“Is it because we’re friends?”
Sitting down she was the perfect height for me to pull her lips to mine. “I don’t have an answer for that,” I said against her mouth. “But what I do know is I care about you. A lot. More than I have for any other woman. I didn’t plan for this to happen, but I’m glad it did.”
She let me take the kiss deeper until the kitchen timer trilled. “I better get that,” she said and I was pleased to find she was little out of breath. “I have something to ask and if it’s too much you can say no.”
“What is it?”
“Will you go with me to meet my mom tomorrow?”
Chapter Twenty-One
Charlie
“You’ll stay with me?”I hated that my voice wavered. I didn’t want to care that I was about to see my mother for the first time in over half my life.
Liam squeezed my hand, reminding me that I wasn’t alone. “Of course I will. I’m not going anywhere.”
From my vantage point in a booth at the Chinese restaurant I’d chosen, I noted the parking lot was as empty as it had been for the past ten minutes. Part of me was afraid she wouldn’t show. I almost hoped she didn’t. It would be so easy to spend the rest of my life blaming her for everything that had gone wrong. Or maybe she would show and be worse than the villain I’d conjured in my mind. Someone I could pity and forget.
Normally, I loved the scents that wafted from the kitchen. Warm sesame oil, searing meat and garlic. Now they only exacerbated the nausea. A warm hand caressed my hip and settled on my waistline. Liam tugged me to his side and I closed my eyes against the vision of the parking lot and the images of my mother, pressing my face into the curve of his neck. He tucked his hand between my thighs and kissed my hair. As I snuggled closer in the booth facing the plate glass of the front window, I wondered how we’d spent so much time together without ever knowing how good it would feel to be this close.
“Thank you,” I said.
“For what?” he asked.
“You know what.”
I peered through my lashes, unable to keep them closed for long, but didn’t see anyone I recognized outside the restaurant. Would I even recognize her? Would she look like me? I had pictures from when I was little. There weren’t many because I think Dad got rid of a lot of them, but I couldn’t tell from the ones I had.
Liam squeezed my hand. “You don’t ever have to thank me for being here for you.”
“Still,” I said, squeezing back.
The parking lot was empty except for Liam’s truck, so I knew the moment a small red Corolla pulled in that it had to be her. My whole body stiffened and Liam sat up to rub his hand over my arms to soothe me. Normally it would work and I’d melt into him, but no amount of touching could get me to settle right now.
Oh, God, this had been a bad idea.
I never should have agreed to meet her. What answers was she going to give me that I didn’t already have? She wouldn’t bring my dad back. She couldn’t give me the family I’d been without. Liam’s family had taken that place. His parents, sisters. Grandma Dorothy. Him.
But I had to at least give her a chance. That’s why, as she pushed into the restaurant and peered around, I didn’t duck into the bathroom to hide from her like the coward I was. When her eyes locked on me, I felt her gaze like a shock. She even had my eyes. The same warm brown eyes stared back at me for a long moment before her mouth curved in a tentative smile.
Liam’s phone rang and he sent me an apologetic look and went to silence it. “No,” I told him as I laid a hand on his arm. “It’s okay. I’m okay. Why don’t you take the call while I talk to her?”
He hesitated, the phone still ringing in his hand. “Are you sure?”
I nodded as she reached the table. “I’m sure. Just stay close in case I need you.”
“I’ll be just outside.” He inclined his head toward my mother in greeting before answering the call and stepping outside.
“Charlotte?” she asked, and I only barely kept from wincing.
“Charlie,” I corrected.
Chagrined, she set her purse down on the table in front of her and knotted her hands. “Right, sorry. Charlie. Wow, you look just like your father,” she blurted.
I touched my hair self-consciously. It was the same golden-blond his had been. “Really?” The off-handed comment meant more to me than she could possibly know.
“It’s uncanny.” I didn’t know her well enough to guess, her voice thickened at the mention of him. “I was sorry to hear when he passed. Even more sorry when I never called to explain and when I didn’t come back.”
