Page 35 of The Recovery Coach
Livy twirled a finger in the air.“Yay me,” she said, with false, mocking positivity.“My brother is going to help me have babies.”
Hazy cringed, retched, and playfully shoved her head away from him.
“Why’d you have to make it weird?I was trying to be sweet.”
They melted into giggles.
“You’re the one over here both calling yourself my brotherandasking about my dating life.Jayden doesn’t care about who I date.”
“Jayden doesn’t know Lover like I do.He’s an amazing friend.A loving dude.But he’s never been in a relationship.If you’re looking for fast-moving family planning, he’s not your guy.”
Livy shrugged.“Could still be fun, though.”
Hazy curled his lip back in teasing disgust.“I don’t want to know about your fun.”
Livy, exasperated, said, “Youdon’t want to know aboutmyfun?That’s a little hypocritical.You were getting your dick sucked when I came to you for help.”
Hazy offered a sheepish grin.“To be fair, you came into my house unannounced.And you watched.”
Livy’s cheeks turned pink, and she rolled her eyes.Ignoring his taunts, she pressed play on the next episode of their cartoon.
Chapter 13
Olivia
Earlyinthemorningon the first of November, Olivia rolled over in bed, yawned, and checked her bank account balance.After some research she had opened an account at a local credit union.One where Lance’s accounts weren’t connected and he couldn’t see the balance.One she could check the status of at any time from her phone.All her money from the hospital job had been transferred over, but it disappeared faster than she thought possible.
Without having to account for rent and utilities, she didn’t have many bills.She paid off The Reaper years ago, so she only had her insurance to pay for.Most of her money had gone to food and replacing items she’d left behind in her move.Like a hairbrush, winter coat, and unfortunately, a laptop, since she had always used Lance’s.After three weeks of spending, the number had dwindled to a single digit.
She didn’t have to worry about it for too long, because her new job paid monthly.On the first.Connor had insisted they create a formal contract for her employment.He had a member of his staff draw it up.His agent?Manager?Some person who handled all the business stuff for him.Olivia tried to read through it, but the document filled over a hundred pages, and half the jargon she didn’t understand.She trusted Connor, so she read the official job description and signed on the dotted line.
From her understanding, her technical title was “personal assistant.”She would do his grocery shopping, retrieve his dry-cleaning, and prepare five meals per week.While he recovered, she would help him with any daily tasks he might struggle with and play chauffeur to his various doctor’s appointments and practices.The pay rate was ten dollars an hour more than the hospital billing position had paid.From what she could tell, Connor would pay her directly.The team wasn’t involved at all.She debated arguing, but needed the money and knew she would lose.The contract lasted through March and could be renegotiated or renewed then if needed.It all seemed well-thought-out, detailed, and reasonable.
Which is why the number staring back at her from her credit union app didn’t compute.She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and squinted at the bright screen.When the number didn’t change, she bolted upright, her boob falling out of her tank top in the process.She yanked her shirt over her tits and climbed out of bed.
“Connor!”she yelled, knowing full-well he would still be dead asleep.
Olivia barged into his room and climbed right into his bed next to him.She shook his shoulder.“Connor!Wake.Up.Right.Now.”
He groaned and covered his head with a pillow.She pulled it away from him.
“Livy, it’s like five in the morning.Let me sleep,” he whined.
“It’s seven-thirty, and I need to talk to you.”
“Ugh,” he rubbed his eyes and propped himself on the thirteen pillows taking up the majority of the bed.“What is so wrong that you had to ruin my sleep?”
She thrust her phone in his face.He squinted at the screen, and a sleepy grin spread across his face.“Hey, you got paid!I worried it wouldn’t go through.”
“You overpaid me.By a lot.Aren’t you worried about all that money?”
Connor frowned.“I don’t think my accountant would have overpaid.He’s pretty stingy about this stuff.”
Her mouth popped open.“In what universe is this correct?It’s almost thirty thousand dollars!”
“I can text him, but he doesn’t usually make mistakes.”He grabbed his phone from his nightstand and fired off a message.
“Thank you!”Olivia said, her elevated heart rate slowing to a manageable pace.
