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“A friend of mine knew someone...” Hadley trailed off. Why hadn’t she ever questioned whether what Anna had said about him was true?
Anger faded from Liam’s green eyes. “And because she was your friend, you believed her.”
Liam shook his head and went back to stirring the onions. While Hadley searched for answers in his expression, he added raw spinach to the pan and set a lid on it.
“We have cheddar and Cojack cheese,” Liam said. “Which would you prefer?”
“Cojack.” Hadley had finished with the bacon while they’d been talking and began cracking eggs for their omelets. She moved mechanically, burdened by the notion that she’d done Liam a great injustice. “I’ll pour some orange juice. Do you want toast? There’s some honey wheat that looks good.”
“That’s fine. I’ll finish up the omelets.” His neutral tone gave away none of his thoughts, but Hadley moved around the large kitchen with the sense that she was in the wrong.
Instead of eating in the formal dining room, Hadley set the small kitchen table. She paused to stare out the window at the new blanket of snow covering the mountains and gave a small thank-you to the weather gods for giving her and Liam this weekend alone. He was a far more complicated man than she’d given him credit for, and she welcomed the opportunity to get inside his head between now and when they returned to Royal.
A few minutes later, Hadley carried Maggie’s carrier to the table and Liam followed her with plates of omelets and the bacon. Awkward silence had replaced their companionable chatter from the previous evening. It was her fault. She’d wounded him with Anna’s tale. But whom was she supposed to believe? Her best friend at the time or a man who admitted to dating a lot of women?
The delicious omelet was like a mouthful of sand. Hadley washed the bite down with orange juice and wondered what she was supposed to believe. For ten years she’d lived with guilt over the pain her actions had caused Anna. What if none of it had been as her friend said?
“I know you haven’t had any reason to believe I’ve left my playboy ways behind me,” Liam began, his own food untouched. “And perhaps I deserve your skepticism, but I’d like to point out that nothing has happened between you and me, despite my strong attraction to you.”
“Strong...attraction?” Hadley fumbled out the words, her heart hammering hard against her ribs.
His gaze was direct and intense as he regarded her. “Very. Strong.”
What could she say to that? She looked to Maggie for help, but the baby had her attention locked on the string of stuffed bugs strapped to the handle of her carrier and was too content to provide a convenient distraction.
“I wish you weren’t,” she said at last, the statement allowing her to retreat from a very dangerous precipice.
“That makes two of us. And I have no intention of worsening your opinion of me by doing anything that makes you uncomfortable. I wouldn’t bring it up at all except that I wanted to illustrate that I’m done with casual relationships.” He picked up his fork and began breaking up his omelet.
“When you say casual relationships...”
“Ones that are primarily sexual in nature.” His head bobbed in a decisive nod.
“So you’re not...”
“Having sex? No.” He gave her a rueful grin. “I haven’t been with anyone in a year.”
That wasn’t possible. “But Maggie...”
“Isn’t mine. She’s my brother’s daughter.”
Hadley stared at him, saw that this wasn’t a come-on or a ploy. He was completely serious. And she wanted to believe him. Because if he hadn’t been with anyone in a year, that meant he might not be the player she’d taken him for. Suddenly, the speed at which she was falling for him was a little less scary than it had been five minutes ago.
“Why haven’t you...?”
He took pity on her and answered her half-asked question. “When Grandfather died and I inherited half of Wade Ranch, it suddenly became apparent that the women I’d been involved with saw me as a good time and nothing more.”
“And you wanted to be more?” She couldn’t imagine Liam being anything less than completely satisfied with who he was, and this glimpse into his doubts made him more interesting than ever.
“Not to be taken seriously bothered me a great deal.”
Hadley was starting to see his problem. “Maybe it was just the women in your sphere who felt that way. If you found some serious women, maybe then you’d be taken seriously.”
