* * *

Breathing heavily, Marc rolled off Liv’s sleep-warm body and onto his back beside her. With a feline smile, she stretched, leaning over to kiss his chest over his heart.

“That was a very inspired good morning, Marc Chase.”

“What can I say? You inspire me,” he gasped out.

“Don’t you need to get back to your clients? I feel bad that you’re here when you have a business to run.”

“You’re more important to me than that. I couldn’t have waited until tomorrow for you to come back to town. I wanted you to know I didn’t betray you, wanted you to know how much I love you. One of my buddies from my old gym has taken my clients until Monday so that’s not a problem.” He cocked his head.

“But thank you for asking, for thinking of it.”

“I love you. Your business is important to you so it’s important to me. Now get up. We’re going to breakfast and then I have somewhere I’d like to take you.”

They quickly got up and dressed and headed out, hand in hand. She drove him out of the city center, to a greasy spoon the likes of which she’d rarely seen anywhere else. But an older hippie couple owned and ran it so she knew firsthand they had healthy offerings too. When her mother had been in the hospice during those last seven months, she often snuck away to come to this place to get away from the pain and death. Every time she came to Atlanta in the twenty years since, she’d stopped in and it had become a part of her in a sense. A refuge.

He gave her a skeptical look when she pulled in.

“Stop. Trust me.”

He took her hand and they walked in together. “I do. With all my heart if not my cholesterol.”

“Livvie! How are you darlin’?”

“I’m well, Rain. And you?” Liv kissed the cheek of the bird thin woman with short, white hair.

“Pretty darned good. And who is this fine looking specimen?”

“This is my boyfriend, ugh, that’s such a weird term for an adult woman to use, anyway, this is Marc Chase. Marc, this is Rain Scott. She and her husband Pete own this place.”

Smiling and turning on the charm, Marc shook her hand.

“Boyfriend huh? That’s nice to hear. Well let’s get you to a table. Coffee will be up in a moment.” Rain handed them menus and they sat near the windows overlooking a side vegetable garden.

Liv watched him through her lashes as he opened up his menu and his face changed.

“Sneaky.” He grinned her way.

She shrugged. “I knew you’d like it. The food here is really good.”

“And healthy. Thank you.”

“I like to eat healthy too, you know.”

He took her hand and kissed her knuckles. “I like you. How did you find this place? It’s sort of off the beaten path.”

She told him and noted that he was touched.

After breakfast, she took him to the cemetery. “I know this is sort of weird but when I’m here in Atlanta, I come by. My dad buried her here. The hospice she spent the last year of her life in is just across the way. She’d look out the window at these big oak trees and say that’s where she wanted to rest. I don’t think he ever denied her anything. I wish she was in Petal but he’s bought the plot next to hers and my sister lives here now anyway.” She got quiet, looking off into the distance.

Marc stopped and stared at her, turning her chin so she faced him. “I don’t know what to say. I’m amazed that you’d share this with me.”

“You are? Have I been so selfish with you?”

Marc felt the gulf between them again but determined to push through it. “No. It’s not that. But you’ve kept a lot of stuff to yourself. I guess I’m just seeing how much I didn’t see, didn’t know.”

“Okay. That’s fair I guess.”

Her shoulders dropped and he felt like an ass**le. He hadn’t meant to make her feel bad. In fact, he was touched she’d brought him there. But she hadn’t talked about her mom much before and he realized there was so much he didn’t know about her.

“Liv, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to make you feel guilty or lacking.”

“You feel how you feel.”

He sighed. “Eggshells here, Liv. I’m just expressing my surprise. I want to be able to be honest with you but I’m going to hold back if I hurt you.”

“I don’t want to do this here. Let’s go.”

He stopped her, grabbing her hand. “Honey, this is going to be a work in progress. You know that. We can’t make things right if you just give up. First things first. I’m honored, truly, that you’d share this with me. Let’s go and visit your mother and then we can talk.” He tried to show her how much he loved her, wanted her to see it in his eyes.

Keeping her hand in his, he followed her across the quiet grass to the flat, pale stone. They knelt together and he nearly gasped when he saw the name. He knew it was her mother but seeing Olivia’s name on a headstone gave him a start.

“I know. It’s odd isn’t it? My father told me shortly after my mother died, that it was hard for him to come here because he thought of me every time.”

Her voice was quiet, soft and he put his arm around her shoulder.

“She was only thirty-five when she died. So young.” A shiver ran through him again at the comparison.

“I’m now older than she was when she died. She passed two days after her birthday. And yet she had two children and a marriage when she died. I have none of that.”