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“You’re not married, either,” Hadley pointed out, her voice barely audible.
“But I’m engaged.”
“Is that why you proposed?”
“What do you mean?”
“Obviously a married couple would be a stronger candidate in a custody battle.”
“Sure.” Why deny it? She wasn’t a fool, and she knew him well enough to suspect he’d want to put forth the strongest case for Maggie.
However, the instant the admission was out, Hadley’s whole demeanor transformed. All trace of antagonism vanished. She sagged in defeat.
Liam rushed to defend his rationale. “I’d like to point out that I’ve never asked any woman to marry me before you,” he continued, more determined than ever to convince Hadley how much he needed her. “I want us to spend the rest of our lives together. With Maggie. As a family.”
“I am such an idiot.”
“I don’t understand.” He’d missed her jump in logic. “Why do you think you’re an idiot?”
“Because it’s just like Noah all over again.”
“Noah?” The guy who’d broken her heart? “That’s absurd. I asked you to marry me. He didn’t.”
“He said he wanted us to be together, too.” Hadley shot to her feet and backed away, but her eyes never left Liam. “Only what he wanted was someone to take care of his kids and his house. Someone to be there when he got home at the end of the day and in his bed at night.”
“You don’t seriously think I proposed to you simply because I wanted you to fill a role.” In order to keep Maggie slumbering peacefully, Liam kept his volume low, but made sure his outrage came through loud and clear.
“Everyone is right. It happened too fast.” Hadley covered her mouth with her fingertips as a single tear slid down her cheek.
The sight of it disturbed him. He was fast losing control of this situation and had no idea how to fix it. “Everyone? You mean your parents?”
“And my best friend, Kori. Not to mention the look on Candace’s face when she found out.”
“So what if our engagement happened fast?” Marrying Hadley meant both she and Maggie would stay with him at Wade Ranch. “That doesn’t mean my motives are anything like you’re painting them to be.”
She pulled off her engagement ring and extended it to him. “So if I give this back to you and say I want to wait until I’m done with school to discuss our future, you’d be okay with it.”
Liam made no move to take the ring back. Gripped by dismay, he stared at her, unable to believe that she was comparing him to some loser who’d used her shamelessly and broken her heart five years earlier.
“You’re overreacting.”
“Am I?” She crossed her arms over her chest. “When you proposed, you never told me you loved me.”
No, he hadn’t. He’d known he couldn’t live without her, but he’d been consumed with winning custody of Maggie and afraid that Hadley would receive a job offer in Houston that would cement her plans for the future. He hadn’t been thinking about romance or love when he’d proposed.
“That was wrong of me and I’m sorry. But I did tell you that I couldn’t imagine life without you.”
She shook her head. “You said you needed me in your life. That should’ve warned me that there was more motivating you than love.”
“What does it matter what motivated me when it al
l comes down to how much we want to be together and how committed we are to being a family?”
“I really want that,” she said, coming forward to set the engagement ring on the end table. “But I can’t be in a relationship with you and know that your reasons for being in it are based on something besides love.”
A lifetime of suppressed heartache at his mother’s abandonment kept Liam from speaking as Hadley reached past him and disengaged her cat from his snug nest. Waldo’s purring hadn’t ceased during their argument, and Liam felt a chill race across his skin at the loss of the cat’s warmth. It wasn’t until she began to leave the room that he realized his mistake.
“Don’t leave.” He pushed aside his laptop and pursued Hadley into the hallway. “Hadley, wait.”
