When Pam turned to Lars, her smile was a tad softer, and their hug lasted a little longer. She said something in his ear that none of them heard, and then Lars locked his lips to hers.
Olivia’s jaw dropped, unable to look away.
How had she missed this?
Pam stepped back. “Call me when you’re back in town, sailor.” She turned away, and Lars patted her ass.
“What the . . . ?” Olivia started.
“Oh, shut up,” Pam said. The older woman pulled Olivia into an awkward hug and let go quickly. “You know how to get ahold of me if you need me, you stubborn bitch.”
“You loved every minute of it.” Olivia glanced at Lars. “Apparently more than I realized.”
Pam’s humor softened. “Take care of yourself. And always remember that there are people out there who care about you.”
Olivia felt a strange pull in her chest. “Thank you. For everything.”
Pam shook away whatever emotion she was starting to show and turned to Neil. “Let’s go, big guy. I hate snow, and this place is about to get dumped on.”
“Did you say goodbye to AJ and Sasha?” Isaac asked.
“We’re all good.” Pam picked up her bag. “Till next time,” she said before heading out the door.
Neil grabbed his bag. “I’ll be back in two days.”
Isaac’s short staccato laugh had all of them chuckling. The reason Neil was leaving in the first place was to meet the guy who wanted to date his daughter.
“Try not to threaten the boy,” Lars told Neil.
Isaac’s laughter grew.
“Neil doesn’t have to say a word,” Olivia teased.
He drew in a breath, let it out slowly. Neil’s eyes fell on her. “You know how to get ahold of me.”
Not that she needed to, with everyone else in the house. “You’ll be back so soon we won’t have a chance to notice you’re gone.”
He glanced at Leo and then left.
Isaac’s laugh became contagious. “That poor kid.”
Olivia moved to Lars’s side and nudged her shoulder to his. “What was all that with Pam?”
He shrugged, looked between her and Leo. “Some of us are better at hiding what’s going on than others.”
Isaac just kept laughing as he walked away.
The sound of the SUV pulling out of the driveway brought Olivia to the window. She was going to miss the cantankerous, pushy woman. But she had been given her phone number and could see herself reaching out at some point.
Leo walked to the front door and grabbed his coat. “I’m going to bring in some more firewood.”
“I’ll help,” Lars offered.
“I’ll curl up on the couch and be a girl,” she said.
Lars laughed. “I never thought I’d hear you say that.”
Olivia found herself blinking several times at his words. Something about the way he said them . . . or maybe the words themselves.
Leo opened the door, and a rush of freezing air blew in.
Pam was right. Snow was coming.
Olivia welcomed it.
The quiet, peace, and cleansing of the landscape.
She was ready for a change in seasons.
Not again.
Blistering pain burned Olivia’s bare feet. The craters dug into her skin by hell’s surface were so deep that the sound of her own blood and flesh sucking against the fire and brimstone deafened her ears.
Somewhere in her mind, her conscious self was telling her to wake up. That the pain would go away if she just opened her eyes.
But it felt as if some kind of drug was weighing her down and stopping her from so much as turning her head.
The sound of the fire crackling, the smell of her flesh . . .
“Where are my goddamn shoes?”
She looked down and stared at her left hand.
Dangling from the tips of her fingers was a pair of sneakers.
The sight of them crushed her. All along . . . they’d been there all along and yet she walked all over hell without them on her feet.
She lifted them to eye level and started to cry.
With each tear the shoes melted from the heat of the fire, dripping . . . one oozing inch at a time.
“No!”
“Over here.”
A voice called behind her.
She turned to find a line in the surface where hell disappeared and cold stone and wooden cases filled with books took its place.
It had been there all along. Only one foot in the opposite direction and she didn’t have to have the pain.
“C’mon, Olivia. We don’t want to get caught.”
The voice belonged to a boy.
Young, energized.
“Take your shoes off so no one will hear,” he told her.