With One Word

By Olivia Blake

***Holly***
Ever since my dad walked out eight years ago, my life has been Hell. The only reason I didn't skip town the moment I turned eighteen is my little sister, Willow. She needs me, and I won't leave her behind. Now my best friend has moved across the country to go to college and I've got no one at all - except Grant. Grant is the only man who has ever treated me like a person instead of trash, and he's always been there when I needed him. And now I'm afraid I'm falling in love with him. There's just one little problem.

Grant is my best friend's dad.

***Grant***
When my wife and son died in a plane crash nine years ago, Holly was the one who dragged my daughter and then me back to the world of the living. It kills me to see what she's had to endure since her father abandoned their family and her mother went to pieces, but Holly refuses to give up. She's the bravest person I've ever met. Yet sometime when I wasn't paying attention, the girl grew up into a woman. She trusts me. I'm supposed to keep her safe. But while I'm fighting it as hard as I can, it doesn't seem to matter.

I can't help wanting what I can never have.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pink Parts Press
• Release date: Jul 31, 2018
• ISBN: 9781540119469

Book preview

WITH ONE WORD

OLIVIA BLAKE

With One Word

Copyright © 2015 Olivia Blake

Published by Pink Parts Press

All rights reserved. No part of this eBook may be reproduced in any form or by any means, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without permission in writing from the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Names, characters, places, businesses, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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Summary

Have you ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn't have?

Ever since my dad walked out eight years ago, my life has been Hell. My mother is an alcoholic whose boyfriends enjoy using me as a punching bag. Everything nice I've ever owned has ended up in the pawn shop so Mom could buy booze and cigarettes. Thanks to her reputation every guy I've ever gone out with has only been interested in one thing, so I've never had a real boyfriend. The only reason I didn't skip town the moment I turned eighteen is my little sister, Willow. She needs me, and I won't leave her behind. Now my best friend has moved across the country to go to college and I've got no one at all - except Grant. Grant is my knight in shining armor. He's the only man who has ever treated me like a person instead of trash, and he's always been there when I needed him. And now I'm afraid I'm falling in love with him. There's just one little problem.

Grant is my best friend's dad.

When my wife and son died in a plane crash nine years ago, Holly was the one who dragged my daughter and then me back to the world of the living. Her sweet, outgoing personality won us both over, and the girls have been inseparable ever since. It kills me to see what she’s had to endure since her father abandoned their family and her mother went to pieces, but Holly refuses to give up. Every single day she continues to struggle, both to keep going herself and to hold her little sister’s head above water. She’s the bravest person I’ve ever met. Yet sometime when I wasn’t paying attention, the girl grew up into a woman. I know she’s my daughter’s best friend and only half my age. She trusts me. I'm supposed to keep her safe. But while I’m fighting it as hard as I can, it doesn’t seem to matter.

I can't help wanting what I can never have.

Warning: This novel contains strong themes of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse (though *not* between the main characters). If these topics and situations disturb you, this book is probably not for you.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Epilogue

Bonus Material

Preview: Dark Bargains

The Winter Billionaires

Obsessed

Relentless

About the Author

Chapter One

* Holly *

Mom was drunk again.

I could hear the yelling before I even stepped onto the front porch. Although it was barely four o’clock in the afternoon, her slurred screeches already echoed through the tiny, ramshackle house I shared with her and my younger sister. With acid churning in my stomach, I froze with my hand on the tarnished bronze doorknob. I wanted nothing more than to run back to my car and floor the gas pedal and drive away—drive so far that I’d never have to see either my mother or the rathole with peeling paint and water stains and cigarette-burned carpets we lived in ever again. But I couldn’t abandon Willow that way, so I took a deep breath to steady my nerves and made myself push the door open.

The shabby living room was dark and empty, so I tiptoed around to the kitchen. At the other end of the house, the shouting mercifully quieted down as Mom slammed her bedroom door hard enough to rattle the windows. I didn’t want to think about what had started her on a tear like this so early in the day; I just wanted to check on Willow.

My sister sat huddled over the chipped Formica kitchen table, her face hidden as usual by the impenetrable veil of her long, brown hair, her slender shoulders rocking slowly back and forth with silent sobs. For some reason she was the one who Mom focused her outbursts on these days, and bitter helplessness festered inside me over her plight. I wanted so badly to save her, but I couldn’t even save myself.

Hey, I called softly.

After a moment, a pair of eyes the same dark honey color as my own peered up at me through that fall of hair. Even red-rimmed from weeping they seemed dull, listless, and I thought my heart was going to break. How long could she keep going like this? As bad as it was for me, I knew it was far worse for Willow. At seventeen, she should have been enjoying her senior year, going to parties, going to prom. Falling in love. What she got instead was this never-ending Hell that we endured. Did she even have any hope left that one day she could escape?

Are you all right?

Her eyes fixed on me blankly, almost like I wasn’t even there or something. It kind of made me doubt whether I really was. Was my life, everything I was, just someone else’s bad dream? If so, they seriously needed to wake up already.

"Willow. What happened?"

It came in a whisper so faint I almost didn’t hear. Ray tried to get me to do a threesome with them. Mom hit me when she found out.

Bile rose in my throat at the mere thought of that slimy pervert in the same room as my little sister. Ray was Mom’s long-term ‘boyfriend,’ except he was actually more of a client, and he was an abusive sleaze to boot. The fact that he had propositioned my sister didn’t surprise me at all; that my mother had gotten upset about it did. Mom didn’t give a damn about either one of us—hadn’t since the day Dad had walked out eight years ago and she decided that it was all our fault. As far as I could tell, the only thing she cared about these days was getting her next drink, and if she had needed to sell both of us to her ‘boyfriends’ to get it I knew she wouldn’t have batted an eyelash.

I strained my ears and managed to catch the low rumble of a male voice coming from the back of the house in response to my mother’s higher pitched whining.

He’s still here?

When she nodded I bit my lip. There was no way I could leave her here. Inevitably Mom would pass out, and when she did Willow would be alone with Ray, who was the type of guy who wouldn’t take being told no as anything but foreplay.

Can you stay with Lauren?

She’s at her dad’s this weekend.

How about Tegan?

I’ll call.

Do that, and then pack enough clothes for the weekend. I reached into my purse and pulled out two twenty dollar bills. It’s all I’ve got, I said with a shrug of apology, ashamed that it was all I could offer.

Willow flinched. I don’t need it. Keep it.

I reached out and folded her slim fingers around the money. Go out with Tegan and blow it. I know it’s not much, but go do something to remind yourself that this isn’t all there is.

For a second I saw a glimmer of tears in her eyes, but with a sharp, shuddering breath she turned away and scooped up her phone. Willow never cried; she was usually so brave it made my heart ache. That she had broken down today meant she was at her limit. As she called her friend, I crept down the hallway to the tiny bedroom we shared, where I listened to the muffled voices of my mother and Ray through the wall while I changed into my work clothes. Before I finished dressing, Willow came in and started cramming clothes into her backpack. Apparently Tegan was okay with her staying over, so I felt far less guilty when I pulled out a pair of pink jeans and a white lace blouse and slipped them into a plastic bag. Willow noticed and raised a quizzical eyebrow.

Aiden, I whispered, and her eyes got big.

Aiden Rogers was the one bright spot in my life. I had known him for years, or at least known of him, but in my wildest dreams I had never imagined that I’d be going out with him. Back in high school every girl had swooned over him, and I knew a lot of them had done far more than that in the back seat of his car after the football and baseball games. It was hard to blame them—the combination of his tousled mop of dark blond hair and soulful brown eyes with his athlete’s body was practically irresistible. Tonight would be our third date in a row, and I had started allowing myself the hope that I might finally have started a real relationship.

While I was in high school, my mother had made that impossible. Somehow during my freshman year everyone had found out what she was, what she did, and I spent my entire four year sentence at Westbrook High being called a slut or worse. The only guys who would so much as look at me were only interested because they thought I would be an easy lay, and as soon as they found out I wasn’t they disappeared. That never stopped them from telling stories to their friends about hooking up with me, though. By the time I graduated I had a reputation almost as bad as my mother’s, despite the fact that I’d never gone further than a couple of kisses with anyone I’d ever gone out with.

It killed me to think that Willow had to endure the exact same thing, only in her case it was even worse because she had to live down my reputation as well as our mother’s. During her first two years of high school she had come home sobbing almost every day, but then around the start of her junior year something changed. The tears stopped, and she grew more distant and shut out everyone else except for Lauren and Tegan, the two girls who had defied the rest of the school to remain her friends. Up until then we had been close, but now I was firmly on the outside as well. She wouldn’t confide in me, and I no longer knew what she thought nor had much of an idea what went on in her life outside of our house.

That didn’t change the fact that I was responsible for her, though. While everyone else might abandon us, I would always be there for her.

Ready? I whispered as she zipped up her backpack.

She gave a brief nod and crept after me into the hallway. In the back of the house, the clamor of Mom and Ray arguing spiraled up as they strove to shout over each other. I didn’t mind, since their voices drowned out the faint creaks of the loose floor boards as we made our way to the living room and escaped out the front door. The moment we crossed the threshold we bolted for my car, and I had us in gear and moving before the doors were even closed. Neither of us could get out of there fast enough, and as I watched the house shrink in the rear view mirror I wished that I had a friend like Tegan I could stay with for the weekend. But at least I had Aiden to look forward to—I just had to make it through my shift at the coffee counter in the bookstore.

By the time I had dropped Willow off, my mood had started to lift a little. I mostly had things under control, despite the incident at home. In a few short months my little sister would graduate and I could get us out of town for good. Willow would get a scholarship somewhere, and I’d help her out while she went to school to make a better life for herself. We’d both be able to put this miserable existence behind us. I’d held it all together this long, and I could keep her out of trouble until then, surely?

As I rolled to a stop at a red light my car chugged hard, and the sputtering noises coming from under the hood quickly killed off my optimistic mood. The car was shaking so badly that the steering wheel vibrated in my hands. I let my head fall back against the headrest with a groan. Why me? Murmuring a little prayer, I eased on the gas when the light turned green, and the car lurched forward like a drunk staggering towards the bar.

I should have turned off the road then. My car was obviously in bad shape and ready to die at any moment, but I needed to get to work and so I held onto an irrational hope that I could baby it along that far. No such luck. By turning off the air conditioner and playing with the gas, I managed to make it another hundred yards up the street and right into the middle of a construction zone before the engine gave a final spasm and died. I had just enough momentum to pull off onto the narrow strip of pavement that passed for a shoulder, and then sat there staring wretchedly off into the distance. Cars and trucks roared by only inches away from my door, shaking my whole car as they passed. I wasn’t about to risk getting out and looking under the hood in this kind of traffic. Not that it would have mattered, since I was as qualified to perform open heart surgery as I was to diagnose a sick car. While I’m not completely hopeless—I do know how to change a tire and make sure the oil and stuff are topped off—this was way beyond my level of expertise.

Hoping I could convince Aiden to pick me up and give me a lift to work, I dug into my purse to pull out my cell phone and received my next disappointment. When I tried to turn it on nothing happened, though, and my shoulders slumped in despair as I stared down at the lifeless hunk of glass and plastic in my hands. I had forgotten to charge it overnight, and between going to classes and the library afterwards I’d had no chance to do it during the day. It might as well have been a brick for all the good it was going to do me. I was just going to have to go out and find a phone.

I flipped on the hazard lights then crawled over the center console and pushed open the passenger door. With the concrete barriers on that side, there was just barely enough room for me to squeeze out. A big truck flew by and the wind of its nearby passage sent my hair whipping around my face and tugged at my clothes. If I got myself squished as roadkill, I wasn’t going to do Willow any good. With my eyes squinted against the blowing grit, I hopped over the barriers and put some distance between me and the zooming traffic.

A small shopping strip lay a few hundred feet further on, so I slogged through the knee-high grass towards it, thankful that I had on a pair of sneakers rather than heels. The two offices on the end closest to me had already closed for the afternoon, but the cheap hair salon next to them was still open.

Can I help you? a young woman around my age with fuchsia hair and long, purple nails asked brightly.

My car broke down back in the construction. Can I use your phone?

The woman’s smile died and she rolled her eyes. Make it quick. It’s supposed to be for business only.

I dialed Aiden’s number and waited for it to pick up. When there was no answer I tried again, and this time it went straight to voicemail. This just wasn’t my day. There was no one else I could call. My one friend was away at college halfway across the country, and as for my mom, even if she hadn’t been drunk out of her mind she would have just laughed and hung up on me. Willow’s friend Tegan had a car, but I didn’t want to get them involved. I had sent Willow off for the weekend hoping she’d forget her problems, not to get her wrapped up in mine. I was just going to have to find another way to work, and once there I could take the time to figure out what to do next.

Thanks, I told the woman, who shrugged me off without a glance.

I started back for my car, hoping I could find someone who would let me hitch a ride closer to work. When I got to the bookstore I could look up a towing company and a garage. As I walked, my heart quailed at the thought of the towing and repair bills I was about to get hit with. I needed every penny I could save if I was going to get us out of this town when Willow graduated, but expenses like this could quickly eat away at my savings and leave us both stranded here. Mom was already taking a big chunk of my check as rent to let me stay at home. Once she had realized that there was no way I would leave Willow alone there, she had started demanding more and more. I sighed. Next week I would need to take steps to help get us further along, even if it meant putting the other things I wanted on hold for a while. It was okay, though. Taking care of Willow was more important than anything else.

When I got back to my car there was pearl gray Lexus parked in front of it, and my heart gave a little flip as I recognized it. I decided my luck wasn’t quite so bad after all when I made out the man sitting in the driver’s seat talking into a cell phone.

Grant Richards was my best friend’s father, and I probably should have called him when I couldn’t reach Aiden. There were just two problems with that: I didn’t have his cell number memorized, and I had my reasons for not wanting to impose on him more than I already had over the years. He glanced up from his phone, and when he saw me standing by the car his face lit up with a smile and he beckoned me towards the door.

Hi, Mr. Richards, I said as I slid gratefully into the cool, black leather seat. It was still only early spring, but the weather had warmed up fast so the air conditioning felt heavenly. Deep blue eyes like sapphires flecked with steel regarded me with evident relief, while he ran a hand through thick, dark brown hair only a couple of shades lighter than black. The navy blue suit and gray striped tie he wore brought out the blue in his eyes and emphasized the breadth of his shoulders. Okay, so maybe it was more than just the weather that made me glad of the air conditioning. I’d had a wicked crush on him for a while back in high school, and sometimes I seemed to forget that I was over it.

I saw your car and thought you might need help. What happened?

The engine died. It started acting up back at the light and then conked out.

Have you called for a tow?

Not yet. My phone was dead.

Your car and phone in the same day? He shook his head as though in exasperation, but his eyes twinkled and I knew it was just for show. I guess it’s a good thing I happened along when I did. You’re welcome to use my phone, or I can call the garage I use and they’ll come take care of it for you.

He held his phone out towards me, but I shook my head. While I would have preferred to shop around to get the best price I could, I was already running late for work and I knew so little about cars that I was afraid of being ripped off by any cut-rate mechanic I managed to turn up. Or worse, with my luck I’d find one who knew my mom.

Will you please do it? I asked.

Of course. Do you want it towed to your house or to the shop?

The shop, I guess. I’m sure not going to be able to fix it.

It took him less than five minutes to get it taken care of. Done, he said. They’ll be here in about thirty minutes. Do you need anything out of it?

I’ve got my backpack and a plastic bag of clothes in the back seat. That’s all.

Key? I handed over my key ring. The penguin ornament on the fob looked faintly ridiculous dangling from his fingers. Be right back.

Before I could protest, he had darted around to the side of my car while there was a gap in the flow of traffic. He returned after only a minute, tossing my things in the back then turning to me.

Were you on your way to work?

Yes.

Okay, I’ll drop you off. He gunned the engine and slid smoothly into the traffic between a pickup and a cement truck. It’s too late for them to get to it today, but the garage should call you first thing tomorrow with an estimate. I gave them my number as well as yours, just in case something else happens to your phone.

Thanks. I’m sorry to cause you so much trouble.

Faint age lines crinkled at the edge of his eyes with his smile. Helping out lovely young ladies is never trouble, he said with a wink. Don’t worry about it, Holly. I’m happy I could lend a hand.

I