Chapter 19
NINETEEN
Sam exited the station lobby and found Liam leaning against the front of his SUV with his ankles crossed in front of him. As if thinking about him all day had conjured him here in front of the firehouse.
He smiled and stood up when he saw her. “Have a good day?”
He walked up, Mr. Loose-Hipped Marshal with all that federal swagger. He grabbed her hand. The warmth of his touch flooded up her arm and throughout her body. Something in her stomach did a little dance.
She cleared her throat. “The guys wanted me to make sure to tell you and the girls thanks for cleaning up.”
Liam held her hand, walked to the passenger side of the SUV, and opened the door for her. “Anytime.”
He let her get settled before shutting the door. Greer walked out and waved to them. Sam waved back.
She turned in the seat and looked at the girls. “Did you have a good day?”
They both nodded, not bothering to look up from their phones.
Liam climbed into the SUV and put it in Reverse. “I set some hamburger meat out to thaw this morning and cooked it before coming to pick you up. I thought I’d make spaghetti for dinner tonight. Is that something you ladies would eat?” He glanced in the rearview mirror at Isabella and then to Sam.
“Yes. We like spaghetti.” Sam answered for both of them. A man who cooked dinner?
“Oh, can you bake it?” Sophia said from the back seat. “It’s so good.”
“I don’t see why not. Have you had baked spaghetti?” He clicked on the turn signal and glanced at Sam.
“Can’t say that I have. How is baked spaghetti different than regular spaghetti?”
“It’s like a spaghetti lasagna. With lots of cheese,” Sophia explained.
“I can help cook,” Sam offered.
“You don’t have to. It’s pretty easy. Cook the meat, which I’ve already done, cook the noodles to al dente, mix it all with the sauce, throw some cheese on it, and slap it in the oven.”
“That sounds simple enough. And like something that would be perfect for my day to cook lunch at the firehouse, actually. Cheap and easy. And if we get called out, it wouldn’t go bad if it was left for hours.”
“So, did you guys get called out again after we left?” He kept his attention on the road.
“The call was a small electrical fire. Then we had a couple medical calls, but other than that, it was a slower afternoon.” Which had left plenty of time for teasing from the guys about her new boyfriend.
“That’s good. So, you’re not just a firefighter, you’re a paramedic too?”
“Yeah, I got my EMT certification, then entered the fire academy. I got my paramedic certification while I was working my probationary period with the fire department.”
“How long did that take?”
“About two years for all of it.”
As soon as Liam stopped in the driveway, the girls jumped out of the car.
Liam got out. “Do your homework first!”
Sophia waved over her shoulder and used her key to let them in, then the girls disappeared.
Sam and Liam followed the girls into the house, crossed through the living room, and into the kitchen.
“Now that they’re occupied, we need to talk.” He leaned against the counter.
She bit her bottom lip. “Did you find out anything?”
He shook his head. “No, still waiting on Howard to fill me in, but it feels like he’s dodging me. I was talking about our relationship.”
“Oh.”
He turned and pulled a pan from one of the bottom cabinets, set it in the sink, and turned on the water.
“I think it’s best if we stay as close to the truth as possible.” He turned to look at her.
“What do you mean?” She thought the whole point of this relationship was to keep from blowing her cover.
“I mean how we met and how our relationship started.” He held the pot under the faucet.
“It’ll be easier that way. So we met the first time at the motel shooting,” she said.
“Yeah. I think it’ll be okay to say we met again when I came with Aubrey looking for her cat. We can just leave out the part about me being your handler. I was just out helping my new coworker because I didn’t want her going door to door alone.”
“Okay.” Sam nodded. “I mean, everything about how we’ve interacted since then can be told. The girls started to get into trouble, and we were thrust together.”
“And that’s when the attraction started.” He shut off the water, set the pan on the stove, and turned on the burner. Then he turned the knob to preheat the oven. “Can you grab the bread from the freezer?”
She grabbed the boxed cheese bread from the freezer and started opening it. Liam pulled a cookie sheet from under the stove and set it on the counter. He reached for the box.
She held it out of his reach. “I’ll help.”
Liam nodded and turned back to the stove, sprinkling some salt in the water.
Sam pulled the bread slices apart and started lining them in the pan. “Then I was in danger, and your protective instincts took over.”
“Bingo.” He turned around and leaned against the cabinet. “We need some ground rules as well.”
“Right. We’re supposed to be portraying a couple, and there will be coupley things we need to do.”
“I hope you were okay with me holding your hand and walking you to the car. I noticed one of the guys watching us.”
“No. That’s fine.”
An ashamed expression crossed his face. “And I realized I’ve kissed you twice without your permission. I need to apologize for that.”
Her mouth fell open. She hadn’t expected an apology.
“I’m not in the habit of doing that, but both times it seemed like an appropriate boyfriend reaction, and I didn’t have the option to ask.” He looked sheepish.
“I’ll admit it took me off guard, but it was necessary.”
“Are you comfortable with physical affection, like hand-holding and hugs?”
This was such an odd conversation. “Um. No kissing on the lips.” Not that she was a prude. She’d kissed a few guys in her time, but when she had very real feelings for them. Kissing Liam—that seemed too intimate.
His gaze dropped to her mouth, just for a second, a flicker of heat in his eyes that made her breath catch. He cleared his throat, as if reminding himself of the stakes. “Understood. The mission comes first.”
“I think if we stick to hand-holding and hugs, it should be fine. I’m not an overly affectionate person to begin with, so the guys won’t think anything about us not being touchy-feely.” She walked to the cabinets and started opening them, looking for the spaghetti noodles.
He pointed to the cabinet to her left. “Noodles are in that one.”
“Thanks.” She handed them to Liam and realized she was now far closer to him than before.
“What about around here? We’re pretty much under constant surveillance with Isabella and Sophia.”
“I guess we do the same. Isabella has never seen me with a boyfriend other than Matt Marino, and I kept that away from her as much as I could.”
He dumped the noodles into the boiling water. “Really?”
“Don’t sound so surprised.” It was her turn to lean against the counter.
“I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just—” He ran a hand through his hair. “You’re an attractive woman. I just assumed you’d have had a boyfriend or two.”
Her cheeks warmed. “Thank you. It’s just that I’ve been taking care of Bella since she was born.
Between that and going to school and working, I never had the time or inclination to date.
Until Matt Marino. And look how that turned out.
Then we joined WITSEC, and I have to be so careful.
It’s just best to stay single, I guess. What about you? ”
He stirred the noodles. “I had a serious girlfriend and was considering asking her to marry me, then I got guardianship of Sophia. She decided she wasn’t ready to be a mother. Especially to a teenager.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. You probably don’t want to hear it, but it’s likely for the best. Some people aren’t meant to be parents. It would be doing Sophia a disservice to expect someone to be in her life that didn’t want to be there.” She could speak from experience.
“I assume you’re talking about your mother?”
She nodded. “Unfortunately for me. When I found out she was pregnant with Bella, I was hoping she’d change, you know? She’d want to be a parent, and I’d finally get a mother. It didn’t happen. I didn’t get a mother; I turned into one.”
He set the fork on the stove top. “That’s a lot for someone so young to carry. I’m sorry it was something you had to go through.”
She shrugged. “When you don’t have any other options, you deal with it.”
Liam’s face softened. “I guess I know that feeling.”
Sam tilted her head. “How so?”
“My childhood wasn’t the best. Dad had a temper, and I took the brunt of it.” He crossed his arms over his chest.
“Where was your mother?”
“She turned a blind eye most times. If he was taking it out on me, he wasn’t hitting her.”
“I’m sorry. Sounds like we both had useless mothers.” There was nothing she could do to change the past, and her words wouldn’t do anything to ease the pain of the memories.
“It’s all in the past. Now I focus on the future.” He stood and turned to check on the noodles. “Enough heavy talk for tonight. Can you grab the pan of meat out of the refrigerator?”
She grabbed the pan from the refrigerator and set it on the stove, bumping Liam’s arm. Electricity zapped through her. She stepped back. It was nothing. Just a reaction to her sharing part of her story.
“I talked to my boss today,” Liam said. “I’m on full-time protection duty for now, with some leeway. I thought we’d continue to take you to work and pick you up.” He turned the heat down on the stovetop.
“What about your other duties? Courthouse security, was it?”
“Hank, a partially retired marshal, has agreed to work my court shifts for the next couple of days. I have access to our databases from here.” He drained the noodles, combined everything, and put it in a glass baking pan.
Then he covered it in cheese and slid it into the oven. “It should be ready in ten minutes.”
“Great. I’ll get the girls, and we can set the table.” She turned and walked out of the kitchen.