Step Wilde: A Stepbrother Romance (25 page)

Penelope explained. “No! We came here from the States! We planned on coming over together. We’re
together-together.
”

That information nearly broke my brain.

“Together…for what?” I asked foolishly.

Penelope laughed and jabbed her elbow into my father’s rib. “Oh, Garrett, you two have the same sense of humor!”

I had never heard my father tell a joke in my entire life. “What the hell is going on?” I asked, my confusion giving way to anger. I hated being out of the loop.

"We came to pick up Olivia for breakfast in the hotel downstairs. It's a bit of a surprise - she wasn't expecting me until later. But I love surprises!" Penelope shrieked.

My actor’s training took over. I had to do damage control here. I forced a laugh.

"Nothing like a good surprise, that's what I always fucking say," I replied crassly. I looked behind me pointedly. "I need to get ready, actually. I can give my assistant a call and he can track down Olivia for you. Don't bother the front desk again! Just...go make yourselves comfortable with some breakfast and I'm sure she'll be right down."

"Well, you have to join us!" Olivia's mom said, clapping her hands together.

"I do?" I asked her, fixing my smile onto my face.

My dad was silent, his mouth a thin line. The last thing in the world I wanted to do today was have breakfast with my father. Or lunch. Or dinner. Or a light snack. Or share the same air. Any and all of those things were the last things that I wanted to do on any given day. Then I thought of Olivia being thrown into this situation alone. I couldn’t do that to her.

"Of course I'll join you. Just give me twenty minutes to get presentable,” I said with a fixed smile.

" I wouldn't want you to be rude to your...guest," my father said pointedly.

I clenched my fist and decided to say nothing as a way of reply. I slammed the door in their faces with no goodbye. I’d reached my maximum of small talk for the day already.

This day was not what I had expected.

And it wasn’t even eight o’clock yet.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

OLIVIA

As soon as a I heard the voices stop and the door shut, I came out of the bathroom.

Wilder was leaning his back against the door with his eyes closed.

"What the hell is going on?"  I asked, pulling fresh clothes out of the dresser.

"You have about as much information as I do right now, Liv," Wilder said, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers.

“Um, I hope after spending a few minutes with whoever was at the door you’d at least know a
bit
more than I do.” I stood there, naked, with my hand on my hip. I tapped my foot impatiently.

“My dad was out there.”

“Your dad? At my door? Here?
What?”
My brain was spinning.

Wilder sighed and wandered over to the bed to pull on a pair of black boxer briefs. “Your mother was with him.”

This was too much information for me; I felt like my brain was melting down. So I laughed; that was all that I could do.

“My mother. Was standing outside with your father. Here. In Tuscany?” I doubled over, tears of mirth stinging my eyes. “We’re still asleep, right?”

Wilder pulled on his t-shirt and jeans and shook his head. “Well, we’re having breakfast with both of them in about seventeen minutes. So maybe then we can find out what the hell is going on.”

“How – I don’t understand. How in the hell did my mother meet your father? In the lobby?”

“I’m not sure, but it wasn’t the goddamn lobby. That’s all I know.” Wilder shrugged and handed me my underwear.

I grabbed it from him, stepping into it one foot at a time, my heart beating quickly. Surely this was all a joke.

“Wait! What did you tell them about me and you being in this room together?”

Wilder sat on the edge of the bed staring at me. He looked upset. I’d never seen him like this.

“My dad thinks you’re my next dead-end girlfriend. I told them this wasn’t your room. Don’t worry. They don’t know we were together.”

I exhaled. “Thank God.”

Wilder raised his eyebrows. “Are you ashamed of me?”

I shook my head. “You don’t know my mother. She couldn’t keep a secret if her life
literally
depended on it.”

I ran my hands through my hair. I’d managed to brush it when I was in the bathroom so it was no longer a nest. “I’ve been trying to call her for the last week since I replaced Hailey. I thought for sure she might call when she saw the news but she didn’t even answer the phone.”

I opened the dresser drawer and pulled out a fresh dress. It was navy blue, floor-length linen. I slipped it over my head and wandered back into the bathroom to braid my hair.

A moment later, Wilder was at my back. “Let me do it,” he whispered. I realized my hands were shaking.

“Sorry, it’s just the adrenaline from the interruption,” I said. “And I wasn’t expecting my mom this early, honestly. I like to be more prepared than this when it comes to seeing my mom.”

Wilder let out a dark laugh. “You and me both. If
you’re
shocked, it’s fucking
nothing
compared to how I fucking feel right now. At least you were expecting your mom to show up at
some
point in this trip.”

Wilder moved his fingers nimbly through my hair, pulling back the strands into a Dutch braid that fell down the center of my scalp. When he was done, he reached down to my wrist with his free hand and pulled off the elastic that sat there. He tied it with a swift twist of his fingers.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" I asked him quietly, gently patting my hair and turning my head to look in the mirror. It was the neatest braid that I’d ever worn.

"My mom," he replied. "She had multiple sclerosis and I would brush her hair and braid it for her when she couldn't use her arms anymore. She had the most gorgeous hair. It was kind of like yours in texture but it was this deep chestnut color. When the light hit it the red strands hidden in it would pop out and shimmer like glitter. I'd sit for hours and brush it for her. She taught me how to braid it. We'd do that while we watched soap operas in the middle of the afternoon in the summertime. That was when I knew I wanted to be an actor."

He stared out into nowhere for a moment, lost in thought. Then he put his hands on my shoulders and leaned down to kiss my cheek.

"I don't do makeup though," he said. "I have to draw the line somewhere."

I turned my head to kiss him. His lips lingered on mine for long enough that I thought we might start something. Then he pulled away.

"We can't put this off forever, Liv," he said. "I'll go distract them while you finish getting ready."

"Are you sure you can't just go on your own for the entire outing?" I asked him with a pleading look on my face.

Wilder laughed. "Nice try, your highness," he said, stepping out of the bathroom and shutting the door.

I set to work painting my face. Maybe if I layered on enough makeup my mom would forget that she'd seen my boyfriend naked. Wait.
Boyfriend
. Was he my boyfriend? I shook the thought out of my head.

One thing at a time. Besides that, they didn't know.

And I didn't want them to.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

WILDER

My dad couldn't stop stroking Penelope's hand. I was staring at their tabletop embrace so hard I thought that flames were going to shoot out of my eyes.

I wished they would. Lighting the table on fire would end this unbearable meal swiftly. I found myself praying for a meteor strike.

"So how did you two meet exactly? Somewhere in the last week or so? What happened to your most recent fiancé?" Olivia asked awkwardly.

Penelope blushed slightly. She was a beautiful woman. Olivia was nearly a carbon copy of her. But there was a sadness in Olivia's eyes that wasn't present in her mother's. I wondered about that; what had caused it. I squeezed my hand into a fist. I was angry thinking that someone - possibly this woman - had caused Liv pain.

"Liv.
This is Garrett.
” She paused like that was supposed to mean something.

Olivia howled. “Wait. I’m sorry.
You
are Garrett?
The
Garrett?” She laughed some more and shook her head but didn’t elaborate. “So, again: how did you two meet?”

Penelope cleared her throat merrily. “Well, your alma mater called me and asked if I could donate a few paintings to the silent auction for the alumni night last month. So I did, and I decided to attend just for fun since they gave me a free ticket. And I got there and saw Garrett across the room. It was like-" she snapped her fingers in the air. "An instant connection. He found his way over to me during the next slow dance. It was...magical!"

A misty look went across her eyes. I dashed a look over to Olivia to see how she was taking this news. She looked deeply skeptical.

My dad was peering at Penelope with something like affection. The look put me off. I'd never seen him look at my mother that way. I raised my fingers into the air and waved over one of the servers. He appeared almost at once.

"Whiskey, please, and keep them coming."

"
Si, signor
," he replied, bustling off quickly.

"I just couldn't believe the news when I heard that you two were in a movie together. I mean,
my
Olivia! I must have received a hundred emails from people with links to the stories about what was happening over here!" Penelope gushed.

Olivia sipped from her glass of water, her eyebrows raised. “Really. Well, you could have called to tell me. You weren’t even returning my calls.”

Penelope waved her hand at her. “Oh, Liv, you know how busy I am. I was keeping up with you through the news!”

“Wait, so you trusted news about me - your daughter – written by
bloggers
? So you think that I broke up Hailey and Wilder’s relationship?” Olivia tapped her fingers on the tabletop impatiently.

I couldn’t tell which one of us was having a worse time.

Penelope grimaced. “Livvy, I figured that was just idle gossip and rumor. I wasn’t worried, honestly.”

Olivia raised her eyebrows. “But you didn’t think it was relevant to tell me that you were dating my co-star’s father?”

Penelope laughed. “I wanted it to be a surprise! Isn’t it more exciting this way?”

There was silence at that pronouncement.

The only person who seemed happy right now was Penelope. My father was gnawing at the inside of his cheek, his fingers twitching slightly. I knew my dad well enough to know that he was itching for a cigarette.

I downed the glass of whiskey the waiter put on the table in front of me in one deep, quick gulp. Thankfully, a second glass appeared rapidly. I grabbed that one as well, trying not to stare too hard at my father's face while I did so.

"Did you two know each other in college?"  Penelope asked with a smile, sipping her fizzy water.

It struck me as odd that Olivia had never mentioned me to her mother. Well, not
odd
exactly, but my ego felt slightly bruised that I hadn't merited at least one off-handed comment.

Olivia spoke up first. "You could say that."

"We were in a play together," I offered. Olivia stiffened next to me. I suddenly wished that I had kept my mouth shut. Why had I said that? That wasn’t true.

Penelope looked at Olivia curiously. "Livvy, you never told me about any play."

Shit.
"Oh, it was...more like a one-scene thing for a theater class. We were paired up," I lied hastily.

I looked around to see if the water was returning with another glass for me. I saw him at the bar loading up a tray with three separate glasses of amber-colored liquid in crystal tumblers. I hoped against hope that all three were for me.

Penelope seemed to accept this answer. "Well, what a wonderful coincidence!"

"Not as coincidental as the two of you meeting up at an alumni event of all things," I offered. "That seems like one hell of a coincidence."

Penelope looked at my father, who smiled. I wasn't used to seeing his face light up like that. It made me uncomfortable.

"Well, everything happens for a reason," he said, tapping her hand.

I bristled. The waiter reappeared. I intercepted the glass on its way down to the tabletop.

"Interesting. Really? So you cheating on mom when she was sick was also ‘for a reason’? Can't wait to hear what that reason was since you’ve never gotten around to explaining that little fucking bit of indecency."

Olivia reached under the table to squeeze my leg once. It felt like a warning. I ignored it and barged forward with my train of thought.

"And what brings
you
to Tuscany, dad? Surely it can’t just be to see your son.” I finished off that glass and held up my hand to signal to the hovering nearby waiter that I was ready for another. I felt that the alcohol was finally, slowly starting to affect my brain.

Olivia squeezed my leg underneath the table once again. She wanted me to slow down. But I didn't want to. There was no way I was making it out of this lunch sober. Or even just pleasantly buzzed.

"I had business over here. Vintage motorcycle parts to pick up,” he said quietly. “And Penny mentioned wanting to visit her daughter, so I tagged along to Tuscany. I need to leave tomorrow. Hopping a plane to Rome for a few days."

He jiggled his leg and tapped the table. I wondered if he still smoked or if he was antsy out of habit. My mom had begged him to stop; he never had when she was still alive.

"But you had to know I'd be here," I said, my voice shaking. "And you didn't think to give me a head's up? What, did you expect that you could just sneak in here and hope that we didn't cross paths with one another? That you would have lunch with your new girlfriend's daughter and then sneak back out again?"

My father took a steadying breath and started rolling back the cuffs of his button-down shirt, revealing his colorful tattoos. “I’ve been trying to call you for weeks. You never answered the phone.”