14. Cara
CARA
They checked out of the hotel first thing in the morning.
Cara’s original idea had been to linger until just before the deadline, to make it seem as if they were taking full advantage of the room, but after the way things had gone at dinner the night before, it seemed like a good idea to get out as quickly as possible.
She was sure the staff had gossiped about what they’d seen, and people would be waiting to watch them as they left.
Waiting to gather their own tidbits about Mr. and Mrs. Sims.
Liam handled the checkout because Cara had told him it would look better if he did. She stayed by his side—it wouldn’t do for them to be separated—and linked her arm through his, resting her head against his bicep and doing her best to appear as if she was tired from a long night of little sleep.
In truth, it was sort of nice to lean on him like this.
She could feel the strength of his arm, but his skin was soft, which made it a comfortable place to rest her head.
She forced herself to let go of her need to control things, and to allow him to handle it.
He wouldn’t mess anything up. It was just a hotel checkout.
Then it was over, and his arm was around her shoulders.
He steered her toward the door. As they walked, he didn’t say a word—didn’t bother to put on a performance, as he had the night before.
Well, that’s my own fault for calling him out the way I did.
She didn’t know what she had been thinking.
Yes, it bothered her not to be sure which aspects of Liam were the true person she’d married.
But she had told him, last night, to act as if he was in love with her—and then she’d ridiculed him when he had done it. What did I expect him to do?
They stepped out into the Florida sunlight, and Liam led the way to a gray sedan parked in front of the hotel.
“Hang on.” Cara stopped. “That isn’t our car. I…I forgot to order us a car.” She couldn’t believe it. How could she have forgotten something so important? Shame flooded her. “I’ll make a call right now. I’m sorry.”
“No, this is mine,” Liam said. He reached out and opened the passenger door. “I assumed this was my job, since you said I was going to handle the checkout.”
She frowned. “You ordered a car?” She looked inside. “There’s no driver.”
He laughed. “So used to the luxe life already, Cara? This is my car. I had it dropped off last night. It was in the parking garage. The valet just brought it out for us.”
“This isn’t your car,” she objected. “You drive that blue SUV that’s in the papers all the time.”
“I told you you didn’t know everything about me.” He raised his eyebrows. “I drive this too. No one wants to be going around in a flashy car all the time. Sometimes a guy needs to keep a low profile. Are you mad I didn’t have the SUV sent over?”
“Of course I’m not mad,” she told him. “If you’re going to drive us, drive whatever you want.” She got in. “I guess I’m just surprised.”
He grinned at her. “I guess I’m full of surprises.”
The door closed. A moment later, Liam was sliding into the driver’s seat. He looked over at Cara. “Ready to see Rose Valley?”
“As I’ll ever be,” she said.
She knew that it was about an hour outside of Miami.
It was a name she’d grown up hearing, of course, as it was one of the larger suburbs, and Liam had put it on the map when he had signed with the Stingers.
But she’d never had cause to go out there.
Based on the name, she was expecting three-story brick houses and well-tended gardens lining the streets.
She couldn’t have been more wrong.
At first, she didn’t even realize they had reached Rose Valley.
They’d been driving on a stretch of two-lane highway, and it continued right into the town.
They passed a run-down old gas station and a small grocery store that wasn’t part of any chain Cara recognized.
There was a fast-food restaurant and a small inn, and then they were driving up a main road through the middle of town.
She looked out the window at the dilapidated storefronts. Many of them had been abandoned or boarded over. “This is Rose Valley?”
“This is it. Home sweet home.” His voice was light, as if he was looking forward to an easy afternoon, but Cara had the feeling that was just a show he was trying to put on for her sake. There was definitely something strained in his tone.
She was quiet as they drove up the road.
She had imagined Liam as someone who had always been wealthy, who had never had to work very hard or deal with struggles.
But this town told a different story. Growing up here…
well, it might have been a happy childhood, but it certainly hadn’t been a luxurious one.
He turned down a side street. It was nice, she thought, lined with trees that someone was clearly bothering to tend to. At least someone cared about this town. That thought made her feel better.
Liam pulled to a stop in front of a length of chain-link fence. “Here we are.”
“Where?”
“This is Rose Valley High,” he explained. “Where I got my start. Where I first got the football bug, and where I got scouted for my college team. This is where I fell in love with the game.”
Cara opened the door of the car.
“We don’t have to get out,” he said.
“No, let’s,” she said. “History was made here, and I want to see it for myself.” She closed the door and went over to the fence, and a moment later, he joined her.
“So this is where it all began,” Cara mused, looking out over the field.
Like the trees, it was being taken care of.
It had been mown recently. Still, the grass was patchy, and the bleachers on the far side didn’t look like they would accommodate more than a few dozen spectators.
Playing on this field couldn’t have involved much glory.
“Why’d you get into football?” she asked him.
“I’m good at it,” he said.
“Is that it?”
He looked out over the field. “No,” he murmured, running a hand through his immaculate blond curls.
“No, that isn’t it. I don’t know. When I found football, it was like…
it was like I had found myself. It was like I’d found the one place where I could forget about everything that was wrong with the world, everything that was stressing me out, and just be me.
When a pass landed perfectly in my hands, when my team hoisted me up on their shoulders after a great win, or even when we consoled each other after a loss, it always felt so clear that I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. Nothing else has ever felt like that.”
He looked over at Cara. “Have you ever found anything like that?” he asked her. “Anything that made you feel like you were exactly where you were supposed to be?”
She couldn’t even imagine it. “I don’t think so,” she said. “I’ve been…confident about things before. But what you’re describing sounds different.”
“It is,” he murmured. “If you had felt it, you would know it. And if you lost it…well, you’d do anything to get it back, Cara.
” He sighed. “That’s the heart of it. I flipped out on Sandusky because he was threatening the stability of what I had, not because I thought he was too cocky.
I sensed he was going to be a problem. He kept talking about me being put out to pasture, and I guess a part of me wondered whether he had a point.
I just had to shut him up. It hurt too much to keep hearing it. ”
Cara couldn’t speak.
Finally, she understood. Finally, she was seeing the real Liam. Not the charmer from the restaurant last night, not the man who scoffed and sneered at her ideas. Not the angry man who had broken glasses and been thrown out of the club.
This was him. Passionate. Determined. And afraid of losing the thing that meant the most to him.
“Don’t worry,” she told him. “We’re going to get your spot back if it’s the last thing I do.”
They left the high school and drove a few blocks east.
“That’s my house,” Liam said, pointing to a small blue one with peeling siding and crooked windows. “That’s the house where I grew up.”
“Does your family still live there?” She peered out at it. It seemed as though it might have once been a very nice house, but it was so run down now that she couldn’t picture living there herself. Sadness filled her at the thought of Liam’s family in that house.
“No,” he said. “I moved Mom out as soon as I had the money for it. She’s in Palm Springs now, and loving life.” He grinned “She’s got a house with six bedrooms. Mom always says she has nothing to do with that many rooms, and I’d better start giving her grandkids soon.”
“You don’t have any brothers or sisters, right?” She thought she remembered that from his file.
“No, it’s just me and Mom,” he said.
“Your father?”
“Not in the picture.” His voice had tightened again.
“Oh,” she murmured. “I’m sorry. I didn’t… None of the press about you mentions that.”
“I don’t talk about it.” He rested his hands on the steering wheel. “He was an alcoholic. He was…rough with me and my mom.”
“Oh, God. I’m sorry, Liam.” Cara’s stomach turned over. “I shouldn’t have asked. I had no idea.”
“No, it’s all right,” he sighed. “I guess you have to know if we’re going to pull off our little show, right?”
“I wouldn’t bring something like that into it,” she said. “I’d never do that. This doesn’t go in front of the press.”
He nodded. “But I wouldn’t want you coming up with some fake story about how you met my parents and loved them,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to have to try to play along with that on the fly. I don’t think I would be able to do it even if I wanted to.”
Cara nodded. After a moment’s hesitation, she put a hand on his arm.
He didn’t flinch away from her as he had at the restaurant. Maybe he had schooled himself to expect this from her now.
“I understand,” she said. “It won’t happen. There are plenty of other stories we can tell about our romance. We don’t need to bring your parents into it at all.”
He deflated slightly, obviously relieved. “Thank you.”
“Of course. This isn’t a problem, Liam.”
“My coach, all my teammates…” he hesitated.
“They think I act the way I do because I think I’m untouchable.
But I’ve never thought that. I’ve never believed that life can’t pull me down.
It’s just that if you keep your guard up, if you start things before things can be started by someone else… that’s how you come out on top.”
“That’s how it was for you growing up,” she surmised, her heart going out to him.
“I was safest when I didn’t follow the rules,” he explained.
“The rules weren’t to help me. They were to make my dad happy.
He wanted me around to be his punching bag.
But my life was always better when I ran off and did my own thing instead of bending to what he wanted.
And in my professional life…I know there are some crazy stories about me in that folder of yours, Cara, but what you need to understand is that it’s not because I think the rules don’t apply to me.
It’s because I fear being boxed in by them.
If I just sat there and let the coach do whatever he wanted, maybe he would replace me with some punk kid who thinks he knows everything.
” He sighed. “I know I shouldn’t have let Sandusky wind me up, but fighting back when things aren’t going my way… that’s what works.”
“I understand.”
He looked at her. She had never seen his face so open and vulnerable. For the first time, she had the impression he really cared what she thought. “Do you?”
“I’m not exactly a stranger to doing something crazy to try to get my own way.
” She held up her hand, where the ring he’d put on her finger a few days ago sparkled.
“I’m not playing by the rules of the PR game by doing this, you know.
I’m trying to jumpstart my career, and I’ve definitely gone out of the box to do it. ”
“I guess we’re both a couple of rebels,” he said with a wry smile.
“We’re a couple of people who are going to get what we’re after,” she corrected him. “Just wait and see.”