Chapter 14 #2
She flinched, stumbling out of the shadows. Served her right wearing those heels. They had to be six inches. “I’ll think about it as soon as you stop throwing Christianity in my face. Isn’t there a ‘thou shalt not’ about taking that dude’s name in vain?” She raised her flask again, swaying.
“Are you drunk?” Was that even a thing with vampires?
She grinned. “Nope, but the cow sure was.”
Cow. God, he hated that term. Why anyone would agree to sell their blood just to get slapped with a vampiric slur like that…
Felix shook his head. Whatever. “Welcome to town hall,” Felix grumbled, throwing the door open with a little flourish.
“Come on in, and kindly lock up when you’re done.
” He frowned as she almost turned an ankle sauntering past. Frickin’ vampires… whatever.
He closed the door and got back into the Jeep. Liam was just getting off the phone.
“Everything all right?”
“Yeah,” Liam said, pocketing it. “I wanted to check on the kids. My mom says they’re doing fine. The girls are making ornaments and watching a movie. Axle’s out with my dad in the kennel.”
Felix repressed a shudder. “Well, I’m glad they haven’t burned the house down yet.” Thought there was still time…
“You know, I think you’re wrong about Axle,” Liam said, pulling out of the lot. “Weres are just built differently than witches. He needs to get out more and run around. We don’t do well stuck inside.”
Felix buzzed his lips, taking in all the Christmas lights as they drove.
“I’m not disagreeing, but my parents aren’t exactly equipped to romp around Havers with him.
” Neither was he. He didn’t have the time or the inclination.
The random hike was fine, but the kind of outdoors Liam was alluding to wasn’t going to happen.
“No, I get that, but…” The were drummed his fingers against the steering wheel. “Just let me know if you want me to take him sometime.”
Seriously? “You’d do that?”
Liam shrugged. “Kelsey’s always getting on my case about being by myself too much. Axle’s a good kid, and he says he likes cars. I’m supposed to be picking something up tomorrow. I’m not opposed to him hanging out and helping me work on it, and it’s gonna take more than a day to do it.”
“Well, that’s certainly a step up from him decapitating gingerbread men,” Felix murmured. “I hope it’s in better condition than this pile was.”
Liam grinned like Christmas had come early. “I’ll find out tomorrow.”
“Have fun with that.” And speaking of tomorrow…
Felix pulled out his phone and scanned the appointments Namaste Nails had open.
“Beautiful,” he murmured, booking three spots—no, four.
Jena would want in on it, too—for late morning as they pulled into his building’s parking lot. “I got us in for mani-pedis at ten.”
“That’ll work.” Liam parked and they made their way up to Felix’s apartment. Myx came out of the shadows, chittering, and Liam picked him up. Stupid cat butted the top of his head against his chin, rumbling.
“He’s definitely doing that to annoy me,” Felix muttered, hanging up his parka and going into the kitchen. “You want anything to drink?”
“Glass of water’s fine,” Liam put the cat down and shoved the to-go bag into the fridge.
“Then water it is.” Felix filled up two glasses and made his way into to the living room.
Liam set his jacket over the back of a kitchen chair and trailed after Felix feeling like he was on his way to the gallows.
Damn it, he didn’t want to do this, but after seeing the way Felix had looked at him in the Jeep when he’d found out about his law degree—Liam needed to come clean, especially if Felix was serious about wanting them to be together, too.
Myx twined around his ankles, and Liam picked the cat up before he sent him sprawling. Felix sat at one end of the couch, and Liam perched on the other. Myx started making biscuits in his lap, and Felix looked at the two of them like he was about to witness an axe murder.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” Felix asked, pulling a pillow against himself as if it would protect him from the fallout.
Liam smiled despite what he was about to spill.
Right, focus, Liam. He blew out a breath, unable to meet Felix’s eyes.
The beginning. Start at the beginning or the rest won’t make sense.
“I-I need to tell you why—prom.” he blurted, wincing at the scowl that flitted across Felix’s lips.
Shit. He probably should’ve expected that reaction, but… Christ. Here goes.
“After you left, I was a mess. The only reason I’d hooked up with Jenny was because I couldn’t take alpha without having a kid—a son—and she said she’d be like a surrogate. I thought the three of us…” He shook his head. “I was wrong.” About so fucking much.
Felix gasped. “Are you serious? That’s why you were with her?” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Why wouldn’t you talk to me about something like that?”
“I don’t—I don’t think it ever occurred to me,” Liam said, still kicking himself about it. “Though it was crystal clear after the fact that I should’ve. A couple of weeks later, I found out Jenny was pregnant. I had to do the right thing, or what I thought was the right thing, but it wasn’t.”
Felix’s brows knit. “Wait, you said you were wrong. Your pack will let you take alpha without an heir?”
Liam snorted. “No, that’s never going to change, but I was wrong about it being what my parents—what everyone—wanted.
The other day,” he shook his head and scratched behind Myx’s ears, still having trouble wrapping his mind around that conversation with his parents.
“They don’t care, Felix. All that legacy shit that’s been eating at me…they said they don’t want me shoehorning myself into a position just to suit convention if it’s going to make me miserable. ”
Felix snorted. “Might’ve been nice to know that a decade or so ago.”
“Yeah, I guess, but were culture…” Even if he had known, it probably wouldn’t have made a difference.
Not enough at least. He shrugged; there was too much there to unpack.
“All I ever wanted to do was fix cars, but after Sarah was born, Jenny—she changed. She started pushing me to be more, throwing everything the Westside pack was doing in my face. That stupid competitive part of me—that’s why I went into law. ”
“Please tell me Patrick Montgomery wasn’t your beau ideal.”
“What? No. But the fact that they had a pack lawyer and we didn’t was a sore subject.” Liam leaned forward to take a sip of his water, kicking himself all over again. All of it seemed so goddamned petty now, and look where trying to keep up with the Westside Montgomerys had gotten them.
He sighed, sitting back. “At first, it wasn’t so bad.
It gave me something to focus on. I wasn’t real great with my meds back then.
” He ran a hand over his face and shook his head.
“I dunno. I guess I thought not taking them helped, you know, hyper-focusing on shit, and it kind of did for a while. I got accepted into an accelerated program. The commute cut into that, and I decided to stay out in Klineville and come home on the weekends. I knew Jenny was messing around with a couple of different guys, but she seemed happy, so I didn’t really care, and I agreed to an open marriage when she floated the idea. ”
Felix pursed his lips. “I heard Miranda say something about that the other day, but she seemed to think it was because Jenny found out you were quote unquote ‘into men.’”
Liam rolled his eyes. “Jenny knew I went both ways from the beginning, but at that point, I knew I’d made a huge mistake.
I was just going through the motions with her, and she knew it.
We started going to a marriage counselor, and that led to me to individual therapy.
They put me back on a bunch of meds, and I started seeing the bigger picture again.
Jenny’s main complaint was ‘lack of intimacy.’ She didn’t feel treasured, and she wasn’t wrong.
And I felt like shit about it.” He paused, running his fingers through Myx’s fur.
Wondering how much of what she’d said during those sessions was real, and how much of it had been just to string him along. Fucking hindsight.
“So, what happened next?” Felix prompted after Liam had been silent for several minutes.
“I graduated and started working. Things were okay for a while. I was home more, bringing in a bigger check. Made a real effort to be more attentive. Then she got pregnant with the twins. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities that they were mine, but the youngest…
” He shook his head. “At that point, I knew she was still messing around. Pete wasn’t exactly circumspect, and I hadn’t touched her in months. ”
“What did you do?”
Liam looked up at him. “Nothing. And yeah, looking back, I probably should’ve divorced her then.
At that point, I didn’t like her very much, and I’ve always hated Pete, but I loved the kids.
Loved being a dad. The thought of losing them—I couldn’t do it, Felix…
and then I got a job offer. A big firm out in Los Huego had read some of the briefs I’d prepared and wanted me to work for them. ”
“Holy crap,” Felix’s eyes went wide. “You were all the way out there? That’s on the other side of the country.” He squeezed the pillow and tucked his stocking feet up under him, rapt.
“Yeah. That’s what I said. It was too far, too much hassle, but it was a shit ton of money.
I’d make more out there in a month than I would here in a year.
Jenny found out about the offer and freaked out.
She said…” Liam ran a hand over his jaw and closed his eyes, every word that’d come out of her mouth still living in his head.
His throat bobbed. “She said a lot of shit she can’t take back.
We got into it, and I ended up taking the job. ”