Kill Me Again, page 29
Her only “punishment” was that the nameplate on her office door had been changed to read Professor Sarah Quinlan.
There had been a couple of weeks where she’d barely been able to leave her house, due to all the press coverage. That she’d taken on the identity of a dead woman and lived under her name for so many years was the stuff of media madness, and they’d been true to form. But things were finally dying down now.
The real Olivia Dupree might finally be able to rest in peace. And the real Sarah Quinlan had been resurrected and was living life for the very first time.
Ironic, that.
“He’s gorgeous,” Dawn said softly. “You gonna keep him?”
“For ever and ever,” Olivia told her friend as they watched the two men bonding over burgers at the grill.
Carrie nudged her with an elbow. “We’ll be planning your wedding next.”
Olivia smiled, loving that idea, even as Dawn said, “Don’t get ahead of yourself. We haven’t finished planning mine yet—and it’s next month!”
“Okay, okay,” Carrie conceded. “Come on, Olivia—Sarah—God, I’ll never get used to that. We need to help serve.”
“If it’s okay, I’d like to give your son a thank-you present first.”
Carrie closed her eyes. “I can’t believe you’re doing this. But I’m not gonna say no.” She waved an arm in a “go for it” gesture.
Olivia spotted Sam trying to wrest a deflated beach ball from Freddy’s jaws, and called out to him. He got out of the pool, calling Freddy behind him.
“Would you walk out front with me, Sam? I want to talk to you about something.”
“Sure.”
He fell into step beside her, and she said, “You know, with everything going on, I never got a chance to thank you for what you did that night.”
“You did so. You said thanks the night Freddy got shot.” He shook his head. “Man, that was scary.”
“It was. But it wasn’t a proper thank-you. And you saved Adam’s life, too, before you got around to saving mine. We figured we’d get you a really special present to show you how grateful we both are. Think of it as a birthday present, if you want.”
“My birthday was six weeks ago.”
She held up a set of keys. “Better late than never.”
Sam’s jaw dropped. “What—what do you—what are you—”
She pointed, and Sam turned, staring at the red-and-black SUV.
“I thought you might like a slightly used—” she cleared her throat “—Funkmaster Flex Edition Ford Expedition. Phew! Do you know how often I had to practice saying that?”
He just stared. Then he shook his head. “No way.”
“Um, yes. Way.”
And then he smiled and turned and hugged her neck while bouncing up and down, as a round of applause broke out from all the people who’d quietly followed them around the side of the house.
“I can’t believe it! I can’t! Oh, God, I can’t believe it! No way! For real?”
“Yeah, for real. I broke it, I bought it. And I don’t really need another SUV. You seemed to like this one, and really, it’s hardly a fair trade for saving our lives.”
“I can’t believe it.”
“Believe it. I wouldn’t have missed out on the life I’m living right now for anything in the world,” she said softly, as Adam came up beside her and slid an arm around her shoulders. “It took a long time for me to start living again, Sam. Without you, I wouldn’t have had the chance.”
“You’re awesome, Prof,” he said. “God, I don’t even know what to say.”
“Say you’ll be careful with it. Now go check it out already.”
“All right!” He took the keys and ran, a dozen other almost-juniors stampeding behind him.
Smiling, she turned into Adam’s waiting arms. “That felt great. Just what I needed today.”
He frowned. “Why today?”
She lowered her head. “Today’s the day the real Olivia Dupree was murdered. I used to think of it as my birthday. My new birthday. The day a cop I didn’t know was actually a killer helped me be reborn.”
She closed her eyes. “Let’s drink a toast to her tonight. In a way, she helped me, too.”
“Okay, it’s a deal. And from now on, we’ll remember this date and drink a toast to her every year.”
“That would be nice,” she said softly.
“And it won’t even be hard to remember,” he said. “Six weeks after Sam’s birthday.”
“Yeah, six weeks after…” She stopped speaking. She turned and stared at Sam, out there with his friends, admiring his new wheels. She looked at him.
Really looked at him.
And she realized for the first time that he had his mother’s eyes.
“Hey. Where’d you go?” Adam said.
She blinked and brought herself back to the present. Back to Adam, to her life, a life without secrets. She wished all the people she cared about could have the same.
“Nowhere,” she said softly. “I’m right here.”
“Right where I like you—by my side.”
“It’s where I’ll always be.”
Freddy chose that moment to force his head, followed by his big wet body, right between them, and they both laughed out loud. “Well, where I’ll always be if we can get around our dog,” she said.
“Yeah, he can be a bit of an obstacle. Luckily he approves of us.”
“I wouldn’t be with you otherwise,” she joked.
He kissed her, then kissed her again. “So how are we getting home now that you’ve given away our wheels?”
“It’s a nice day for a walk,” she suggested.
He slid his arm around her again, patted his thigh for Freddy to fall in beside him, and they walked away arm in arm, turning briefly to wave to their friends.
She leaned her head on his shoulder. “I really didn’t believe in it, you know.”
“In what?” he asked.
“In this.” She drew a breath, closed her eyes and felt a warm bliss in every part of her being. “In loving this much. In being this happy. But it’s real. It’s real, and it’s actually mine. It’s my life. This wonderful, unbelievable, can’t-wait-to-get-out-of-bed-and-start-every-new-day, can’t-wait-to-fall-back-into-bed-with you-every-night, life is mine.”
She felt as if she were glowing, alive, beaming with joy and still barely able to conceive of herself feeling that way. And yet she did. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” He bent to the grassy roadside and plucked a little blue flower, then held it toward her. She frowned.
“It’s a forget-me-not,” he said. “Better hold on to it, just in case.” He tucked it into her hair, and they laughed while they kissed, and Olivia would have sworn Freddy was laughing right along with them.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6402-5
KILL ME AGAIN
Copyright © 2010 by Margaret Benson.
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Maggie Shayne, Kill Me Again
