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I stay with her while she sleeps because I want her to know she’s not alone. Even if it’s only a subconscious feeling.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-ONE
SOPHIE
When I open my eyes I’m disoriented. It takes me a moment to realize that Liam’s holding me, tight against him, my back against his front, his strong arms wrapped around my chest.
He’s asleep, I can tell that from his steady breathing and the heaviness of his arms on me. It’s no surprise, he probably got as little rest as I did last night. I manage to twist in his arms so I can look at him. Asleep he looks younger, carefree. Like the almost-man who was probably in love with Marie.
And again I feel my heart ache for him. I don’t care that he loved somebody else. I’ll be his Jenny. I’ll take him however I can get him because nothing makes sense without this man.
He came to save me.Again. And this time I want him to.
I lift my head to softly kiss Liam’s lips. They’re warm and soft. Then I kiss his jaw, his cheek, the soft skin beneath his ear where his hairline ends and his beard line hasn’t yet begun.
He sighs softly and slowly his eyes open.
“Hi,” he murmurs, his gaze wary.
I hate that he has to be guarded around me. “Hi.”
He pulls his arm from around me and cups my face. “Did you sleep?” he asks.
“A little.” I take a deep breath. “I’m sorry I left without telling you.”
“I’m sorry you had to find out about Marie in that way. Ariel’s devastated.” He looks concerned as he strokes my cheek softly.
I feel bad about Ariel, too. I’ll have to call her. But right now Liam and I need to talk.
“Tell me about Marie,” I ask him.
He takes a deep breath, his worried eyes not leaving mine. “Okay.” So he does, his hand still cupping my face, his voice soft as he tells me about his second year of college. Meeting a freshman who had moved in with a friend of a friend.
“We got along,” he tells me. “We had fun. I was a kid and I wanted that person, you know? Like inGrey’s Anatomy.”
“You wanted your Meredith.” I smile softly because I wanted that, too. The fact we’re both here means we never got what we wanted.
“And for a year it worked out pretty well.”
“And then?” This is where it’s going to turn. Where she dies and his heart is broken. Where he loses his person and is never the same.
I need to hear it but it still hurts. Because I know it hurts him.
“Then I realized I didn’t want to be with her anymore.”
My eyes widen. “What?” This is not what I was expecting. “But…”
“I was a fucking punk. I didn’t want to be the bad guy. The one to break it off. So I hung around hoping she’d notice and be the one to end things. But she didn’t because she couldn’t read minds. And also because she was starting to feel sick. Turns out she’d been feeling bad for a while but figured it was due to having too much school work. I went with her for testing, and that’s when she found out she had colon cancer. It was rare for somebody her age but pretty advanced.”
My heart aches for him. “Poor Marie.”
“Yeah.” He exhales heavily. “I knew then that I couldn’t tell her I’d fallen out of love with her. So I did the opposite. I asked her to marry me. And she said yes.”
“You made her happy,” I whisper.
“I tried. I tried so fucking hard. More than I’ve tried at anything in my life. We planned the wedding, she bought a dress. I asked Myles to be my best man. But then she got sicker and it was obvious she couldn’t get married like that. So we agreed that we’d postpone the wedding until she was better again.”
“But she didn’t get better,” I whisper.
