Chasing Forever(37)

“That’s good to know,” she answered as she watched Lucas sign paperwork.

Lucas picked the keys up from the counter and motioned for her to follow. “So…you never said how Parker reacted to our trip.”

“You’re right.”

“Was he mad?”

“Was Olivia mad?” she fired back at him.

“Why would she care?” he asked as he popped the trunk of a white nondescript sedan, placing their luggage inside.

Regan opened the car door. “You still talk to her as evidenced by the conversation in your office, you dated in college, perhaps you still do based on what I heard.”

He chuckled and shut the trunk. “Were you eavesdropping?”

She rolled her eyes when he sat in the driver’s seat. “Not even close. You instructed me not to lurk outside your office, and once I was inside, I could hardly hold my hands over my ears.”

“I guess not,” he responded as he turned the key in the ignition.

“Are you going to answer the question?” she asked again.

“There’s nothing to tell.”

“Riiight,” she answered, drawing out the word sarcastically.

“Look,” he said, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. “I talk to Olivia on occasion. We had plans to meet for dinner and I cancelled due to this trip. We are not involved in any way other than as acquaintances. We see each other a few times a year and most of the time, it’s at some joint family function.”

Regan turned to look out the window. He’d said something similar in college when they started dating, but she never thought Olivia agreed with his description of their relationship, and after she had walked in on the two of them the night everything fell apart, she didn’t know if she agreed either.

She remembered that night vividly. Drew offered to walk her to Lucas’s room the minute she walked into the fraternity. When she opened the door, she saw Lucas leaning against the wall, with his hand on Olivia’s waist, their heads bent close together. She asked what was going on, and every time she thought about that day, she wished she had turned around and walked out without asking for an explanation because what followed was worse than she could have imagined.

Unfortunately, Lucas wasn’t cheating on her as she initially suspected, or maybe he was, but that detail didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that her relationship was a lie. Olivia orchestrated the whole thing to embarrass her and her father, and after that night, her social life crumbled. Her father, on the other hand, hardly skipped a beat. Olivia had already been kicked off the dance team and the University didn’t do much of anything to her dad because the Great Professor Pierce was a moneymaking machine with grants following him wherever he went. Despite her heralded family background and money, Olivia never stood a chance.

“If you say so,” she responded without any inflection.

He put his hand on her thigh and squeezed. “I promise.”

She looked down at her thigh and then at him. “It doesn’t matter anyway. Forget I brought it up.”

“It could matter.”

She scoffed. “Hardly.”

“Okay, let me put it another way. I want it to matter. I want you to care.”

“You do?” She answered her voice quivering.

“Yes and maybe you do too.”



***



Lucas leaned against the fireplace mantle in the family room of his family’s vacation home. Looking around the room, he fleetingly regretted bringing Regan here. Sure, he liked that he could spend some uninterrupted time with her, but the house held a lot of documented memories in the form of pictures of his childhood growing up with Olivia, and he didn’t want to remind Regan of his connection to Olivia.

Considering what Drew said about Olivia last week and Regan’s dislike of her, he didn’t know if he could tolerate having her in his life any longer. Eliminating her from his life wouldn’t be easy. They had a long history and their parents were best friends, but he didn’t have any choice if he wanted Regan in his life and he did.

“Hey,” Regan said quietly as she walked toward him.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked.

“Yes. How long is the drive?”

“About thirty minutes.”

Regan turned to look at the clock above the fireplace mantle. Her gaze drifted to the pictures lining the surface. She picked up one of him and Olivia standing next to a chair lift, just fresh from a day on the slopes. “This looks as if it was taken a while ago.”

“Four or five years ago, I think.” He took the picture out of her hand and set it down.

She stared at him for a few minutes and then walked around the room, letting her finger trail along the back of the camel colored leather sofa. “This place is really nice. I can see why you love it here.”