prawns for Olivia—Ellie had eaten earlier—when he saw a message on his phone from Pat.
I need to beg a favor. Can you work tomorrow’s lunch shift?
