‘I know it wasn’t intentional. I do. And… it’s okay.’
He huffed out a breath wishing she’d just yell at him already and stop being so damnfineabout things. ‘Bella?—’
‘No. Really.’ Her voice had firmed up and there was an unmistakable edge of conviction. ‘Itisokay. I can actually see how you two worksomuch better than we ever did.’
Oliver wanted to ask her what exactly she saw that led her to that conclusion but Bella wasn’t his relationship counsellor for fuck’s sake. He’d hurt her twice now,that’swhat this was about. ‘It’s okay to yell and scream, B. I can take it. I deserve it twice over. You don’t have to be so damnfineall the time.’
To his surprise she gave a small laugh. ‘Yes, I’m beginning to understand that.’ But before Oliver could query her about the cryptic statement, she’d moved on. ‘Do you love her, Olly?’
The question hit him square in the jaw.Love. He’d been mentally dancing around the subject, not daring to go there only to have Bella come straight out and sock him with it. ‘I’m not sure,’ he hedged. ‘It’s… complicated.’
‘Yeah,’ she agreed. ‘In more ways than you know.’
Oliver frowned as he tried to decipher the cryptic comment. ‘What?’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ she dismissed, her tone changing. ‘What matters is this. You can’t hurt her, Olly. She’s beenthroughit.Reallythrough it, you know?’
‘I know.’ He nodded. ‘She told me about the revenge porn.’
‘She did?’
The surprise in Bella’s voice was palpable. ‘Yes.’
‘Oh. Well… that’s good then. So you get it. You understand why you need to figure out how you feel. You understand why you need togetsure. Because you can’t play with her, Olly. If you do, if you hurt her, I will track you down and do things you couldn’t even imagine.’
Oliver blinked at the vehemence. Normally he’d laugh at such absurd threats coming from petite good-girlBellawho never even harmed a damn fly but she was deadly serious. ‘Paige deserves the world and if you don’t provide, I will make sure you regret it.’
He believed her. Frankly, Oliver was a little terrified of this Bella. But it was clear, when he cut through her rhetoric, that to be championing Paige like this, Bella must really befineabout him and Paige. ‘I have absolutely no intention of hurting her.’
And he meant it. As Bella had pointed out, Paige had been through it and hurting her was the last thing he wanted to do. But he wasn’t sure it was entirely up to him.
‘Okay,’ Bella replied, obviously satisfied with his level of sincerity. ‘Now, can I speak to Paige?’
‘Sure. Hang on a second.’
Navigating the stairs, he stepped into the living area. She was sitting in her usual chair at the dining table facing the view, her back to him, her ginger frizz contained in a single twisty knot pinned at her nape, her spine ramrod straight.
‘Paige,’ he said as he approached.
Her fingers faltered momentarily on the keyboard before resuming their pace. ‘Yeah?’ She didn’t turn.
‘Bella wants to talk to you.’
Thatdefinitely worked. She whipped around in her chair, her gaze flicking from the phone to him. He smiled and nodded encouragingly as he passed over the device.
‘Bella?’ Paige’s voice was quiet, her spare hand flattening to press against her chest. ‘Are you okay?’
Oliver wasn’t privy to Bella’s reply but he could tell from the instant relaxing of Paige’s posture and the smile that tugged at her mouth, that things were going to be alright and he left them to it.
* * *
If Oliver thought that everything was suddenly going to be better between him and Paige after the phone call two days prior, he was wrong. She was definitely relieved that Bella had essentially given her blessing but Paige hadn’t gone there at all. If anything, she’d regressed even further and he’d been relegated firmly to the position ofhouse mate. It was like everything that had happened prior to her relationship with Bella getting back on track, had been left behind.
She was perfectly pleasant, smiling as she went about her business, keen as ever to help him with the book, happy to be a nightly TV companion as well as doing her share of cooking and cleaning in the kitchen. But… it all just felt wrong. Gone was the whirling dervish he’d been used to and in her place was an agreeable automaton who put her mugs down on coasters and the remote in its correct place.
Who evenwasthis person wiping up crumbs in his kitchen and what the hell had they done with the Paige he’d come to know and…
Seriously fucking like.
