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“Go have dinner with my son. Please. The first live specimen in…what? Years?” She shot him a look of despair. “Don’t screw this up. She seems nice, and I’ll have more good-looking grandchildren.” She glanced at the twins. “It makes for better Christmas cards. You can rub it in your friends’ faces.”
Liam stared at her. Simon and Peter laughed aloud.
Even Bob seemed like he was having trouble holding in his amusement.
Roxie’s cheeks flamed. Everyone knew now. Not that she’d been trying to keep it a secret that she liked Liam. She wanted them to be close. Asfriends. This seemed more as though everyone thought they should be a couple. What could she say to dispel that notion?
Probably nothing.
Liam motioned with his head. “Let’s go.” Then he took off first, making a beeline to the table.
She wasn’t sure if she should comply with that order, but the fact he’d done it that way and not in a way that felt like being subverted almost made it better. He wasn’t going to pull punches. He would say it plain.
No games.
That was the only reason Roxie followed him. If the table of her friends and Liam’s mom thought they were a thing, then what did everyone else think? She was a trainwreck on most days. Not the kind of woman Liam should saddle himself with.
He sat. She stood beside the table and stared at him. “We were next to each other outside Karina’s house.” She didn’t want to saytogether, so instead said, “You let me drive your truck.”
“Okay.” He dragged the word out.
“What if Mark—or whoever it is—saw us.”
He winced. “You think that’s why he ran you off the road?”
“Maybe.” She sank into the chair.
Behind her, a stool scraped across the floor, loud enough that she twisted around. Her whiplash aches flared to life, but she managed not to hiss too loud. Blake was on his way to the door, walking fast.
Jasper and Destiny stared after him. He said something to Destiny. She shook her head and wound her way over to Roxie.
She stood and hugged her friend because it seemed like Destiny needed that. “What’s going on?” Did it have to do with what Destiny had said she wanted to tell Roxie?
The other woman sighed. “I told him what I decided.”
Liam said, “And what’s that?”
“I’m leaving in the new year.” Destiny lifted her chin. “For a six-month mission trip overseas.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
Liam’s brows rose.
“I know.” Destiny sighed. “I know. But should he really be surprised?”
“Could just be wishful thinking that he wasn’t going to have to worry about if you were safe, outside his sphere.”
Roxie glanced over and nodded.
Destiny sighed. “So I should never venture outside the area where he can be one of the first to respond? He knows I want to travel. That I want to help people.”
Roxie tugged her friend to her side. “He’ll come around. He’s just scared for you.”
Destiny made a face. “I have to get back to work. You guys want the specials, right?” She hurried off before either of them could say otherwise.
Roxie sat across from him and laid her napkin on her lap. He glanced around. They were in the date corner.Great.Everyone was going to think something of it when all he’d done was point at the closest empty table.
She glanced at the window beside them.
