The Rented Husband (Southern Nights Series)

Chapter 10

**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.