Sunny’s brow furrowed with empathy.
“You’re not ready for slippers and garden shears just yet,” she said. “There’s a lot of life left in you.”
Liam studied her upturned face, struck by the genuine care and concern in her warm blue eyes. A familiar tightness formed in his chest as he registered just how attuned Sunny was to his emotional state. Without really trying, she had an uncanny ability to cut through his gruff exterior to the heart of what was troubling him. Liam both craved and feared feeling that disarming vulnerability. Being so deeply seen was as terrifying as it was comforting.
Seeming to realize she had hit a nerve, Sunny cleared her throat and took a step back.
“Anyway, I’ll quit bugging you,” she said with a small smile. “Let’s see what those two terrors have come up with.”
She turned to leave but added, “Just know my door is always open if you need to vent or anything.”
“Sunny! Come! We’re ready now!” Maddie’s voice trilled along the hallway.
“Duty calls,” said Sunny.
Liam could only nod mutely, feeling oddly bereft by the loss of her presence as she left. He could only watch mutely as she retreated down the hallway, disappearing amid another peal of girlish laughter from the playroom.
Liam’s shoulders slumped as he leaned back against the kitchen counter, feeling untethered and rudderless. This wasn’t the first time Sunny had cut through his bravado and laid him bare. Maybe that was why he felt this undeniable gravitation towards her, no matter how much he tried to shut those feelings out. As the raucous sounds of his daughters’ playtime filtered down the hallway, Liam couldn’t fight the smile tugging at his lips.
He would be a fool to let this unexpected ray of sunshine slip awayfrom the Anderson household. Whatever turbulence lay ahead for his hockey career, Liam knew he would weather it better with Sunny’s calm warmth in his life. She was the sun peeking through the clouds — which was exactly how he had thought about his beloved Kate.
Liam
A soft melody drifted down the hallway, Sunny’s gentle voice carrying the familiar tune into Liam’s bedroom. Something stirred deep within him.
As if in a trance, he left his room and made his way outside the slightly open door of his daughters’ room, the soothing words of the song like a siren’s call.
“Lay you down now, and rest, may your slumber be blessed…”
A lump formed in Liam’s throat as he recognized the tune. It was the same lullaby Kate used to sing to get the girls to sleep after their bath-time routine. He could almost see her radiant smile and smell the calming lavender of her favorite soap as she cradled their babies tight against her chest.
“Soft and warm is your bed, close your eyes and rest your head…”
Unbidden memories flooded Liam’s mind of his late wife lovingly murmuring the words, her honeyed voice and nurturing presence enveloping the entire house in serene contentment. He missed her so damn much; it was a physical ache, a relentless hollowness that never really went away.
As Sunny segued into another verse, her soprano lilting and tender, Liam moved quietly into the dimly lit room. Maddie and Hailey’s faces were bathed in a soft golden glow from the nautical-themed lamp. Their blonde curls splayed across the pillows as they blinkeddrowsily at Sunny, who was perched on a beanbag between their small beds.
Liam’s heart lurched at the serene, homely scene. It felt like the most natural thing in the world for Sunny to be there nurturing his children. He witnessed the soft comfort and unconditional love only a woman’s tender presence could provide for his fractured family. He was completely out of his depth when it came to such delicate matters.
He looked on as the heavy eyelids of both his girls slowly shut. In that moment of tenderness, he forgot himself. He forgot that Sunny was just the nanny, an employee brought into the house to do a job.
As the last haunting notes trailed off, Sunny looked up, surprise flitting across her delicate features at finding Liam watching with naked emotion on his face. The sadness in the crinkles around his brooding eyes seemed to shatter her calm resolve.
“Oh, Liam…” she whispered, unthinking as she rose from the bed and crossed the space between them.
Her small hands gently cupped his stubbly cheeks, the pads of her thumbs brushing away the shimmer of wetness gathering beneath his eyes.
Liam sucked in a sharp breath, his broad shoulders tensing beneath her consoling touch. But instead of shrugging her off with his typical reticence, he found himself leaning into her comforting embrace.
The floodgates broke again.
Great, heaving sobs racked his muscular frame as he crushed Sunny to him, burying his face in the crook of her neck as anguished noises ripped from his throat.
Aware that the girls had only just dozed off, Sunny quickly led him out of the room and into the TV den. She hugged him again. She seemed to sense that he needed to feel, to touch.
All of the pain, the incalculable grief Liam had been drowningin for the past months came bursting forth in hot, furious waves crashing against her.
Sunny held him close, murmuring soothing sounds and stroking his hair as he unleashed the torrent pent up inside. The salty tracks of his tears trailed down her chest, dampening the cottony fabric of her camisole as he clung to her.
