“How long were you with your ex?”
The question came out a little strong. Liam glanced sideways at the woman.
Blake was already looking at him. She rolled her eyes.
“I’m only asking because that’s the first time you’ve brought up some gossip that I’ve already heard. I figured I’d give you a chance to let me hearyourside of the story since we’re already talking about it.”
“Ah, the divorce rumors.” Liam laughed. “Theo’s told me a few he’s heard since I came to town. My favorite one was where I didn’t talk to her for a month straight, and that’s what pushed us to divorce. Is that what you think happened?”
He was genuinely curious.
Blake was quick with her response.
“You talk to me just fine, so I don’t think it’s that.”
A simple answer.
And it was true.
While he was a quiet guy, he was finding that talking was less of an effort and more natural around Blake.
He didn’t say that though.
He took a turn to get them to the community parking lot for Main Street. Then he told her a truth he hadn’t said out loud in a long time.
“We got married young—high school sweethearts—and still were growing up together when I went into the Marines. Then I started deploying, and the time we actually spent together became less and less.” No matter what mood he was in, no matter who he was talking about, when mention of his time in the military came up, the dull pain in his hip pulsed. Liam fought the urge to readjust in his seat. “I was in an accident on my last deployment and had to come home. That time helped us realize that life for both of us had changed while I was away. We weren’t the same kids we were in high school. Though we did try to say together. It just turned into the two of us being unhappy all the time. We divorced after eight years. It was the best option for us.”
He smiled as he parked the truck.
He meant it.
“We still keep in touch and wish each other happy birthday and catch up occasionally,” he added. “She’s remarried to a good guy and they have a little boy and another on the way. It isn’t what we thought would happen for us when we first married, but we’ve already agreed we wouldn’t change a thing. We’re where we are meant to be now.”
It was true, all of it. He wouldn’t take away his marriage or the divorce. Both led him to Seven Roads and the driver’s seat right next to Blake. He couldn’t be mad at that now, could he?
He cut the engine, thinking the topic was well and done, and turned to go over their plan one more time for meeting Missy’s ex.
It was wholly a shock to, instead, find Blake already in motion.
She closed the space between them in one fluid movement.
Her lips were warm.
Chapter Seventeen
News of their attack had made it around Seven Roads but, apparently, had a few key facts omitted in the retelling. The first was who exactly it was who broke into the house. Sure, word had gotten caught in the rumor mill nets that Ray and Mater had gone to the hospital, but as for the third and fourth unknown men who had attacked, no one spoke of them.
Blake wondered belatedly if that had been due to Liam’s constant low-voice talking he had been doing to everyone who had stepped onto the scene that morning. Or maybe it was fear. There hadn’t been an outpouring of violence like this in a long while in town. Maybe they didn’t want to incur the unknown men’s wrath by idly chatting about them.
Either way, it was perhaps the second piece of information that was absent that really surprised Blake.
No one seemed to know that Liam had been with her.
That was apparent in how Corrie greeted them as they walked into the coffee shop. She side-eyed Blake while motioning to a separate table for Liam.
Her face was wholly shocked when he shook his head and declined.
“I’m with her,” he said simply.
