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“Nichols,” he cuts in, his voice clear, filled with authority and command. “Get Mr. and Mrs. Hendricks something to drink. I need Stormy for a few seconds.”
I’m pretty sure that Noel has never actually been here before, but he ushers my parents over to the thinking couch while Liam uses that firm hold to pull me around so I’m in front of him, his body blocking out the rest of the apartment.
“Look at me. Slow it down.”
I nod, but I can feel the tingling in my fingertips. “I don’t want them to know… it was… the same day.” My voice is thready, weak. My pulse is racing. It’s too pathetic. Everyone will know and— “Maybe we should… tell them the truth?”
I mean the words as they leave my mouth, but already my head is shaking no, please no.
“Stormy,” he says, my name a low rumble between us. And then he leans down, bowing his head so his eyes are level with mine. Steady. “The truth is we’re married. You’re my wife. And we’ve decided to give it a go.”
“I thought you didn’t lie.”
He stands a little straighter. “I won’t lie to you. But I will lie for you.”
It would be the most romantic thing a man has ever said to me, if the romance wasn’t part of the lie too. As it is, it’s enough to get me all choked up with wheezy, hiccupy gratitude.
“We’ve got this.” There’s just something so sure about the way he says it.
And staring into those deep brown eyes… I believe him. “Okay.”
“Take another breath, gorgeous. Long and slow.”
I do as he says, and when he smiles, the air starts to move through my lungs more freely.
“That’s good.”
“Okay. I’m okay.” And my family is waiting.
He takes my hand and leads me back into the living room where my parents are sitting together, their untouched wine on the oblong coffee table in front of them.
Noel’s at the island, one elbow on the counter, and Misty is behind him, opening cabinets and drawers, fingering through his stuff like she lives here.
Idon’t even live here.
Everyone is looking at me, waiting for an explanation I’m not ready to give. “Guys, I’m sorry you had to find out like this.”
My mother coughs, her eyes immediately filling with tears.
My father shakes his head, his eyes wounded. “It’s true?”
“It’s true,” I croak, and Liam pulls me in front of him, his big hands stroking over my arms, his body a comforting presence behind me.
“We met in Vegas over the summer,” he offers with an affectionate warmth in his voice that has me looking back to see the matching smile he’s wearing.
“This summer?” Misty comes around to the seating area, Noel a step behind her.
She knows.
She knows I went to Vegas the day of my wedding.
She knows that’s when I met Liam and that I didn’t see him again until he showed up on Christmas Eve. And now she knows I’ve been lying to her for more than a year.
My father shakes his head, taking my mother’s hand. “Stormy.”
Lips pursed, Misty drops into the corner of the couch.
I beg her with my eyes to go along with this. “That weekend I left in July.” The one she knows I spent in Seattle with my roommate from college. “I needed a break and… so I booked a quick trip to get some space.”
