Her only hope was that they’d get their talk over with before Lorenzo got there. Lorenzo had also texted her to tell her he was stopping at home first to change then he’d pick her up. Luckily, Isaiah wasted no time getting right to it the moment he stepped into the kitchen.
Of course, Nathan would be right there making himself a sandwich when Isaiah walked in.
“So Hollingsworth’s your silent partner?” he asked, putting his keys down on the counter. “You said it was just a loan. That you wouldn’t have to deal with his ass at all. Now he’s showing up to check up on you?”
“He does that with all his clients,” she explained as Nathan eyed her with a murderous glare. “It only happens once in a great while and only if he happens to be in the area.”
“Has he made you anymore propositions?” Nathan asked, already wearing his “don’t lie to me” face.
What she’d already told them was stretching the truth enough. Elton dropping in on her was happening far more than once in a great while. Olivia had never been a good liar, so she decided to come clean about one thing. “No, he did happen to come by around lunch time, and he asked if I’d eaten. I said ‘no’ and he said he’d buy me lunch.” She held her hand up because both her brothers looked ready to spit. “We had tacos from a taco truck up the street, standing outside by their makeshift eating area. It was hardly anything that would be considered romantic or inappropriate. I had a client I had to see in fifteen minutes, so our lunch was over in less than that.”
“Livi, all a guy like that needs is a little encouragement,” Isaiah’s warning was a bit exasperated. “Anything, even going along with having a quick lunch with him will have him thinking he stands a chance.”
“It was a business lunch,” she insisted. “An informal business lunch. We talked about nothing else but how things were going with the van and my clients.”
This was the truth. Though she knew it was only because they hadn’t had much time to dabble into anything personal. But their conversations always did. This was also the same reason why Olivia hadn’t mentioned her new boyfriend to Elton. It wasn’t just the way her brothers were both glowering at her that told her this wasn’t going to fly anymore. She knew without a doubt that Lorenzo knew since Isaiah questioned about her silent partner. It was clear they’d talked about it. Lorenzo was the only one she’d ever referred to Elton as a silent partner to. She was just surprised Lorenzo hadn’t mentioned it in their texts.
Nathan was about to say something when Isaiah held his hand up at him. “Look,” Isaiah started. “We know you’re an adult and we can’t and won’t”—he gave Nathan a stern look—“be policing who you can and can’t have lunch with or even hang out with. It’s just that you said it yourself, Livi. Before he ever propositioned you, you said he was creepy. You’re the one who mentioned he made you uncomfortable. That was your gut telling you to be on alert, and that gut feeling was spot on, wasn’t it?”
Olivia nodded, a little irritated with herself for ever having mentioned that to them in the first place. But as creepy as she thought Elton back then, she never would’ve imagined him proposing what he had.
“Now as adults, Sis,” Isaiah went on in a noticeably calmer tone, “you and I both know what his proposition was code for. He basically asked you to sleep with him in exchange for money. The money you owed him. This is the only reason it pisses us off that he’s still sniffing around you.”
“Yeah,” Nathan agreed adamantly. “I don’t care how old you are, Liv. You’re still my baby sister, and if I find out that asshole’s disrespecting you or making you uncomfortable in any way, I’m going after him.”
Isaiah and Olivia both gave him a look though it worried Olivia more than she could tell it exasperated Isaiah. They all knew that was the last thing Nathan should be thinking. Nathan already had assault charges they were trying to get expunged from his record.
“Don’t worry,” she said, trying to sound as comforting as possible. “I won’t let him disrespect me, and he didn’t do or say anything to make me uncomfortable this time.”
“I take it you haven’t told your boyfriend everything about this guy, have you?” Isaiah asked, coming around the kitchen island and opening the fridge. “He seemed pretty relaxed about it when the subject of Hollingsworth stopping by to do an inspection came up. Something tells me that guy wouldn’t be so cool about that if he knew the whole story.”
Raising her chin a bit, she admitted the truth. “I didn’t see a point in telling him the whole story. It might upset him for no reason.”
“Might?” Nathan laughed. “If it were my girl, I’d be pissed!”
“You know I hate to agree with this guy when it comes to anything,” Isaiah said with a smirk as he poured himself some orange juice. “But I’m with him, Livi. Enzo seems like a cool dude. I like him for you.”
Nathan’s face soured a bit and he shrugged. His verdict wasn’t quite in yet. Olivia reached out and rubbed her brother’s big arm teasingly. “You know you like him,” she whispered.
Nathan rolled his eyes as Isaiah continued. “I may not know a whole lot about your boyfriend, but I do know one thing just by the way he looks at you. The guy’s crazy about you. Any guy crazy about his girl is not gonna want someone like creepy Hollingsworth sniffing around her.”
It was silly, but hearing her brother say Lorenzo was crazy about her made her a bit giddy. Though she knew what he was saying about Lorenzo being pissed was very likely true. Now that she knew she’d have to talk to Lorenzo about this, it made her nervous.
Nathan finished chewing but brought his fist over his mouth anyway when he spoke. “Hell, even if I wasn’t crazy about my girl, it’s the principle that matters. If she’s my girl, then she’s fucking off limits to other guys making social visits at her job and asking her out to lunch. C’mon, Liv, we all know what this guy’s up to. A simple text or email could get him the info he’s supposedly just dropping by to check on. It’s bullshit.”
Olivia agreed with her brothers that it was odd. Though she knew it was more than odd. The whole time Elton had talked to her he’d stare and smiled at her in that way she just knew he was waiting for her to ask what was on his mind. Of course she refused to, but she hadn’t been completely honest with her brothers about something else. Elton did make her uncomfortable. He always had. That’s why she’d been compelled to mention it way back when she was still in training. The way he ogled and smiled at her back then was just off-putting. She should’ve known her brothers would never forget her mentioning it.
By the time Lorenzo picked Olivia up, she was a nervous wreck. She wondered just how he’d bring it up, if at all. Given what Isaiah said about Lorenzo being relaxed about it, halfway through their night out she was tempted to not bring it up at all.
Olivia reasoned that his not bringing it up was indicative of how he felt about this non-issue. Then she had a scarier thought. Maybe he was just waiting to see if she’d offer up an explanation before he had to ask for one—test how forthcoming she really was. Yet he’d been in a cheery and playful enough mood all night.
Obviously they couldn’t talk about it during the movie, and before the movie there wasn’t enough time. Just as they sat at the frozen yogurt shop, digging into her second scoop of yogurt, he asked her something that made her swallow her spoonful all at once, resulting in major brain freeze.
“Did your brother tell you?” She stared at him, pinching her brows together in pain, and he tilted his head. “What’s wrong?”
“Brain freeze,” she explained, touching her fingers to the crease in between her eyes.
His expression morphed from confusion to amused sympathy. “Want me to get you coffee?” he smirked.
“No,” she said with a pained but equally amused smirk.
The brain freeze ceased slowly, but his question still loomed. Mad at herself for not having brought it up first, she was relieved to hear him say Isaiah had invited him over the next day for the Cowboys-Raiders game. Sh
e smiled big for two reasons. First of all, she was glad her brothers, who could be ornery when it came to any guys around her or Emi, seemed to have taken a liking to Lorenzo, even if Nathan wouldn’t admit it just yet. Second, and most importantly, she was smiling in relief because his question hadn’t been about Elton. That’s when she decided to stop stalling before it was too late.
“So I didn’t mention it to Isaiah because I didn’t even think about it until later,” Lorenzo said with that twinkle in his eyes. Just another thing that made her sigh when gazing at him. “But do you think it would be okay if I invited Vince and Rosie over tomorrow too? This way I’d have at least two more Raiders fans cheering with me amongst the onslaught of Cowboy fans.”
Olivia laughed. “Two more? Vince hasn’t turned Rose to the dark side yet.”
“I was talking about Ruby.” He laughed, wiping his mouth. “We’ll get Rosie to turn soon enough, but Ruby was born a Raiders fan.”
Olivia nodded, assuring him that’d be more than fine, as she took another much smaller spoonful of her yogurt. The moment she was done savoring it, she went for it. “I meant to tell you,” she started, shaking off the fact that this wasn’t entirely true, “Elton stopped by the other day while I was working.”
It wasn’t what she’d call a frown or even an annoyed expression, but he knew. Olivia saw it in his eyes. His attempt to not let his playful smile flat line instantly was her first hint. It just slowly waned until he was staring at her with more of a curious expression than an annoyed one. But she could see it in his eyes. He had been waiting for this. Without comment, he waited for her to go on, but the intense emotion in his eyes, despite his attempt to appear calm—relaxed—made her want to kick herself.
In the last few weeks with him, she’d gotten to know him pretty well. She should’ve known better than to lie even if only by omission. The moment she said it, she could tell he knew she’d never once meant to tell him about this but she was doing so now only because she had to.
Clearing her throat, she moved her spoon around in her yogurt cup and glanced down at it. “He does that every now and then just to check in and see how things are going.”
“To inspect your van?” he asked, taking another spoonful of his yogurt but still staring her straight in the eyes.
“Well, not really inspect.” She smiled, trying to make light of it. “He just comes in, gives it a once-over, and just makes sure everything is running smoothly. Usually when I happen to be in his area.”
Lorenzo continued to stare at her even as he licked his spoon clean without saying a word. He knew there was more.
Without giving into the incredible unease she was suddenly feeling, she sat up straight and continued. She’d done nothing wrong, and nobody, not her brothers nor Lorenzo, was going to make her feel as if she had.
“So if it happens to be around lunch time or something, and he happens to catch me right around the time I’m finishing up like he did the other day, sometimes we grab lunch.”
Just as Nathan predicted, Lorenzo was not happy about this.
“Really?” he asked, sitting back in his chair in an apparent show that his interest was no longer on the yogurt. “So where’d you have lunch with him?”
“Taco truck up the street,” she said indifferently. “I barely had time to grab something before my next client.”
“But if you’d had time—?”
“No. I always say I don’t have time.”
“You said he has access to your schedule.”
“My schedule changes all the time,” she blurted out and began talking way too fast. “People cancel last minute, and I don’t even get a chance to update it in my calendar. Sometimes I make phone calls to people who were hoping to get their dogs in sooner and let them know I have an opening. He can’t know every minute of my schedule—”
“Liv,” Lorenzo said, sitting up suddenly, and reached for her arm, but he seemed more concerned than annoyed. “Why are you getting so nervous?”
“I’m not,” she said, failing miserably at sounding convincing.
“It’s okay,” he said, slipping his fingers through hers on the table. “So you had lunch with the guy. It’s not a big deal. I’m glad you told me. I just don’t like how nervous it made you. I hope this isn’t because of my warnings about me not wanting to deal with your ex. I mean, yeah, I don’t want to deal with any guy trying to pull a fast one on my girl. But business is business. I know all about business lunches. I’m not gonna flip out over something so—”
“My brothers hate him.”
The words flew out without thought. Or maybe not, because saying it made her feel an enormous relief. Maybe deep inside she’d known all along she should just tell him the truth. From the beginning when he’d made his stance on the other men in her life so clear, the thought of Elton ever being an issue had buzzed around her brain like an annoying mosquito. If she was going to tell him about the guy, she was telling him everything.
Lorenzo’s brows were already slightly pinched, but he didn’t look mad, just curious. “Yeah, I sort of got that from Isaiah today. Why is that?”
Not wanting to take too deep of a breath and show him how much she was dreading this, she inhaled and exhaled softly and began.
“Elton is older but not as old as you would think since he owns such a big company that’s been in business for so many years.”
Olivia paused to take another small spoonful of her yogurt. Mostly she needed a moment to study his expression to decide if it was a good idea to tell him everything or maybe she should give him a watered down version instead. He didn’t appear to be angry yet, so she went on.
“He inherited the business from his mom. I don’t know for sure, but I’d say he’s in his mid-to-late thirties?” She shrugged. “Anyway, most of his clients start off by taking the grooming course at his main grooming store. Once you’re certified, it’s up to you to go get as much experience as you can, and then when you’re ready, you could go anywhere really. Many options are available, but if you’re gonna go the mobile route, then your best bet is to go through him because he’s the best deal out there. Trust me. I did my research.”
Lorenzo sat forward, bringing his elbows to the table, lacing his own fingers together in front of him, and resting his chin on his hands. Either he was finding this fascinating or he wanted to make sure he didn’t misunderstand a single thing. Of course, this only unnerved her further, but she stood her ground, speaking confidently without doing the blurting thing again.
She explained that Elton wasn’t a groomer and doesn’t know much about pets or even dealing with customers—clients. When his mom was alive, he just handled all the back end stuff: the accounting, payroll, inventory, taxes, etc.
“So when he’d come in to check on the trainees, it was kind of creepy. She lifted and dropped a shoulder. “I didn’t understand what he was doing in there, and since he didn’t actually do any grooming himself, what could he be checking up on? At first, it was just once or twice a week, but after a while, it was more like three to four times. And he always came by my training area to chat. It made me uncomfortable, and I happened to mention this to my brothers. Then one day Elton called me into his office.”
Lorenzo’s brow was suddenly up, but Olivia refused to start fumbling her words or start speed talking. So she took in what she hoped was an unnoticed deep breath and went on.
“I’d only paid my down payment on the tuition at that point, so I still owed a big chunk. He said he could work out a deal where I wouldn’t have to pay the whole amount or he could even sponsor the rest of the amount.”
The curiosity in Lorenzo’s eyes was replaced with that deep intensity, and he sat back a little but not all the way, crossing his arms in front of him. Still he said nothing. He just waited, his heavy silence foreboding.
“Basically, he invited me to do things with him. He has a yacht he said he wanted to take me out on, and a cozy mountain cabin by a lake he mentioned was almost three hours
away, so it’d likely be an overnight trip. He said he didn’t have many friends and he’d be willing to overlook my fees in exchange for—”
“Sex.”
It was the first word Lorenzo had said in a while, and it felt like an unexpected gush of cold air to the face.
“That’s not what he said,” Olivia responded immediately, realizing how naïve that sounded, but she went on. “I know what he was implying. I’m not stupid. Yes, he wanted more than just a friendship, but he never said it outright, nor was he rude, disrespectful, or even pushy about it. And for the record, I never once considered taking him up on the offer. But Nathan overheard me telling Margie about it on the phone one night. Predictably and why I never planned on telling them in the first place, he was livid.”
“Did he have reason to be, Liv?” Lorenzo asked in a strange tone.
Quiet for a moment she thought about her answer before just responding, “I can see why he would be.” She stared him down but continued with resolve. “But my brothers know me. I’d never agree to something like that. They just think Elton is full of shit with his subtle invitations, and that’s what irritates them, but they know he’s harmless.”
She went on to explain about the money her father left them. How Isaiah and Nathan were both adamant that she use the money to pay off the van in full so she’d be rid of Elton and how upset they were when she took the loan instead. But she also explained why it was important to her that she didn’t use all the money.
“In the meantime, he is technically part owner. So I do have a business relationship with him. I’ll be done paying him in about a year, and then I’ll be done with him for good.”
There. She told him everything, and just like her brothers, Lorenzo would just have to accept that she was a grown woman entitled to make her own decisions and he’d have to respect them.
The brow was still up and admittedly it made her nervous, not because she was threatened by him in any way nor because she didn’t think she’d have it in her to stand her ground if she had to. Olivia just didn’t want this to become an argument. They’d had such a nice evening tonight, and she’d hate for it to be ruined because of Elton.