“No!”Liam protested.“I love working with your family—that’s not what I’m saying!”
“Then what are you saying?”
“I’m saying I wasused,” Liam burst out.“I let myself beused.I thought it was true love, but I was merely some strange on the side until?”
“Bullshit,” Josh muttered, shaking his head and ignoring Liam’s indignant gasp.“I checked him out, you know.”
Liam’s jaw dropped, and Josh scowled at him.
“Much like you asked around about Nick,” he added, and now Liam flushed a little, the pink on his cheeks not quite drowning out his freckles.
“Nick is married with a baby,” Liam said on automatic.“Just like you told me.”
“Yes,” Josh said patiently.“And so was Alec.Come on, Liam.You were so good at this with Danny.At looking at him and seeing him drunk and sad and thinking, ‘He risked his life to save that boy,’ and not pushing that you thought he was the infamous Lightfingers.I can read between the lines—it’s practically the family industry.Why can’t you look at Alec Lawson and see somebody trapped in the life they thought they wanted, who thought you were his ticket out?That’s whatIsee.His wife wasn’t the devil.He loves his children—every story I’ve read thus far bears that out.”
“A lot, were there, in the last two weeks?”Liam asked dryly.
“I had them ready for work breaks,” Josh told him, completely sincere.“But he gave you a raw deal—he couldn’t propose marriage, so he fast-tracked you to the career youcouldhave had if you’d been born rich with privilege, and you haven’t let him down yet.Why would you be embarrassed about that?”
Liam gave a short bark of laughter and shook his head.For a moment, he concentrated on his food, and Josh did too, giving him time to digest.
Finally he stood and took Josh’s plate, saying, “Want more?”
“Please,” Josh said.
He returned with two full plates and sat again.
“Liam?”
“Your family,” he said after a moment of chewing, “is important to me because Danny got clean.He took that chance in Morocco.I offered him a lifeline, and he took it.He poured himself into staying clean and being the best parent he could for you, even though he was thousands of miles away.You all—you all made mistakes.You all have your vices—yes, Josh, even you.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Josh said mildly through a heavenly bite of curry and rice.
Liam chuckled sadly.“But you all forgive each other.I made the call, did you know that?Connecting Julia and Danny when he was asking for your parents to take Tienne in.”
“No,” Josh said, surprised.
“And all she wanted was for him to come home.He couldn’t, of course.He said, ‘How can I come home when I have to look up to see rock bottom.’But that whole moment there—my father was a drunk, and he drove his car off a fucking bridge, but we all still loved him.You would not believe the grief we got, coming up through school, me mum too—because we still loved him.So I guess I told my family about Lightfingers because I couldn’t tell Interpol about him, and because I couldn’t tellthemabout the things I did legally for Interpol.And because he was proof, you know?That our love wasn’t misplaced, even when our father, God rest him, was a flawed, flawed man.”
Liam’s voice cracked, and Josh set his food down and moved closer to him, resting his hand on Liam’s thigh.
“Why,” he asked softly, “would you think that sort of forgiveness wouldn’t extend to you?”
Liam sighed and leaned his head against Josh’s.“All the people in my old neighborhood,” he whispered, “worked their arses off to get by.Me?I slept with the right bloke.”
“Yeah,” Josh said, “but at the time, wouldn’t you have wanted the happy ending instead?”
“Probably,” Liam admitted.“But then there was Marrakech.And my idea of perfect… changed.”
“Good,” Josh said happily.
Liam turned his head and kissed Josh’s crown.“You think that includes you?”
Josh leaned back so he could smile into those merry blue eyes.“I don’t even imagine it wouldn’t,” he said archly, and Liam laughed and wrapped his arm around Josh’s shoulders.
“How much do your siblings know about me?”he asked.
“Well, they don’t know we’re sleeping together yet,” Liam said.
