Chapter 14
14
Liam
Me: Yo, Wy. Text me back would ya?
Me: I’ve got some stuff going on I need to tell you about.
Me: Also please say hello to my first and only crush. You crush stealer!
I woke up to a pat on my face. I rolled onto my back, braced to kick my brother in the nuts, but it was Tess standing there in her nightgown holding a stuffed bear and the book she’d been reading yesterday. I realized it was a different book. This one was red.
She’d finished the other one.
“Tess,” I said, heaving a deep breath. “What’s…are you okay?”
“There are people outside,” Tess said.
“What?” I asked, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I slept like a rock. A day of sun and swimming, after days of drinking, had wiped me out.
“Are you talking about Mike? He’s always there, honey.”
She shook her head no. “There was a bee-”
“There’s a bee in here?” I asked, ducking my head like it might be circling me.
I hated bees. Once my brother took a sip from a pop can and a bee had crawled inside of it and it stung him. The bee kind of stuck to his lip and I had to pull it off of him. The memory gave me the heebie jeebies.
“Are you scared of bees?”
“Don’t tell anyone.”
She smiled at me and pretended to zip up her mouth and tuck the key in the pocket of her nightgown.
“So what about this bee?”
“I woke up because I heard a bee buzzing outside my window. I looked outside the window and saw them.”
“Who?”
“More people with cameras.” She pointed towards the windows where I had the curtains drawn against the sunlight. “Mike made them back up.”
Crap. Paps. This business with my brother and Sydney? Or more Daddy Liam nonsense?
“Come on,” I said, getting up and out of bed. I was practically fully dressed. A pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. Just in case Tess came into my room. I hadn’t worn so much to bed since my first week in the OHL and I’d been braced for razing by the hockey team.
Tess followed me down the hall to the living room where I saw she’d made a little camp for herself. There was a blanket and a pillow from her bed.
Graham crackers. Shit.
“How long have you been awake?” I asked.
“A while.”
She made herself at home again in her nest and I walked down the hallway and opened my front door to a flurry of photographers standing at the edge of my driveway. Just off my property. Fuckers.
The shouts came from the distance, but I could still hear them.
“Do you have any comment on Wyatt’s marriage to Sydney Malloy?”
“Is it true they’ve been secretly dating for years?”
“Liam! Who is that little girl in your house? Is she your daughter?”
I turned to Mike who was sitting vigil, utterly unbothered by the throng of reporters.
“Cops have been called,” he said. “They’re disturbing my peace.”
I closed the door without dignifying their questions with an answer.
So the answer to the question, were the paps here because of me or my brother – was both.
Wyatt had taken Sydney up to his cabin to try and get away from these vultures. So they’d just pointed their cameras my way as if I would give them anything.
In the living room, Tess was eating graham crackers and turning pages of her book.
“You okay?” I asked her.
Her shrug broke my heart. The curtains were drawn and the room was dark and shady. She was probably planning for another day stuck in the house.
Yeah. I thought. This wasn’t going to work. It wasn’t going to work for Tess and it really wasn’t going to work for me. I was not an indoor cat.
“Hey,” I said. “You want to go on a trip?”
“Where?”
“Do you like cats?”
She perked right up. Perfect.
Now, all I needed was the nanny.
Kit
I woke up and knew something was wrong. That there was a disturbance in the force. The house of female energy was…sullied.
I climbed out of bed and pulled a sweatshirt on over my sleep shorts and my favorite Shrek t-shirt. I was halfway down the stairs when I heard the rumble of a man’s voice, the dark velvet of his chuckle.
My nipples immediately recognized the sound of his voice.
“Down girls,” I whispered.
I turned the corner at the bottom of the stairs and there he was with Ms. Rene and Tess. Eating what looked like a breakfast big enough for ten people. Liam’s plate was full of pancakes and bacon. Tess had her own pancakes and a pile of strawberries.
Ms. Rene looked like a woman who’d never been so happy.
“Honey!” Ms. Rene said when she caught sight of me. Liam turned to smile and Tess waved her hand, her cheeks full of food.
It’s not real, I told myself when my heart wanted to leap from my chest. This is not for you. You had your family and you lost it.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, like they were here to rob the place.
“That’s no way to greet your new employer,” Liam said, waggling his eyebrows at me.
“I haven’t agreed,” I said. I was going to agree. The offer was simply too good to pass up. All debts forgiven.
“Coffee?” Ms. Rene asked.
“I’ll get it,” I said and pulled out my favorite mug that had a giant cartoon middle finger on the side. I sat down next to Tess and turned the mug so I was giving Liam the finger. He smirked at me and I smiled as I took a sip.
It really was the little things.
“We’re going on a trip,” Tess said.
“Really? Where are you going?” I asked Tess, ruffling her hair and then stealing a strawberry off her plate. She turned her plate so the strawberries were close to me because she was just that kind of kid.
“A town that is filled with cats,” she said. “Also, there’s a stuffed lobster and a summer festival. An ice cream shop and lots of beaches. There’s also a bookstore and a library.”
“Sounds like a really nice little town,” I said and took another sip of coffee.
“Good,” Liam said, shoving the last bit of bacon in his mouth. “Because you are coming with us.”
Tess looked so happy and I was enraged that Liam would put me in this situation. I didn’t like not having choices. I’d made my decision, but he didn’t know that.
Thank goodness for Ms. Rene, who showed some mind-reading tendencies and read the room enough to stand up. “Tess, darling,” she said. “I could use some help in my fairy garden.”
Tess blinked her big blue eyes at Ms. Rene. “Did you say…fairy garden?” she whispered, practically vibrating.
“Indeed, bring those strawberries, would you? The fairies love them.”
Tess grabbed a handful of strawberries and flew from her chair, following Ms. Rene to the side door that lead out to the garden.
“Ms. Rene,” I said and she looked back at me over her shoulder. “Thank you.”
She cast an extremely meaningful glance at Liam, that either meant get him honey or watch out for that one and then she was gone.
“Low blow,” I said to Liam, glaring at him. My arms crossed over my chest.
“My house was surrounded by paps this morning. Between this insanity with my brother and Tess, it’s… it’s too much. We can’t stay locked in my house all day, every day.”
“What is this magical town you’re taking her to?”
“ We’re taking her to-”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
“Calico Cove. Sleepy seaside town and we have a great house to stay in. It’s all taken care of.”
“I have other jobs,” I said. Though I didn’t have a birthday party booked until August –but I wasn’t going to tell him that.
“The End Zone? Forget it. You’re not putting on that uniform again.”
I took a sip of coffee, stalling for time.
“I do feel bad about the seniors at the community center, so I’ve asked my accountant to send someone next Sunday to cover for you.”
I gaped at Liam. Blinked.
“I know,” he said, pressing a hand to his chest. “I’m a really nice guy. Sometimes, I surprise even myself.” He took a gigantic bite of pancakes.
“So we all stay in this house you’ve got lined up…together?” I asked.
“It’s big. There’s lots of room. But if you want your own place, I can get one for you.” He looked over at Ms. Rene’s plate. “We can bring Ms. Rene if you want to.”
Oh God. He meant it. He really was that kind of guy. The more the merrier. It made my heart uncomfortable.
He leaned forward again so fast it made me lean back. Away from him, his sweetness and ice blue eyes. “I don’t know why you’re pretending you’re not going to do this,” he said.
“It’s called pride, Liam.”
“Well, swallow it.”
I all but snarled at him.
“Let me ask, the money you earn with these jobs. You don’t give it all to me?”
“I pay rent.”
“Hmm. And you take the damn bus.”
“Saving the planet, baby.”
“I get that I can’t take away all your income…”
“A girl’s got to eat,” I reminded him.
“So here’s my final offer,” Liam said, pinching his chin between his fingers like he was deep in thought, when something told me he’d already worked all this out already. “You come with me and Tess to the beach for the next week and a half. I’ll pay you for your time-”
“I’m not one of your charity cases, Liam.” I took another sip of my coffee, giving him the finger.
“Hold on,” he said. “I’ll pay you a reasonable amount for your time watching Tess. That’s not charity, that’s just a regular old job. But I have one more stipulation.” he said, getting to his feet.
He towered over me this way and I had to tilt my head way back to look into his face. He leaned over the table, his hand braced by my coffee. From this distance, if I moved just a bit closer, I could kiss his neck. Those tight tendons. His salty skin.
Or maybe bite down. Hard.
“What are you thinking, Kit Barrington?” Liam asked with a voice that was soft and rough at the same time. His fingers touched my chin, tilting my head up so I had to look into his face. His eyes were bright. Knowing. I licked my lips and pulled my sweatshirt tight to my body, uncomfortable with how well he saw me.
“So?” I said, looking up at him, trying to mask all my desire with indifference. “What’s your stipulation?”
“I want a kiss.”
I stared at him, waiting for the punchline. But he just stared back. Smug and beautiful in my landlady’s kitchen.
“Wait. Are you propositioning me for sex? That’s not cool.”
He shook his head. “It’s not sex. It’s a kiss.” He was close, too close, and I wanted, stupidly, foolishly, to get closer.
“Why?” I whispered. “I mean, why do you want to kiss me?”
I could see he didn’t want to answer me. That whatever his reasons were, they were his. But he couldn’t just ask me for a kiss without some explanation.
I was his enemy after all.
“Because I need to know. I need to see if what I remembered…was just in my head.”
“What I remembered didn’t have a whole lot to do with your head,” I fired back.
He laughed and I just realized I’d made a joke about that night. That night that had been such a life changing event for me. It had always loomed so large, always there in the background of my mind.
I couldn’t move on with my life, until I’d paid Liam the debt I owed him. He was giving me that chance with this job. But I also couldn’t move on with my life until I put him, and that night, away. Forever.
So yeah, maybe I needed to know too. That instant electric chemistry we shared. Maybe it was just a mirage for both of us.
“Not here,” I said.
“Obviously,” he said.
“So? When?”
“When I choose,” he said. I rolled my eyes so hard I saw my past lives.
He laughed again. I loved the sound of it. So much more than his disdain.
The door to the back garden banged open and Tess came running in, flushed and wide eyed. “She. Has. Fairies!”
Ms. Rene followed at a more sedate pace. “The fairies have been to visit,” she confirmed. Without having to look, I knew she had a pocket full of strawberries that Tess was sure had been eaten by fairies.
“We need more strawberries,” Tess said, and grabbed the few Liam hadn’t eaten off his plate and ran back outside.
Ms. Rene watched us with her mind-reading eyes.
“Nothing happened!” I all but shouted at that question on her face.
Ms. Rene laughed. “Oh honey. You are in such trouble.”
I didn’t need anyone telling me that, I knew it down in my bones.
This was a gigantic mistake, but I was good at mistakes. A past mistake survivor.
I’d survived Liam Locke before. I could do it again.