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“Sure. That’s why you pitched the note.”
“Get real. You didn’t want to have a relationship with me. The whole idea of being hot for a guy sent you running.”
“Fuck off. I don’t see you married to a dude. You have no place to talk.” Unable to look at that bed another minute, he headed for the hall. “I need a drink.”
“Beer on the bottom of the fridge door,” Liam said behind him.
Downstairs, Hunter grabbed a cold bottle and took it into the living room. Liam was still upstairs, Kat still hadn’t come home, and Hunter didn’t know why the hell he wasn’t on his way out the door.
Except he did know. Wasn’t that why he’d driven to Baltimore in the first place?
Liam came down the stairs. Hunter tipped the beer bottle to his mouth without acknowledging Liam, who walked past Hunter and went into the kitchen. Hunter heard the refrigerator door open and close, the metallic clink of a bottle cap hitting the counter, and then Liam reappeared with his own bottle. Liam downed half his beer before he spoke again.
“You don’t see me married to a dude because the man I wanted went to war.”
Hunter finally looked at Liam, who leaned one shoulder against the door frame and stared down at his bare feet. “Does Kat know that?”
“She knows I go both ways, but we never specifically talked about you.”
Well, shit. If that wasn’t a knife in his gut, he didn’t know what was. Hunter glared at a framed photo of Kat and Liam on their wedding day.
He took another drink of his beer and the silence stretched between them. He wanted to ask...what? What the hell did he even want to know? This was ridiculous.
Liam straightened from the door frame and took two steps toward him before stopping. He set his bottle on the end table and raked his hand through his hair.
“There was nothing to talk about as long as you were gone and in denial. What would it have accomplished?”
“And now? What is this supposed to accomplish now?”
“It’s supposed to get it through your thick head that we can all be together,” Liam snapped.
“Your definition of ‘together’ sucks. Kat ran out of here crying and we’re not exactly doing great.”
“That’s my point. This isn’t how it should be. It should be like it was earlier tonight with the three of us in the kitchen. That’s how it could be.”
“The sex was awesome.”
“Not just the sex, dammit. Okay, the sex is part of it, but I think we could have more than just that.”
More than the sex? How the hell was that supposed to work when Liam and Kat were married? Hunter drained his beer and leaned forward to set it next to Liam’s on the table. “I don’t see that working. Especially not when Kat’s not even in on the discussion.”
Liam nodded slowly. “Fair enough. I don’t want her busted up over you again, so I want to know if you’re even interested.”
“Maybe.”
“Don’t give me that bullshit. Either you’re interested or you aren’t.”
“It’s not bullshit. I don’t know what you have in mind.”
Liam scraped his hand through his hair again. At this point it stood in crazy spikes all over his head. It reminded him of how Liam had looked immediately after sex. He shook his head to clear the image.
“I want us to be together,” Liam repeated. “You, me, Kat. I want us to make a life for the three of us.”
Something ripped open in his chest, a wound he hadn’t known he had. He’d given up the idea of a family years ago when he’d found himself alone on his back in a military hospital, the only visitors his Marine buddies and the staff. Instead of wanting some faceless wife and kids, he’d dreamed of Liam and Kat. He’d revisited that one night, that one moment, so many times that the fantasy blotted out any possibility of a real relationship. Staring up at the hospital ceiling, he’d finally admitted that there was no family in his future.
“Do you understand what you’re asking? I’m a Marine.”
Liam balled his fists at his sides. “I know that. What’s that got to do with anything?”
