“I won’t tell a soul you even left the complex. Much appreciated.”
This time Liam did roll his eyes.
“Your mom said she won’t be home until tomorrow night, so you can crash here. But you better not stay up too late. I know school is boring for a smarty like you, but that doesn’t mean you’re allowed to sleep through it. Got it?”
Theo saluted him.
“There’s food in the fridge. Lock the door behind me.”
Theo was fast. As soon as the door was closed behind him, Liam heard the dead bolt slide into place. Knowing Theo, this wouldn’t be the end of date-talk between the two of him. It should have grated on Liam, but he was finding that Blake Bennet continually popping up on his radar didn’t exactly bother him. However, it was starting to bother him when other people forced her to surface.
While Blake had excused herself to the bathroom at the coffee shop—which Liam now knew was her sneaking away to talk to Cassandra herself—Corrie Daniels had tried her best to grill him about the woman. She had been fishing without even throwing her own line in.
Liam hadn’t fallen for it.
After her second mention of Ryan’s name and his sudden reappearance in town, Liam had done something he very rarely did.
He had made small talk.
The weather came first, then the coffee shop and how business was doing.
Liam had stayed in those conversations with his feet dug in and resolution clear.
Maybe that’s why Corrie had been so quick to leave once she had gotten a text on her phone.
Or, maybe, whoever was texting had way more power than he did over the woman.
Either way, she had gone and Blake had come back...different.
It was why he had agreed to her dinner invitation so quickly.
He wanted to know what Cassandra had said, sure, but he wanted to know why it had changed Blake.
So he got into his truck and pointed it in the direction of the restaurant she had picked. The streetlamps outside of the apartment complex gave way to the dark of night while the stretch between residential and commercial held nothing but road, dirt, and trees.
The song on the radio belted out some catchy beat with a guy crooning about love.
He was still singing when Liam found his way back to the light, and the song was still going when Liam saw the woman of the hour standing outside of the restaurant, waiting for him.
Her hair was braided. Her blouse was red. Her jeans looked nice.
Her smile, when she saw him, was warm.
Blake Bennet might have been Sheriff Trouble in the past, but right then and there, she was simply one thing to Liam.
Breathtaking.
Even when she was hustling to his window and motioning for him to roll it down.
She didn’t waste any time in her request.
“I only had your office number or else I would have called, but is there any way we could change locations?” She dove in. “Bruce kind of destroyed the kitchen earlier and threw off our family schedules. Lola is back at the house with him now, and I have Clem with me.”
Liam finally saw the rolled-down window of the car behind her. The little girl from the daycare program was staring intently at them. She seemed calmer than her aunt, that was for sure.
“She’s a good kid, but there’s not a thing she’ll eat off the menu here. The diner, however, has some of her favorite chicken nuggets.”
Blake’s eyebrow rose. She didn’t give him space to respond as she added, “Or we can reschedule? Or maybe I can just talk to you on the phone instead?”
