Chapter 26
New milestones
Dating Liam
The smell of Liam’s T-shirts
Summer
Flip Flops
Kids’ Sunglasses
Milkshakes
“There’s music!” Maddy gushed, taking my hand.
I held Mila’s hand on my other side and Seraph held hers.
“And a bounce house!”
There were so many people, I wasn’t even sure where to look.
There was a small stage with a few people playing guitar and singing.
Four massive bounce houses in yellow, red, and blue were set up on the grass, and there were tables scattered around the grass with red and white checkered tablecloths wrapped around each one.
“Haley!” someone called, and I turned to find Nora walking our way.
Her hair was in tight spiral curls today, and she wore a cute Mount Macon tank top and jeans. She must have gotten that from Davis’s shop. They had anticipated it being a tourist stop, but from what I gathered the locals were enjoying it, too.
“Hey!” I said, appreciating it when she bent down to hug each girl.
“Let’s go find Rae and get some food.”
“This is crazy,” I mused as Nora took Seraph’s hand in hers and we walked through the throng of people.
My anxiety flared the smallest bit. I didn’t like being so unfamiliar with everyone, especially with being with the girls without Liam.
I had gotten used to him being back and didn’t like reverting to how it felt when he was gone.
Nora weaved through the masses seamlessly.
I continued to follow her until she found a mostly empty picnic table where Rae was sitting, tapping away on her cell phone.
She had her dark hair swept up into a high ponytail with a cute blue ribbon tied around it. Her eyes snapped up when we approached, and a huge smile speared her lips up.
“Haley! Yay, you have the girls.”
“We are here to party,” I said feeling awkward the second the words left my lips.
The girls settled in on the benches, and since it was lunch time, I knew I needed to go and grab them some food, but there were so many people around I didn’t to drag them through the line with me.
“Can we go jump for a while?” Maddy asked.
I looked over and realized all three girls were eyeing the bounce houses.
“How about I take them?” Colson appeared behind Nora from somewhere in the crowd. He wore a pair of designer glasses that made him look like a movie star.
“Uncle Cole!” Mila jumped up and she was in his arms within minutes, the other two holding on to him while they headed to the bounce house. I watched them go, strangely feeling like a part of me had exited my body.
“Okay, so you have to tell me why Jeffery Akers has asked about you like three times since we got here.” Nora leaned in close, pushing an iced drink in front of me.
Rae angled closer as well, whispering, “He keeps asking random people too. He awkwardly asked Colson like a billion times.”
Oh, Jeffery.
We’d essentially stopped texting after I had told him we weren’t going to hang out anymore.
It wasn’t that Liam forced me into it, it’s just that deep down I knew Jeffery had feelings for me, and I didn’t want to lead him on.
We had been friends in my head, but there were things I had ignored that he’d done while we were together.
Like small brushes of his hand, or the way he touched the small of my back when we were in the store.
The way he always had coffee for me. I put a stop to it, but he still occasionally texted.
In fact, this event was one of the things he had texted me about, asking if I was attending.
Oh shit.
“You guys, I think I should go talk to him. I feel bad.” My eyes began searching the area for him, and I found him standing with a small group of guys that had worked at the Center. I thought I remembered them being a part of Cole’s construction crew.
“If the girls come back, will you have them stay here, and one of you stay with them until I’m back?”
They both smiled up at me and sipped their drink. “Of course we will.”
They were absolutely going to watch my interaction with Jeffery. I hadn’t even really had the chance to come out to them about my relationship with Liam. So I was sure they were confused and incredibly suspicious.
I held my drink, picking my way through the crowd, until I was closing in on his group. Jeffery looked handsome today, wearing a nice blue button-down with fresh denim and boots. His hair was obviously styled, and his face was clean-shaven. My gut sank, thinking he’d done that for me.
His eyes found me, and a smile lit up his face.
“Haley!” He stepped away from his group. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
“Hey Jeffery.” I lifted my cup in acknowledgment.
He led me away by my elbow, until we were alone away from the crowd.
“I’m glad you came; I didn’t think you would…I mean, you’ve kind of been ghosting me since Liam came back.”
Aw, crap. That made me feel like shit.
“I had the girls with me…” I started, already considering chickening out.
I hated how his eyes searched mine for something, anything that said I felt what he did.
“Well, that’s okay. I figured now that the center is done, and I won’t be seeing you as much, that maybe I could ask you out. See if I could take you to dinner?”
The idea of dating someone like that—in a regular way where we just went to dinner and he called me the next day—sounded so far from anything that I would ever want again. I wanted secret kisses in the pantry. Stolen moments in the office before little eyes caught us.
“Actually, Jeffery, I can’t. I—”
He stepped forward before I could finish, and his hands were on my face, pulling my mouth to his in a scorching kiss.
I pushed against him hard, forcing his lips to tear away from mine.
My eyes were wide in shock, and so were his, but they were focused behind me.
“You better fucking hope someone stops me from breaking your jaw!” Liam roared, storming up behind us.
I turned and moved to the side. He took my spot immediately, and he was already throwing a punch.
“Liam, I didn’t tell him we were together yet. I was about to when he—”
Liam’s eyes were huge and round—crazy. “When he fucking kissed you?”
Jeffery was holding his jaw, dagger eyes on both of us.
“You’re with him?” Jeffery asked, sounding outraged.
I nodded. “I was trying to tell you…”
“Fuck.” Jeffery wiped the blood away from the corner of his lip.
Liam pointed at him. “Lose her number. You’re not her friend or her buddy. Do not come near her again.”
“Fuck you, man. You don’t tell me what to do!” Jeffery snapped, gaining a second wind.
My face flushed a deep red as a crowd began to form around us. Where were the girls?
They didn’t need to see this.
“Liam’s fucking that piece of high school trash?” someone jeered from the edge of the crowd. There was laughter and chatter around that part of the horde. I scanned the group and saw Julie, Lacey’s sister. My gut clenched tight as she locked eyes with me and then whispered to the woman next to her.
Lacey.
I hated life. I loathed how self-conscious I felt, looking at her. Long blonde hair touched her waist, her eyes a crystal blue that contrasted with her pouty pink lips. Her shorts showed half her ass cheeks, and her top dipped nearly to her navel.
“No, Liam and I were at the hotel just the other night fucking. There’s no chance he left me for that,” Lacey mocked.
Obviously she was lying, especially because Liam had shared with me what she had offered, but it still stung to even hear it. To know there would be gossip about him doing that with her because she simply said it was true.
Liam must have heard, because he turned and gently pulled me to his side.
“Stop talking, Lacey. You need to leave. We have a restraining order.”
My face swung to the left, taking in Liam’s profile.
Oh shit. I did not know that.
Why wouldn’t he mention that to me?
Lacey straightened her shoulders, pushing her boobs out which were concealed just barely by her tank top. “I’ll leave as soon as you let me see my babies.”
Suddenly I wanted to step forward and tell her exactly where she could shove that thought. My girls weren’t going anywhere near her.
Jeffery took the opportunity to laugh. “You’re choosing this train wreck with a fucking addict for a wife over me? He’s broke––fucking losing his gym–– and everyone knows it. What, his dick that good that you’re willing to settle for that? You’re not that type of girl, Haley.”
Record. Scratch.
What in the actual fuck?
My hands shook as his words wound through me like one of those big twisty straws the girls liked to use in their smoothies.
I had never really been an angry person.
If I grew upset, I’d cry or tuck it away for later, but this—this rage—it felt like I could breathe fire and burn down everything around me.
“Fuck you, Jeffery,” I spat, taking a step closer to him. He flinched at my words, probably reading my face too.
I wanted to slap him.
I wanted him to feel what his words just felt like on the inside of me where each and every letter landed with a painful pop.
“Liam is ten times the man you are, and their private affairs aren’t any of your business.”
Despite seeing my reaction, he laughed again, tipping his head toward Lacey. “Funny you say affairs, considering she had one on him with nearly every guy in Macon.”
Tears burned my eyes, especially as Liam pushed away from the crowd.
Thankfully he pulled me by the hand, taking me with him, until he stopped in his tracks, nearly making me run into his back.
Right there at the edge of the crowd were all three girls.
Colson held Mila in his arms, Nora had Seraphina in hers, and Maddy was clinging to Colson’s side with tears in her eyes.
I kept my head down and bit my lip to hold in the sob.
“You can’t keep my kids from me forever!” Lacey yelled from a distance away.
Maddy’s eyes rounded when she looked behind me and saw Lacey. Then all at once, she rushed me, shoving her face into my shirt as she burst into tears.