Chapter Eight
SKYE
I was officially obsessed. With a click, I closed the laptop and the striking picture of Liam in mid-catch.
“This is crazy,” I muttered, shaking my head.
My hand flattened over my stomach, willing the flutters to stop.
They wouldn’t, and I couldn’t deny how he made me feel or the solace I’d felt having him take care of me— and Lily —last night.
“Mama. Mama!” Lily flew into the kitchen, brandishing her Little Mermaid doll in one hand and Belle in the other.
“Whoa, munchkin.” I smoothed down her wild curls. “That’s some crazy hair you’ve got going there. Are you trying to match Ariel today?” I bent and peppered kisses all over her face as she giggled.
The front door opened, and I could hear my aunt talking to my uncle, who must’ve come home for lunch.
I loved that he tried to do that as often as possible just to see her.
Us, too, but their love was still in the honeymoon stage.
It was sickeningly sweet and something I wanted with all of my being, something I’d determined I would never have with Liam way back when.
It’d colored my decision, and after last night, doubt crept in that I’d made the right choice.
Shoving those unhelpful thoughts aside, I pasted on a smile and picked up Lily. “What do you want for lunch today, Lils?”
“PB an’ J.” She cuddled close.
“Okay, you sit here.” I placed her in her booster seat at the table. “And I’ll get your lunch.”
She grinned and immediately started playing with her dolls as my aunt came in.
Uncle Tommy paused in the doorway, grimacing as his phone rang.
He ducked out to the living room to answer.
I half listened as Aunt Eileen cooed over Lily then opened the fridge and handed me the strawberry jelly before getting the chopped salad she’d made for us an hour ago.
“How are you doing?” she asked as she dished the salad into three bowls then grabbed an apple and carrots for Lily.
“Okay. I sent Detective Cartwright the pictures and video I took last night.” I spread peanut butter on one slice of bread and jelly on another before cutting off the crust. “What about Uncle Tommy? Did he learn anything new about what’d happened?
” I didn’t want Lily to know about it, which was why I’d asked away from the table.
“No, nothing yet. I do have some questions for you, though.” Eileen’s eyes narrowed, and her sharp intellect turned their dark brown to a burnished amber. “That young man looked familiar.”
I shrugged, but by the knowing look in her gaze, it was clear my secret wouldn’t hold. “It’s the dimple, isn’t it?”
“Yep. All that. Especially since Lily has the same features and mannerisms.”
There was no point in denying it. She’d known Lily’s father was a football player, but I’d kept Liam’s name from her and definitely my uncle. “That was Liam, Lily’s father.”
Her mouth formed an o as she leaned a hip against the counter, two bowls in hand. “Does he know?”
Heat flooded my cheeks, and I busied myself by peeling the skin from Lily’s apple. “He still doesn’t know. Last night was… unique. We don’t typically get along.” Or we hadn’t since I’d come back into contact with him.
“He seemed enamored with Lily—and you.”
I bit my lower lip before releasing it. “He wasn’t ready to be a dad. I never told him. Please don’t say anything.”
She studied me for a few seconds. “I’ll keep your secret, but I don’t like lying to your uncle. This needs to come out, sooner rather than later.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “I appreciate you keeping this to yourself. As for Liam knowing, I’m still not sure that’s the best idea. You know how things were between my parents.”
After Dad decided to file for custody rights, it was ugly until the day they both died in a horrible accident exiting the lawyer’s office. A truck hit a car and jackknifed onto the sidewalk where they were standing.
“Skye, honey.” Aunt Eileen set down the bowls and squeezed my arm. “You can’t project what happened between them onto someone else. Liam is a different person.”
“You don’t even know him,” I snapped, uncomfortable with the dark emotions swirling in my mind from memories and past mistakes.
“Well, don’t write him off yet.” She kept her voice low so only I could hear. “That young man has feelings for you.”
“Please.” I rolled my eyes. “All we do is fight. He doesn’t think of me as anything but annoying.
” I shot a covert glance to where my uncle had gone, somewhat reassured he couldn’t hear anything as his voice carried from the one-sided conversation drifting in from the living room.
“And I can’t even think about anything more because Liam’s on the team.
Can you imagine Uncle Tommy’s reaction? Liam’s chances for the NFL would be seriously compromised, and that’s all that matters to him. ”
Aunt Eileen’s lips pressed together tightly for a moment. “Just… let me worry about Tommy when you decide to tell Liam the truth. He seems like he would make a wonderful father.”
I closed my eyes as she left me to my thoughts. The guilt was an enormous boulder in my stomach. Pushing out a breath, I wiped all the uncertainty from my face and took Lil’s food to the table.
Uncle Tommy entered the kitchen, his phone back in his pocket. He paused at the table and studied me for a hot moment. “Are you all right? After yesterday? Liam said you got home okay.”
“Oh, yeah. It was a horrible shock, and I’m still trying to work through it, but Liam was great. He made sure I got back, like you asked him to, and even read two stories to Lily.”
The blanket covering me when I woke this morning gave me pause.
Had he done that? It was messing with my head so badly.
I preferred to think of Aunt Eileen coming in to check on us and covering me instead of the version of Liam I’d been privy to last night—which was so at odds with the combative experiences we’d had since our reconnection.
“Liam.” Lily perked up at his name, slapping her little hands on the table. “I wants Liam over.”
Uncle Tommy grinned. “You like one of my football players, Lily? Your mama will have to bring you to a game.” He tweaked her nose, making her laugh. “We’ll make a football fan out of you yet.”
“Game!” Lily bounced in her seat. “I wants Liam, Mommy.”
Really? I shot my aunt a panicked glance, but she was no help.
How he’d been with me last night—reading to Lily—softened the edges of the walls I’d built around my heart.
He wasn’t supposed to care, wasn’t supposed to make me feel safe.
Yet, he had, and I hated him for it because it made me question the decisions I’d made to protect Lily and myself.
“We’ll see about going to a game sometime, Lils.
It’s pretty cold right now to sit for hours in the bleachers. Maybe next season.”
Lily’s lip trembled. “I wants Liam to play. Pwease, Mama.”
I reached over and tickled her stomach, ignoring Uncle Tommy’s pleased expression. He had no idea and wouldn’t be so indulgent if he knew who Liam was to Lily and me.
“I have a fun idea, Lils. Next time I take pictures of the guys inside, I’ll bring you. Okay?”
My daughter, appeased by my promise, tucked into her sandwich, and the subject was dropped.
We got through lunch. I cleaned Lily up then sent her off to play in the living room.
As Lily’s giggles faded into the background, I wiped down the counter, my mind buzzing with everything left to do that day.
I had no time to dwell on Liam or Aunt Eileen’s knowing look.
Work, as usual, was my escape. I needed to get ready to meet with Professor White.
I wasn’t scheduled to take any social media footage until tomorrow since it was another home game. I would have to travel to some away ones as well because they’d made it into the pro bowls, but that would come later.
Aunt Eileen appeared in the doorway. “Everything okay? Are you headed out?”
“Yeah.” My smile was distracted. “You got her? I have to get to my meeting with Professor White.”
“Sure, hon. You go.”
Forty-five minutes later, I left Professor White’s office with an updated schedule for covering two of his classes and only one TA study session to worry about at night.
He’d wanted to know how tutoring was going and relay what my pay would be from the university, which I was more than happy about, especially since I’d increased Liam’s sessions so he would pass the class.
Closing the door to Professor White’s office, I turned quickly and slammed into a blur of curly blond hair as she bounced off me. I grabbed her elbow to steady her. “I’m so sorry.”
She shoved her hair from her face, revealing laughing hazel eyes. “No, it was probably me. I wasn’t paying attention. Oh, Skye.” Megan smiled. “What’re you doing here? Joe said you didn’t have any classes today.”
“I had a meeting, but I thought I would stop into the lab for a minute.” I shoved my hands in my pockets and grinned. “I heard you two are dating. Congrats.”
She blushed and rocked back on her heels. “Yeah. I still can’t believe it. For one, he’s a grad student and a genius. I never thought he would be interested in me.”
“Please.” I rolled my eyes. “He’s been secretly crushing on you for the past few weeks. It’s about time he made his move.”
“I heard you encouraged him.” She laughed then squeezed my arm. “Thank you for that.”
We chatted for a few more minutes until she had to leave for class.
I wandered down the hallway then pushed open the door to the lab.
I told myself I was there to pick up my notebook, but the truth was, I needed the distraction.
Anything to keep my thoughts from drifting back to Liam and how he’d looked holding Lily.
I glanced around at the spotless workstations then to the cluttered area where Joe worked.
Several chemicals surrounded him along with what looked like two different trials.
I paused at his workstation, pretending to study his trials while my mind drifted.
Seeing how good of a father Liam could be should have made things easier—it should have justified my choice to keep him in the dark.
But instead, it only made everything harder.
Still, I couldn’t help but think about how he was at the top of his game, laser-focused on his NFL future, and his stats had only improved this season, proving where his priorities remained.
My camera lens had captured it countless times, but seeing it in person was different.
“Skye?” Joe’s voice pulled me back.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, distracted. “Just thinking.”
Thinking about how Liam’s focus extended off the field—his patience during tutoring sessions, the way he actually listened when I explained something—it wasn’t the Liam I’d known freshman year, the one who’d bulldozed through life without looking back.
I tilted my head, finally seeing the experiments in front of him. “How do you keep track of everything? I mean, you’re working on what?” I peered closer. “Two different trials?”
He tapped his temple. “Eidetic memory. It makes things easier.” He caught my gaze flicking to the stack of notebooks on his desk and added, “I’m helping Megan with one of her trials, too—it’s a lot, but it keeps things interesting.”
As Joe explained his experiments with foxglove, specifically digoxin extracted from the leaves to help treat and cure atrial fibrillation, my gaze caught a notation in his lab book— or was it Megan’s?
The word “undetectable” was underlined twice, and the ink smudged as if someone had paused on it for too long.
My chest tightened. It had stuck with me since I’d overheard it on the sidelines, spoken in hushed tones by someone I couldn’t remember.
Is it connected to Louis’s meteoric rise on the field?
I wanted to ask Joe what the word pertained to, but the timing didn’t feel right. What if I’m jumping to conclusions? Still, the question lingered like a shadow at the edge of my thoughts.
Joe’s thesis centered on a foxglove-based drug for heart conditions—completely different from Megan’s performance-enhancement trial. But why would I see a term like undetectable in either of their notes? Unless… could there be a crossover I didn’t know about?
As I left the lab, the weight of Joe’s cryptic notes and the lingering image of Liam with Lily pressed down on me. I had too many unanswered questions, and I was tired of running from them.