Page 14 of Expecting an Argument
“Don’t worry, Granny!” Kierra shouted from the porch. “Your cooking smells great! Aunt Livvy is just having a baby!”
Brunch was an idiotic concept, but a fine excuse to day drink.
The sun glistened across the water of the nearby pond as I sat at the small table beneath the covered porch. A gentle breeze made thin silver wind chimes sing above me. I checked the time on my phone—Olivia was ten minutes late.
I frowned and tapped the heel of my boot against the porch deck. Olivia had always been obnoxiously early to every event in school—as if waiting outside the locked building before sunrise earned her bonus points—so either she had gotten lost on the way to brunch or she figured out that I knew she was lying.
I should have seen the con coming a mile away. She hadn’t seen me or spoken to me in ten years, but wanted to fuck me? Her IUD was probably just as fake as her pregnancy was, but I had been so wrapped up in my own plan for revenge that I fell right into her trap.
But if Olivia Adams thought she was dealing with the sameeighteen-year-old boy who didn’t want to make waves to preserve the peace, she was in for a rude awakening.
The screen door to the restaurant creaked open and Olivia stumbled onto the porch. I held back a laugh at the pinch of her brows as soon as she laid eyes on the catfish pond.
After a bewildered blink, she tore her big brown eyes from the pond and found me at the lone table on the covered porch.
“Oh…” she breathed. “I didn’t expect to find you out here.”
What, didn’t expect that your mark would ask you to meet him at the Bait N’ Bites off the highway?
I figured my location choice would throw her off, but I didn’t think she would show up to brunch in an ankle-length velvet dress and silver heels.
My eyes dropped to her lower stomach for only a moment. I couldn’t tell if the swell beneath the twisting pattern embroidered into the purple velvet was an actual baby bump, but my mother raised me better than to study it for too long.
Olivia wobbled on her ridiculous silver shoes across the creaking deck and sat in the chair across from me. She tapped her pumpkin-colored fingernail on top of the laminated menu in front of her, sucked her lower lip between her teeth, and finally looked up.
“So, what made you choose this place?” she asked.
I shrugged. “I take all my important business out here. Can’t have someone overhearing us and then all of Elren knows about our situation before I can even get back to my truck.”
Olivia glanced at the old man fishing at the dilapidated deck over the pond. “What about him?”
“That’s just Uncle Joe, he can’t hear shit,” I answered. “I could shoot a hole through the porch roof and he wouldn’t even turn around.”
She looked back at Joe and her brows furrowed again. “That man is your uncle?”
“I never said that.”
The screen door smacked open and Olivia nearly jumped out of her skin.
Dad always said that only liars needed to be nervous…
“Here’s your mimosas, baby,” the waitress said as she plopped plastic cups of orange juice onto the gray laminate table.
“Thanks, Kathy,” I said.
“Um, could I have regular orange juice please?” Olivia asked.
Well, well. She was clever enough to pass the first test.
“Sure thing, hon,” Kathy responded. “Are y’all ready to order?”
I handed her my menu. “Get me Uncle Joe’s special.”
Kathy grimaced. “You wantthatmuch grease this early? I thought you were on a health kick.”
I glanced at Olivia, who kept her lips tightly pursed.IfOlivia was telling the truth, she would be at the height of morning sickness by now. The smell of meat from a griddle that hadn’t been cleaned since cars still had built-in phones was sure to reveal a real pregnancy.
“Oh, you know I’m sore after that on-field massacre at the Thanksgiving game,” I said innocently. “I need some comfort food.”
