Page 47 of Miss Understanding

“Oh, God, you startled me. I thought you’d gone to bed.”

“It was warmer down here with the woodstove.” His eyes roamed over my jersey and bare legs.

“Yeah, I guess it is. Do you, uh, want to talk about it?”

“Not with you dressed like that I don’t.”

I sucked in a breath. “I’ll go put on pants.” Rushing down the hall, I could feel my skin heat at the way he’d responded. Not like he was offended but almost like he was tempted.

When I returned to the kitchen, I noticed he’d moved to the couch in the living room. I took the chair and folded up my feet beneath me. I knew exactly what had to be weighing on his mind. And since he didn’t seem to be shutting me down this time, I went for it. “You don’t have to see him.”

“You saw how happy it made my mother when I simply said I would think about it.”

“Then, lie.”

His head snapped up. “I won’t lie to my mom.”

It was clear there was some judgment about my hiding from my parents the payments for my grandmother. “Right, the way you don’t lie to her that you’re too busy to come home.”

“I am busy. You see me. I spend every minute trying to turn it into billable dollars.”

“Agreed, but you could also reprioritize if you wanted to. You simply don’t want to. Not that I blame you, but you’re not only lying to her, but to yourself if you say being busy is the only reason you haven’t been home in years.”

“Fourteen.”

“What?”

“It’s been fourteen years since I’ve been home. The day after I graduated from high school I didn’t look back. Went off to UVA, then Stanford Law School, then moved to Los Angeles. While I was in law school, my grandparents died. I couldn’t even afford to come home for their funerals.”

At the age of thirty, he’d become the youngest income partner with the firm. Now at thirty-two, he was one of the highest paid equity partners. A feat I was sure many were envious of. A feat I was starting to understand he’d been driven to attain. Rumor was he was gunning for named partner. It would be unprecedented to have someone other than the founding two partners up on the letterhead. Yet it wouldn’t surprise me if Liam made it happen.

“Do you enjoy the law?” I found myself wondering now if all his hard work and ambition was more about proving himself than about doing something he liked.

“It was always my goal to make partner. To allow my mother to live comfortably without a worry for once. We were on food stamps growing up. Scraping every penny. It was the only way my mom could hold it together.”

I could imagine he’d been eager to get out of the small town and away from everyone who’d known. “It’s incredible how she made it work. How hard you worked to make something of yourself.”

His somber eyes met mine. “It’s not the town’s fault my father was an alcoholic who left us, but I hate it just the same.”

“No, you don’t. You hate the memories. It’s the real reason you don’t want to come home.”

He lifted his glass in a mock salute. “I sometimes worry about becoming like him.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“You don’t know that.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Liam

My eyes stayed glued on Kendall’s face after expressing my last words. The fear of becoming my father was what would prevent me from ever having a family of my own someday. Hell, hadn’t I already made her feel less than? Like she couldn’t do anything right? Those weren’t the actions of an honorable man. I could argue all I wanted that my unpleasant behavior had been self-preservation in not allowing her to get too close, but the truth was too hard to ignore. Perhaps it was in my DNA to be an asshole.

“You didn’t answer my question,” she said.

No, I hadn’t. Instead, I was busy trying to rein in my erection from the sight of her in nothing but a jersey a few minutes ago.

“What question is that?”