You Looked Down on Me Once Now You Look Up (Patricia and Oliver) novel Chapter 445

“Aunt Patricia, what’s in the bag? Here, let me take that!”

Patricia was lugging a travel bag up the stairs when Roger jumped up from the couch to grab it from her hands.

“Are you going upstairs? Where do you want this?”

“In the study,” Patricia said, handing it over.

“So, how’s the spring outing coming along?” Roger asked.

“Pretty much set. We’re planning on going this Saturday. Aunt Patricia, are you joining us?”

Patricia smiled. “What about your Uncle Oliver?”

Roger grinned. “If you’re coming, Uncle Oliver doesn’t have a choice—everyone knows Mr. Padilla always does whatever his wife says.”

Not just does—he absolutely has to.

No exceptions.

Sure enough, that afternoon, Oliver came home from work, and Patricia brought up the outing.

He paused, water glass halfway to his mouth, and looked at her. “What day is it?”

“Saturday morning.”

“That soon?”

“If you’re busy, we’ll just go without you,” Patricia offered.

Oliver stared at her, quiet and cold.

“If you’re already planning to go without me, why even tell me?”

Patricia winced at his frosty tone.

Oh boy. He was upset—again.

She couldn’t sit still. She got up from the couch and walked over to him. “Sara and the others just decided last minute. I honestly didn’t think you ever wanted to join these group things.”

“I might not want to go with them,” Oliver said, “but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to go with my wife.”

Altogether, there were nine of them—plus Hector.

A group of ten, ready for adventure.

When Hector spotted Oliver’s RV, he crossed his arms and whistled. “Man, I haven’t seen this thing in almost fifteen years, huh?”

“About that,” Oliver replied casually.

“Does Patty know? This RV is basically you and her uncle’s love token,” Hector teased.

At the words “love token,” Oliver shot him a sharp look.

But Hector was never one to back down. He dragged a chair over and sat next to Patricia, launching into the story behind the RV.

Back in the day, he and Oliver had driven this RV out west on a road trip. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, they ran into a gang—criminals who’d thrown spikes on the road to blow out their tires and were waiting for nightfall to rob and maybe worse.

They were fighting for their lives when Atticus—Patricia’s uncle—happened to be passing by with some rookies on a training run. He saved them just in time.

“Seriously, thank your uncle for that! If he hadn’t shown up, we’d have been toast. Out in the wilderness, no one would’ve heard us scream. Those guys knew what they were doing. Even our satellite phone got jammed. They had old rifles, but those things were just as deadly as modern guns. They were just waiting for a chance to take us out!”