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“I hope she’ll like it,” Mia said from the passenger side as we drove to Hyde Park, admiring a photo of Summer in a vintage frame she picked out from the market.
Last week, Mia had done a maternity shoot for Summer, and we were meeting them at the British Summer Time music festival they held each year over the fields in London, wanting to get together once more before Summer had her baby.
I clutched Mia’s hand, and her twelve freckles danced with her smile. “She’ll love it.” Mia’s hair was cut short like the first time I’d met her, a little past her shoulders, and she tucked the framed picture back into the gift bag between her legs as I pulled the station wagon into a parking space. “You ready?”
The sound of an electric guitar was carried by the wind, pushing through Mia’s locks as she twirled with Summer barefoot in the grass. Travis and I sat over a blanket in the grass while the girls danced in front of us as Pearl Jam played yards away on stage, and I kept my eyes on Mia as Travis talked my ear off, but all I heard was her laugh through the music. In a black romper and my fedora over her head, Mia lifted her arms high in the air as she spun.
“Earth to Ollie.” Travis snapped in my face. “Still in that honeymoon stage, yeah?”
“What are you talking about?” I leaned back onto my elbows, and Mia turned to face me, a mesmerizing smile glittering her features. She waved, and I waved back.
“You know what they say about the first year.”
“It’ll be two years this fall.”
“Bloody hell, I’m fucked.” He sighed, leaning forward and dropping his arms over his knees. He twisted off the cap of his water bottle. “What’s your secret?”
With Mia, it was easy. “First tip,” I pat his shoulder, getting to my feet as “Last Kiss” started to play, “never let the girl dance alone, mate.”
I approached Mia, grabbed her hand, and twirled her around. Her feet, pink painted nails, moved effortlessly over the grass until I had her in my arms. She clutched my shirt, and I tipped the hat back to see her face as I sang the haunting lyrics that touched a chord from what had happened last year. It was a testament to how far we’d come, and the hell we’d come back from—survivors.
Mia threw her head back. “Hold me, darling, just a little while,” she sang. And we continued to sway until the only song I knew by the band came to an end. I kissed her once, twice, before sitting back over the blanket.
Mia and Summer continued to dance, and Travis shoved his shoulder into mine. “She’s going to put my woman into labor if they keep dancing like that.”
I chuckled, swiping my bottled water and stretching out my legs.
A dark cloud loomed over the two of us, blocking the sun, and I looked up to see Leigh staring down at me with tears in her eyes and her hands shaking. She was wearing a short jean skirt and a crop top, her long blonde hair in a side-swept braid. I straightened my back, sitting up. “What are you doing here?” My voice was in my throat. I cleared it and looked past her to where Mia slowed her dancing, watching our interaction. “You can’t be here.”
“Nice to see you, too,” Leigh scoffed.
“Are you stalking me now?” I raised a brow, climbing to my feet. I tried to keep my voice low, but it was hard against my warning temper and the band playing in the background.
“I wouldn’t have to if you’d answer my calls,” a tear slipped from her eye, “You left me. I woke up in a motel room days ago alone without my knickers, having no idea where I was.”
“Whoa, I didn’t touch you,” I argued, and leaned down to face her. I shoved my finger into my chest to prevent it from digging it into hers. “I didn’t fucking touch you.”
Travis’s hand landed on my shoulder, and he pulled me back. “Calm down, mate. Let’s take this somewhere else.”
“No, Leigh, you can’t just show up. How did you know I was here?”
“Summer posted about it. You wouldn’t answer my calls, Oliver. You promised you’d take care of me, but you tossed me into a motel.” A tear ran down her cheek. “I was scared and alone, and you promised you’d look out for me.”
I had done that. Leigh had been drunk, and I’d taken her to a safe place and left her plenty of money to get a taxi so I could get home to Mia. I’d always find a way to get back to Mia. I ran my hand anxiously through my hair. “We’ll talk about it later. You have to leave.”
“Sure, Oliver,” Leigh crossed her arms over her chest, “I’ll just find a ride with one of the hundred blokes here, I’m sure any one of them would gladly take me home.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“You forget I’m sacrificing a lot for you. I’m the one who has nothing to gain and everything to lose in all this. I’m helping you out, and this is how you treat me?”
I gripped her shoulders, my jaw grinding, and my chest heaving. “Have I not always dropped everything to save you from situations you got yourself into?” I shouted in her face as tears flooded her eyes. “What the fuck do you want from me?”
“Whoa,” Travis yanked me back, staring at me with his brows bunched together. He looked into my eyes as if he didn’t recognize me. He looked at me as if I was the bad guy. I shrugged his hand off me. “I’ll take Mia home. You need to deal with this,” he added.
I shouldered past Leigh to Mia, who stood fifteen feet away. Her hands were small in mine, and she looked up at me under the rim of the fedora through worried eyes. “Is that her?” Mia asked, knowing well of Leigh and the things I’d done.
“Yeah, love,” I tilted her hat back and grabbed her chin. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” She squeezed my hand. “I’ll see you later?”
Nodding, I held her face in my hands and curled my fingers in her hair as I kissed her, making sure to leave an imprint of security and something to look forward to until I’d return home tonight.
During the hour car ride, I’d managed to calm Leigh down. “Up here on the left,” Leigh directed as I drove through her posh neighborhood with large Victorian houses, knowing I’d been here once before. We pulled into a circular driveway, and it was the same house I’d met Jinx at months ago the night of release day searching for answers to find Mia.
“The party, it was yours?”
“Step brother’s,” she answered, twirling the end of her braid with her finger. “I live here with him and my evil step-mum. I suppose I’m your modern-day Cinderella, daddy issues, and all.”
I pushed the gear into park. “Listen, you can’t just show up wherever I am and expect me to drop everything like I just did. Life doesn’t work like that. You don’t just get what you want.”
“I’m fully aware.”
“I don’t think you are.” I leaned back into the seat just as a man in his twenties came through the front door. He walked down the steps, twirling a set of keys around his finger, wearing a pair of athletic shorts and a tank top. “Who’s that?”
“Samuel, my perverted stepbrother,” she said through a sigh. “Thanks for the ride.”
When I arrived back home, I walked through the front door to the sound of dishes clanking in the kitchen and the aroma of a home-cooked meal flooding my senses. The record player in the living room was going, soft tones of an acoustic guitar. I emptied my pockets on my way, dropping my keys, phone, and wallet over the coffee table before I’d reached the kitchen. Mia was still in her little black romper, barefoot, pulling a casserole dish from the oven. My shoulder rested against the archway into the kitchen, and my eyes rested on her. Mia’s hips swayed as she waved a rag over the steam coming from the dish to the beat of the song.