Page 37 of The Best Worst Mistake (Off-Limits #2)

Abby

I start jumping up and down when I finally see her coming through the airport terminal, though it’d be quite hard to miss Olivia in that bright yellow sundress, set against the darkest tan I’ve ever seen on her, which is bringing her cobalt blue eyes out like glowing saucers, even from all the way over here.

I’d be surprised if she was still recognized as frequently as she used to be while hosting The Good Day Show .

Her entire demeanor has changed since she made Hawaii her home.

Liv squeals so loud that at least four people turn around to see where the noise came from. She sets off toward me, pulling her Barbie-pink luggage behind her like she’s dragging an eight-ton rock on wheels.

We meet somewhere in the middle, instantly smashing together in a hug, and then rock each other back and forth until we’re both heads back, laughing.

She smells like sunscreen and coconuts and I’ve missed her so, so much.

“You made it!” I’m buoyant to have her right here in the flesh.

“And you thought I shouldn’t even bother coming at all with all the script stuff going on back home, but I couldn’t not take advantage of you being just a six-hour flight away!”

“You even flew commercial,” I muse, giving her a grin. “How incredibly down to earth of you.”

Her fiancé, Dom, owns a few private airliners, but Liv insisted on just flying here on a regular commercial flight since he was already on a business trip to Lisbon this week. Though I do know that she flew in first class.

“Oh gosh, I would have felt silly taking one of those huge, hulking things with just me inside,” she says, sheepishly.

Then she looks past me.

“Oh my God, there he is!” she exclaims as Dax makes his way over to us. She gives him an enthusiastic hug next, eyeing me brazenly over his shoulder.

“I forgot how fucking cute he is!” she mouths.

“Yes, he is,” I say.

“Yes, he is what ?” Dax asks when Liv finally lets him go.

“So fucking cute,” I say, smiling up at him.

“Ah.” He looks around like he’s not sure how to respond.

Then he slips both hands into his pockets, grinning.

His smile heats me from the inside out. I zone in on his mouth, the way his lips widen each time he talks or smiles — sometimes I don’t even hear the words that come out of them anymore.

It’s like every move he makes is akin to foreplay, especially since we’ve both been so swamped with the deal since Lila’s interruption that night that we haven’t been able to spend much time together.

Each time I’ve seen him since then, whether sitting in a conference room or taking an elevator upstairs together, my body has responded like I’m actually beneath him, muscles contracting and ready to twist and turn around him.

We were silently filling our coffee cups this morning when our arms brushed and I could think of nothing else but him pushing me against the conference room wall, not caring if we had a whole room of people watching, as long as he made me forget that anyone was there.

With no secrets left between us now, I want nothing left between us .

Clothes, words, whatever it is, he can have it.

I want him — all of him — more than I ever have.

And while I love that Olivia is here for a quick weekend trip, it might actually take every last ounce of willpower I have left in me not to pounce on him the second she takes a moment too long in the ladies’ room, or we have to wait on her to order our next meal.

I feel like a loaded gun, ready to fire, with a hair trigger the only thing keeping me contained.

“Now that your girls’ weekend has officially begun, I should probably just leave you two to it.

Want me to drop you off back at your place, or do you have somewhere else you’d like a ride to?

” Dax asks. He offered to help me pick Olivia up after we finished work this morning, knowing what a zoo the LAX terminals can be on a Saturday.

He’s used to it, whereas I’m out of practice due to my total lack of driving in New York.

“No!” Liv says, grabbing her suitcase handle again so the three of us can make our way through the airport and out to the parking garage. “This is a girls’ weekend, plus Dax Harper.”

“Oh, is it?” He glances over at me. “I hadn’t heard that.”

He grabs the handle of her suitcase for her, his forearm flexing as he begins to roll it through the terminal.

“Now you have,” Liv says, linking her arm through our elbows, planting herself in the middle of us. “And thank you for grabbing that suitcase. Damn thing nearly broke my shoulder already, heaving it off the luggage claim thingy.”

Dax looks over the top of her head at me, grinning. I smile back. We are both taller than Liv and I wish I could kiss him over the top of her head without making it completely awkward. Dax and Liv met a few times back in law school when Olivia came to visit me and they got along famously.

As soon as I told her that I took Dax over to see the house I grew up in, and how we’d run into Miss Candi while there, she insisted on coming out to see me immediately.

“This is huge,” she said a few days ago over FaceTime while looking up flights to book for the coming weekend.

“You’re, like, transitioning into a butterfly there, babe.

There’s no way I’m missing this.” I could hear the clacking of her nails on a laptop keyboard. “I can be in L.A. by Saturday morning.”

“ Transitioning into a butterfly ?” I asked, rubbing my eyes — which were still burning from all the never-ending doc review Brett and I were slogging through almost every night after meetings were done.

“What’s the plan today?” she asks, squeezing us in closer to her.

“First, we’re going to a brunch spot over in Balboa,” I say. “A beach Dax mentioned is one of his favorites is just down the road from the brunch spot, right? You said Corona del Mar is one of the more calm stretches?”

We still haven’t made our way over for a beach day yet, and I’m dying to go. Visiting a place I’d always wanted to see as a kid with both Liv and Dax beside me now truly would be a dream come true.

“Oh, Dom loves Corona,” Liv pipes up. “And Balboa. I haven’t been to either, which means we need a seasoned tour guide.” She fixes her eyes on Dax. “Dax?”

He glances at me, his face melting into a smile.

“Sure, I’ll join you,” he says, relenting. “The huevos rancheros there are the best in the city. And I know you’ll both like the mimosa menu.”

“Yes!” Liv squeals.

“Thank you,” I say to Dax, squeezing his arm.

He reaches around the enormous suitcase to kiss me — just once, but it’s enough to tide me over until later, and I’m really hoping there’s a later .

“Plus, we need to get reacquainted!” Liv calls to us, making it clear that she’s still listening, even if she did just miss that peck. “I need to find out more about the guy that’s gotten my girl to crawl out of her office more than fifteen minutes a day!”

I roll my eyes but smile, knowing it’s true.

* * *

By the time we get there, the restaurant is well into the brunch hour, and the mimosa crowd is getting a bit rowdy, but happy. One whole wall of the restaurant opens up to yachts and boats sitting in the channel that branches out toward the Pacific coastline to our left.

Long, yellow sunbeams filter into the room, along with a soft breeze through open windows. The women are a sea of colorful sundresses and the men wear linen shorts or seersucker trousers with boat shoes.

Life is good in L.A., I realize. The vibe, the weather — all more relaxed and warm than what I’m used to back home.

“God, it’s been ages since I had a good brunch out,” Liv says, plopping down in the booth beside me. Dax slides in opposite us as she continues, “You two getting brunch together a lot? Or . . . ?”

The meaning behind her question is clear. Dax chokes on the water he’s just sipped while I smile. Olivia holds nothing back, and I love her for it.

“Ah, nope,” he says, dabbing some water off his lip with a napkin. I want to kiss it off. “No brunch yet.”

“Well, don’t miss the opportunity on my account if it arises this weekend,” she says, winking right at him. She grins. “I’m perfectly happy hanging out with Starry and Charlie back at the house in the case of any unscheduled absence by my girl, here.”

Dax tucks his lip in before peering over at me, then bursts out laughing. Liv smiles happily, and picks up the menu as if she hasn’t just very much suggested that Dax and I take the opportunity to sleep together, should the opportunity arise.

I shrug, grinning.

“You have no idea how much I’ve missed you,” I say, pressing my arm up against hers.

She drops her head to my shoulder, resting it there for just a moment, before popping back up again when something on the menu catches her eye.

“Lavender orange mimosas!” she exclaims. “Love those!”

“Me too,” I say, leaning in to read over her shoulder.

“Oh, but the pineapple jalapeno sounds good too,” she muses.

“Look at the raspberry sparkle one,” I tell her, pointing to the photo at the bottom. The cocktail glass has edible glitter along the rim.

“Ah, and the pear basil,” she adds, pressing the side of her head to mine as we peruse the menu together.

“You two are like sisters,” Dax says, nudging my bare ankle under the table. I stop looking at the menu with Olivia long enough to peer up at him. He’s watching us across the table with a funny look on his face. “Maybe even better than sisters. Are you sure you’re not related?”

I grin at Olivia, so ridiculously happy to have her sitting right beside me, instead of on the phone screen like she’s been for so long now.

“I actually did that Ancestry.com thing, hoping we’d show up as long, lost cousins once,” Liv says, stifling a laugh behind her fist.

“You did not!” I say, pulling her hand down to see her full-on smile.

“I swear it,” she says, slapping her hand to the edge of the table, before using it to cover her eyes like she’s embarrassed.

“I never had a sister, and all my cousins were older, and honestly just the worst, plus I figured we were both from around New York, so there had to at least be the slightest chance. Although, that was before I knew you weren’t from the east coast at all! ”

We both burst into full-on, gut-spinning laughter — mostly because Olivia’s cackling laugh is one of the most contagious I’ve ever encountered, but also because I feel so relieved to see her here in the flesh.

Ever since we met in undergrad and became roommates, she’s been my family.

Our bond was instantaneous, like we’d known each other in a past life or something and just had to pick up where we’d left off.

I don’t know what it was about her that drew me in, or made me feel safe with her right from the get-go, but it stuck.

This is the longest we’ve ever gone without being around each other in real life and I don’t think I realized how much of me went missing the day she moved away.

“I think she’s better than a sister,” I say to Dax, pulling her into a tight side-hug since we’re already wedged between a table and the firm booth behind us. “The bond between friends is sometimes thicker than blood anyway.”

He raises a brow, as if surprised by my words, but his face quickly morphs into warmth and understanding. He draws his foot against my ankle again, grinning across the table at us.

“Aw, babe!” Liv squeals, pressing her cheek into mine. “I’ve really missed you.”