Page 131 of The Recovery Coach
He opened the door to his car, and she followed the implied order.Connor grabbed every bag, box, and tool from The Reaper and piled them in the backseat.
Her relief was short-lived.Connor was livid.
On the way home, he vented.About his worries when she stayed late at work and didn’t take the car he bought her.About how texting the group chat and Daisy instead of him since he had a game was smart, but made him hate that he was unavailable.About how letting her phone die made it almost impossible to be sure where she was.About insisting on working when he wanted to take care of her.About how he hated that she worried more about his hockey game than her own well-being.It wasn’t yellingather, but a culmination of his worry manifesting in one long rant.
She’d sat through many lectures from her father and Lance over the years.Lectures about how she wasn’t good enough, or smart enough, or tame enough.How she was too much or didn’t think things through.Connor had never spoken to her like that, and he still didn’t.Even when she could tell he wanted to punch something, he made every point about him.He didn’t accuse her of trying to manipulate him like Lance would have.He didn’t insist she consider him when making choices like her father would have.He simply expressed his feelings in a heated manner.
She listened.She nodded along and apologized and promised to do better.
Connor’s lecture was born of fear and love.It didn’t make her feel scared or defensive.He was in the midst of a breakdown after he abandoned the game he’d been looking forward to for months to rescue her, and he still managed to make her feel cherished.The ranting continued until he parked in their driveway.When they got inside, Olivia didn’t say a word.She marched straight to their bedroom, Connor two steps behind her, still talking.She opened her bedside table, retrieved her engagement ring, and slipped it onto her finger.
Then she held her hand up for him to see.
He gaped at her.“God fucking dammit, Olivia.I’m so fucking mad right now.”
“I know,” she said.
He invaded her space and claimed her mouth in an angry, possessive kiss.
When he pulled away, Olivia asked, “A little happy too?”
“Fucking elated.”
Epilogue
Olivia
ThefirstweekendinJune, Connor and Olivia squeezed onto one beanbag chair in their treehouse.Not the one in their hometown.Connor had promised her any wedding she desired, and she’d had a vision since the moment she saw the enormous tree in his backyard.
The treehouse they built resembled the original.It’s where they spent the majority of their time since they’d finished it the week prior.
Their treehouse was a sacred space.One where they could be themselves and feel their feelings.They’d agreed not to let others intrude on that space.Even Valentine and Jake.That day, they made an exception.
Valentine, Beanie, Daisy, and Jake were all crammed in there with them, shoulder to shoulder.Connor removed their second chair to make room.Valentine sat criss-cross in the middle of the floor, holding a stack of notecards.
He’d been ordained online the previous week when Olivia first hatched this plan.Valentine asked them to repeat after him, and they said, ‘I do,’ kissed, and signed on the dotted line as quickly as possible so they could get out of the tiny space.It was rushed, cramped, and inconvenient, but Olivia hadn’t wanted to get married anywhere else.They would take a trip with Jayden and the Hales in August to celebrate, but Connor wanted to tie the knot sooner.As soon as the ring adorned her finger, he’d been champing at the bit.It drove him insane to wait for the treehouse to be built.
Once they were married, everyone filed out of their fort and congregated on the patio.Beanie offered to grill some steaks and was serving them when the doorbell rang.
Olivia answered it and found a short, pretty, delightfully flamboyant stranger on the other side.
“Hi,” he said with a sweet smile.The man must have been around her age and seemed like someone she would be friends with.Something about his face seemed vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t place him.
“Hi,” she said, weary.“Can I help you?”
“I hope so!I’m Sammy.I’m looking for Jake.I went to the practice rink and Toma told me I might find him here.”
“Jake...Connor?”Olivia clarified.
“The one and only.”
Olivia stepped aside and let Sammy into her house.“He’s out back.We were about to eat.Are you hungry?”
Sammy seemed kind and fun.Like he didn’t take himself too seriously.Almost the opposite of Jake.
“Oh, no,” he said.“I couldn’t impose.”
The man was crashing a literal wedding, so that ship had sailed, but she didn’t say as much.
