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“I just want to help, Olive.”
I stopped and whirled around. “You want to help, Liam? You can paint the damn nursery but I don’t need you to buy me anything. I can take care of myself.”
With a calm that made me even angrier, he sighed and serious hazel eyes slammed into mine. “This isn’t for you, it’s for the baby. Our baby.”
That’s right. Our baby. “You’re right.” If he wanted to do things this way, I was happy to.
“I’m right? That’s it?” He pushed the cart beside me towards the car. “Why does this feel like a trap?”
“Because you’re a suspicious man?”
He let out a half-grunt, half-laugh and started to load too many bags into his oversized truck. “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean someone isn’t out to get you.”
His words pulled a laugh from me and I felt lighter. Annoyed at him but lighter none the less, because I’d rather have an overprotective daddy for my kid than an absent, neglectful one. Besides, I had a plan, well more like payback, but the good kind of payback.
“This was a good day, Liam. Thank you for coming with me.”
He looked at me, just one bead of sweat dripping down his forehead after twelve trips to and from his car to lug all the baby stuff inside the house and up to the half empty room that would soon be a nursery. “You’re welcome, Olive.” The sincerity encompassed in those three words had my heart racing and my nipples tightening in ways they shouldn’t.
“Hungry?” Why was I prolonging this goodbye? Liam had a life of his own, probably a date to get to tonight.
“I’m always hungry.” His hazel eyes burned bright gold, a dark intensity to them that set my skin on fire. “But I should probably get home before I do something stupid.”
“Like let me kiss you again?” Why, oh why would I say something like that? It sounded desperate and clingy. And desperate.
Liam let out a huff of a laugh. “No, Olive. Something like follow that kiss up to its natural conclusion.” He took a step back and scrubbed a hand over his head. “But that might confuse things for us, so I’m gonna go.”
I nodded like an idiot and I couldn’t stop no matter how much I implored my head to stop doing a bobble head impression. “Okay. Yeah. Right. All right, you…go. Good night.”
Liam’s lips twitched and he took a step forward, his masculine earthy scent wrapped around me like a lover’s embrace and I closed my eyes, which was good because the feel of his lips on my cheek, technically the corner of my mouth, shocked me. He pulled back with a gentle smile. “Good night Olive. Call if you need anything.”
I watched him go wondering if orgasms counted as a need that I could call him for? Thankfully his taillights disappeared before I embarrassed myself even further.
These hormones just might be the death of me.LiamThe sound of a big ass truck barreling down my driveway pulled my attention away from the still waters of the lake because I wasn’t expecting company and there was no way to get to any other properties from here. My feet were on the move towards the front door where a moving van disguised as a delivery truck had taken up my entire driveway. “You lost?”
He jumped down from the truck, clipboard in hand before he looked up to double check the address and shook his head. “Nope, this is the right place. And very good directions.” His smile was slightly nervous and I relaxed my posture, dropped my arms to my side.
“I didn’t order anything.” I wasn’t much for shopping and I did much of it online, but not recently.
“No, you didn’t. The items are marked as gift items for Liam Reyes. That you?”
Hell, I knew when I was beat and I knew it wasn’t this guy’s fault. “All right, give me the damn clipboard.”
He handed over and turned away, unloading box after box, all of different shapes and sizes. “Where do you want this?”
“Since I don’t know what it is, just put it all in the first room to the right when you go inside.” He nodded and I grabbed a few boxes to get him out of here as soon as possible.
“Thanks for the help. Enjoy,” he said with a smile. “And congratulations.”
Before I could ask what the hell he was talking about, the engine roared to life and he was heading back the way he came. Forty minutes later, with my house filled to the brim with baby items, I knew exactly what he was talking about. There was a baby crib, one of those diaper trash bins, a whole damn changing station, even a rocking chair as if I didn’t have three of them already spread around the porch. On top of the tall box filled with baby towels, he’d left the invoice. And a note, though I didn’t even have to guess who the sender was.
