As he straightened up, his heart thundering with his recent exertion, and the revelation he’d just received, he became dimly aware of the girl slipping off Livvie, to spoon behind her, her hands cupped around his sister’s lovely breasts, and Livvie’s soft gasp as he slid from her and crawled up the bed, to lie next to her. His hands slid around her, to cup and squeeze her bottom as they lay face to face, and the last thing he remembered was her soft lips on his as they both slipped into the contented afterglow of their perfect moment.
*
The slight ‘give’ of the mattress flipped Ryan back to wakefulness, to see the masked girl standing and shaking out her hair. Ryan looked at Livvie, fast asleep in his arms, her beautiful face calm, sweet, serene, his Livvie once more, and smiled up at the girl.
“You don’t have to go yet, Livvie hasn’t…” he began, but the girl just smiled and reached out to touch him gently between the eyes with her fingertip.
“You guys are back together again; whatever was wrong, you’ve fixed it, and now you need to be alone, and you really don’t need me being in the way anymore! When she wakes up, love her, tell her everything you need her to know, and everything she needs to hear, and let her tell you too; she still has some ghosts of her own; help her lay them to rest.”
She paused to smile down at him again, her curved lips perfect, flawless, glistening like dark cherries in the dim light from the hallway.
“I envy you; she’s exquisite, and she wants only you, but then I think you already knew that!”
She turned to leave, and Ryan called out to her, his voice soft but urgent.
“Wait, please! You helped us, you helped Livvie, you did so much for us, and I… I don’t know how to thank you; I don’t even know your name!”
The girl winked at him.
“And that’s the way it should be, Ryan. You and Livvie don’t need someone like me in your lives; the pair of you have something truly special. If I became a part of your lives it would destroy what you already have, and I think you know that; there aren’t enough truly special things left that we can just discard them willy-nilly, so we have to keep them safe; you do it your way, and I’ll do it mine!”
She sleeked and shook her hair out one last time and padded noiselessly out of the room, pausing at the door to look back over her shoulder and grin mischievously.
“You have an exquisite sister, Ryan!”
And then she was gone, leaving Ryan to gape open-mouthed after her.
Just then, Livvie stirred and muttered something in her sleep, and Ryan immediately lay back down beside her, pulling the covers up over them as he settled back in contentment, Livvie in his arms. A movement at the door caught his eye, and there was Chloe, tip-toeing into the room to place the baby monitor back on the nightstand and blow him a ‘goodnight’ kiss. Ryan returned it, smiling at their good fortune in having someone like Chloe to lean on, to be there, and be their family.
*
Livvie woke gradually, hearing first the sound of Ryan’s breathing. Then came the realisation that they were alone, just the two of them. She pulled off the blindfold to confirm with her eyes what her other senses had already told her; the girl was gone, and it was just her and Ryan. A pang of sadness pricked her for a second, but tempered by the sure and certain knowledge that she and Ryan were good again; whatever she’d been doing, or thinking, and, more importantly, whatever it was she’d sensed about Ryan that had made her push him away, was gone too. Even that sense of distance, that distraction that had been all she’d felt from him in such a long time, was gone.
“I never saw her…” she mourned silently in the privacy of her thoughts, her eyes brimming at the knowledge that whoever had brought them together again had left without a word, had never given Olivia the chance to see her, and know her, and give her thanks to her. As she sighed, Ryan’s eyes opened, his lips curving into his lovely smile as he looked into her eyes.
“Hello Gorgeous!” he grinned, and Livvie immediately pulled herself into his embrace.
“Ryan…!” she choked, holding him close, fiercely, while Ryan hugged her just as fiercely, letting her know that he was there, that he was hers, always and forever. After a while, he realised she was crying, softly, noiselessly, but he could feel her tears. He pulled away slightly, tipping her chin up so he could look at her.
“Don’t cry, wife, it’s over now, it’s all over; be happy, I am!”
Livvie smiled tremulously, her lip still quivering, and her eyes still brimming. Ryan smiled and gently wiped her tears away.
“Ryan, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cry all over you, I’m so happy, really!” she blurted out, smiling again at his head shake.
“It’s okay, Liv; you’re allowed to, you know! Why don’t you tell me about it? I don’t know about you, but I feel like it’s a new start, maybe you feel the same, but I think it’s time we got all that old stuff cleared away once and for all; you agree?”
Livvie nodded, and slowly, haltingly, began to unreel all the things that had been building-up in her mind.
“Right after Jack-Jack was born, I started to feel that things had changed; you were working all the time, and I don’t blame you; it was your dream job, and you were trying to do it as well as you could, but it felt like you were never here, and I was alone with Jack-Jack all the time, just me, and I didn’t know what to do; everyone I know here works, I don’t have any friends with babies, and I was alone all day, just me and a new-born baby. I was so lonely, Ryan, and you were never here, I just didn’t know what to do, or think, nothing!”
She paused while Ryan wiped the tears once more from her brimming eyes.
“I began to think you had everything you wanted, you had your job, your career, a son, and you didn’t need me anymore; my body was a wreck, and… and I thought you didn’t love me or want me anymore, that you had everything you wanted; you didn’t want me, so I convinced myself I didn’t want you; it was easier that way!”
Ryan stared at her in understanding, replaying Chloe’s words earlier about what had been going through her mind while he worked too long hours, and came home to sleep for a few hours before leaving her alone again for hours on end. He pulled her close, his lips finding hers in a gentle kiss, wiping away her tears even as he kissed away her fears.
“Livvie, Olivia Grainne McLeod, my wife, I’ve loved you since I don’t know when; all you are is all I want, and I’m sorry I let that stupid job come between us. All I could see was the prize, and I never realised what a prize I already had, and so I nearly let you go, because I didn’t think, I just pushed on, full steam ahead, and damn the consequences; I thought I was doing what I did for us, but really, it was only for me, and I nearly lost you because I was so driven. The… person who finally put it all together was right; if I’d looked at you properly I would have seen long ago what I was doing to you. I was a fool, Livvie, a blind, driven fool. I nearly lost everything because I thought I could do it all, when all along I should have listened to you and seen how lonely you are.”
Ryan paused to once more wipe away the tears trembling on her lashes, his hands trembling with the emotion she heard in his voice.
“Coming here was a bad idea, Livvie, I took you away from everything and everyone you know, and that was wrong, I was wrong. I’ll quit, baby, I have nothing left to prove there, and everything to prove to you. I’ll find another job in London, and we’ll go home, and I swear on my heart and the ring I put on your finger that I will never let anything come between us and our life together ever again, okay?”
Livvie looked at him in wonder, her eyes searching his.
“You’d do that for me?”
Ryan grinned, nodding gently.