Chapter 18 – Liam
I sat there for another hour, watching Molly’s eyes practically roll to the back of her head every time she took a bite of her banana split.
She kept offering me a bite, but I turned her down.
The girl was growing an entire baby in her belly—she needed the nutrition more than I did.
As nutritional as a banana split could be.
Molly took her final bite, slowly pulling the spoon from her mouth, savoring every last bit.
“That was absolutely delicious, and I want six more,” she said, setting the spoon down. “Just kidding. I feel like I’d pop like a balloon. But seriously, thank you so much for bringing me out for ice cream, Liam. That was really sweet.”
I tipped my head toward her. “Of course.”
“Now what?” she asked, eyeing me curiously.
“What do you mean?”
“The night’s still young. What other trouble do you think the two of us could manage to get ourselves into?” she said, smiling. “You are the town sheriff. It’s not like I’m getting arrested tonight.”
“Molly,” I said, giving her a stern look. “Why do you always insist on breaking the rules?”
“Because rules are meant to be broken, Liam. “What’s life without a little fun? A little excitement?” She shifted in her seat, sitting up straighter. “Something that gets your blood flowing, your heart racing. Do you want to die knowing you never did anything fun? Never took chances?”
“Last time I did something wild and broke the rules, I ended up becoming your baby daddy.”
She laughed and pulled her phone out of the purse sitting next to her in the booth.
I watched as she typed into the on-screen keyboard. “What are you doing?”
“Changing your name in my phone to Baby Daddy.”
I mirrored her, pulling up her contact in my phone.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Changing yours to Baby Momma.”
She giggled, shaking her head, her cheeks rounding as she laughed. “In all seriousness, I’m not ready to go home. Will you show me what sunset chasing is like?”
I glanced out the window to our right. The sun was starting to dip in the sky. If we left now, I could take Molly to one of Jace’s and my old spots. She’d still have plenty of time to watch the sunset.
“You want to go sunset chasing—with me?” I asked, needing clarification.
“Yeah, why not?”
“Let me just go pay our check real quick,” I said, pulling my wallet from my back pocket.
“I can pay for myself,” she said, clearly surprised by the offer. She dug through her purse, probably searching for cash.
“It’s cute that you think I’d let that happen, but I won’t. So sit tight while I go take care of it. And don’t get yourself into any trouble in the three minutes you’ll be left unsupervised,” I added. “You’re like a cat with nine lives, and I’m pretty sure you’ve only got about three left.”
She patted the booth. “Sit. Stay. Got it.”
She woofed at me as I walked away, doing my best to hide the smirk tugging at my mouth.
I stepped up to the register, and Maggie caught me out of the corner of her eye.
“Howdy, Sheriff,” she said with a smile as I handed over our receipt.
“None of that sheriff business today, Maggie. Just Liam.”
“I heard you’ll be going by daddy before too long,” she said, punching in numbers into the outdated register.
Maggie was the heart of Silver Creek. If there was news to know, she heard it first. No surprise she already knew about the predicament I’d found myself in.
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied.
“How’s Molly?”
“So far, so good. She’s finally over the morning sickness, so she’s got a little more energy.”
“I was down at the courthouse the other day, updating my business license for this old place. I talked with Mrs. Jenny—she’s over property records and such—and she told me this weird story about someone named Liam buying the old Shirley house.
She was so surprised since the place had been on the market forever.
I thought it was odd because, as long as I’ve lived in this town—which has been since the day I was born, mind you—you’re the only Liam I know.
I kept thinking, what would Liam need with a big ol’ run-down house and a big plot of land? ”
I glanced back at Molly, her back to us. We stood far enough away that she couldn’t hear a word Maggie or me were saying.
“Then I heard a different story,” Maggie continued, “about how you really dropped the ball with Molly in the beginning. That got me thinking maybe this mystery Liam was trying to dig himself out of the hole he landed in.” She paused, eyeing me. “Crazy story, huh?”
“Sure is,” I said, though it was clear Maggie had me all figured out.
“Just hope that Liam guy I keep hearing about knows how many people are standing behind the mother of his child, ready to kick his ass if he ever treats her like that again,” she added. “I may be old, but I can still throw a mean punch.”
Even if the ass kickings were directed toward me, I loved how much Molly was loved in this town, because that meant our son would be loved too. If there ever came a time when I couldn’t be there to protect him, I knew plenty of people would be waiting in line to take my place.
“You got a name yet?” she asked, handing over my change.
“Not yet. I figure I’ll leave that up to Molly. I don’t think I’m in much of a place to make that decision.”
“Here’s my bit of old lady advice, Liam.
In the midst of this changing season in your life, don’t let your brain forget this: Just because you made a mistake doesn’t mean Molly won’t still want you around to help make decisions.
She likes to play independent, but being a mom is hard—even on the best days.
There’s going to come a time when she’ll need help but be too afraid to ask for it.
Make sure your eyes are open wide enough to see it when it happens. Understand me?”
“I understand, Maggie.”
“Now go take the pretty girl to find a pretty sunset before she changes her mind about forgiving you.”
“I don’t think she’s close to forgiving me yet, Maggie,” I replied to the wishful thinking on her part.
“My intuition is never wrong,” she said as she turned to greet a new customer.
I considered her words as I walked back to the booth.
“Oh look—she can listen,” I said to Molly. “You ready to go?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” She smiled.
After making sure Molly was belted in safely, I drove off, headed toward Haven Bluff. If there was any place around Silver Creek where I could pull up and give her a picture-perfect view of a breathtaking Montana sunset, it was there.
I took the two-lane highway up the mountain, careful not to push the speed. I didn’t want Molly getting carsick. She sat quietly in the passenger seat, gazing out the window at the lush greenery as we ascended.
I took a sharp left onto a bumpy gravel road.
After about a mile, it ended in what looked like a dead end.
You wouldn’t know it from the road, but if you kept walking about half a football field beyond the tree line, a bluff opened up—one that overlooked Silver Creek and the Rocky Mountains beyond.
I used to drive my car all the way to the end of the bluff, but it had been so long since Jace or I had been out here that the bushes and trees had overtaken the small one-lane path.
I put the car in park and hopped out. Molly glanced at me, waiting for instructions.
“We’ll walk just past that tree line,” I said, pointing ahead. “It opens up to a small bluff. X marks the spot.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” she replied, falling in step behind me.
As we followed the narrow, worn path, I pushed aside overgrown brush, snapping back low branches and clearing the way so nothing would catch her in the face.
We emerged on the other side of the tree line, the sunset washing everything in burnt orange. The sky looked like someone had melted crayons together with blues bleeding into oranges and oranges fading into soft pinks.
Beneath it, tall verdant trees stood shoulder to shoulder like soldiers, their tops swaying in the warm summer breeze.
Even in the middle of July, the distant peaks of the Rockies along the edge of Silver Creek were still capped in white snow.
Between the rolling hills, the river split the mountains in two, its surface glowing orange beneath the sinking sun.
“How have I lived in Silver Creek my entire life and never heard of this spot?” Molly asked, eyes fixed on the view before us.
“Jace and I found it on accident. We tried to keep it a secret from everyone else, because we didn’t want anyone to come up here and mess it up.”
“Does it have a name?”
“We call it Haven Bluff.”
“Why Haven Bluff?”
“It’s like our safe haven,” he said. “Somewhere we can come knowing no one will bother us, because only we know about it. It’s one of the first places I visited when I got back from the military.”
“Jace is going to kill you for bringing his little sister to your guys’ hangout spot.”
He shrugged. “He’s definitely brought Cassie out here before. If he can bring someone he cares about, so can I.”
“Is this you telling me I can’t put up a flyer down at Maggie’s about this spot?”
“If you do, I’ll make you spend the night in jail.”
“You wouldn’t put your baby momma in jail,” she said, giving me her best puppy-dog eyes.
“I would if I were the one in charge of the jail, which I am.”
She laughed. “At least you find me trustworthy. I guess that’s a good thing if we’re going to be co-parents.”
Co-parents. Yeah.