Gorgeous: Book One (Gorgeous #1) - Lisa Shelby Page 0,85

with an update. He'll know what to do next. I know that without Susan to use as bait for Olivia to come visit, he will be working even harder to find her on his own now. We need to get ahead of this.

I grab everything from the counter, only now my pace has slowed. I have to go tell the love of my life that her mother is dead. Her mother that she just saw for the first time in twenty years this morning has passed. I feel sick to my stomach, and when I enter the bedroom and see her sitting on her heels practically bouncing up and down with excitement, I know I am about to ruin her joy. I am about to take that bounce and that smile away.

The second I cross the threshold to the master suite, she says, "Okay."

Forgetting what I had been so excited about mere moments ago, I am overwhelmed for a fleeting moment with joy and relief.

"Is that a yes? You'll move in?"

"It's a yes, handsome! What the hell, we only live once, right?"

At the mention of life, the somber news I have to share is back in a flash.

"That's great news, baby." I set everything down on the bedside table and lean forward to give her a forehead kiss. I grab the chair from the corner of the room and slide it over to the side of the bed where her bounce is starting to fade. She can tell something’s wrong. I take a seat. "Olivia, I got a phone call from the hospice center when I was downstairs."

"And..."

"And I'm sorry, baby, but she's gone. Your mom passed today."

Her joy deflates and confusion colors her face.

"But we were just there this morning. How can she be dead?"

"The woman on the phone said that it was a miracle she was even able to speak to us today and that our visit was a blessing."

"But I just found her, Ronan."

Her first tear falls, and I move the tray to the floor and join her on the bed, before taking her in my arms. "I know, baby. I know."

For the next thirty minutes, she sobs in my arms. She cries for the loss, the lifetime of misery her mother endured, and the time she was robbed of with her.

She cries and cries.

To hold the person you love, in your arms while they sob with grief is binding. I feel connected to this woman in a way I never have with any other person before or ever will. She is exposed and vulnerable, and it is me she turns to. Me she trusts with her pain.

Eventually, her tears dry and her breaths are no longer gasps for air. She pushes off my chest so she can look at me, and to see her beautiful eyes so sunken and hollow is one of the hardest things I have ever had to look at. To see her in this kind of pain and to know there isn't a damn thing I can do about it is gut-wrenching.

"I'm sorry you had to deal with all this. I know it was a lot. More than I'm sure you bargained for."

I'm not sure she gets what is happening here, and I want to be sure not another second passes that she isn't crystal clear.

"I love you, Olivia Adams, and I would give anything to take away your pain. Please don't ever feel sorry for leaning on me in your time of need. Your well-being is my number one concern. You are my life, gorgeous, and you will always come first. Whatever you need from me is yours to take."

Her face is no longer dry of tears as new ones start to fall. Her soft hand rubs my check and then slowly outlines my jaw. "I love you too, Ronan."

I need nothing more from this life. To be loved by this woman is more than I could ever ask for. It doesn't get any better than this.

21

Olivia

Stretching myself awake, I reach over to find Ronan's side of the bed empty. That's right, he didn't come home last night. There was an emergency at EVC, and he had to head to New York for last-minute meetings.

The last forty-eight hours comes back to me in a rush. Flying to Oregon to visit my mother. To see her and to hear her say she did love me and that she had never truly abandoned me was what I needed to hear. But to lose