Chapter 25
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE
SOPHIE
“Are you sure you don’t mind us stealing your cabin?” Ariel asks Eli, as he and Liam walk us inside.
“You’re all good,” Eli tells her. “Holden and I are going to shoot hoops for the bedroom in his place.”
“No we’re not,” Holden says, joining us in the cabin’s small living area. It’s actually sweetly cozy in here. I walk over to Liam and slide my arm around his waist. “Is your cabin the same as this?”
“My living area is bigger. Eli wanted two bedrooms but I only have one. It’s more like Myles’.”
“So Linc and Brooks really are sleeping on the floor in your living room tonight?”
“They’ll duke it out for the sofa I expect.” He looks around this cabin. “They could always take your room.”
“Oh God, don’t leave me with those two,” Ariel says, wrinkling her nose. “It’d be like sleeping with a pair of rutting stags.”
“I know,” Liam says, deadpan. “I’m so excited that I get to have a sleepover with them.”
Ariel takes my hand, pulling me away from Liam.
She’s very lovely. Tall and slender with glossy dark hair and an accent that belongs somewhere in the mid-Atlantic.
Walking down to the cabin she told me all about the apartment she’s currently living in on the 8th Arondissement in Paris.
It’s within walking distance of so many beautiful galleries and museums, and as she describes them I almost feel like I’m there.
“Which room do you want?” she asks, pulling me into the first bedroom. “This one’s bigger, but it’s also Eli’s. Which means whoever sleeps in here will have to put up with the sweaty jock smell.”
“Hey,” Eli protests, following us in. “I don’t smell of sweaty jock.”
Ariel blows him a kiss. He shakes his head and walks out again.
“The other bedroom is smaller,” she says. We only have to take two steps down the living area to get to it. “But it’s sweat free.”
“Sophie will take that one,” Liam says.
I look at him, surprised. He just shrugs.
“Yeah, because I don’t want you two having dirty sex in my bed, thank you very much,” Eli says.
Ariel shoots me an interested look. “You and Liam?”
I nod.
“Oh. Okay.” She gives me the sweetest of smiles. “So you’re happy with this room?”
“It works for me.”
Liam carries my bag in from where the valets left it outside, and Ariel wanders back to her room. As soon as she steps out, Liam closes the door with the sole of his shoe then walks over to me. Wordlessly, he pulls me into his arms and lets out a groan.
“I’ve never wished harder that I was an only child,” he tells me.
“Stop it, you love your brothers.”
“I do, but I’d like them all to disappear right now.” He slides his hand down my neck, his palm warm against my skin. “Leave the window open tonight. I’ll come here to be with you.”
I try not to laugh at the thought of Liam trying to get his large frame through the tiniest of windows. I’m not sure it’s physically possible.
“But Ariel…”
“Gave you this room for a reason,” he finishes for me. “She’s okay, really.”
“She seems more than okay. She’s lovely. You all grew up together?”
“Not really. Ria would come visit mom most summers. Sometimes they’d come here while we were staying with dad. You know, happy families.” He lifts a brow.
“So she’s your age?” That can’t be true. Ariel looks like she’s closer to twenty than forty.”
“Two years younger.”
“Wow. I need to find out what brand of moisturizer she uses.”
Liam laughs softly. “You’re perfect just the way you are.” And that makes me melt a little. I kiss his jaw and he closes his eyes for a moment. And then a loud clap of thunder pierces the air in the cabin, making me jump.
“Did you see any lightning?” I ask Liam, my heart picking up a pace. “I should check the maps again for your mom. I wasn’t expecting it to hit this soon.”
“You two decent?” A hand slams on the door. Before we can answer, Eli walks in. “We should all head up to the house before it really starts to rain, or Mom will throw a fit.” He inclines his head at the window. Storm clouds loom above the main house, making it look almost ghostly.
Specifically, it’s a cumulonimbus arcus formation. The kind that feels close to the ground, with a steel gray color. An arcus – a shelf like lower cloud that hangs the lowest, is at the front of the storm. And Eli’s right, it’s heading this way.
“How long did you say it was going to storm again?” Liam asks, resting his chin on my head as I stare out at the sky.
“An hour or two.” Like most summer storms, it will pass fairly quickly. It’s the result of a cold front mixed in with the humidity, and the unstable air pattern means it explodes then moves on.
“Okay then. I guess we walk later,” he says, his lip curling.
“I guess we will.”
LIAM
The rain starts as we’re all walking back into the house. I’m holding Sophie’s hand because right now it’s the only physical contact I can have with her. It’s not enough but I’ll get over it.
Once we’re inside, my mom corners Sophie, asking her about the weather and if she thinks people will be able to make it this evening, when her birthday party is due to begin.
Sophie opens her phone, and she and mom sit down in the living room and Sophie talks her through the storm maps.
I listen in because I’m nuts about this woman and her fascination for the weather fascinates me.
But then Holden comes along to ask for my help with setting up the chairs in the big ballroom where the party will be held if we can’t be outside, so I slink off with a promise that I’ll be back.
When everything’s finally set up I go back to the living room but Sophie isn’t there. My mom’s in the corner, picking up some empty glasses people must have left there earlier.
When she sees me in the doorway, her face splits into a smile.
“Darling, come in.” She moves her hand in a beckoning gesture.
“Where’s Sophie?” I ask her.
“She’s gone to help Deandra and Julia with some food. All the girls are in the kitchen, apart from me.” She smiles. “Your younger brothers need to learn how to clean up after themselves.”
I walk into the room and take the glasses from her. “You shouldn’t be cleaning up on your birthday,” I tell her.
“Apparently I’m not allowed to cook either.” She rolls her eyes. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do between now and when the party starts.”
“Sit down. Relax. Enjoy yourself.”
“I’m not very good at sitting still.”
“I know that feeling.” I get it from her. Always having to be on the move. Doing the next thing. Never taking time to smell the roses.
“Sit with me for a moment,” she suggests, sitting on the sofa and tapping the seat next to her. Part of me wants to take these glasses to the kitchen and see my girl, but this is my mom and she’s always happier when we’re with her.
“Okay.” I put the glasses down on the table and sit next to her. She takes my hand and squeezes it.
“Sophie is lovely,” she says softly. “I’m so happy for you both.”
“It’s still new, Mom,” I warn her.
“I know it is. But the way you look at her, darling, I never thought I’d live to see the day. Are you happy? Tell me you’re happy.”
I lift a brow. “I’m very happy.”
She lets out a contented sigh. “So am I. First Myles and now you. I’ve waited for you both to find contentment for so long.”
“Don’t go marrying me off yet,” I warn her.
“I don’t need to,” Mom says. “I think you’ll do that all by yourself. I know you, Liam. Better than all your brothers do. And I know you put on this happy face and make everybody feel good, but deep inside there’s been something missing for the longest time.”
My throat tightens. “Mom…”
“I know.” She nods. “And I won’t go there. But you and I both know that Sophie’s been a long time coming.”
Yeah, she has. The woman I never knew I wanted. And by some major miracle she actually wants me.
Now if I could just get her alone and show her how much I want her that would be good, thank you.
“Look at you,” Mom says smiling. “You can’t wait to see her, can you?”
I roll my eyes but her fond expression doesn’t waver. “Go,” she tells me. “You’ve humored me enough.”
Love for my mom rushes through me. She’s been through a lot in her life.
Back when dad left her we wondered if she would ever smile again.
Hell, we wondered if she’d ever get out of bed again.
I remember Myles and me having to cook dinner for the five of us.
He’d make sure Holden and Eli were fed and I’d tiptoe upstairs and force mom to take some mouthfuls of whatever godawful thing we’d cooked.
My chest twinges. That was the first time I learned that love could hurt. It took a long time for us to forgive our dad for that. And maybe we haven’t completely. Myles hasn’t, that’s for sure.
We love him. He’s our dad. But do we trust him?
Nope.
My mom though, she’s always been there. And though she’s fallible, she also shows us unwavering support. I’ll never truly understand how she and Deandra got so close, or how they both are happy to spend time with Dad, but part of me wonders if it’s for us.
She wants us to be happy, so she’ll do whatever it takes. And that’s true love.
The kind of love that would sacrifice anything.
I lean forward and hug her. She lets out a warm, contented sigh, her face resting against my chest. I can remember the first time I realized how tiny she was.
I was twelve years old and had reached the same height as her.
A few weeks later I was taller, and she was asking me to reach things on shelves for her.
And now she’s about a foot and a half shorter than me. Doesn’t make her any less fierce though.
“You’re a good man,” she whispers against my chest. “You keep holding onto that happiness, okay? Don’t let it go.”
“I won’t,” I promise her. And it’s a promise I intend to keep. I’m not going to hurt Sophie the way my dad hurt my mom. I want to protect her. Keep her happy. Make her feel safe in my arms.
If it takes a goddamned lifetime I’m going to prove to her that she can trust me.
I stand and grab the glasses I left on the table and wink at my mom.
She grins back as I walk out of the living room and head to the kitchen.
I hear the sound of dishes being put on counters and laughter and the familiar pitch of female voices.
When I walk inside I spot her immediately, talking to Julia as she stirs a pot with a large wooden spoon.
Julia says something that makes Sophie laugh just as the clouds part for a shaft of sun to break through them. It hits the glass doors that lead out to the patio and the hills beyond, casting a halo over Sophie’s golden hair.
And then she looks up at me.
Her lips part and her eyes light up and all I can think is that I want her.
No, I need her. Now.
And I don’t give a shit about who’s sleeping in whose cabin or the fact that despite the break in the clouds it’s still pouring outside.
Or that this room is filled with people who are all watching the silent interaction between me and my girl, who’s still staring at me as though I could part the oceans for her.
Sophie’s stopped stirring the pot of whatever’s cooking in front of her. Julia notices and takes the spoon, gently moving Sophie to the left.
“I need to speak to you,” I tell her.
She runs her tongue over her bottom lip and nods. I hold my hand out to her and she walks toward me, not caring that everybody’s watching us.
When her fingers slide into mine it feels like the sun is coming out.
And I don’t give a shit if everybody knows I’m about to drag her to whatever private place I can find and bury my face in her body until I’m about to suffocate.
Or that I want to feel her convulse around me again and again until she can’t remember what day it is.
The only person I care about is this woman staring up at me.
“Ready?” I ask her softly.
“Yes.” She nods and I pull her out of the kitchen. As soon as we’re gone they all start to talk at once.
“Oh. My. God.”
“Did you see the way he looked at her?”
“Is anybody else having a hot flash right now?”
“I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna need to open some windows.”