Chapter 30 Liam
LIAM
The girls assumed I was sick.
It was the only conclusion they could come to without me telling them what was wrong.
And really, it was so ridiculous, because it wasn’t like Haley had left.
She was around every morning at breakfast, every afternoon and night.
She was here… She just wouldn’t speak to me unless it was to be cordial in front of the girls.
For the past several days, I tried to get her to speak to me, to listen, to hear that I messed up.
I had this festering void that had grown talons and pierced my heart.
So much so that I spewed all of that toxic bullshit at Haley, desperate to protect myself.
Protect my kids. When I had made the connection to R we could work through it. We would work through it.
I had backtracked immediately, only to have her close herself off and seal her heart shut.
I was ashamed of my behavior, but more than anything I just wanted a chance to make it right.
But each night, she would go on little errands, filling her time until bedtime then she’d come home, do the girls’ routine, and once they were in bed, she was behind our bedroom door with the lock clicked in place.
I had been sleeping in the guest room, which if the girls knew, they hadn’t let on.
I received the investment money for my gym, but I hadn’t touched it.
Anger over the situation was still there, just slightly skewed.
I was angry at myself, not her. It was an embarrassment that we were even in this fight, and maybe if I weren’t so fucking pathetic, this never would have been an issue for us.
But how did I take a handout from the woman I loved, who I wanted to see me as a provider?
How could she see my strength if she was the one covering everything that made me weak?
It didn’t seem possible to fix, so we lingered in the painful in-between. I loved her. I wanted her. But I refused to be saved by her.
That refusal would ultimately be our end.
Colson met me at the gym early.
He’d been doing that for the past few days. We hadn’t really talked through what happened. I think he knew I was already down and didn’t need another kick in the gut by being told that I was an idiot.
He let me spar with him, expelling the extra energy.
Then we’d sit quietly while we listened to the music blaring from the speakers, and the other guys working out around the room.
“I have regrets,” Colson suddenly said, packing up his gloves.
I tilted on the bench, trying to recline against the back of the wall.
“About what?”
My best friend turned, and I couldn’t quite read the look on his face. “What I did while I waited for Nora to come back to me.”
That made me laugh. “No shit. All you did was drink.”
His wince wore off after he shifted and then touched his wedding ring. The small gesture hit me in the chest. Jokes aside, at least she came back to him.
“Haley tried to make me better. She wasn’t forcing us to talk about our past, or our issues. She was here helping me become a better person. Swapping my chips for carrots, bringing by plants, which reminded me of Nora, opening the shades. Getting me to go on walks, taking my beer away.”
I had a lump in my throat because that did sound like my girl. My beautiful, strong, selfless girl.
“You’re saying you don’t know what to do to get her back, but I think you do.”
I let his words slowly sink in instead of snapping back. Because I didn’t. If I knew then I would have her.
“What would you have done differently while you waited for Nora to come back?”
Colson stood and stretched while looking off into the distance.
“I would have fixed her garden. I would have pulled it into my yard, made a statement that she was going to be with me. I would have torn down our fence. Anything to show her that we were going to be together. Instead, I just fucking waited. Some things require action.”
I looked down at my feet and tried to sort through what sort of action he meant but realized it didn’t really matter. Colson walked away, leaving to go meet Nora. I stayed put, knowing I needed to move but terrified that I was about to make the wrong one.
It was shortly after I dropped the girls off at day camp that I pulled into the parking lot and saw another car already parked.
Once I opened my truck door, Gunther Ross stepped out of his vehicle. He wore another suit, looking every inch the distinguished businessman.
“Nice weather today, isn’t it?”
In my miserable state, I had barely noticed that summer had started, bringing higher temperatures and fewer clouds. The girls only had a few days left of the outdoor camp they were at. Shit, I needed to figure out what we were going to do this summer. Was Haley sticking around? Was she leaving?
“What can I help you with, Mr. Ross?” I asked, squinting through my glasses. I needed a darker prescription.
Gunther fixed his suit jacket and cleared his throat. “Can we talk inside?”
Fine by me. I didn’t give a fuck. I was still dragging my feet on getting a lawyer to help me undo the signature I gave him for the deal we’d made.
Once we cleared the door, Gunther rested his hands on the counter as I rounded it and began opening procedures.
“She gave up the company.”
My eyes flicked up, but the sun had caught me off guard, so I hissed and lowered my gaze.
“What?”
Gunther placed a new document in front of me that said Ross Industries across it.
“She left, gave it up so there would be no tie from your investment deal to her.”
She did what?
“Why would she do this?” I asked, barely above a whisper. My eyes stayed glued to the paper, as if it could explain her decisions.
Gunther made some sort of sound in the back of his throat which gave me the impression he didn’t like me very much.
“Love, I think. Which reminds me, you should probably hear this.”
He pulled his cell phone out and pressed play.
“Haley?”
“Gunther, hey…I need a favor.”
“What’s going on?”
Haley broke into an explanation, and it wasn’t what I had conjured up in my head about this entire situation.
“I have a business that I want to financially take on. I’m sending over the numbers to you right now, but there’s a few things you should know.
The owner is super close to me, and there’s a conflict of interest, so I’d like the offer to stem from your side of the business, not mine.
You’d need to be the face entirely. Whatever offer you come up with is fine by me. ”
Gunther was quiet on the line for a few moments.
“These numbers overall aren’t bad…why does he need the backing? He already seems well established.”
“He’s in debt…something personal, I think, with his ex-wife and legal fees.”
Gunther was quiet again.
“I see. Well, who is the owner?”
“Liam Croft.”
“The Liam Croft?” Gunther sounded like a teenager who just found out his hero was in front of him.
“Haley…do you realize who that man is? He won two heavyweight titles in the span of five years…that’s…I can’t even.”
Haley laughed and it was so sweet it made my chest ache.
“Gunther, I need you to be professional here. Come up with an offer you feel is fair. I don’t want anything to do with it. I’ll send you the address so you can deliver it, and I would be so appreciative if it could be soon.”
He lowered his phone.
“My assistant records business calls for me when I’m in the office…it helps us both remember what needs to be done afterward,” Gunther explained, sliding his phone back into his pocket.
“So it wasn’t really her. I mean, the suggestion was, but it was all you?” I tilted my face to catch his glare.
He gave me a firm nod. “That girl has been tossing me businesses to financially back for years, and she’s never wrong. I trust her gut. And while she may have been trying to help you, she knew I’d ask for numbers. I didn’t just say yes because of her. I did my own research.”
Well, fucking shit. That made me feel a thousand percent worse for what I said.
“Why are you telling me all this?”
Gunther put his hand on my shoulder and leveled me with a scowl. “Because you’re an idiot. Pay off your debt and work with me. I wanted to invest in your gym. And maybe you can talk Haley out of leaving something she helped build.”
Fuck, if I could do that, she’d be with me right now. Because she had helped us to rebuild our home. Our entire lives.
But she wasn’t going to forgive me for this.