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There was a sardonic twist to Liam’s mouth, as if he found it amusing.
Cora poured some orange juice into her glass, then offered the pitcher to him. “So you two knew each other in Ireland when you were kids. You reconnected here a few years ago?”
Liam paused to fill his glass with more juice. “Aye, I knew Boyd a long time ago. He sounds a bit different than I remember him. Very enterprising, was Boyd. Always searching for opportunities to get ahead. I’m... I was surprised to learn he’d become a law enforcer.”
“Why is that?” Cora asked.
“He was just always so...restless. I never imagined Boyd would settle into a role with such regimented structure.”
“You make him sound like he was a wild child,” Cora said with a grin. “Was he? I really can’t imagine Captain Thompson doing anything crazy. He’s so gruff and militant.”
“Oh, I could tell you stories about him that might surprise you,” he said with wry amusement.
“Okay, then.” Cora put her elbow on the table and dropped her chin into her hand. “Tell me.”
His expression clouded for a moment, making Cora wonder how bad the stories were. Then he flashed her a brilliant smile that sent her thoughts scattering like leaves on the wind. That was some powerful stuff. Liam’s mother must’ve been an absolute knockout, because he certainly didn’t get his looks from his father. From what Cora remembered of her dad’s old partner, he’d been bald and heavyset with a weak chin. Liam looked nothing like him.
“Once, when Boyd and I were very young, around six or seven...” He leaned forward and lowered his voice like he was about to divulge something scandalous. “We crept onto my neighbor’s land in the middle of the night and stole a chicken.”
Cora couldn’t help grinning. “I thought little boys were more into snakes and snails and puppy dog tails.”
He scoffed. “Why eat those, when we could eat a whole chicken?”
“Wha—” She frowned. Surely, he was joking. “You ate it?”
Liam nodded proudly. “Roasted it ourselves in the woods. We tried to go back on the next moonless night, but old Fergus was waiting for us. He caught us and threatened to nail our ears to the fence as punishment.”
Cora’s mouth fell open.
Liam gave her a charming wink.
She snapped her mouth shut. Oh, he was good. With the earnest expression and the lethal smile, he almost had her believing him. “Nice try.” She reached for her drink.
“You don’t believe me?” His face was all innocence, which, paired with his dark good looks, really worked for him. It was a wonder he ever became a police officer at all. He could have made a fortune selling snake oil. “It’s completely true.”
“Uh-huh,” Cora said. “Because little boys love to steal pet chickens in the middle of the night, slaughter them, then consume their carcasses over an open fire. I think there’s even a Boy Scout badge for that.”
Confusion flashed across his face, then he finished the last bite of his waffle, murmuring “pet chickens” under his breath. “I can assure you,” he finally said. “Old Fergus Maguire never had a pet in his life. That would imply he cared, and the only thing he cared about was his whiskey. He was as mean as a wounded badger, but he wasn’t an idiot. Keeping a pet was an extravagance few could afford. A waste of resources.”
Her father smirked. “The angel might disagree.”
Liam’s shoulders tensed and his face grew pale. “What?”
“Angel,” her dad said. “He’s far loftier than us lowly humans, isn’t he, Cora? He’d never consider himself a waste of resources.”
Cora continued to study Liam. Something had rattled him, but she couldn’t figure out what it was. Now she was almost certain his easy charm was just an act. This guy was hiding something. She could feel it, and her instincts were never wrong.
“There he is now,” her dad announced.
A furry white cat sauntered into the kitchen with as much pomp and circumstance as a movie star walking the red carpet.
Cora pointed at her cat. “That’s Angel. Don’t be alarmed if he hisses at you. He pretty much hates everyone, at first.”
“At first?” her dad said with a laugh. “He still swats at me if I get within clawing distance, and I’ve been trying to win him over for three years.”
Angel padded over to Liam’s chair and sat at his feet, staring up at him. Cora frowned. That was unusual. Her cat avoided most people. Angel’s tail twitched back and forth. Cora was about to jump up and grab him before he used Liam’s leg as a scratching post.
To her utter shock, a low, rumbling sound began to fill the room.
