Scandalous: Scandalized!

“We’re friends, Tony. Despite any other agreements, I’d like to believe that. And friends help friends. You don’t have to worry that I’ll read more into this than exists.”

He stubbornly ignored her references to their situation, and asked, “Does that mean you’ll stay, Olivia? Please?”

At that moment, she would have done anything for him, but of course, she couldn’t tell him that. She looked up at him and smiled. “Yes, I’ll stay. For as long as you need me.”

CHAPTER FIVE

A LOOK OF RELIEF washed over Tony’s features, then he hugged her close again. “I believe the coffee is still in the pot. It might be a little strong now, but I could sure use a cup. And the kids are probably hungry. Kids are always hungry, right? So what do you say? You up to breakfast?”

At just that moment, two faces peeked around the door frame, and they were both very solemn. Olivia’s heart swelled with emotion for these two small people who were obviously concerned about their mother. She forgot Tony for the moment, forgot that she didn’t know anything about kids, and went down on her knees to meet the children at their level.

“Hello. Remember me?”

Six-year-old Luke stared at her with serious eyes, all the energy of yesterday conspicuously missing. “Sure we remember. It was just last night. You was kissing Uncle Tony in his garage.”

Olivia felt her face turn pink, but she smiled. “Actually it was the other way around. Your uncle was kissing me.”

Maggie, who at three seemed very small and delicate, popped her thumb from her mouth to say with great wisdom, “Uncle Tony likes kissin’. He kisses me lots, too.”

And just that easily, Olivia found a rapport. She reached out and tugged Maggie closer, and the little girl came willingly, wrapping one arm around Olivia’s neck while holding tight to a tattered blanket with the other. Olivia perched the little girl on her knee. “Are you two hungry? I think your uncle was planning on making breakfast for us.”

Maggie nodded, but Luke turned away. Tony stopped him with only a word. “Your mom will be fine, Luke, I promise.”

“Dad looked awful scared.”

Tony caught Olivia’s arm and helped her to stand, then began steering them all toward the kitchen. “Not scared. Upset. There’s a big difference. Your dad can’t stand to see any of you sick or feeling bad. The fact that your mom is sick makes him feel almost as bad as she does. He wants to take care of all of you, just as your mom does. But he needs time alone with her now, so he can make certain the doctors don’t flirt with her too much. He can’t watch her if he’s busy watching you two.”

Luke didn’t look as if he understood Tony’s humor. “Mom is awful pretty.”

“Yes, she is. And so you guys get to stay here with me.”

“For how long?”

Tony stopped to stare at Luke, pretending a great affront. “Good grief, boy, you’ll have Olivia thinking you don’t like me.”

Maggie twisted loose from Olivia’s hold to say in a very firm voice, “We do so like Unca’ Tony. We like him lots.” And Olivia couldn’t help but smile.

The chatter continued all the while Tony cooked, and with each second, Olivia became more enamored of Tony’s familial commitments. The kids, despite their concern, were happy and comfortable to be with him. There was so much love in the air, she could fill her lungs with it. And Tony proved to be as adept at holding a child while cooking as any mother. Olivia wondered if he did so because he enjoyed holding the baby so much, or because he didn’t want Olivia to hold him.

Unfortunately, as the day wore on, the latter proved to be true. Not once, even at the most hectic times, did Tony request her assistance with the baby. Not long after they’d finished breakfast John called to say Lisa had pneumonia and they’d be keeping her overnight. She was worn down from all the daily running she did, not to mention having given birth not that long before. And since she was staying at the hospital, John wanted to leave the kids with Tony so he could be free to stay with her.

Tony agreed, and surprisingly, once the kids were assured their mother would be fine and probably home the next day, they seemed thrilled by the idea of staying. Tony promised to bring in a tent that they could set up in front of the fireplace. Maggie asked, “Will Livvy get to sleep with us, too?”

It seemed Tony was caught speechless for a moment, then he said, “If she wants to. And it’s Olivia, sweetheart, not Livvy.”

“I don’t mind, Tony. Actually it’s a familiar nickname.”

“You look kinda funny, Olivia.” Luke watched her closely, and Olivia was amazed by the child’s perception.

“I’m fine, Luke, honest.” But hearing little Maggie call her by the same name her own mother and father had always used dredged up long forgotten feelings and left her shaken. And Tony seemed to notice. He held her hand and gave it a squeeze, then went to call his mother and sister to let them know what was going on. He hadn’t wanted to tell them Lisa was sick until he knew for certain she’d be all right. Olivia gathered by the one-sided conversation that his mother offered to come and take the children, but Tony only thanked her. He said they had already made plans, and she could have them in the morning, but not before their “campout.”

Finally, right after an early dinner, Luke and Maggie got bundled up from head to toe and went out back to play. Being children, they seemed impervious to the cold, but Tony insisted that it could only be for a short spell.

Even though the yard was isolated, with no other neighbors in sight, Tony still admonished both children to stay very close by. They could use the tire swing in the tree or play in the small playhouse he and John had built the preceding summer for just such visits. The infant, Shawn, lay sleeping on a blanket on the floor and Tony and Olivia were left relatively alone.

Tony dropped down beside her on the couch, then grinned. “Man, am I worn-out. Kids, in the plural, can really keep you hopping, can’t they?”

She knew he had loved every single minute, that he wasn’t really complaining. It had been there on his face, the way he smiled, the way he held the baby and teased Maggie and spoke to Luke.

She licked her lips nervously and slanted him a cautious look. “I would have been glad to help you out a little, you know.” She said it tentatively, hoping to broach the topic without setting off any alarm bells.

But all he did was pat her thigh in a now familiar way. “You help a lot just by being here. Pneumonia. Can you imagine that? Lisa always seems so healthy. But John said the doctor told him it could bring you low in just a few hours.”

“Will she have to stay in the hospital long?”

“No. She’ll probably get to come home tomorrow. And Mom and Kate are already making plans to take turns helping her out until she’s completely well again. John is swearing he’s going to hire someone to come and clean for her from now on, but he said Lisa told him to forget it. She’s funny about her house, likes to do things a certain way, you know?”

His statement didn’t really require an answer, and Olivia couldn’t have given him one anyway. “Your whole family really sticks together, don’t they?”

He seemed surprised by her question. “Of course we do.”

“I mean, even though Lisa isn’t really part of your family…”

“She’s married to John. She’s the mother of my niece and nephews. She’s part of the family.”

And that was that, Olivia supposed. It would be so nice to belong to such a family. She said without thinking, “When Maggie called me Livvy…It, well, it reminded me of when I was a child. That was what my mother and father always called me. But I’d forgotten until she said it.”

Tony wrapped one large hand around the back of her neck and tugged her closer. His lips touched her temple, and she could feel their movement against her skin as he spoke. “I figured it must have been something like that. I’m sorry, Olivia. You looked so damn sad.”

“No. Not sad really.” She tried her best to look cavalier over the subject, even so far as giving him a smile. “It’s been so long, I’ve forgotten what it’s like to miss them. I guess I’m used to being alone.”

It was a horrible lie, because who could actually get accustomed to spending her life alone? There was never anyone to share the triumphs, which made them seem almost hollow, and when the struggles to get ahead occasionally became too much, she had only herself to lean on.

Tony was staring at her in his intent, probing way and Olivia had the horrible suspicion he was reading her thoughts, knowing exactly what it was she concealed, and how empty she often felt.

He looked down at her hands, which were tightly pressed together in her lap, then covered them with one of his own. “Is that why you’ve isolated yourself?”

“I haven’t.”

His gaze snapped back to her face, as if struck that she would deny such an obvious thing. “Of course you have. You keep to yourself, don’t date, don’t form long-standing friendships. You put everything you have into the lingerie shops. It’s almost like you’re afraid of getting involved.”

“I am not afraid.” She didn’t know what else she could say. She felt defensive, as if she had to explain her choice of lifestyle, but that was impossible. She would never be able to give Tony the truth.

“It’s not natural for a woman like you to still be single, to not want some kind of commitment.”

Despite herself, she stiffened. “A woman like me? What exactly is that supposed to mean?”

Tony closed his eyes and made a sound of frustration. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. It’s just that…I never thought of you as you are. You always seemed pleasant enough, but so businesslike and…well, detached. And here you are, a very warm, caring woman, wearing sexy lingerie that makes me go a little crazy and looking so damn sweet and vulnerable at the most surprising times.”