Chasing Olivia (Trace + Olivia #2) (2 page)

“You really like my tattoo, don’t you?” I laughed.

He grinned, his eyes twinkling. “I
love
it. It lets all the other guys know you’re taken.”

I rolled my eyes. “You sound like a dog marking his territory.”

He chuckled. “I have your name close to my junk, so you’ve taken my man-hood,” he reasoned.

“
You’re
the one that wanted it there,” I glared.

“But your name looks so good there, peeking out of the top of my pants,” his eyes were playful, holding back laughter.

“You-you-ugh!” I stuttered.

He continued, “This way, guys know you’re taken, girls know I’m off the market and that my—”

“Trace! We’re at a wedding!” I cut him off.

“—cock belongs to you,” he smirked.

“You just
love
embarrassing me,” I buried my face against his chest, willing the blush staining my cheeks to leave.

“You’d think by now you’d be used to the things I say,” I felt him shrug.

I shook my head and looked up into his green eyes. “I am,” I grumbled. “But when you start saying certain things in public—” I trailed off, lifting my shoulders in a small shrug.

He chuckled, his lips lifting up into a smile. “I like to keep you on your toes…” He paused, “…actually, I prefer to keep you underneath me but that’s a different story.”

“You are on a roll today,” I shook my head rapidly back and forth, praying that the people around us couldn’t hear our conversation.

He grabbed my chin between his thumb and index finger, tilting my face up. “I promise, from now on…or at least until we get home, I’ll be on my best behavior.” He grinned cheekily.

I rolled my eyes at him. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”

“I can be good!” He exclaimed. I eyed him. “Okay,” he paused, “I can be good if I try
really, really, really
, hard.”

“Stop talking and dance,” I shook my head, unable to hide my smile, and glanced down at my feet to make sure they didn’t get tangled in his.

“So bossy,” he chuckled, “I like it.”

I bit down on my lip to hold back my retort.

“Hey,” Nick appeared behind Trace and tapped his shoulder.

Trace and I stopped dancing, and he wrapped an arm protectively around my waist.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Nick smiled sheepishly, sweeping his blonde hair from his eyes, “but I was hoping to dance with Olivia.”

Trace glanced down at me and I nodded that I was okay with that.

“Sure,” Trace released me and placed my hand in Nick’s.

“Nora, would you like to dance?” Trace asked my mom.

She smiled and accepted his offer.

I watched them sway onto the dance floor before I tilted my head back to look at Nick. God, he was a giant. I felt like a midget standing next to him.

“I wanted to talk to you,” Nick whispered, glancing around to make sure my mom and Trace were out of earshot.

“I figured,” I muttered, trying to keep the bite out of my voice. Nick
was
a nice guy, so I needed to stop acting like he wasn’t. He and my mom deserved to be happy.

His hand flexed where it rested above my waist. We swayed awkwardly to the music, almost a foot of space between us.

“I know…that this has been…”

“Difficult?” I supplied with a raised brow.

He took a breath. “I know this has been
difficult
for you, Olivia. But I really do love your mom with all my heart and I’m ecstatic to be her husband. I can’t wait to bring our son or daughter into this world and become a father. Nora’s told me everything about Aaron and Derek.” I flinched at the mention of Aaron’s name. “I’m sorry that you’ve had to go through so much, Olivia. I really am. But I want you to know that I’m
nothing
like—”

“I know that,” I interrupted him before he could say that name again.

“Good,” he swallowed.

In the beginning, when I first learned of Nick and my mom’s relationship, I’d wondered why she was so quick to jump into dating after
finally
getting away from her abusive husband. But now, I understood. There’s a part of all of us that no matter what, never stops believing in the power of love. Love, makes us human. It’s what drives us.

The song changed but we continued with our awkward dance. I felt like he was waiting for me to say something, so I opened my mouth and let the words tumble out. “I truly am happy for the both of you. I can see how much you love my mom and how much she loves you, I’d be an idiot not to. I think it’s great that she’s found someone to love and she’s moving on with her life…I’m sorry that I haven’t been the most supportive person of your relationship…it’s just…awkward…I mean…you’re—” I floundered for a better way to explain but came up empty.

“I get it,” Nick smiled and his dimple appeared in his cheek. “I could be your brother.”

“Exactly!” I agreed.

Nick
was
my best friend’s brother, which made this whole thing even weirder.

Nick chuckled. “I don’t want you to ever think that you’re not…welcome, or anything like that, Olivia. Just because your mom and I are married now, and the baby will be here in a few months, it doesn’t mean you’re not still her daughter.”

“I know,” I mumbled.

“Do you?” He questioned.

I sighed. “It’s weird,” I admitted reluctantly. I felt like my mom was replacing me…like I wasn’t good enough. I knew in my heart that wasn’t true, but it didn’t stop me from thinking it.

“I don’t want you to feel weird about this, Olivia,” Nick’s eyes narrowed.

“How could I
not
feel weird?” I countered. “What if the situation was reversed? How would you feel if your mom was marrying your best friend’s brother and having his baby?”

He shrugged. “When you put it that way…I get it. I do.”

“I’m a big girl, Nick,” I told him jokingly. “Seriously, don’t worry about me.”

“I want you to be okay with me and your mom being together,” he whispered.

It was kinda too late for that. But I didn’t tell him that. “Nick,” I eyed him, “you love my mom and that’s what matters the most. I’m
okay
.”

He stared down at me for a moment, not believing me.

“Really,” I added.

“Alright,” he sighed, his eyes zeroing in on something across the room. “I better get you back to your boyfriend before he bites my arm off or something.”

I glanced over my shoulder to see Trace standing with his hands shoved into his pockets, glaring at Nick. My mom was speaking to Resa, Nick’s mom.

I shook my head and smiled at Nick. “Did he miss the wedding or something? I’m pretty sure you just said ‘I do’ and it wasn’t to me.”

Nick chuckled. “Yeah, he must have missed that part.”

The song ended and Nick released me. “Thanks for talking with me, Olivia.” With a smile, he disappeared off the dance floor, in search of my mom.

“Somebody was a Chatty Kathy,” Trace appeared at my side.

I grabbed his hand and pulled him to an empty table. “He wanted to talk,” I told Trace, sitting down beside him. “So, we talked. There was no need for you to glare at him like that. He
is
my step-dad.” Ew. That word seemed too strange to comprehend.

“Sorry,” Trace mumbled, bowing his head. “I know that. I’m just very overprotective of you.”

I swallowed thickly, feeling like he’d punched me in the gut. Trace had always been protective of me, but after I was nearly murdered he gave that word a whole new meaning.

“I highly doubt Nick’s going to kill me,” my voice was barely above a whisper.

“I’m sorry,” Trace repeated, “I can’t help but freak out a bit when it comes to you.”

“It’s been two years, Trace. I’ve moved on,”
somewhat
, “and you should too.”

His fingers tapped restlessly against his knee.

“I wish that bastard hadn’t killed himself. He deserved to rot in prison for what he did to you,” Trace seethed, his teeth gritted.

“At least, he can never hurt anyone else now,” I whispered, feeling very small. For some reason, whenever the conversation turned to Aaron, I always felt like a small child and wanted to curl into a ball.

Trace sighed, rubbing his hand over his stubbled jaw. “Yeah, I guess that is a good thing…I still think it’s completely fucked up that he took the easy way out.”

Shortly after I was released from the hospital, things were moving along with Aaron’s trial, when he found out that he might be stuck behind bars for most of his life, he found a way to end it. The police officers found him hanging in his holding cell by the sheet from his bed.

When I first found out…it didn’t seem real. I felt like it was some kind of joke. I didn’t feel like it should have been possible for him to commit suicide. That made me angry for quite a while. While I suffered with recovering from what he did to me, Aaron was dead and free from suffering for his actions.

“Can we stop talking about this?” I pleaded, looking up at Trace through my lashes. “Today is my mom’s wedding day and the last thing I want to be thinking about is that—that—monster.”

Trace swallowed, his eyes sad. He reached for my hand, placing a tender kiss on it. “I’m sorry, Olivia. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“It’s okay,” I forced a smile, but my words were weak.

While Trace’s way of coping was to talk about what happened to me, I preferred to pretend it never happened.

“What are you two doing sitting over here looking so sad?” Avery asked, plopping into the seat beside me and kicking off her high heels. “Trouble in paradise?”

“No!” Trace and I both exclaimed.

“Ugh,” Avery grumbled, “I
wish
you two weren’t so perfect together. You make relationships look so easy.”

For the past two years, Avery and Luca, who happened to be Trace’s best friend, had been in an off-and-on relationship. I really wished they’d get their crap figured out and get together permanently. They were perfect for each other. Things had gone well for them for a while and then things went sour. Avery would never tell me what happened which led me to believe
she
was the one with the problem. I asked Trace if he knew what happened, but he told me that guys don’t talk about that kind of stuff. Whatever.

“That’s because relationships are easy when you love the other person and you communicate,” Trace eyed Avery.

“Whatever,” she rolled her eyes, crossing her legs and massaging the sole of her foot. “That’s so not true.”

I shook my head at her.

I sat up straight and reached for Trace’s hand. I wasn’t going to let Aaron or Avery make me sad today.

“Want to dance again?” I asked him.

“Sure,” he grinned crookedly. “Any excuse to have you in my arms is a good one.”

Avery made a choking sound. “I think I threw up in my mouth. That was way too sweet for me.”

“And that’s why you’re single right now,” I whispered in her ear as I passed by her on our way back onto the dance floor.

Putting our previous conversation behind us I smiled up at him as I crossed my arms behind his neck. “You look really good in this suit.” He wore a light grey suit, with a button down pale blue shirt, a thin black belt, and a navy tie.

“Babe, I look good in anything and nothing at all,” he chuckled.

“Even after two years, you’re still as cocky as ever,” I smiled.

“
Confident
, not cocky. There’s a difference,” he laughed, his eyes light and playful.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m pretty sure you’ve told me that before.”

“That’s because it’s true,” he smiled down at me.

After dancing to a few more songs, everyone was cleared off the dance floor for dinner and cake.

I sat at the lone rectangular table beside my mom. Thank God Trace was on my other side. Nick was to my mom’s left with his best man, his brother Ben, beside him. Ben and I were both expected to give speeches…I was pretty sure I’d throw up before I could give mine. Public speaking was
not
my forte.

“Babe…babe…
babe
,” Trace wrenched his hand from mine under the table.

“What?” I glanced over at him.

“You cut off my circulation, I think my hand is asleep,” he groaned, waving his hand in the air.

“Sorry,” I bowed my head, eyeing the white tablecloth. “I’m nervous.”

Hearing my words, my mom turned towards me. “Honey, I told you that I don’t expect you to give a speech. Don’t worry about it, sweetie.”

“Mom, it’s my job as your maid of honor to give a speech, so that’s what I’m going to do,” I steeled my shoulders.

“You always were a stubborn child,” she chuckled, fingering a loose curl beside her cheek.

Trace leaned around me so he could see my mom and squeezed my knee. “She’s a spitfire.”

“You’ve got that right,” she huffed.

“Um, I’m sitting
right here
,” I pointed to myself. “You realize that I
can
hear you?”

“You mean…” Trace paused. “…you have ears? That’s shocking.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Wanna sleep on the couch tonight?”

“Come on,” he squeezed my knee, “I’m no good to you on the couch.”

I blushed. Sometimes, I couldn’t believe the things he said, especially when my mom was right beside me. Ugh.

“You’re blushing,” he poked my cheek.

“And you’re about two seconds away from losing your hand,” I snapped.

He leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Is it that time of the month or something? ‘Cause you’re super grumpy today.”

“I’m stressed,” I replied, wiggling in my seat. I had been worried about doing something stupid during the ceremony and now I was worried about my speech…that I hadn’t even written.

The stress of writing it had been too much, so I hoped I could come up with something decent off the top of my head.

If not, I was screwed.

“Allow me to…” he whispered huskily, “relive some of that stress.” His finger trailed up my thigh, higher and higher.

My eyes fluttered closed, but before I lost all sense I smacked his hand away. “Not here,” I hissed.

He sat back and smirked. “Later then. I’m sure I can locate a closet or something.”

“We’re outside,” I stated. “No closets.”