Pier-ipheral Vision
"Come on, Liv. You've been busy with wedding stuff and house stuff. You're still working full time, and you're past the halfway point in your pregnancy. You need to ease up a little. An afternoon outside is all I'm suggesting."
Olivia squinted up at him. "Ease up? Do you think for one minute that the wedding stuff or house stuff is going to take care of itself? No! And I'm well aware of how far along I am into this pregnancy because I feel like a beached whale. And I work full time because right now I can. It helps keep me stay active on my feet, which is a good thing, or I'd look like a beached...I dunno...something bigger than a whale!"
Fitz held the palm of his hands in her direction and gave her a nervous look. "Babe? I come in peace, okay? I get it. I said the wrong thing just now. I'm very sorry. Can I please start over?"
She tilted her head, crossed her arms in front of her chest, and raised her eyebrows in a challenging fashion at him, but said nothing.
"You are amazing. You are going out of your way to plan the perfect wedding for us, and I know it's going to be incredible. I cannot wait to marry you, Liv." He watched her drop her crossed arms and rest her hands on her belly instead, rubbing little circles on it. This was progress.
"And I know our house is going to be the envy of everyone who can only look at it from the road. I don't care about the color of the towels or what design is on the plates." He watched her hands freeze and blurted out the rest. "But you do. And that's going to be what makes it feel like a home instead of just a house. And I promise I will be more helpful with that stuff from now on."
Olivia's eyebrows went back to their normal place on her forehead and she straightened her head.
"And I know you're freaking out about your belly but believe me when I tell you that pregnancy looks amazing on you. You are growing our little bean and she needs room to move in there. You are mindful of what you eat, and we go for walks on your days off, and you need to know that you can't expect to stay a size two while carrying a baby. So, let that shit go, Liv!"
"Are you done now?" she asked.
He thought he was, but she had just made him doubt himself. In a voice he wasn't sure came out sounding as confident as he'd hoped, Fitz said, "yes?"
Catching him off guard, she smiled at him before getting up on her tiptoes and pulling him close for a hug. "Thank you. I'm sorry I bit your head off."
In a very pitiful voice he told her, "you left teeth marks on my neck."
It took everything in her to not reply with sarcasm. Instead, she chuckled softly into his ear. "I'm sorry. I know you were just trying to help. And you thought you'd take me out of the house to spend a few hours at the beach. That's kinda sweet."
"It is kinda sweet." Fitz said, pulling out of her neck so she could see his irresistible lopsided grin. "Something sweet like that deserves a prize, don't you think?"
"It definitely deserves a prize." She agreed, grinning right back at him. This man and his prizes. "What kind of prize would you like?"
Fitz knew they didn't have time for the kind of prize he had in mind. Not right now. So, he got creative with his answer. "What if the prize is collected at a later date and time?"
Olivia knew he was a sneaky so and so, but she wasn't going to complain about it. If he wanted to wait, that was fine. "I can go along with that. I'd really like to give you a kiss though. To make me feel better. Is that okay?"
"MmmHmm." Leaning down Fitz tilted his head and connected his lips to Olivia's in a feather soft kiss. He felt her tongue slide into his mouth, and he sucked on it until her hands slid down his back and grabbed his ass. His brain barely recognized what his body was doing before he had Olivia through her bedroom door, leading the way towards her bed.
He mentally chastised himself and then broke the kiss. "Sorry, Liv. I guess I got caught up."
"Dammit. I was this close to getting you into that bed!" she whined.
"Normally, I would be thrilled to death with you taking charge of our sex life. But we are on a very tight schedule and there is no veering from it. Get your sexy little ass out the door. If I have to throw you into the ocean to cool you down, I'll do it. Besides, you don't want Abby and Stephen walking in on us. I can't wait until we are in our own place and won't have to worry about that anymore."
"I just wanted to get laid. Is that a crime these days" Olivia grumbled under her breath? She walked out the door, but she wasn't happy about it.
Fifteen minutes later, Fitz pulled into a parking space at the beach. It was a hot July day, but the sun was covered up by the heavily clouded sky, making it impossible for the sun to directly bear down on everyone trying to enjoy their day underneath it.
He got out of his seat and went around to open the door for Olivia. The moment she got out of the car Fitz watched her stress begin to fade away. She smiled and tilted her head up, taking a deep breath. He was happy to have a relaxed fiancé, even if it was just for a little while. Fitz kissed her cute little nose and the two of them started walking.
They trudged side by side up the worn wooden steps that led to the pier they planned to walk the length of as many times as they wanted today. There were lots of people at the beach today, but instead of it making things seem unbearable, they added to the overall excitement.
Once they reached the pier Fitz headed towards the long wooden path that led to deeper water, but Olivia tugged on his arm catching him off guard. He turned to look at her and asked, "what's the matter?"
"Nothing. I saw something I like." She told him shyly. "Look! Ice cream."
"I saw something I like earlier too, but here we are." he told her with a grin.
Holding up her palm towards him, Olivia replied, "uh uh! We are on a very tight schedule and the world would stop spinning if we veered off course. Or something like that."
Fitz pulled her into his arms and began to sway with her. "You'd better hope our daughter gets all of my charm and none of your sass."
"Is that a fact?" Olivia asked with a grin. "I hope our daughter gets my sense of humor and none of yours."
He stopped moving and his mouth formed a little o as he acted like he was wounded by her words. "I'm funny, Liv."
She shrugged. "You're okay. I'm a lot funnier."
"I bet I can make you laugh." Fitz said in a challenging tone.
Olivia propped her hand on her hip. "Pffff. Try me."
Instead of a joke or one liner, Fitz's long fingers dug into her ribs causing her to squeal with laughter. It caused a few people around them to stop and look at them, giving strange looks and a wide berth. "Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" Olivia begged through her laughter.
"Truce? We want our daughter to have equal parts of you and me in her. Right?" Fitz asked, holding out his hand.
"Right." Olivia replied, holding out her right hand to shake with his. As their hands connected and began pumping, she whispered, "just a little more of me is all I'm saying."
"Olivia Grant! You little cheater!" Fitz pulled her back into his arms with a big stupid grin on his face. Looking down at her, he felt his heart swell with so much love. "I love you, you know."
"It makes me smile like an idiot every time you tell me." she informed him.
"Your face is going to get tired from smiling because I'm going to say it every day for the rest of our lives."
"You'd better, Mister. Now gimme a kiss."
"A please would be nice. You really need to brush up on your manners, Livvie. We're gonna have a baby in the house soon and she needs to have manners too." he was grinning as he said it.
"I never said where I wanted the kiss." Olivia said with a flirty smile.
"Liv!" Fitz leaned closer to her as he felt a familiar twitch in his shorts as he clenched his jaw. "You can't say things like that to me when we're out in public!"
"Well...I just did. What are you gonna do about it?"
"Just you wait until I remind you of the prize you owe me. I haven't forgotten, you know."
"Can I have a kiss now or what? Pleeeeease?"
Fitz gladly obliged his fiancé with a soft romantic kiss before leading her over to the souvenir store to buy them ice cream cones. Five minutes later, Olivia and Fitz were taking their time, walking the length of the pier, hand in hand, licking their quickly melting ice cream cones.
"Better?" he asked. He knew the summer weather was a bit stifling and Fitz wanted her to be as comfortable as possible. It was good to see her stop and breathe.
"Mmmm." She squeezed his hand as she ate her ice cream. When her mouth was empty, she told him, "I really needed this. Thank you."
They walked in silence for a little while and when Olivia's cone was gone she told Fitz, "if you had told me at the beginning of the year that I'd be pregnant, move away from my parents, getting married, and buying a house, I would have laughed in your face."
"Life is very good at throwing us curve balls when we least expect it" he replied.
"Bet your ass, Mister."
Fitz sat down on a nearby wooden bench that looked weathered and worn, but sturdy enough. He pulled Olivia onto his lap and they sat there looking at the water for a while through the wooden rails. "If you would have told me at the beginning of the year that I would be helplessly in love with a woman and wind up proposing in a very suave Carey Grant type of fashion, and become a dad by the end of the year, I would have called you crazy. But here we are."
Olivia smiled and turned her head to look at him. "Yea. Here we are. You realize that you're definitely getting the better end of this deal, right?"
His arms snaked around her waist and came to rest of her growing belly. "Tell me about it. I'm very lucky. And very excited to become your husband and treat you like a queen to be adored every single day. But I really can't wait to meet her and be her dad too."
She decided to delve a little deeper on the subject while they were talking about it. "How many kids do you see us having after the bean gets here?"
He never hesitated. "At least two more."
"Really? Your kid number is three?"
"No" he corrected. "I said, 'at least three' If we're being serious, my kid number is four. As an only child who desperately wanted siblings, I'd love to have four kids. Two girls and two boys would be ideal, but I wouldn't put any of them back if we didn't get that."
"That's so nice to know." Olivia told him dryly.
"While we're on the subject, what's your kid number, Livvie?" He had never heard her say how many siblings she'd like the bean to have eventually, so Fitz was very interested in her answer.
"At least two, but not more than three." She said firmly.
Challenge accepted, he thought to himself. He wasn't about to share those words with her right now. Instead, he said, "I can live with that."
"Do you think there would be any weirdness between the bean and the ones that come later? The ones that will be biologically yours? I mean, would you treat them all the same?" She was nervous about his answer because they had never really discussed this stuff before.
Instead of answering her, Fitz got to his feet and brought Olivia to hers. He sat her back down on the bench and kneeled in front of her and took her hands in his. She had that pregnancy glow he had read about in the baby books. Her skin looked even more beautiful somehow, and he took a minute to just look at her before he realized that it was making her nervous instead of calming her fears. "There are lots of reasons why I can promise you that there won't be any weirdness between our kids."
"Tell me some of them. Please."
"First of all, they will all be my kids. My goal is to adopt the bean."
"You...want to...adopt her?" Dammit! It's like it was his mission in life to make her cry everyday by saying something sweet.
"You asked me if I wanted to be her dad and I said yes. I plan on making that a legit thing one day. That's going to mean me having a face to face talk with her father, but I'm okay with that. The second her mother says 'I do' she'll be a Grant too. I mean, she already is really, but we need to do it legally. We need to make it official."
He wiped her tears away with his thumb. "Don't cry, Livvie. Is that okay with you? If I adopt the bean and make her a Grant? We can tell her about her father when she's old enough to understand it all and scream 'I hate you' before slamming her bedroom door."
"She's not allowed to hate anyone." Olivia said sniffing. "And after the first time any of our kids slam their bedroom door, it will be taken off its hinges and they will have no door at all."
"I think I'm gonna like parenting with you, badass momma. That's kinda sexy to imagine. I'm gonna buy you a tool belt. Mmmmm." It really was sexy to imagine.
"Fitz?" Olivia said in a warning tone.
"Yea, you got that momma tone down pat already."
"I'm not kidding around here."
"Sorry. Will you talk to me like that later though?"
She chuckled, just like he wanted her to, erasing her tears immediately. "You are beyond ridiculous."
"I know, but what can you do about it?"
She let go of his hands and cupped his cheeks. "Of course, I'm okay with you adopting the bean and making her a Grant, if that's what you want to do. Do you want to ask your dad first to make sure he's ok with that addition to the family?"
"He called me last night and threatened to kick my ass if I didn't ask your permission by the end of the weekend. I think we have his vote."
"I really love you, you know. I'm touched that you want to adopt her and make her legally yours."
He leaned closer and touched his lips to hers in a soft peck. "Can we go home so I can really touch you?"
"Fitz?" Olivia said softly between kisses.
"Hmmm?"
"This little girl of ours really does need a name soon."
"Delores is sweeping the nation." he replied, trying to get her back on her feet. He wasn't kidding about going home and touching her.
Olivia nipped at his bottom lip. "We aren't naming our daughter Delores, Fitz."
Nuzzling in her neck to prevent his lips from being nipped any further, Fitz softly asked, "What about Riley?"
He felt her go still and knew she was thinking it over. Letting the name marinate for a minute. "If you want a more feminine sounding name or if you hate it all together then..."
"No!" Olivia pulled her head back to look him in the eye. She was smiling. "If the bean is going to be a Grant, then her daddy should pick her name."
Really?" he asked feeling a bit teary eyed himself.
"Yea" Olivia said nodding. "Besides, it was the one name you picked out that I actually really like."
"I did ask you to put a star next to it, Mrs. Grant." Fitz reminded her.
"You did." Olivia nodded. "You got to pick the first name, but I get to choose the middle name."
"Okay, but I am NOT sitting down with you and Abby and going through the alphabet again. I will absolutely positively lose my..."
"Hey! Calm down." Olivia told him with a smile. "It just so happens that I have one already picked out."
He squinted at her. "You do?"
"MmmHmm. Amelia."
Fitz practically stopped breathing. "Why Amelia?"
"Well," she began, crinkling her nose. "You're not the only sneaky one in this family. I had breakfast with your dad at Waffle World the other day and...spoiler alert... I didn't propose or anything."
"But, Liv..."
She leaned closer and softly said, "I'm not done yet. Save your questions for the end please."
He nodded mutely.
"I asked him what your mother's name was. I was shocked to learn that it was..."
"Amelia." Fitz supplied.
"Amelia." Olivia echoed. "If Riley is going to be a Grant, then she should know where comes from. A little piece of her grandmother might be a good place to start. And...Mia is short for Amelia and that was one of the names on our list. So, technically we are still using the top five."
"I love you so much. Thank you, babe." He kissed her softly, his heart and head still so overwhelmed by her gesture.
Breaking the kiss, Fitz squatted in front of her and leaned closer to Olivia's belly with a proud grin on his face. He gently ran his fingers over it in a soothing pattern. "Hey little bean. It's your daddy. I'm here to tell you that you finally have a name now. Isn't that great? Your name is Riley Amelia. And now that I think about it, this is your first public embarrassing by your dad. Sorry about that, kiddo. Probably won't be the last one either."
Olivia chuckled and listened to Fitz talk to her belly. He was already the cutest dad, and their baby wasn't even here yet. Looking down at him, Olivia noticed that Fitz needed a haircut. She made a mental note to make him an appointment soon.
"We can't wait to meet you, Riley. Your mommy and I love you so much."
"That was really sweet." Olivia said, giving him a smile.
"It was really sweet wasn't it?" he asked with a grin.
"Do not ask me for another prize, Fitz." Olivia half threatened with a chuckle before puckering her lips at him.
Another set of blue eyes was glued to their open display of affection not far away on the pier. Nervous energy ran through his veins while he kept his eyes on Olivia. He had finally found her! She was right there! He couldn't hear everything they were saying because of all the damned people, but he'd heard plenty of information.
Collin watched Olivia kiss the asshole as if he was her reason for living. And the asshole calling her by a new last name hadn't escaped him either. Either she was using an alias, or she had gotten married. Based on the impressive piece of ice on her left hand, he'd guess marriage. That was quick.
Olivia and the asshole were kissing, holding hands, and basically look like the poster couple for being in love. Seeing it up close brought back the anger and pain he had felt when she disappeared without a word.
He recalled how he had tried getting in touch with her for over two weeks, using the phone he had bought her shortly after they had begun dating. He couldn't understand why she wouldn't answer him to explain herself. Where had she gone? When was she coming back? And most importantly, why had she left in the first place.
Collin shot daggers at the asshole with his eyes. He didn't seem like Olivia's type. He was tall and kinda goofy looking. He always had his hands on her too. Collin recalled how Olivia had claimed it made her feel like he was treating her like an object instead of a person whenever he did that. Based on what he was seeing, she didn't seem to mind it at all now. It appeared that some things had changed since she had left town.
If things were over between him and Olivia as they appeared, he could deal with that. If she had moved on and met someone else, it wasn't the end of the world. He wasn't possessive of her. Not really. An explanation would be nice. It would be the decent thing for her to do too.
Some things had changed, but others hadn't. Olivia was still drop dead gorgeous. Her hair was shiny and beautiful, and his fingers itched to touch it again. She always had the softest hair. God, he missed her.
While he had his eyes focused on her smile and her hair, Collin hadn't missed the fact that Olivia was pregnant. He was no expert on what pregnant women looked like at the different stages, but she had a pretty big gut so she must be kinda far along. Unless she met goofy the week after she left town and got pregnant by him, she probably hadn't gotten rid of his baby like they had discussed and that was why she took off.
A baby wasn't on his radar. Not for years. But if Olivia was carrying his child and keeping it from him, that was not okay. The two of them would have to have a talk about it. Minus the asshole, of course. He'd have to think about how to get her alone so they could talk.
He was grateful for the crowds of people at the beach today. They provided the cover he needed to keep an eye on her from a distance. He was equally grateful for the hasty way in which she left town. Once his mind came to grips with the fact that she wasn't planning on contacting him or coming back, he drank himself into oblivion for weeks in an attempt to forget all about her. When he sobered up, he realized he was still desperate to know where she was.
It took him some time to get caught up on the work he had slacked off on. A clear head brings clear thinking, and Collin realized he needed to leave the alcohol alone. At least until he found Olivia. And then he'd have a victory drink. Or three.
Every room in his house was meticulously inspected for any shred of information leading to where she was, or where her parents lived for that matter. He looked in every cabinet, every dresser or desk, and in every drawer. Finally, after an exhaustive search, he found an old bill with her name on it that had slid underneath the sofa. The mailing envelope had an address for the next town, and it was then that he remembered Olivia mentioning as being the one her parents lived in.
So, he sat in his car on their street at different times and watched for movement from the house. He followed from a distance anyone coming or going until he found Olivia. And then one day he struck gold. Liv's mother drove to this little beach town and pulled up in front of a cute little house right on the water. Collin didn't actually see Olivia that day, but he drove back down here today to see if this was where she was living. He ended up following her and the asshole to the beach from what appeared to be their cozy little love shack.
He wanted nothing more than to walk over here and confront both of them. The look on Olivia's face would be well worth it. Not today though. Today was just for observing. He planned to keep an eye on her for a few weeks and see what he could learn about the baby situation. He'd have to be careful to stay out of her sight though. She had run away from him for a reason. A reason he wanted to know about. He'd ask her when they talked privately.
For now, though, he needed to leave. He had seen more than enough for one day. Maybe he'd go back to the house and look around inside? He glanced at them once more. They were holding hands and walking at a leisurely pace with big happy smiles. They'd be here for a while, and that would give him plenty of time to do a quick sweep of the place. He decided he had pressed his luck enough for this first visit. He'd go home now and begin potting his next move and look into his rights for paternity.
To anyone who is questioning how big of a pain in the booty Collin will be...please see Will Swann in DC. Olitz is endgame so just breathe & enjoy the ride, y'all!
First of all, SHOUT OUT to Naja1218 for giving me the suggestion of using Fitz's mothers name as the bean's middle name. It was too perfect to turn away! I had already decided to use Amelia & then mention it could be shortened to Mia - which was 1 of the 2 final names on the poll I held on Twitter.
Second of all, I know that Mia won that poll, but as ms_tlovee pointed out to me, in the recently completed story Home, Mia was Olivia's daughter's name. It didn't sit well with me to use the same name for a child under the same circumstances. So, I wrote it this way. And, I really wanted the only name Fitz picked and was excited about to be her name.
Lastly, thank you for all the love you guys have shown this story. It's amazing to me that anyone would read my stuff. I appreciate you all! xo