He spoke then of Kate, of grief, of unexpected healing. Sunny listened, understanding the weight of his words — how difficult it must be for him to articulate these feelings when for so long, his heart had been a fortress.
“I loved Kate with all of me. Part of me always will,” he said, the raw honesty in his voice touching something deep within her. “But I’ve also fallen for you, Sunny Thompson. It’s different, but just as deep.”
Her heart stuttered. “You… you love me?”
“More than I thought possible,” he affirmed, and the certainty in his voice nearly stole her breath. “Enough to ask you to share this messy, complicated life with me. To raise our children together — Maddie, Hailey, and this new little one.”
As Sunny considered the enormity of what Liam was offering — not just fatherhood to their unborn child, but a life together with Maddie and Hailey — Kate’s presence seemed to fill the quiet spaces between them. Not as a ghost or a rival, but as the foundation upon which their family had been built.
Her mind drifted to the mantelpiece in the living room where Kate’s photographs stood. The radiant woman with laughing eyes who had loved these children first, who had shaped them into the remarkable little humans Sunny had grown to adore.
“I would never try to replace Kate,” Sunny whispered, needing to give voice to the thoughts circling in her mind. “With the girls, I mean.”
“I know,” Liam said, after pausing for a beat.
Sunny swallowed the lump in her throat. “If we do this — if we become a family — I want to honor her memory,” she continued, the words coming from somewhere deep and true within her. “I want Maddie and Hailey to know that loving me doesn’t mean forgetting her. That their mother will always be part of who they are, who we are together.”
The idea crystallized as she spoke it: Kate wasn’t an obstacle to their happiness but rather an essential thread in the tapestry they were weaving. Sunny could love these children fiercely while still preserving the precious memories of the woman who had given them life.
“She would have liked you,” Liam said quietly, surprising her. “Kate always saw the good in people. She would have appreciated how much you love the girls.”
The simple words were a benediction, releasing something tight and anxious that had been coiled inside Sunny’s chest. Whether their relationship had Kate’s blessing wasn’t something she could ever know for certain, but the thought that she might have approved, might have understood this unconventional family they were creating, felt like permission to move forward without guilt.
Liam’s large hand moved to rest protectively over her abdomen. The gesture was so tender, so reverent that fresh tears sprang to her eyes.
“The girls,” she murmured. “How would we tell them? About us, about the baby?”
“Carefully,” Liam replied, his face softening at the mention of his daughters. “One step at a time. They already love you, we all know it — that gives us a solid foundation.”
Sunny nodded slowly, trying to imagine Maddie and Hailey’s reactions. Would they feel betrayed? Confused? Excited? The thought of causing them more upheaval made her chest tighten.
“It’s a lot to process, Liam,” she said honestly. “For all of us.”
“I know,” he acknowledged, vulnerability evident in every line of his face. “But I’m not asking for an answer right now. Just… think about it. About us.”
The hope in his voice, the unguarded need in his expression, made something shift inside her. This stoic man, who had built walls so high after Kate’s death, was laying his heart bare for her.
“I do love you,” she whispered, the truth of it washing through her like a warm wave. Despite her fears, despite the complications, she loved him — his gruff tenderness, his fierce dedication to his daughters, the way he moved through the world with a quiet strength that both intimidated and comforted her.
“But everything is happening so fast — the pregnancy, the proposal — I need time to process it all.”
“We have time,” Liam assured her, though she could see how much he wanted an immediate answer. “All the time you need.”
A small smile tugged at her lips. “Well, not quite all the time.” She patted her belly gently, thinking of the tiny life growing inside her, already transforming their reality.
Liam’s answering smile reached his eyes, crinkling the corners in a way that made her heart flutter. “Eight months is plenty of time to plan a wedding,” he replied, his tone lighter than it had been all evening.
The tension in Sunny’s chest began to ease. Not a rejection, not an acceptance — just honesty between them. Room to breathe, to adjust, to imagine possibilities.
She leaned forward, resting her forehead against his solid chest, drawing comfort from his steady heartbeat. Liam’s arms encircled her, strong and secure.
“I was so ready to leave,” she confessed against the cotton of his T-shirt. “I had convinced myself it was the right thing to do. That you’d be better off without me complicating your life.”
“Never,” Liam said with sudden fierceness, his arms tightening around her. “Don’t ever think that again, Sunny. Promise me.”
She tilted her head back to meet his intense gaze. “I promise,” she said, meaning it with every fiber of her being. “No more running.”
Sunny
