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It wasn’t. It was a façade. A pretty picture that would fade with time and reveal the truth.
The dark, ugly truth. As it always did.
Despite Diego’s words, I couldn’t help but believe that nothing that good, that perfect, could last. He believed it now because things between him and Trish were brand new; they were still in that honeymoon phase where they were so in love and couldn’t keep their hands off each other. But that just meant the ugly shit hadn’t reared its ugly head. Yet. But it would, and then it would be a rinse and repeat of the past thirty-odd years.
And once Olive had packed up and gone home, giving me a sweet kiss and a wistful wave as she drove off, those doubts had only amplified. They’d grown bigger in my mind and louder in my head until they took over. Until I couldn’t see a good outcome from giving in to what I wanted. To what I was starting to see that I needed. I craved.
If the trails and the beating my body had already taken over the past few days continued, then maybe I would find some clarity.
“Or maybe I’m just an asshole.” That possibility weighed heavy on my mind, which only highlighted my doubts that I could be the man Olive needed me to be, the father that child would need me to be.
Was there too much of my father in me to be that man? The one who came home every night to the same woman instead of hitting the bar, the one who went to parent-teacher conferences and football practice?
I didn’t know.
Five days and I was no closer to an answer.
If it took much longer, Olive would likely take the choice out of my hands completely.Olive“I’m going to kill him, and no one had better get in my damn way.” Sophie’s growled words were angrier than I’d ever heard from her polished lips. The statement was at such odds with the pink dress and cream-colored cashmere sweater she’d worn to the office, I couldn’t help but smile even though I felt like a fool. “I already told Stone that if I find out he knew where Liam was and didn’t tell me, our friendship was over.” The evidence of how much she meant that statement was written all over her face and the way she chugged Mara’s spiked pink lemonade from the Mason jar, which she also didn’t complain about. “Men are the worst!”
“The absolute worst,” Mara agreed on a laugh and shook her head. “But if that’s your thinkin’, then I’m pretty sure you’re in the wrong business, Ms. Worthington.” Mara turned to me with a grin and refilled the picture of virgin lemonade she’d made just for me. Her big brown eyes were sober and slightly sad, as usual. “Men are silly but, for the most part, they’re really simple. You said there was some history with his dad?”
I nodded, thinking of the sweet couple with whom I’d spent one of best mornings of my life. “It’s Liam’s story to tell but, yeah, Diego wasn’t always there for him and to say it’s left some scars, would be an understatement.” A massive understatement, judging by the past week.
Mara grunted. “We all have scars, trust me.” I knew some of her scars and I knew Xander was involved, but Mara kept her own counsel for the most part. “He’s probably trying to figure out if he’s ready for the challenge of a relationship and fatherhood, or if he’ll be a POS like his old man.” She sighed and looked around the room. “I’m not excusing his disappearing act for the past, what, six days? But I am saying he didn’t just vanish, even if that’s what it looks like on the surface.”
I nodded at Mara’s words because I didn’t believe that Liam had simply vanished into the otherworld, but his reasons didn’t matter. Not to me. “I get what you’re saying, but his instincts seem to be avoidance. He ignored my phone calls for months and now he gets scared and runs. I love him but… oh, hell.”
The words shocked me more than my friends. My heart thudded so hard I felt like I was having a heart attack. It was the first time I’d even thought that I loved Liam, let alone said it out loud. To anyone.
“Holy crap! Oh crap, crap, crap!” I shook my head, totally unsettled. “This cannot be a thing.” I couldn’t just figure out I loved a man a week after he did a runner on me.
Eva laughed and raised her newly refilled Mason jar in the air. “Oh, honey, it is so a thing! You fell in love with Liam Reyes. Wow.” She shook her head again, a self-satisfied smile on her face as her gaze slid to Sophie with a nod. “I guess you were right.”
