12. Liam
CHAPTER 12
LIAM
T he next day, Liam sent a message to Amelia around lunchtime, asking if she would be available for another dinner and preparation session. She replied about half an hour later, saying that she would be ready — and Liam found it difficult to concentrate for the rest of the day.
Their evening together last night had been… interesting, to say the least. Amelia was a fascinating woman. She wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, but she also let things go when Liam clearly didn’t want to discuss them. She’d even been funny — Liam smiled as he remembered them joking around over last night’s takeout. At the end of the night, he’d been tempted to walk her back to her bedroom, like they’d really been on a date. He’d held back, though, instead staying in his study for another half an hour to work.
Today’s conversation needed to be more focused, though. Liam had gotten to know a lot about Amelia just from chatting with her, but there was still a lot of biographical information he lacked. He didn’t know where she’d gone to college or what her opinion on pets was, which Liam was pretty sure was information that a married couple should know about each other.
After a quick internet search, he printed out a list of questions he felt they should cover. Then he did his best to focus on his work, counting down the hours until the day was over and his evening with Amelia would begin.
Like the night before, Liam arrived home just as Amelia and Grace were finishing up dinner. Grace was cleaner than yesterday, with a dinner of a PB and J and carrot sticks instead of last night’s messy pasta, but Amelia still asked him to wait while she gave Grace a bath. Liam retreated to his office, where he spent far too long analyzing two competing bids for a consultant. He was distracted by the sound of Amelia and Grace laughing and singing and splashing from the bathroom down the hall. They sounded so happy, like actresses in a movie about childhood.
Or, perhaps, like they really cared about each other.
Another pang swept through Liam. He shouldn’t feel left out, but some part of him did.
The laughter slowly wound down and, after about half an hour of silence, Amelia appeared in the doorway of Liam’s office. She was dressed in what Liam had come to think of as her “mom uniform” — a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Her hair was up in a messy bun on her head, but as she stepped into the office, she removed her hair tie and her long blond hair fell around her shoulders in soft curls.
“Did she fall asleep okay?” Liam asked. He felt a little clumsy and awkward asking about the child, but he truly did want to be sure she was all right.
“Yes. She wanted a few extra stories, but eventually tiredness won out.” Amelia grinned and sank onto the couch where she’d been yesterday. “Are we ready to get down to business?”
“Yes. Shall we order some food first?”
“That would be great. I’ll leave it up to you, since you’re the restaurant expert.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.” Liam considered. “How about we go for Indian tonight?”
“Perfect. I need a samosa, stat.”
Liam grinned at Amelia’s phrase. “Then we can’t waste any time.” He got out his phone, pulled up the restaurant’s menu, and handed it to Amelia. She bent her head over the screen to read, occasionally scrolling up or down, and Liam took advantage of her focus to get a better look at her.
Amelia really was beautiful. Liam’s past flings, now relegated to distant history, had been primarily with women who wore tons of makeup and dressed in clothes so tight it looked like they’d been painted on. Amelia wasn’t like that at all, especially not in her mom uniform, but she was somehow all the more beautiful for that. She looked real. Her brown eyes were warm, and her blond curls looked like a golden waterfall on her shoulders. Even in her loose clothes, Liam could see the outline of her feminine curves.
Liam knew that it was important to maintain his distance, but he could notice that Amelia was objectively attractive without letting himself get too close to her.
“All right, I picked a few things out.” Amelia handed the phone back. Liam quickly added his go-to butter chicken and garlic naan to the basket, then placed the order.
“The food will be here shortly. How was your day?”
“It was okay. Grace learned a new word, squirrel, but she can’t quite say it correctly, so it always comes out as skiwl. It’s so cute.” Amelia beamed, and Liam saw genuine affection in her eyes. The look warmed his heart. Grace deserved to have someone like Amelia watching out for her. Of course, Amelia would leave eventually, after the ruse was complete, but it was better not to think about that now. “How was your day?”
“Not bad.” Liam sighed. “But also not that interesting.”
“Really?” Amelia looked a little surprised. “You said your work was fascinating.”
“It is. I don’t know. I suppose everyone has off days.” In truth, it had been harder and harder for Liam to work since Amelia had come into his home. He’d spent more hours at the office but had struggled to get as much done.
“I suppose so.”
“Anyway, in preparation for the barbecue, I’ve put together a few questions that I think we should prepare answers for.”
Amelia nodded. “Okay. Let’s go.”
“First, where did you go to college?”
“I went right here in San Francisco — SF State. I thought about going a little further away, maybe to the East Coast, but at the last minute I decided I wanted to stay close to my family. I never regretted it, although it does mean I’ve never lived anywhere but here. How about you?”
“I went to college on the East Coast,” Liam said.
“Which one?”
“Harvard.”
“Wow, impressive.” Amelia sat back. “I shouldn’t be surprised, though. You seem very dedicated. Why did you choose Harvard?”
“They gave me the best financial aid package.” The honest answer slipped out more easily than it should have. Embarrassed about his financially insecure past, Liam had a stock answer in place about how Harvard had a good mix of academics and real-world experience. Yet something about Amelia brought out the truth.
Sure enough, Amelia looked a little surprised. “You needed financial aid?”
“I did.” Liam needed to change the subject, fast. This was getting uncomfortably personal. “Next question. We should set a story for our relationship. I already told Stanley that we met when your nephew spilled ice cream on me, which is the truth, but we should flesh out some additional details. How long ago did we meet? Have I met your parents? That kind of thing.”
“Ideally, let’s keep it a little vague.” Amelia bit her lip. “If we offer too many details, it’ll be suspicious. But I suppose we should say we’ve been married at least a year or two.”
Liam nodded. “You have a good point about keeping things vague. If we give too many details, Stanley might start asking specific questions about Grace’s parentage, and I don’t want to lie about that. Grace should never be confused about where she came from.”
Amelia tilted her head to the side. “Grace’s mother… you’ve never talked about her.”
Liam didn’t want to admit his rather sordid history to Amelia. It was better not to tell her about Cora, at least not right now.
“I doubt that’ll come up at the barbecue. For now, we should focus on things that will.”
Amelia shrugged. Unlike last night, when Liam had redirected her, she didn’t blush or look uncomfortable. She just looked thoughtful. She was clearly becoming more comfortable with him. He didn’t have anyone he was close with in this way.
“So, have I met your parents?” Liam asked.
“Yes, definitely, you’ve met my father. If we’ve been married at least a few years, you would have met him quite often. And he would have been at our wedding.”
“Okay, then. Tell me more about your parents. What should I know?”
“Okay. My dad’s name is Jim, and he was an architect before he retired a few years ago. He and my mom were high school sweethearts.”
“And your mom?”
Amelia bit her lip, and Liam wondered if he’d made a mistake in asking her. Then she took a breath.
“My mom passed away almost ten years ago. Cancer.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that.” Liam felt like a total jerk for pushing Amelia to talk about her parents. It must hurt that her mother was gone.
Knowing that Amelia’s mother had passed away also helped him understand why Amelia was so caring and wonderful with Grace when the child was sad about her mother being gone.
“It was a long time ago. How about your parents? Have I met them?” It was a clear signal that Amelia didn’t want to talk about her mother anymore, so Liam moved on.
“No.” Liam shook his head firmly. “You haven’t. How about our wedding?”
“I don’t know.” Amelia shrugged and crossed her legs. “What about it?”
“I mean, was it big, small? Where was it? What were the… you know, colors and flowers, and all that wedding stuff?”
“I don’t know.” Amelia crossed her arms over her stomach. Now both her legs and arms were crossed, giving her a very defensive posture.
“It doesn’t matter,” Liam said. “We should just agree.”
“All right. We got married in a garden lit with fairy lights and strewn with flowers, in June. It was a small wedding, just close family and friends.”
“Great.” Liam realized, belatedly, that Amelia might have just described a wedding she’d dreamed of having. Guilt swept him. He shouldn’t have pushed her on this detail — but he needed to. “I’m sorry. I know this isn’t exactly easy, for either of us. But it’s important that we know all we can about each other and about our fake relationship history.”
“I know, I know. It’s fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
They looked at each other for a long moment. Amelia’s brown eyes were inscrutable.
Just then, Liam’s phone began to ring. Perfect timing.
“That’ll be our food.” He got to his feet. “I’ll get it.”
He answered the call on his way to the elevator, but had some time to kill once he was there. As he waited, his eyes swept the apartment. Slowly, subtly, Amelia had added her touches to his previously barren home. Just in the living room, which was visible through an open door, Liam could see floaty white curtains, pastel throw pillows, and a play mat patterned with roads. Liam imagined Grace there, playing with toy cars, while Amelia sat beside her.
It was a relief when the food came and interrupted Liam’s thoughts.
Back in the study, he unpacked the food.
“It smells delicious, again.” Amelia smiled.
“I hope it tastes just as good.” They took their containers and began to eat. Amelia gave an appreciative mmm that Liam felt somewhere deep inside.
“Shall we continue with our preparation?” Liam asked after a few minutes.
“Yes.” Amelia set her container down and sat up straighter, her hands folded. “But before we go back to the questions, there’s another… thing… that we should address.”
“What do you mean?” Liam took another bite of his butter chicken.
“Well, you and I can learn about each other, fabricate stories, and act while we’re in front of Stanley. But Grace can’t. And if I understand correctly, you aren’t just proving that you have a wife, but that you have a beloved daughter, too.”
Liam felt her words in his chest like an icy dagger. It was true that Grace couldn’t pretend. “You’re right. But what can we do?”
“Well… I think you’re going to have to spend a little time with Grace. She needs to know that you’re her father and she needs to know that you love and care for her. Otherwise it’ll be like the photography session — she’ll be shy and reserved, and it’ll be obvious that you two don’t know each other well.”
Liam’s first reaction was panic. There was a reason he kept his distance from Grace. He knew he wouldn’t be a good father to her, and it wasn’t fair to her for him to try. The little girl had just lost her mother. If he told her he was her father, but was never around or made a mistake, it would be a terrible blow to the child.
“I’m not good with children,” Liam said.
“I understand, but Grace isn’t just any child. She’s your daughter — which I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say.”
“What if I make a mistake?” Liam set his food down and leaned towards Amelia. He knew he was being too vulnerable, which was probably a mistake, too, but he couldn’t help himself. He needed her advice.
“You will!” Amelia laughed lightly. “Everyone does. What’s important is that you apologize and keep trying. You can’t expect yourself to be a perfect father from the start, but what you can do is try. Don’t you think Grace deserves that much, at least?” The passion in her tone was clear.
“Grace deserves the world,” Liam said. “She deserves a wonderful father, a good education, all the opportunities. She deserves to have her mother. None of this is about what Grace deserves.”
“See that?” Amelia’s brown eyes sparkled. “You care about her. It’s obvious. So, show her that!”
They stared at each other for a long moment. Then Amelia sighed and deflated a little.
“I’m sorry. I know you didn’t hire me to shout at you.”
“You didn’t shout.” Liam sighed, too. “And you’re right. I do need to try. But I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“That’s okay. Like I said, no one does. I’ll help you.”
“You will?”
She nodded. “Of course. I promise, Grace is a wonderful child. Your daughter is a wonderful child.”
“Yes.” Liam took a deep breath. “ My daughter is.” The words felt strange in his mouth, but somehow right, too.
“Good start.”
Liam nodded. “Thank you.” He paused. “If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it right. I’ll take a little time off work, just until the barbecue, so that I can really try to get to know… my daughter.”
“That’s wonderful.” Amelia looked positively lit from inside with excitement now. “I’m so glad you’re doing this.”
Liam wasn’t so sure, but he nodded again. “It’s the right move.”
“Yes.” Amelia gave him a thumbs-up. “It’s the right move.” Although she was echoing his words, Liam had the distinct impression that she was thinking something else.
“I’ll need to go into the office tomorrow, to tie a few things up, but the day after that is Saturday and I’ll be home. Let’s try to arrange something nice to do with Grace.”
“I’ll figure something out.” Amelia grinned. Then she reached across the distance between them and rested her hand on Liam’s, very lightly. “You’re doing the right thing. I’m so glad.” As quickly as she’d reached for his hand, she pulled away and got to her feet. “I’ll go to bed, then. It’s getting late, and we’ll have more time on Saturday.”
“Sleep well.”
“You too.”
But Liam didn’t sleep well. He lay awake long into the night, thinking of how he was going to be a good father to his daughter. And thinking of Amelia. The way her fingertips had brushed the back of his hand had sent shivers up his arm. And his feelings for her weren’t only physical. Somehow, Amelia had gotten him to shift his priorities, at least for the moment, when he’d vowed to keep his eye on work.
There was something special about this woman. He needed to be careful.