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“I hate them too,” he confessed.
“Yup.” Liam added and his deep timbered voice sent a thrill up my spine despite my screwed-up situation.
“Ugh, you too?”
Was heback in my life?
Or was he just here because Luke was? And why were they here anyway?
His gaze was steady and kind as he studied my face. “You should come with us to Jed’s for the next meeting.”
“I thought that was for vets. I don’t have PTSD.”
“Seems like you do.” Luke’s warm voice was knowing as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and kissed my temple. “You can come home with me. There’s plenty of room.”
“No thanks. I don’t want to put you out.”
“You won’t put me out.”
I gave him a pointed look. “Okay then, I don’t want Lily to think I’m a baby.”
“She won’t think you’re a baby.”
“Allow me to rephrase. I’m all freaked out right now, but it’s already going away. I don’t want her totreatme like a baby.”
“Oh, well that changes things then.” He laughed. “She’ll baby the shit out of you.”
Liam laughed too. “Yeah, she will, but that’s a good thing. She wants everybody to be happy. That’s all she cares about.”
“I know that, and I love it. But I want to be a grown up about this.”
“Then I’ll stay with you,” Liam offered. “I’ll sleep right here on the couch.”
“What about Cheddar?”
“He’s having a sleepover with Dylan tonight.” He let out an exaggerated sigh. “I might end up losing custody of my cat to him. They are now best friends.”
That made my messed-up insides feel gooey in a good way. “Aww, that’s just the cutest mental image ever.”
“I know, it’s adorable. And listen, we have to talk, but it can wait until morning, okay?”
“Okay. Talk in the morning,” I repeated. “Why are you guys here anyway? How did you know? I mean—”
“All the lights are on. From up the road, the place looked as bright as Times Square,” Luke answered. “So we stopped to check on you. You didn’t answer your phone or the door, so here we are.”
“I’ve been having a rough time, as you know,” Liam added. “I spent the day with Luke, and we were jogging me into exhaustion so I could go home and crash.”
“Cade was here earlier today. I probably should have asked him to stay.” Dejected and exhausted, I flopped back on the chaise part of the sectional and yanked the quilt over my head to hide. Rocky hopped up next to me, letting out a whine as he bumped the side of my face with his nose. “This is humiliating.”
I felt the chaise dip as Liam sat at my side. “Give yourself some grace, Holly,” he whispered as he pulled the quilt from my face then cupped my cheek in his big, warm palm.
“Ha. Touché,” I mumbled. Grace left the building once I’d started freaking out.
“I’m going to head back home,” Luke stood. “Love you, Holls. Come on, Rocky.”
“Love you too. I’d say don’t tell Lily about this, but secrets haven’t exactly been working out for me lately.”
“Try to get some sleep you two. I’ll lock up.”
