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“Where are you?” he snapped.
Maddy’s face swung my direction quick as lightning, realizing I was in trouble.
I hastily disconnected and swapped to my cell phone.
“I texted you the address of where we were going.”
I had. Before we even left the city, I had texted him.
“I haven’t had a chance to check it all day. Haley, do you have any idea what it was like to pick up my phone and see that you’d decided to drive my kids out of the city? It’s still snowing at that resort and the roads are slick. What the fuck were you thinking?”
I wasn’t a fan of his tone, or the fact that he seemed to be panicked when there was no need for it.
“I’m on my way back to Nora’s house…”
He just got confirmation that his kids were safe and on their way home. Hopefully he’d relax a little.
“Fuck. Do you have any idea how fucking terrified I was, not knowing where they were?”
A splintering feeling compressed in my lungs as I listened to him yell. Why was he so upset?
I finally cut into his tirade with my business voice. “I’m literally five minutes away. Surely this rant can wait until I get there. I don’t want to be unsafe with the girls in the car.” It was the sort of tone I used in board meetings and when men tried to make me feel less than just for being a woman. Fuck this guy if he honestly thought just because I babysat for him—for free— he had the right to talk to me like I was dirt beneath his feet.
The car was silent as we drove through the city limits and past Main Street and finally pulled into the driveway. Liam stood outside the house, his arms crossed and the breath clouding in front of his face.
“Okay girls, let’s get out. I am assuming your daddy will be taking you home, so I will see you next time, okay?” I said, injecting enthusiasm into my tone.
They had done nothing wrong, so there was no reason whatsoever to make them feel like they had.
Liam was at their door, helping them down.
“Let’s go. Get in the car,” he said sternly.
I noticed how his fingers trailed through Mila’s hair, and he inspected it as if he wasn’t sure it was real. He inspected Maddy’s and Seraphina’s next.
Slowly, I made my way around the car and tucked my purse into my side. I wasn’t in a hurry to explain myself because it didn’t really seem like he’d even be interested in what I had to say. What was the point?
Finally, once the girls were safe inside his running vehicle, Liam turned toward me.
His eyes flashed, and my chest tightened. I hadn’t intentionally done anything wrong, but the look on his face undid me. He was genuinely afraid for his girls, and it was just plain shitty that I had made him feel that. I decided right there I’d just take whatever he said. I wouldn’t defend my actions or explain, I’d just take all of his words and emotions like a dart board and let his words stick wherever they landed.
Right as he was about to lay into me, my brother’s door opened and Colson stepped out. He looked like hell, but his face was set hard, like stone, his eyes glued to Liam.
“Whatever you’re about to say, you better be damn certain of every fucking word, because I might just break your jaw afterward.”
Chills spread out along my arms and down my fingers as a tiny flicker of warmth invaded my chest.
No one had ever stood up for me before…especially no one from my family.
Liam’s jaw tensed while he stared up at Colson, then ever so slowly he lowered his eyes until he met my gaze.
“I honestly can’t even begin to fathom what must have gone through your head for you to think it would be okay to take someone else’s children out of town to—.”
“You had no reason to worry. I told you where they went,” Colson said with exasperation.
Liam scoffed, shaking his head while muttering a few curses.
“You know more than anyone why I freaked out, Cole. You know…”
