“I-I don’t know what to say,” Naomi stammered, taken aback.
“Say you will listen to us,” Alessandra urged, “and give yourself a chance at happiness. Your perceptions of yourself are skewed by your perceptions of your family. But we seeyou, Naomi. The you that, right now, you’re not able to see. So trust in us, stop doubting yourself so fiercely, and go forth and grab life by the throat ,and be who you want to be. Because the only one holding you back right now, is yourself.”
She swallowed, hard. “Wow, that was… wow. Um.” Slowly, she felt a smile creep onto her face, and a lightness of her whole being. “Grab life by the throat, and be who I want to be. I like that. I mean, I really, really like that.”
“Attagirl,” Liam told her, and Julian gave her a thumbs-up.
“I’d love for you to come for dinner at our place one night,” Jacinth said. “It’s always a bit chaotic, with the children, plus a cat and a puppy, but not quite the madhouse that this is. Or we can make Douglas take the children off somewhere, and have a girls night in, what do you think?”
Naomi grinned, and all but bounced in her chair. “I think that sounds awesome!”
Jacinth looked thoughtful for a minute. “In fact, why don’t you and Liam come over to our place later this evening, after the crowd here disperses? You could stay for a late snack… no way is anyone going to want dinner after this, but we’ll make up some tomato soup and grilled cheese at some point. We’re keeping it light since we figured we’d all stuff ourselves here. The kids will probably fall asleep early after all this excitement, and we can relax, have a fire in the fireplace, and talk and get to know one another.”
Naomi felt a flush of pleasure rise to her face, and she ducked her head. Emotions clogged her throat for a moment. She’d never… not in her entire life… been invited over to someone’s home. Well, this barbecue, but it wasn’t the same thing.
“Thank you,” she managed to say, blinking back the tears that threatened. “I’d love that.”
Beside her, Liam reached over to lay his hand on her knee, apparently picking up on her sudden descent into emotional chaos. She smiled at him, grateful for his support.
“That’d be great,” he told Jacinth.
“You can follow us over, once things wind down here,” Douglas said.
Across the patio, someone hailed the couple, and they moved off, leaving Liam and Naomi alone at the table.
“Do you want another beer?” he asked.
Naomi considered the bottle before her, with a quarter inch left in the bottom. “No, probably not. I think I’m going to switch to some of that strawberry lemonade they have for the kids. It looks really good, in fact, I’ve been eyeing it since we got here.”
“I’ll get you some,” he said, standing and striding over to the picnic table that still bore a litter of serving dishes in varying states of demolishment. He returned a moment later with two glasses brimming with the pink liquid, ice cubes bobbing.
“Enjoy it while you can, lemonade weather is pretty much over with.”
“Yeah, I got that,” Naomi replied, sipping at the tart but sweet lemonade. “Oh, this is good. I’m going to guess someone made this themselves.”
“With this crowd? That’s a pretty safe bet, I’d say.”
He reached over, his fingers lightly grazing her cheek as he captured a flyaway strand of hair and tucked it back behind her ear.
“There’s something else I want you to think about, Naomi.” His hand lingered, the touch on her hair a caress. “I’m seriously attracted to you, and I think you’re attracted to me as well. And I’d like to see where this could go.”
She literally felt the blood drain from her face, and her pulse thundered in her ears.
“We… I… we can’t, Liam,” she stammered, the beginnings of panic creeping into her chest. “We can’t take that chance. Not ever!”
He smiled a little. “Never is a long time. I wasn’t meaning we should leap into a relationship. I like to think we have a solid friendship, though.”
“We do! And.. And you’re right,” she managed to say, the warmth of a blush creeping into her cheeks. “I do like you… so much. Too much to want to risk your life.”
“You would never hurt me, Naomi,” Liam stated positively. “You’d never hurt anyone at all, much less someone you cared about.”
“I’d have thought that, too, once upon a time.” Her gaze fell to the glass of lemonade in her hand, and she tipped the glass, watching the ice cubes bobble as the liquid swirled. “That was… before. Beth and I, we were so sure. And she went and fell in love. It wasn’t fake, Liam,” she said, urgency in her voice. “She wasn’t pretending, wasn’t… whatever it is our other family does. Shelovedhim, wanted a future with him. But now, he’s dead, and she’s in that Sanctuary place with the rest of them.”
“That’s not going to happen to you. Not going to happen tous. I swear it.” He grinned. “Besides, I outweigh you by, like, ten times. If your cat tries to take me down, I’ll just Change and lay on you.”
She almost spat out the mouthful of lemonade she’d just taken. She had to laugh at the imagery his words evoked. “Oh, my God, Liam, I can’t believe you said that!”
He just winked. “Stick with me, kid.”
