**Edited by Adelina Clonts aka Seawriter**

The Rented Husband"

2011 © All Rights Reserved

Chapter 10

Olivia's phone buzzed and without taking her eyes off of the file that she was currently reading she picked it up. "Olivia Murray speaking."

"Hey, Liv, Ashley's here for your lunch date," Marcey told her. Olivia glanced at the time and couldn't believe that it was already twelve. Time just flies by when you're having fun she thought sarcastically to herself. She took her glasses off and laid them on her desk and rubbed the bridge of her nose where they had been resting.

"Alright," Liv told her. "Send her in. I'm just going to close up this file."

"Will do," she replied in a clipped tone and hung up the phone. Olivia pulled the phone from her ear and frowned at the receiver. Marcey really was taking all of this stuff with Brody far too personally. It's not like they were going to go and elope for real or anything like that. They were just both doing each other a favor, that's it. Nothing special.

Ashley came prancing into her office with a huge smile on her face. Olivia hung up the phone and stood up, stretching her arms over her head. "Someone looks to be in a good mood today," Olivia remarked. It was hard to miss the how brightly her sister was glowing. "Is there something special going on? Something that I might need to know about?"

Ashley closed the door behind her and went to take a seat in one of the chairs settled in front of her desk. "As a matter of fact there is but I want to save my news for lunch. How much longer before your ready to go," she asked staring at all of the mountains of paperwork scattered all over her desk.

Liv closed the file and slid it to the side. Bending over, she pulled her pocket book out of her desk drawer and walked around the front of her desk. "Are you ready to go now?" Liv questioned.

Ashley stood. "I was born ready, girl friend," she laughed and reached for her own purse, swinging it over her shoulder. "Let's go."

The ride to the restaurant was nice. The sisters just talked about general stuff, catching up kind of stuff. The subject of Olivia's dating life or lack thereof had been thankfully been left alone for the moment. She knew that it was only a brief reprieve and dreaded the moment that it did come up. They walked in to Ruth's Chris and the savory smell of steak assailed Olivia all at once, causing her stomach to protest the fact that she had denied herself breakfast this morning.

"Are you hungry?" Ashley asked with a hint of amusement on her face.

Olivia chuckled, "Evidently, and you know how I am when it comes to steak."

"Yeah, believe me I know. I still wear the scar from when we were kids and Cane dared me to steal your steak right off of your plate. You then stabbed me with that damn fork." Olivia laughed at the memory,while Ashley rubbed absent mindedly at the hand that bore the scar. "It's not funny, that crap hurt," she pouted, only fueling Olivia's laughter.

"Well, you shouldn't have tried to steal my steak," she retorted, wiping the moisture from her eyes. Ashley had her cracking up so badly that she had tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

"And you should learn to share more; I'm your sister for goodness sakes."

"Some things in life just aren't meant to be shared," Olivia said ruefully. Then leveling her stare on her sister she added, "Certain things like namely, my steak for instance."

Ashley rolled her eyes, "Believe me, I know that now. I learned my lesson very well."

The waitress stopped by their table and offered them waters while taking their orders. Olivia ordered herself the medium rare steak that she coveted and Ashley ordered herself a grilled chicken salad. The waitress offered them both a genuine smile and told them she would be back shortly.

Olivia took a sip of her water and looked over her glass at her sister. "Okay, so what's the big news that has you glowing like a million watt light bulb?"

Ashley froze. She was staring hard at Olivia, holding her glass in mid air, not believing what she was looking at. No way, she told herself. No freaking way.

"Um, you may want to close your mouth sis, a fly might find its way in there," Olivia told her sister humorously. She laid her glass on the table and glanced around the half full restaurant.

"What in the hell is that?" Ashley almost screamed the question when she finally found her words.

Olivia snapped her head around, confused. "What is what?"

"That-" she said and grabbed her sister's hand to admire the enormous rock beautifying her finger. "What is this?" she repeated, pointing at it.

"Oh, that," Olivia stated dumbly and tried unsuccessfully to pull her hand away from Ashley.

Ashley snapped her head up. "Yeah, this." Her tone was accusing as she pinned Olivia with her stare. "Is there something that you want to share with me?"

Ashley did release Olivia's hand this time and she wasted no time in hiding her hand in her lap. Now was the perfect chance for her to spring the news on a family member but she was as nervous as all get out. She knew that she just needed to say it, otherwise she had no doubts that Ashley would have her hooked up on another one of her infamous blind dates.

Watching her sister carefully, she took a deep breath and just laid it all out there. "Brody and I got married," she told her blatantly.

Ashley's eyes went wide before she choked on the water she was sipping and spit it all over the table. Then, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she exclaimed, "You did what?"

Olivia gave her sister a sheepish look that proclaimed nothing but innocence and repeated what she had just said. "We got married."

"I don't believe this," she said looking away from her sister and shaking her head. "When?"

"About a week ago. We did a small ceremony because neither of us wanted to have anything big and then there was Caley's wedding coming up. I didn't want to do anything to mess it up either, take away from her glory." The waitress chose that time to return with their food and both sisters just stared at each other over the table. Ashley was not believing what she had just learned and when the waitress finally left she pounced on her sister again with more questions.

"Who is this Brody?" she asked, looking slightly hurt that she was just finding out about this. "And how long have you even known the guy?"

These were the types of questions that Olivia was actually prepared for. She picked up her fork and knife and slowly started to cut into her steak. "Brody is a guy that I work with. He is an attorney with the firm and I have known him as long as I have worked at Smith, Long, and Fields."

Ashley had yet to even pick up her fork, still stunned by this revelation. "How long have you guys even been dating?" She was so taken aback that she was feeling sort of like she was looking at her sister for the first time.

"Quite a while," she answered her easily and stuffed a bite of steak into her mouth. She wanted to moan at the savory taste as it melted on her taste buds. "This is really good," she added and looked up at her sister.

Olivia then realized that Ashley had not yet touched her food. Frowning, she pointed with her fork at the plate. "Are you going to eat that?"

Ashley closed her eyes and brought her hands to her temples mumbling, "I can't believe this." Olivia continued to watch her sister. She opened her eyes and shook her head again. "You do realize that Mom is going to have a conniption over this don't you?"

Olivia shrugged her shoulders. "I kind of figured," she told her and willed her sister to see her position. "But this is what I wanted. I didn't want everyone making a big fuss over me. I enjoyed a small ceremony and we're both happy and I hope that's enough to satisfy everyone."

Ashley sat there for a minute and oddly enough she understood. Olivia had never been one for indulging herself or being over-the-top and if Mom had her way then everything would have definitely been over-the-top.

"Alright," she conceded, picking up her fork up for the first time and pointing it back at her. "But it's all on you to tell Mom and Dad and I would suggest that you do it before we all get to Hawaii."

Olivia nodded and breathed out a sigh of relief; first test passed. "I will," she told her. "I planned to bring him to Hawaii and actually meet the family for the first time."

Ashley took a bite of her salad and then added, "I want to meet this guy today. You said that you work with him right?"

"Yeah, I do," she replied, "But he might be in court or something when we get back. I can't guarantee that he will actually be in the office. But enough of me, what's your news?"

Ashley laughed. "I thought my news was big, but yours just blew mine out of the water. The little fact that Seth and I are going to adopt a four year old is nothing compared to you finally landing a husband."

"Adopt?" Olivia replied. "Really?"

"Yeah, it's something that we've always wanted to do. Between Seth and I, we have so much love to share and there are so many parentless kids. And for once, I have an opportunity to make a difference. Now, I have that chance."

"Wow, I had no idea that you were even considering something like this."

"Yeah, we've been talking about it for quite a while," Ashley said happily. "This morning we finally got the word that we were approved. The little man is from Indonesia and after the Hawaii trip, we can go and pick him up."

"Congratulations," Olivia offered and now understood the motherly glow that was beaming so brightly from her sister when she first walked into her office earlier. The two sisters continued their small talk and chattered amongst themselves as they finished their lunch.

They were both back in the car, on the way back to Olivia's office when Ashley found herself in deep thought. She was still stunned that someone had actually convinced her sister to commit. More than anything she wanted to meet this guy who roped her sister because he must have something really special going on in order to capture Olivia's attention - something really special, indeed. She was still in that deep thought when Olivia parked and turned off the car.

"What are you thinking about over there?" she asked curiously.

Ashley turned to her sister. "This new husband of yours. He must be something else in order for you to agree to marry him. I just wonder what he's like."

Olivia moved to get out of the car and Ashley followed. The two girls who were both of similar height , walked side-by-side back to Olivia's office. Without looking at her sister she professed dryly, "Something else is just one word that you might use to describe him."

They continued on up the elevator and as soon as they stepped out onto her floor, there stood Mr. Wonderful himself, smiling like the devil that Olivia knew he could be.

"Ladies," he spoke and went straight to Olivia's side placing his arm over her shoulder. He offered Ashley a charming smile and held out his hand. "My name is Brody O'Connor; may I assume that you are Olivia's beautiful younger sister?"

Ashley blushed and glanced back and forth between both Olivia and Brody. "I'm Ashley," she confirmed, "The older one though, and may I assume that you are my sister's new husband?"

Brody leaned in and kissed Olivia's temple. "That I am," he answered proudly. Ashley waggled her eyebrows at her sister, only causing Olivia to roll her eyes. Brody was laying it on thick and her sister was lapping it up like a greedy kitten.

"Oh yeah, honey cakes. I almost forgot," he said and released Olivia so that he could pull out yet another black box from his pocket. Upon seeing the black box, Olivia groaned internally.

"I stopped by the jewelers today and they had these ready." Brody opened the box and revealed two beautiful white gold wedding bands. He took the smaller one out and handed the box to Ashley. "Would you mind holding this for a minute?" he asked her.

Ashley took the box without hesitation and said, "Sure." She watched on as Brady took Olivia's hand and brought it to his mouth. He placed the gentlest of kisses on her ring finger where the diamond ring that she admired earlier was. He removed that ring and slid on the wedding band before replacing the diamond engagement ring.

This time he leaned in and kissed Olivia full on the mouth before she had a chance to protest. The kiss was brief and sweet but still enough to make Olivia's toes curl..She was left speechless as she stared up at her supposed husband.How does he always do that? She wondered silently.

Brody stepped back and glanced at both rings again. "Now everyone will know that you are officially mine," he stated with a wicked grin meant just for Olivia. He knew that look on her face and was highly pleased that he could rouse that kind of reaction from her. More and more he was looking forward to this week long trip in Hawaii. It was beginning to look very promising.

Turning around he grabbed the other ring and slid it on his own finger. Lifting his hand, he wiggled it and then showed it off to Ashley. "What do you think?" he asked her.

Ashley had tears in her eyes. "It's perfect," she stated and shamelessly threw her arms around him. "You're perfect, everything is just so perfect," she blubbered on his shoulder.

Brody looked over her head at Olivia looking for some type of assistance. Crying women were one thing that he did not handle very well.

Olivia sensed his discomfort and smiled sweetly at him. She was enjoying this as she watched him awkwardly pat her back. "It's okay," he told Ashley for lack of anything else to say. He then narrowed his eyes on Olivia and shot her a look that promised some sort of promised retribution later.

After a minute of soaking in the news,Ashley released her brother in law. "No, no... Everything is perfect." She wiped at her eyes and stepped back. "I tend to get sappy when it comes to things like this.When I'm happy, I cry and right now I'm just so happy that my baby sister has finally found herself a good man; hence the tears."

Brody nodded his head and stuffed his hands in his pockets. About that time Leslie came around the corner. "Mr. O'Connor,there you are," she rushed out. "Mr. Libbins is on the phone about the Stanley case and he says that it's real important. He demanded that I come find you and drag you back to the phone if I had to. You know how persistent he can be."

Brody sighed and shot the sisters both an apologetic look. "Work calls," he replied and without thinking he swept down and brushed a quick kiss over Olivia's lips. "I'll see you later tonight," he told her. Olivia nodded and then watched the cool and confident Mr. Brody O'Connor leave. She didn't realize that she was still staring until Ashley grabbed her shoulder and shook her.

"Wow," she said. "He is golden, Liv. You struck the jackpot when you landed that fish!"

Olivia turned and continued to watch Brody's retreating back until he was completely out of sight. "I caught something alright," she admitted. "But nothing about Mr. Fantabulous is gold. Fools gold, maybe, but not gold by any standards."