Sunny
Settling back on the plush couch in the den, she pulled her feet up under her and savored the blessed silence now that Maddie and Hailey were safely tucked in bed. Liam had disappeared into his bedroom, no doubt providing some space after their heated confrontation.
She took another fortifying sip as she replayed Liam’s tirade, his harsh words cutting deep despite her best efforts to remain professional.
Part of her wanted to be charitable. She knew from the outset that she might have an uphill battle against the memory of Kate.
How could she ever hope to live up to the sacrosanct image of the woman who had given Liam those two precious daughters?
“You’re still up.”
Get it together, girl.
Liam’s gaze drifted to the bottle on the table.
“Sure could use a glass myself after the day we’ve had.”
Before Sunny could respond, he left for the kitchen.
He came back a few moments later, glass in hand, then crossed the room in a few long strides.
He picked up the bottle, pouring himself a generous measure.
As he settled into the armchair opposite her, Sunny couldn’t help but notice the way his muscular frame filled out the soft leather chair.
An awkward silence stretched between them as they sipped their wine. Just as Sunny was about to make her excuses and retreat to her room, Liam spoke up.
“Look, I just want you to know that I feel like the asshole of the century,” he said. “What happened this morning, that was totally out of line. I should never have questioned your credentials.” He broke off eye contact before continuing. “I just…don’t know what gets into me sometimes.”
Sunny had a variety of options on how to respond. Resentment, upset, and defensiveness were definitely in the running. In the end, she opted for compassion.
“It can’t be easy,” she said. “Entrusting Maddie and Hailey to someone outside of the family. That part is perfectly understandable.”
He looked up at her again. “You were really great with them today, as always.”
Sunny felt her breath catch at the compliment.
“They’re wonderful kids,” she replied. “A handful for sure, but adorable nonetheless.”
Liam’s icy blue eyes locked onto hers with an intensity that made her shiver.
“This morning,” he said, “when they thought you were leaving…God, I’ve never seen them more upset. Well…maybe once.”
The memory appeared to visibly pain him.
“I didn’t want to go,” Sunny heard herself admitting, the wine already loosening her tongue. “Those little girls, they’ve burrowed their way into my heart.”
Oops, reel it in there, girl. He might think you’re nutso.
“Yeah…they have a way of doing that,” replied Liam, a wistful smile playing across his chiseled features. One that hinted at joy but also sorrow. He looked away again.
A single tear ran down his cheek. He suddenly caught himself and made to leave.
“Sorry, no tolerance for alcohol,” he said, by way of explanation for his sudden loss of composure, before standing up abruptly.
“It’s okay,” Sunny soothed, raising a placating hand. “Stay, Liam. Sometimes it’s good to just talk. To lighten the load.”
He looked at her guardedly. She could almost see the cogs turning in his brain as he processed her words. Then he gently sat back down.
It seemed the dam had been broken between them, and without another word from Sunny, Liam began to unburden himself.
He shared the devastating story of how he lost his wife to a sudden brain hemorrhage.
“One moment she was making breakfast for the family, and the next, she was gone. Collapsed on the floor with the light gone from her eyes. I knew. Even then. I knew. All I could do was try to comfort the girls while the paramedics were on their way.”
The tears were flowing freely now. Liam’s wide chest was heaving.
“I told them everything would be okay, that the doctors would fix her. They were so small and so distraught. I would have told them anything to try and lessen the pain in that moment. Though I knew, in my heart of hearts, I knew that she was gone.”
Sunny didn’t speak. She didn’t interrupt. Just remained silent, letting Liam have his moment. She felt this was a long time coming.
“The hospital said there was nothing they could do. It was too late. It turned out to be something called an arteriovenous malformation. Tangled blood vessels that create pressure on the arteries, causing one to eventually pop. She had no prior indication that anything was wrong. It could have happened at any time.”
Tears stung Sunny’s eyes as Liam spoke, his words thick with lingering grief. She couldn’t fathom the depths of his pain at such an unexpected loss.
Maybe it was the wine. Maybe it was the charged atmosphere. But before she could stop herself, she found her own tragic story tumbling out.
She told Liam about losing her stepfather to a long, brutal battle with pancreatic cancer. How it was just the two of them after her stepmother had walked out on the family, which appeared to be a common theme in Sunny’s life.
She was forced to watch helplessly as the man who had stepped up to become her father in every sense of the word slowly wasted away for two agonizing years until he was just a hollow shell of his former self.
“The weird thing is,” Sunny said through her tears, “as awful as it was to watch him suffer like that, there was still some solace in being able to say goodbye, you know? To cherish those final moments together as a family, even though it was just the two of us, before the inevitable happened. I can’t even imagine what it was like for you and the girls. ”
Liam’s piercing gaze intensified as he processed her words.
“You were luckier than me,” he said. “Even though it’s a frankly twisted thing to say when it comes to someone dying. But I never got that chance with Kate. One minute she was our whole world, and the next…gone in the blink of an eye.”
His gruff voice had dwindled to a husky whisper, the anguish etched across his face.
Sunny felt something stir deep inside her at the naked vulnerability penetrating his usual steely veneer.
She wanted nothing more than to cross the distance between them and wrap her arms around his broad shoulders, soothing the ache she could see burning behind his sorrowful eyes.
But she recalled her promise to herself, and to this family.
The air seemed to grow thicker as the silence stretched between them. A heavy tension thrumming with shared grief. Sunny could feel the heat of Liam’s gaze. Then, slowly, tentatively, he began to speak again in that low timbre.
He told Sunny more about Kate, how full of light and laughter she had been.
The opposite of his serious and often dour demeanor.
How she was the glue that held everything together in the Anderson household.
With every passing word, Sunny could see the man she had mostly known as moody and brooding slowly transform into a devoted husband and father who had loved with every fiber of his being.
By the time he had finished, tears were shining on both their cheeks.
The air grew thicker with the released emotions…
and also something else. An electricity, a spark that made Sunny’s skin tingle with a new appreciation for the man sitting across from her.
As she looked into his piercing blue eyes, she felt the feeling was mutual.
She knew she should call it a night, retreat to the safe haven of her bedroom before this went any further down a path they couldn’t return from. But something tugged at her to remain in this room with Liam, to share this all-too-human moment.
Draining the last of her wine, she felt a surge of reckless determination. Before she could overthink it, Sunny rose from the couch and crossed the short distance to where Liam sat.
He watched her with wary fascination as she perched on the arm of his chair, so close that the heady scent of his cologne enveloped her senses.
“I’m sorry you never got to properly say goodbye,” she murmured, holding his intense gaze. “That was cruel beyond words.”
Liam opened his mouth to respond, but no words came out. His pupils were wide, burning with an unmistakable need that made Sunny’s heart rate spike. Then, almost imperceptibly, his head tilted a fraction, leaning infinitesimally closer to her.
Sunny found herself falling into the gravity of his gaze, that blazing blue a stark contrast to the dark scruff dusting his square jaw.
She could feel the heat radiating from his body, smell his intoxicating natural musk mixed with the remnants of his aftershave.
Her tongue instinctively darted out to wet her lips, and she saw Liam’s throat convulse.
This was a line they couldn’t uncross. But in that achingly tense moment — charged with longing, grief, solace, and something else drawing them both inexplicably together — neither of them seemed willing to extricate themselves.
They remained frozen like that, locked in each other’s orbit. This felt so dangerous.