Page 13 of Olivia’s Only Pretending (Sweet River #3)

Ten

D inner was over before I was ready. I’d happily take Victor by my side at every future work dinner, even if we were only pretending. We walked out the door together, with my arm hooked in his, after saying goodbye to people, when I noticed him glance down at his watch.

“Hey, can I show you something funny on campus?” I felt a desperate urge to keep the night going just a little longer. Similarly to how I tried to keep him working at my house a little longer. As Lucy called it, my Victor habit.

“Of course, anything for my baby girl.” He winked.

I shoved him playfully, then grabbed his hand and led him a little ways down the sidewalk.

We stopped in front of a tall, worn bulletin board.

“Am I looking at this for any specific reason? A specific ad? Some other ridiculously hot redhead desperately in need of renovation help?”

“Victor!” I chastised him. It was as if a filter had broken loose.

I almost told him to stop calling me hot, but I didn’t.

I hated how much I liked his filter being off.

“Look closer.” I pointed toward the bulletin board where people were supposed to post announcements and ads, but instead, there were tons of handwritten notes.

“About a year ago, students started using this board to post anonymous love notes.”

He squinted and stepped closer, reading them aloud.

Anna, you always apologize for rambling during Lit 101, but I hang on your every word.

Guy With the Dreads and Converse, I get to class late just so I can see where you’re sitting and sit beside you.

Leeanne, I used to hate my student work job until you started working with me. Now I’m taking extra hours cause it’s become the best part of my week.

Victor smiled warmly, hand on his chest over his heart. “These aren’t mere love notes. These are love confessions .”

“I like to read them. Sometimes, people will post responses right beside the originals. It’s quite sweet,” I said. “I come out here almost every day. It’s like a little pick-me-up.”

“Romance book clubs and anonymous love confessions. What’s going on at your school?”

“We’re straight out of a Hallmark, huh?” The dark blue sky glimmered with stars overhead. A breeze bustled through the trees.

“Should we post our own?” He patted his pockets. “Man, I don’t have any paper.”

“I don’t even know what I’d write,” I lied. I could see my confession in my mind already: I want to kiss you again .

“I’d write: I lied about the oat milk to get you talking to me.” He leaned a shoulder against the board, thinking. “Or I offered to help you build a back deck …” His voice trailed off for a beat. “’Cause I get shamefully greedy for time with you.”

I walked over to him, placing a hand on his chest. His suit jacket was rough under my palm. “You had a crush when we first met?”

His breath caught at my touch. He placed his hands tentatively on my waist, rubbing the material of my silk dress between his fingers. “Something like that,” he said, his voice rough.

This closeness felt new and breathtaking, like standing in the first beams of light at sunrise.

My voice, my breath, my feelings knotted together in my chest.

My hands spread wide against his chest. I stole a glance up at him. He looked down at me with serious eyes. I swallowed. Memories of our kiss flashed through my mind, making my mouth nearly water.

Squeals erupted down the sidewalk. A group of students stole our attention. We looked around, trying to find where their voices were coming from.

“CHRISTOPHER! DO NOT LEAVE ME UP HERE!” someone screamed.

“I have your other shoe!” another shouted.

“Jessica! You can jump down barefoot. It’s okay! Come on!”

“Guys, we have to get out of here before security comes sniffing around. I can’t get another fine!” someone scolded the group.

We slowly realized the shouting group of students was climbing down the roof of the theater building behind the bulletin board.

“The students like to climb on the roofs,” I whispered. “They also like to pull fire alarms.”

“Pull fire alarms?” Victor echoed.

“Yeah, pulling fire alarms. It’s been a campus drama lately.” I nodded, rolling my eyes. “Fire alarms going off randomly, day or night.”

The group finally jumped down. Then they raced past us in a rush of giggles and heavy, nervous breathing.

After they left, I turned back to Victor. My hands were still on his chest. His hands were still around my waist. Where were we?

Serious and focused as before, he said, “I think we should climb up on that roof.”

C limbing onto the roof wasn’t as easy as the students made it seem, for me anyway. Victor seemed to be a natural. He hoisted me up onto the roof and then basically leaped up after me with ease.

While I was nervously scrambling on all fours to find a place to sit, he strolled around the roof, taking in the view. I was pretty certain I’d pulled something in my lower back but didn’t feel like mentioning it to the twenty-four-year-old guy with perfect balance.

“This is like a much cooler tree house. I see why kids like to climb up here,” he said, with his hands tucked into his jacket pockets. He turned back to glance at me.

I was sitting with my knees folded to my chest. The breeze pulled a few strands of my ruby hair out of my bun, and they were flying around my face, around my neck.

“Hey.” He plopped down beside me.

“Hey.” I rested my head on his shoulder. “It’s been fun having you here tonight.”

“I had a great time. I liked seeing the faces and voices to match the work stories you tell me.” He gestured at the dark campus below. “I’m finally getting to see the place you run around every day.”

It was really fun to share these pieces of myself with him. I relished it in a way I hadn’t anticipated. “Does it match what you imagined?”

“Yes and no.” He tapped his knee thoughtfully. “I thought you’d be a little more freaked out, honestly. With …” He rolls his eyes while he says his name. “ Ryan , there.”

“I honestly kept forgetting he was there. Forgetting why I had my copilot enlisted for support.”

“You started thinking you just had me there as your hot young buck or something?”

“Please, don’t ever say that again.” I covered my face with my hands. But to a degree, maybe he was right. I’d started thinking Victor was there just for fun.

He pulled my hands from my face. “I’m kidding. I’m kidding. But speaking of Ryan, he did interrupt a conversation.”

I nodded. The one about passion. A conversation we’d started at absolutely the wrong time and place. “You were making some good points about passion. I’ll admit.”

“I think your dad has given it a bad rap when you don’t need to be so afraid of it.”

“I know it isn’t passion I’m actually afraid of … it’s …” I looked out at the tops of oak trees veiled in night, thinking.

I was afraid of a loss of control. Of loosening my tight grip on things like my heart, my time, my future.

“I like to feel sure of something before I take a chance on it,” I finally said.

Victor sat quietly beside me, taking his time with his response. “But are you really taking a chance then?”

A couple strolled by hand in hand on the sidewalk down below, their voices a distant murmur.

Victor continued, “You can’t always be sure of everything. I know you know that.”

“Of course, logically I know that.” But that didn’t stop me from trying. Logic was no match for my feelings, my heart. Sometimes, it felt like my heart was racing ahead of me, trying to come up with a safety plan while my mind was still only learning about the mere existence of a situation.

“Some of the best stuff in life is the stuff you didn’t see coming. The stuff that God knows you’re ready for, even if you don’t yet, you know? Like Watson.”

“Watson?” I instantly thought of Victor’s furry, playful golden retriever bounding to me when they came over. How had I never asked Watson’s origin story? I’d just taken the two of them as a package deal, no questions asked.

“Watson’s first owner got sick, really sick.

She was an old family friend and couldn’t take care of him anymore.

When she reached out to me, I impulsively took him in.

I didn’t research golden retrievers. I didn’t have a dog bed or leash.

I didn’t even know if my townhouse was cool with pets.

I didn’t think about how inconvenient a dog might be.

I just took him in. I took care of that other stuff later.

” He leaned back on his elbows, stretching his legs out in front of him.

“What if I’d waited to take him in and she’d called someone else? Could you imagine life without Watson?”

“No.” I shook my head.

Victor was passionate and impulsive, but in a way I trusted because he wasn’t carried by whims or desires. He was carried by his care and his values. His passion was an arrow pointed at whatever he cared about most.

Watson needed a home, so he gave him one.

I needed a copilot at a history department dinner, so he was my date.

“I don’t know if that helps. Or makes any sense.” He ran a hand down his face, questioning himself.

“It helps.” I stretched my legs out beside his, my freckled knees blue under the moonlight.

He tapped the toe of his dress shoe against my bare feet.

I’d left my high heels on the ground below. “You always help, Victor.”

He smiled to himself, unable to hide the pleasure he took in my comment.

Some students squealed from dorm rooms across the way.

Victor turned his head toward me suddenly, a curious gleam in his eyes. “Should we talk about the kiss?”

“We should talk about the kiss,” I complied. My heart sped up, remembering how it felt to have his lips against mine only days ago.

“I’ve got to admit. I have a few questions.” Our arms brushed with every minor movement, his heat warming me.

“Shoot.”

“Well …” He swallowed. “Was that kiss more about him … or me?”