Son of a bitch! Of all the things I expected to come out of her mouth, this wasn’t it. This is my fault. I left her alone to fend for herself, knowing full well that my mother would use the situation to her advantage given half a chance. I was such a dumb fuck for thinking she would do the right thing. I breathe deeply and clench my fists, trying unsuccessfully to control the shame threatening to choke me. I walked away from my woman and left her to be picked apart by fucking vultures.

“Wipe that guilty look off of your face right now, Cole. It’s finished. It’s in the past and being pissed about it now isn’t going to solve anything,” she tells me firmly.

“I shouldn’t have left. FUCK! I should have known what they were capable of. I never thought they would stoop to something so low, I swear to God, Olivia,” I plead.

“I know that,” she tells me softly, running her hands up and down my thighs, trying to comfort me. I should be the one comforting her. It’s my fault that her life became one giant ball of suck after I left.

“Jesus, when I think about how many times I told my mother what that job meant to you, it makes me sick. I never thought she would use it against you. You’re going to get that job back, Liv. If I have to threaten everything my parents own, it’s going to happen. You are going back to the job you love; the one you were meant to do.”

She shakes her head at me in disagreement. “I can’t go back there, Cole, even if I wanted to. It just… it doesn’t hold good memories anymore. Even if, by some miracle, they asked me to come back, I wouldn’t go. I’ve moved on. I like what I’m doing now.”

I don’t care what she says, I’m going to make this right. I’m sickened by the thought that my parents are capable of something like this. Even though we never really saw eye-to-eye, they’re still my parents. This bullshit is like something out of a fucking spy novel. Secrets, conspiracies, sabotage, blah, blah, blah. My family is not some Lifetime movie of the week. We have our issues, just like every other family, but this goes far beyond that. I never thought my parents would resort to ruining Olivia’s career, but clearly I was wrong. I’m already anticipating exactly how my confrontation with my mother will go. She’ll deny any wrongdoing and turn it around on Olivia, because God forbid she’s ever to blame for something.

I take a few deep breaths, forcing myself to calm down. By some miracle, Olivia can still stand to be in my presence after what my family’s done to her and, regardless of the guilt I feel over their actions, I’m not about to squander that gift. She’s hell bent on getting me up and walking around and maybe, if I’m lucky, she’ll let me back into her life. No matter what happened during the year I was away, I will always side with Olivia. My parents have demonstrated time and time again that they never had my back. The people who raised me were always more concerned with their precious family name than my happiness. Olivia proved from day one that she was nothing like them and maybe that’s why I was initially drawn to her. She represented everything my parents weren’t: honest, caring and selfless. I need her in my life. I need her good to balance their evil. No matter what half-truths my mother tries to spin, I will always choose Olivia. Always. Nothing she could have done will change that.

“I’d be lying if I told you that I don’t want you to stick up for me, to try and right the wrongs, but I’m a big girl, Cole. I don’t need you to fight my battles, especially with your family. Telling you what happened is probably a little selfish, but I wanted you to hear it from me first, before you heard it elsewhere. There’s more to—”

The alarm on Olivia’s cell phone goes off, the loud beeping cutting her off mid sentence. Part of me is grateful for the interruption because I don’t know how much more bad fucking news I can handle right now, especially if it has to do with my mother.

“Alright, I think it’s time to move out to the pool,” Olivia states, silencing the alarm.

“Please tell me you brought that red bikini from Victoria’s Secret,” I say with a sigh as I close my eyes and picture her wearing the two miniscule pieces of material that barely contained her tits and showed just enough ass to tease me. Thinking about her caramel-colored skin against the bright red bikini pushes all of the murderous thoughts from my mind.

She laughs and shakes her head at me. “Sorry, tough guy. YOU’RE going in the pool, not me.”

I frown as she stands, pulling me up from the stool before handing me my crutches. A few minutes later, she’s sitting on the edge of the inground pool, watching me as I float on my back at the deep end. She’s got her scrub pants rolled up to her knees and she’s lazily kicking her feet through the water, leaning back on her hands. Rolling over to my stomach, I make my way over to her, using my arms to cut through the water.

“Hey, you aren’t finished yet. You have another fifteen minutes of treading water,” she admonishes as I push my body between her legs and rest my hands on the cement next to her hips.

The smooth skin of her legs brushes against my sides and, when she doesn’t move away, I lean in closer and move my hands up to her hips.

“As my physical therapist, you should definitely be in this water with me, making sure I don’t do anything wrong,” I tell her with a smirk, running my thumbs back and forth over her hip bones.

I don’t even think she realizes that she’s sliding her legs back and forth against my ribs. Touching me was always a natural reaction when I was this close to her, and I’m bolstered by the fact that this still holds true.