Read Return to You for Free Online

day of first grade. We
hung out all the time. I guess it was natural that we'd fall in
love."
    "When did you know?"
    "Freshmen year in high school. We went to
the Scandia course to race cars." She smiled nostalgically, caught
up in the memory. "Michael was too impatient to play miniature
golf. After some video games we went for pizza before going to a
movie."
    She leaned back and closed her eyes, still
able to feel the zap when their fingers touched in the box of
popcorn. She'd looked up at Michael. In the dark, his eyes had been
luminous. He'd leaned over and kissed her. It'd been soft, a salty
fluttering against her lips, and it'd stirred her heart. She'd
pulled him close and kissed him harder.
    Her fingers reached for the locket Michael
gave her on her sixteenth birthday, the first time they'd made
love. She used to grip it in her palm and think about their future
and how happy they'd be.
    But she didn't have it anymore. She threw it
back at him that night he'd broken up with her.
    She opened her eyes. She hadn't thought of the
locket in ages.
    "Well?" Eve prompted.
    She looked up to find Eve waiting
expectantly. She shrugged. "We kissed for the first time that
night. No, that's not true. It was the second time. The first time
we kissed was on the playground in first grade." His eyes had been
the same blue of the sky as he gazed at her and touched his lips to
hers.
    Damn it. Why did she have to have such a
good memory?
    She drank some more, wondering how much wine
she'd have to consume before she couldn't remember.
    "Eat this." Eve passed her another
saltine.
    Sighing, Olivia dutifully nibbled on it and
continued. "Everything was great until my father came back."
    "What did he do that made you so angry?
You've never said."
    "My father, the movie bigwig, offered
Michael a job." She winced at the wine. Suddenly it tasted
bitter.
    "And that was bad?"
    "Yes. All Michael ever wanted was to direct
movies. It was his dream. Parker knew this and exploited it.
Michael couldn't resist the offer." She laughed mirthlessly. "He
wasn't meant to. So he left."
    "I don't understand," Eve said. "Why didn't
you just go with him?"
    "That's just it. I would've
gone if he made any kind of overture, but he didn't want me.
According to him, I would've gotten in the way. He needed to focus on his
career."
    "The bastard," Eve said with feeling.
    "I can't blame him for taking the job," she
grudgingly added. "All Michael ever wanted was to be a director,
and my father gave him the shot. But I do blame him for believing
I'd get in his way."
    She only wanted him to love her enough to
make their relationship work regardless of where they ended up.
    He hadn't.
    She lost Michael, and then three weeks later
she lost him all over again.
    Leaning forward, she
grabbed Eve's hand. "What I'm going to tell you can't ever leave this room. You
can't tell anyone —not even Treat. Swear to me on your unborn children's
heads."
    "It must be pretty serious to invoke that
kind of oath."
    " Swear ."
    "Okay. I won't tell anyone." Eve crossed her
heart with two fingers.
    "I was pregnant when Michael left."
    " What ?" Eve half fell off the
couch.
    "I miscarried." That was Michael's fault
too. She lifted her glass and blinked. "Someone drank all my
wine."
    Eve automatically refilled it. "He left you
knowing you were pregnant?"
    "I never told him."
    "You had to tell him."
    "I didn't want him to stick with me because
he had to. I wanted him to want me for myself. But he didn't, so I
thought I could raise the baby on my own. But she died. That's why
I went to Paris. I could feel myself sinking into a deep pit of
despair." She looked up at Eve, who had tears in her eyes. "That
wasn't me. I thought if I distanced myself I could figure out who I
was. For the longest time, Michael and I were one entity. I had to
learn to be my own person."
    Eve wiped her eyes. "No wonder you hate your
father. It seems wrong of him to offer Michael that job knowing it
could break you up."
    "Not if