The Rented Husband (Southern Nights Series)

Chapter 23

“Yeah, I’ll take care of her,” Brody assured him.  “Come on muffin cakes; let’s get you upstairs and into bed.”  Taking her by the elbow, he lifted her up and seeing that she was unbalanced, he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, tucking her into his side.

Seth stood there for a moment waiting for Caley to stand.  When it was apparent that she wasn’t moving, he nudged her with his elbow, “Come on Caley, before you fall asleep at the table.”

The youngest of the sisters stared up at him with a blank expression.  “Huh?”

Seth dropped his head again.  “It’s time to go Caley.  I’m sure that Devin is still up and waiting for you to return.”

“Oh,” she said, her mouth forming a perfectly shaped ‘O’ in the process.  She lazily glanced around her to see that all the seats had been vacated and sluggishly stood up.  “Whoa, the room is spinning like crazy,” she exclaimed, placing a hand to each of her temples. 

“No,” Seth told her, shifting Ashley in his arms so that he could hold on to Caley.  “You just drank too much.  Way too much.”

She smiled up at him.  “Maybe just a little,” she told him, making an effort to show him by holding up her thumb and her forefinger, bringing them close together.  “Just a little,” she repeated.

“Just a little my ass,” he commented under his breath, earning a hefty laugh from Brody.  “Come on louse, time to take you to Devin and let him take care of you.  I have my own wife to attend to.”

With a nod to Brody, Seth took hold of Caley’s arm and gently led her out of the lounge.  Brody stood there in his place and watched the trio leave, smothering his own laughter when Caley attempted to sit down at the door. 

When they were good and gone, he turned Olivia around to face him and suddenly got serious.  The whole time that they had been apart, he had been going mad with worry.  Concerned by what set her off in the first place, worry that the stalker might get to her and then topping it off by not knowing what in the hell to do about it.  He would have gone into a full scale panic attack if it hadn’t been for him running into Seth.  “Exactly how much did you guys drink?” he finally asked.

Olivia stared hard at his chest, taking notice of the marbleized buttons that held his blue and white striped shirt together, not daring to meet his eyes.  “I don’t know,” she shrugged her shoulders.  “I quit counting at five.”

“Geez, Liv,“ he tossed his hand up in the air and groaned.  All of that pent up worry coming to the forefront.  “What in the hell were ya’ll thinking?  No,” he slapped his hand at his side.  “That’s the thing - none of you were thinking.  You know that there is someone after you and yet you let your guard down like this?  All three of you were stone drunk, sitting in here like ducks in water.  What if the creepy guy decided to make a move then?  Huh?”  He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her, wanting to do nothing more than shake some common sense into her.  “What would have happened then?  Answer me Liv, what would you have done?” 

Olivia said nothing.  Through her drunken haze, she felt the guilt rising.  He was so right; she hadn’t been thinking, at least about that.  She was so caught up in her own disturbing feelings for him that she could think of nothing else.  Keeping her face down, she continued to refuse to meet his penetrating gaze.

“When you ran off from me, that was all I could think about.  What if he got to you before I did?  What would I do if I came up and I was a second too late?  How do you think that made me feel Liv?  Really.  How do you think I felt when I couldn‘t find you anywhere?”

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, unable to say anything else. 

“You bet your ass that you’re sorry, but sometimes sorry isn’t good enough.”  He took his hands and framed her face, lifting it so that he could see into the depths of her jewel like eyes.  “Sorry wouldn’t have helped if you got hurt.  Sorry wouldn’t have helped if the madman got his hands on you.  Sorry just doesn’t cut it Liv.”