“Well, I’m not going to be sleeping at your house with Ethan there. That is just …” I don’t say anything because he pulls me to him. “Jacob.”
“Kallie, you sleep with me,” he says, and I want to push away from him. “We just won’t tell him.”
“So, you want me to sneak into your house?” I ask, shaking my head.
“For now, that is what we have to do,” he says, kissing me.
“No, we can be grown-ups about this and have dinner, and then I can see you tomorrow morning.”
“Fuck no,” he says. “Now kiss me because I have to go to work.”
“Fine, we can table this discussion.” I barely get the words out before his mouth is on mine, and I’m lost in his touch, in his kiss, lost in him. “Be safe.”
“Always.” He kisses me one last time, and I open the door, turning to get out. He grabs my hand one last time. “He’s going to love you.”
“Or hate me for taking you away from him,” I mumble and get out of the car, and he rolls down the window.
“I love you, Kallie,” he says, and I look over my shoulder. “I’ll call you later.”
I turn and walk up the steps toward the front door, ringing it first. I made the mistake of walking in yesterday and found them dry humping each other on the island. “It’s open!” Olivia yells, and I stick my head in. “It’s all clear. Cowboy is not home.”
“Good,” I say, stepping into the entrance and walking to the kitchen where Olivia has set up her office on said island.
“The coffee is fresh.” She smiles at me, and points at the coffeepot on the counter that looks brand new.
“Thank you,” I say. Putting my bag down, I take my laptop out and start it up, then walk to the coffeemaker. “Why does it smell like bacon?”
“I made Casey breakfast this morning,” Olivia says, and I look over at her for two reasons. One, my brother has never made a meal in his life. In fact, my mother still cooks all his meals. And two, Olivia doesn’t cook. “I know, I know …” She puts up her hands. “But I wanted to do something nice for him.”
“I mean, we had to throw out five pots because you burned them so bad.”
“Okay, fine.” She smiles at me, and I look over at her. She doesn’t have one ounce of makeup on her face. Her hair is piled on top of her head. She has a nice glow to her face from being out in the sun in the afternoon. She is also wearing a white tank top with black yoga pants and a long sweater over her. “I asked your mom for instructions.” I look at her, and she just stares at me. “Don’t think too much into it, please.”
I shake my head. “Honestly, I’ve never seen you happier,” I say. “You aren’t even wearing makeup.”
“I know.” She smiles. “And my skin is so soft. I think it’s the water,” Olivia says.
“I’m going to give my notice,” I say, putting the cup of coffee to my lips.
Her mouth flies open. “I mean, are you sure?” She puts her own cup down and leans forward. “This is a big change. You’re going from city to country.”
I smile. “I’ve always been country.” Tilting my head, I say, “And I’ve always been in love with Jacob.” She looks down. “It was one mistake, and I have forgiven him for it.”
“At the end of the day, he is your person,” she says. “He makes you happy.”
“For my whole life, I knew that I would be his wife,” I say. “For my whole life, nothing made me happier than seeing him. Then I lost him, and I lost myself. I was me, but there were all these pieces of me missing and now …” I smile. “Now with him, seeing him, touching him. He was my missing piece.”
She puts her hands to her chest. “Bless your heart.” I shake my head, laughing. “Did I not say it in the right way again?”
“I have no idea,” I say, “but you’re learning.”
“So you are really going to leave and come live here?” she asks, and I nod. “What are you going to do?”
“I have no idea, and I’m scared as fuck, but the other way is me being away from him, and I’m not okay with that option.”
“Does he know?”
“He doesn’t. I think he’s afraid to ask.” I walk to the chair next to her and take out my phone. “I’m going to call Meryl right now.” I take the phone and dial Meryl, who answers right away.
“Hey,” she says, answering the phone with us on speaker. “I just got your email and Olivia’s. You guys are on fire.” She laughs. “I should send you two away more often if you are going to come back with all these ideas.”
“Yeah,” I say, thinking of the whole look we did yesterday. We incorporated some country flair to the chic pictures they sent over. I was a graphic designer, and Olivia was a stylist, and the two of us together made quite the team. It also helped that we understood what the other was saying. “I’m calling with some news.”
“Oh,” she says, picking up the phone now, “is everything okay?”
“Well, we are still laying low. The detective is supposed to call us by the end of the week with the result from the fingerprints found at the scene,” I inform her. When we called her in the middle of the night, she knew it wasn’t good, and she knew from the news stories that it was going to get a lot worse before it got better, so she was more than okay with us leaving.
“Well, that’s good to hear,” she says. “So what’s up?”
“I guess there is no easy way to say this.” I think about when I started at the magazine five years ago, and how she took a chance on a brand-new student straight out of college with no experience. I think about my life back in LA and how different it is to the country. I used to do spin class five days a week, and I used to have celery juice every single morning. Now I have coffee and lard, and I couldn’t be happier. “I’m staying here.”
“What do you mean staying there?” she asks.
“I mean, when this is all over, I’m only going back to LA to pack up my stuff, and then I’m moving back.” Olivia reaches over and hugs me, putting her head on my shoulder.
“I see,” Meryl says.
“I love my job, I really do, but I love my life here even more. And now that I’m back, I can’t think about leaving.”
“What if I said you can do both?” Meryl says right away, and I look at Olivia, who looks at me with her eyes wide.
“I would say what do you mean?” And then Olivia chimes in.
“Actually, she would say hush your mouth.” She looks at me and whispers, “That was good, right?” and I nod, smiling.
“Oh, Jesus, do not tell me that you are turning country,” Meryl says, and Olivia laughs out loud.
“Heavens to bitsy, no!” Olivia shrieks, and I laugh.
“It’s heavens to Betsy,” I say, and she just shrugs.
“Anyway, as I was saying, what if you worked from home and then flew in a couple of times a year? You can skype from wherever you are during meetings,” she says, and I clap my hands quietly. “That way I’m not losing my favorite graphic goddess, and you still do what you love.”