Risking bodily harm, I placed my hand at Olivia’s back. “Take some deep breaths.”
“If you begin a guided meditation I’m out.” She inhaled for three counts and exhaled for four.
I studied Olivia’s face and still did not like what I saw. “Do you always react this way on airplanes?”
“Just when I’m sitting by you.” She shook her head and lightly touched my arm. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean that. I mean, Idomean that, but I didn’t mean to say it out loud. My mother raised me better than that.” Olivia sipped from her cup. “It occasionally happens. Tight spaces make me anxious.” Her hand waved up and down in my general direction. “And you’re like sitting by a wall. I’ll be fine when I get back to my aisle seat.”
“Looks like Miller is still head-to-head with Hattie.” I poured more juice, relieved Olivia’s color was returning. “Remember that time your sorority and my fraternity went to St. Louis for the weekend?” Was it odd to say I felt a thrum of pride at Olivia’s immediate smile? Because I did.
“When we packed out Fox Theatre forWicked?” She licked her pink lips. “You sat in front of me, and I couldn’t see most of the show. Then you fell asleep.”
“I’m sure at the time I took some perverse pleasure in blocking your view. I remember you didn’t want to go up in the arch, but your sorority sisters pressured you into it.”
“What an embarrassing memory.” She visibly shuddered. “It was very, very cramped in there. And the thing swayed.”
She’d thrown up as soon as she’d reached the bottom.
“Didn’t you plan that whole trip?” The plane dipped, and my hands reached out to steady Olivia. “And the one we took to Padre Island?”
Her free hand now rested on my chest, and she hadn’t seemed to notice. No, she had her business face back on. “I’m still a good planner, Lachlan. Details are my thing. You’ll find everyone at Flair is just as good or better.”
“I’m firm in my decision not to utilize Flair.”
Her hand dropped as the plane leveled. “Can I ask who youareusing?”
“I’m working with McMinn.” I’d heard they were Flair’s biggest competitor.
“So you’re going with an inferior agency just to spite me?”
Well, the brief pause on Olivia’s snobby, dismissive personality had been nice, but there she was again—that snooty, snippy woman we all knew and barely tolerated. “That’s so like you to think it’s about you,” I told her.
“That’s so likeyouto reduce it to that and make me sound like a self-absorbed brat.”
At that, I had to laugh. “If you’ve aged out of that phase, I congratulate you.”
She took a fortifying breath, probably using the time to mentally curse me. “No matter what you think of my personality, I am very good at my job. You won’t find a better PR firm for what you need. McMinn and Associates is expensive, but they’re not the best. You’re paying for empty promises and an old reputation they no longer uphold.”
“That’s your opinion.”
“It’s fact.” She glanced at the painfully low ceiling as if pulling down a memory. “I seem to recall you have trouble with facts.”
Oh, that was rich. “I could say the same for you.” Olivia hadn’t caused my expulsion from college, but she’d certainly made sure I took the blame. “I’m not working with Flair. End of story. Is that because of you? Yes. Do I care that I might be sacrificing quality? No.” My gaze swept over her face and form again. “Your color’s coming back, and you don’t look like you’re about to hyperventilate. Since you’re not gonna die on my watch, my work is done here.”
She tossed her hair and stepped past me. “Like I would’ve given you the satisfaction.”
ChapterSeven
LACHLAN
True,I’d made a lot of mistakes in my life. But all Saturday I racked my brain trying to pinpoint what crime I could’ve possibly committed to have earned an entire weekend with Olivia Sutton. Was it for the time in grade school I’d stuck a frog in my teacher’s desk? What about when I was fourteen and stole my dad’s car and took it for a joy ride that ended in a spectacular crash? Maybe it was for one of my many transgressions in college, like when my fraternity brother and I broke into the admin building at midnight, hung a sign off the fifth floor sharing the president’s phone number, then rappelled all the way down. While none of these was something a parent would memorialize in a scrapbook, they were still only minor offenses. Mostly.
So I couldn’t think of one thing I’d done to earn two-point-five days with Olivia Sutton.
I’d managed to avoid her at last night’s dinner and show, sitting as far away from her as possible. Then today Miller and I had played golf and hit some blackjack tables while the ladies had gone to a spa and checked out a few wedding venues. Vegas was a city driven by luck, and I knew mine was about to run out. With a party as small as ours, the odds were I couldn’t dodge Olivia much longer.
“Have I mentioned I’m really glad you could make it?” Miller James clapped me on the shoulder Saturday evening and smiled.
“At least three times.” I tuned back into the moment, standing awkwardly in the lobby of the Bellagio amid a small group of Hattie and Miller’s family and friends. Together we waited for instructions for our first “fun” activity.
