Olivia (Logan 5)

Of course, I wasn't. I was there beside the window. The wind had picked up and the surf crashed on the rocks below. Slowly, I peered through a corner of the window again. He was above her, his hands on her breasts, his back arched, his face turned in my direction. She had her arms around his waist and her legs raised and wrapped around him. He opened his eyes and I was sure, by his expression, he saw me looking in the window.

I didn't wait to hear him cry out. I turned and ran all the way back to the house, coughing and sputtering when I reached the wooden steps up to the yard. I was dry heaving. My stomach felt like it had been turned inside out.

Then I looked back because I heard the sound of a door in the boathouse being opened. I saw him standing there, silhouetted in the moonlight, looking in my direction.

"Nelson?" I heard her cry. "Come on back. Come on. There's no one there. I don't have all night."

"All right," he said, lingered a moment and then returned to the office.

I took two deep breaths, held my hand to my heart to stop it from pounding a hole in my chest, and walked back to the house. I was so soaked with my own sweat, I felt as if I had fallen into the sea. I made my way to the front, hung up my coat, and returned to my room. There, I pulled off my nightgown and went to the bathroom to shower. I put on a different nightgown and crawled back into my bed, pulling the blanket up to my chin.

My heart thumped dully under my breast. I lay there, my eyes wide open, convincing myself I had indeed been outside and I had indeed seen them in the boathouse. This was no dream, no nightmare of my own making.

In two months, I thought, she was supposed to be married to Carson McGil in a ceremony that would take place only yards from where she lay making love with the only man I loved.

I heard Belinda return to her room, but I didn't get up to confront her. Instead, I pretended I knew nothing when we both met at breakfast the next morning. She rattled on and on to Mother about how boring the event had been and why she had to come home early.

"I never heard you come in," Mother told her. "Did you hear her, Olivia?"

I looked at Belinda.

"Yes, I he

ard her come home," I said quickly. Belinda smiled.

"I had to take something for my cramps and fell right to sleep myself," she said. I stared at her, but she didn't notice.

"I have to get to work. We have a lot doing today," I said and left the house as quickly as I could because I felt if I remained a moment longer, I would scream out what I had really seen and who knew what that would do to Mother. I shuddered to think what would happen when Daddy found out.

As I turned down Commercial Street, I saw Nelson Childs and his father come out of The Sea Loft, a popular breakfast place. They shook hands and Nelson started toward his shiny red car. Impulsively, I turned into the space behind his car and he looked up, surprised. When he saw me, his smile of confusion faded and his face turned deathly serious. Then, he caught his thoughts in midair, flung them into the back of his mind, and smiled again, his hand up in greeting.

I rolled down my window.

"Good morning," he said stepping up to my car. "I just had some breakfast with Dad."

I could see from how nervous he was that he suspected he had seen me in the window the night before.

"I think you and I should have a little talk, Nelson."

"Talk?"

"About last night," I said firmly. His lips quivered and his eyes filled with trepidation.

"Last night?"

"Why don't you just get into my car?" I suggested. He nodded and went around quickly to get in. For a moment we both sat there silently.

"I heard Belinda leave the house after she had come home from a date with Carson. I was curious, so I followed her to the boathouse."

"Oh," he said. He looked ahead. "I thought it was you."

"I'm disappointed in you, Nelson. You know you're having an affair with a woman who's engaged to be married soon, and a woman, I might add, who isn't very bright. She's my sister and I love her, but I recognize her failings. She's not sophisticated when it comes to male-female relationships."

He started to smile.

"I don't mean she's not a good lover. I'm sure she is . . . quite the lover, but she's been in trouble before, bad trouble. You have no idea how bad," I continued, relentless now. "My father has had more than his hands full rescuing her from one disaster after another, but this is one that threatens the very foundation of our family and I won't let it happen."

I spun on him.