Bad Boys Do (Donovan Brothers Brewery 2)
“Oh, I know it’s not true now. I took care of that.”
She looked so proud, the stupid girl. As if she’d won herself a prize. As if she’d trapped some valuable animal who— Olivia blinked and stared at Allison’s smirk. “Oh, my God, you called the dean, didn’t you?”
Her smirk wavered for a split second, but then she smiled as if she’d wanted Olivia to figure it out. “I had no choice. Victor was obsessed with you. He claimed I tried to trap him by getting pregnant, as if he had nothing to do with it.”
“Did you?”
“No! But once I found out I was pregnant… He just wanted to walk away.”
“I’m sorry. That’s…” Olivia could understand how terrifying that must be, but, then again… “Did you ever think about letting him walk?”
“I’m not going to be like my mom. Kids by three different men, none of whom ever stuck around for more than two years. I didn’t work my ass off in college to end up back where I started. I wasn’t going to let him walk away.”
“So you told the dean.”
“You don’t understand,” she snapped, pointing her finger in Olivia’s face. “After you started dating that guy, Victor couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was driving him crazy. I kept telling him that he had me, but he just… Do you know what he did when I told him we were having twins?”
Olivia’s eyes flew to the girl’s belly in shock. She watched Allison curl a protective hand around her stomach.
“He went to your boyfriend’s bar and got drunk and started a fight with him! As if that was going to change anything! He was panicking, so I did what I had to do.”
“How does getting him in trouble fix anything?”
Allison shrugged. “It’s not much of a scandal if we’re married when the girls are born, is it?”
Oh, she was smart. Olivia could just imagine Victor’s conversation with the dean. This isn’t sordid, sir. In fact we’re getting married in a month. Everything here is on the up-and-up. Not a scandal in sight.
Olivia crossed her arms and looked down at her feet. She wanted to tell Allison she was making a terrible mistake. Why would she want to marry a man who didn’t want to marry her? But anything she said would be shadowed by the specter of the jealous ex-wife. The spurned woman. She—
“Oh, my God,” Olivia breathed. “You’re the one who called Lewis, aren’t you?”
Allison shrugged again. “I figured things would be easier if you had to leave. Then Victor wouldn’t see you every day at the U.”
“You know what? You deserve him. Congratulations.”
“Just stay away from him,” Allison repeated, her eyes glowing with triumph.
“You got it, girl.”
Olivia got in her car and tried not to gloat as she pulled out. After all, she was on her way to see her cute boyfriend. The one who wanted her around and wasn’t in love with another woman. But as she drove away, Allison grew tiny in the rearview mirror and Olivia’s smile faded. Ten years from now, maybe Allison would wake up and realize she had bigger dreams than Victor Bishop. Olivia took a deep breath and wished her luck. The girl was going to need it.
All thoughts of Allison and her reluctant fiancé disappeared like a popped bubble when Olivia pulled up to Jamie’s house and found him sitting on the porch waiting for her. “Am I late?” she asked as she scrambled out of her car.
“Nope.” He leaned in for a kiss as he stole the cake from her hands.
“I’m sorry. We’d better hurry. I don’t want to make you late.”
“Oh, I doubt anybody would be shocked.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s true.” He transferred the cake to his truck and dropped her bag inside the house before locking up.
Once they’d pulled out onto the street, she took his hand and squeezed it. “Everything’s going well now, right? With your family?”
“Everything’s great, but it’ll take a while to build up trust. I spent a lot of years breaking it down.”
“I don’t understand. From what I’ve heard, you didn’t do anything too awful.”