“Cassidy?” he asked, glancing around the shadowed street. “Can someone tell me what’s going on?”
“What’s going on is that we’re in the middle of a Gingerbread Jerk stakeout,” Cassidy snapped. “And you walked right into it.”
“Stakeout?” It was then that Liam took in the women standing around him. Cassidy, Mrs. Bishop, Mrs. C., and Edith were all standing around him, dressed head to toe in black. Even their stocking caps were black. Mrs. Bishop had gone so far as tobring a ski mask. He would’ve laughed if he wasn’t still trying to make sense of it all.
Liam looked up and down the street. It was quiet. He’d even say peaceful if Cassidy wasn’t looking at him with daggers in her eyes.
He looked back at his shop, seeing the new decorations, the trees, the birch log reindeer. “The Gingerbread Jerk targeted my shop.”
“Yeah, but don’t worry, I fixed it up real nice,” she added, hands on her hips, voice sharp. “Although I don’t know why I bothered.”
His jaw tensed. “I don’t know—maybe you felt guilty because you strung me along for weeks only to get back together with Jean-Paul the Douchebag?”
“Strung you along?!?” Her voice rose up an octave.
“I say we back up and give the two of them a moment,” Edith suggested, gently tugging Mrs. C. and Mrs. Bishop back by their coats.
“What else would you call it?” Liam crossed his arms over his chest, stance wide.
Cassidy’s chest heaved, cheeks flushed with cold and fury. She stepped closer, jabbing a finger at his chest.
“Are you kidding me?” Her voice cracked, high with anger. “You disappeared, Liam! Since Sunday! Do you know what that was like? I was worried sick, pacing my tiny apartment, checking my phone every five minutes, praying you were okay. Then you show up here like this? What were you going to do, sneak in and back out? Hope I didn’t see you?”
He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
She shook her head, her breath coming out in harsh white clouds. “Don’t you dare stand there and accuse me of leading you on when you’re the one who ran away.”
“The man kissed you, Cassidy. What was I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know, talk to me?”
Liam suddenly realized why she had looked at him like he was the bad guy. Because maybe… maybe he had been.
“You’re not engaged?”
“No, I’m not engaged. Why would I get back together with someone like that?”
He dropped his face into his hand, rubbing his temples with his finger and thumb.
“I was worried about you,” she continued, more quietly now. “I didn’t know where you’d gone. And I hated that you thought I’d betrayed you.”
“I told Jackson where I went,” he said, but even to his own ears the excuse sounded weak.
“Jackson? The man who’s never said two words to me?”
“My family knew I was safe,” he mumbled. His excuses weren’t doing him any favors.
Liam sighed and closed his eyes for a beat, trying to get his thoughts straight.
He opened his eyes and looked into Cassidy’s. The anger was still there, but he hoped there was room for something more.
“Look, this is all coming out wrong. I freaked out. I took off. I’m sorry. I just…” He exhaled sharply. “It scared me. How much I care about you. And I clearly made all the wrong moves.”
She crossed her arms, still guarded. The street was quiet around them; the only sound was that of Mrs. Bishop unwrapping a peppermint from her pocket.
“It’s freezing out here,” Liam added, rubbing his hands together. “Could we maybe take this inside?”
He was well aware that the entire crafting club was currently getting a play-by-play of one of the most vulnerable moments of his life.
