CHAPTER 22 Penny Calloway
Child Whisperer
Liam offers a secret wave in my direction before he walks out of the suite at the baseball game, and my chest aches as I lift my hand back.
It’s not like we really even interacted during the game, and now it’s over.
“Liam, wait up!” I yell over the din in the suite. “I’ll walk with you to the parking lot.”
Everleigh is too distracted by the fact that she’s a wife now to notice anything off between the two of us, and I bid her goodbye again. She and Maverick are heading back to Vegas soon since he has minicamp this week, too, and I may not get to say goodbye to her again.
But somehow not getting another goodbye with Liam feels far worse.
He waits for me, and we walk the long concourse down to the parking garage with the rest of the group of fans leaving at the end of the game.
He glances behind us and sees we’re alone in the crowd—or at least away from the prying eyes of people we know—and he reaches out to grab my hand.
A thrill lights down my spine. It’s just a boy holding a girl’s hand. So innocent. So sweet. But it feels like so much more, too. It’s dangerous. We’re in public. We could be caught. He could be photographed. Everleigh could find out.
And I’m not sure I care.
I mean…I do. I don’t want her to feel betrayed.
But I’m not sure why I’m so dead set on hiding this from her when it feels like it’s turning into something important.
Maybe because I wasn’t really sure it was anything more than just screwing around, but now it is.
Except it can’t be because he’s leaving for minicamp and I’m still going through a divorce.
When did life get so freaking complicated?
“Where are you parked?” he asks.
“In the garage. Fourth floor.”
“I’m on three.” He glances over at me, and I stare straight ahead. I feel like I’m going to cry, and it hits me out of left field.
I don’t want to cry.
I just want to be present in this moment, to enjoy what little time we have left.
“I wish we didn’t have to go to Archer’s thing,” he says quietly.
“I know. But Ev said he’s proposing to his girl. It’s some secret engagement party,” I say.
“Worst kept secret ever,” he says.
“I don’t think Millie knows,” I point out, and he chuckles.
“Yeah, she seemed pretty oblivious, but I guess everyone in that suite was feeling different things.”
“True. Ev and Mav were in their own little world. Millie was alone with all of us for the first time ever. You just found out you’re going to be a father. I’m lamenting that my boyfriend is leaving town.” I press my lips together.
His hand tightens in mine. “Wait. First, we don’t know for sure I’m going to be a father.”
I can’t help a laugh. “I didn’t think that was the thing you were going to comment on.”
“It wasn’t. Did you just call me your boyfriend?”
“I did.” I nod emphatically.
“But you’re still married,” he points out.
“A technicality.”
“And my sister’s your best friend.”
I lift a shoulder. “We’ll tell her eventually.”
“And I’m leaving town.”
“Yeah,” I murmur. “We’ll figure that one out.”
He leans over and nuzzles my neck. “Fucking better.”
He lets go of my hand and loops his arm around my shoulders, and I wrap my arm around his waist. We walk the rest of the way to the parking garage that way, and despite the obstacles in our way, despite the fact that he has to leave early in the morning, I have faith that we’re going to figure it all out.
Eventually.
I hope.
He walks with me to my car, and he stops and kisses me softly outside of it before I slip in and start the drive toward the next destination.
We celebrate Archer and Millie. Liam grabs my hand in secret when nobody’s looking.
I want to kiss him like I’ve never wanted to kiss anybody before in my life… but I don’t.
Not yet.
I leave first since it’s getting late and the boys have an early summer camp day tomorrow, and I navigate toward my mom’s place. She’s chatty this evening, and by the time I get the boys home, it’s time for baths and bed.
Liam is waiting for us in the playroom, and the boys both run to him.
Sammy gets there first. Benji whines that it’s his turn.
My heart aches that this won’t be our future. Who knows how long he’ll play in San Diego and commute back and forth to Chicago? Does he even want that?
I mean…maybe it could be our future. Someday.
But someday feels like it’s fading, and besides, the boys won’t be this age ever again.
They won’t have the innocence they have now.
Maybe when they’re older, they won’t fall in love with Liam the way they so easily have.
Maybe instead they’ll become jaded and resent him because he’s not their father.
“Hey, boys, I got you both something,” Liam says. He grabs three wrapped boxes and glances at the names on each, and he hands the third one to me.
The boys tear through the paper, and I watch them instead of opening mine. They each pull out a San Diego Storm jersey with Bradley 7 emblazoned on the back.
“The jerseys are for game days, okay?” he says. “Now go get clean. Whoever is dry and in their pajamas first wins a five-dollar bill from me! Go!”
“I’m gonna win!” Sammy shouts, and he runs off with Benji trailing behind.
I stare at Liam in wonder. “You do realize it takes me twelve tries to get either one of them in the bath or shower, right?”
He laughs. “I grew up with four brothers. Competition and money always work as motivators.”
“Duly noted, child whisperer.”
He nods toward my box. “Are you going to open that?”
I gently slit open the package, and I pull out the same jersey but in my size. My mouth makes a smile while my eyes make tears, and the contrast of feeling both happy and sad at the same time plows into me with full force.
“I promise to wear it on game day,” I whisper, my throat suddenly tight.
He walks over and pulls me into his arms. He presses a kiss to my forehead, and I bury my face into his chest as I try to ward off tears. The last thing I need is the boys coming out from their race to find me crying.
Eventually I pull back, and I move out of his arms and keep myself busy by cleaning the paper the boys tore off their boxes. “When did you have the time for all this?”
Liam helps me clean up. “I had some help from Dolores.”
“She really is the best.”
He nods. “She is.”
“So you’ll be back on Friday?” I ask.
“Yeah. Back Friday. Then back to San Diego on Monday.”
I press my lips together and nod.
He clears his throat as he moves in a little closer to me. “I was thinking…since I have to be out of here at like three in the morning, do you think we could—”
“I knew I’d win!” Sammy shouts, interrupting Liam as he races from my bedroom down here into the room he’s sharing with his brother to get into his pajamas.
I shake my head and laugh, and I glance over at Liam. “You were saying?”
“Do you think I could stay the night with you?” he whispers.
I snag my bottom lip between my teeth, and I nod slowly.
His eyes light up.
“As long as the lock on my door works,” I whisper back.
He laughs. “Well, if it doesn’t, it will by the time we’re ready to use it.”
We get the boys down, and Benji is surprisingly emotional as he says goodbye to Liam. Sammy acts tough, but I can see in his eyes that he’s going to miss him, too.
Liam heads up to his room to finish packing, and after twenty minutes, I check the boys to find them both sound asleep, so I head up to join Liam in his room.
I find him in his closet, kneeling on the floor as he zips up a duffel bag, and I’m reminded of a moment we once shared in this very closet. I lean on the doorframe and cross my arms over my chest, and he glances up when I say, “Hi.”
“Hi.” He lifts to a stand and walks a few steps in my direction.
“The boys are asleep,” I say, all the innuendo of what that means very clear in my tone.
“We should definitely do something about that.” He takes another step toward me.
“You mean like wake them up?” I pretend to act confused.
He chuckles as he closes the final step between us and reaches out for me. “Not quite.” He hauls me against him, leaving me breathless.
“Oh, I see where you’re going with this now.”
His lips drop to mine, and butterflies flap wildly in my chest. I will never get tired of kissing this man.
His tongue brushes against the seam of my lips, and I open my mouth to his.
The kiss is intense and feels meaningful as our bodies start to join in the rhythm.
His hand snakes up into my hair, and he fists the strands near the roots, pulling roughly but in a way that’s so full of passion that the pleasure outweighs the pain.
He tugs so my head is forced back, away from our kiss, and he runs his tongue down from my mouth to my throat.
He’s never been rough like this, and I like it. The intensity, the urgency. All of it, all of him.
He’s consuming me at a time when I wasn’t sure I was consumable. He’s making me feel alive again after being dead inside for far too long.
He’s making me feel wanted again after the person who vowed forever with me made me feel wholly unwantable.
His mouth dips from my throat into my cleavage, where he breathes me in with a growly moan, and then the clothes start flying.
He rushes me out of my shirt, which he tosses on the floor, and I do the same to his shirt, running my fingertips along the cut muscles of his abdomen in the half a second he allows before he’s fumbling with my jeans.
Soon enough, we’re both naked in his closet again, but this time instead of taking me right here, he sweeps me up into his arms and carries me over to his bed. He gently lays me down, a heady contrast to the way he was so rough and quick with me in the closet mere seconds ago.
He hovers over me for a few beats, and his eyes meet mine. His eyes say the words we’ve both been afraid to say, and it’s enough for now. I don’t push it even though the words are on the tip of my tongue.
He slides into me, and I tip my head back as a warm glow fills me.
His mouth trails down my neck, and his voice is close to my ear when he murmurs, “Fuck, Pen, you always feel so good. So perfect.” He moves over me in the perfect rhythm, like our bodies were made for each other, and this feels so good, so right. This can’t be goodbye.
I don’t want it to be goodbye, but I also don’t know how to make it work when I’m here and he’ll be there.
I don’t know how to make it work when I’m not even divorced.
I don’t know how to make it work when he’s my best friend’s brother.
There’s so much stacked against us.
So how do we fight against all that to find our way to make this work?