But I had also never been in love before, not really. Not the way I was with Liam. I had probably been in love with him all along, but the truth of it hit me in that moment while I stood in my closet, waiting for him to come upstairs and break my heart.
“There you are,” he said, looking relieved in the doorway to my room.
“I told you I was going out.”
“I was already on my way over. I really need to talk to you. It can be fast if you need to get going. Hell, I can drive you to wherever you’re going. We just need to talk.”
Was he really that eager to be rid of me? Feeling deflated, I brushed past him to head downstairs. There was no way I was having this conversation in my bedroom, where so many of my happy memories of our short time together took place. Which meant the living room was off limits, too. I still felt myself blush whenever I sat on the couch.
I took a seat at the kitchen table and he sat across from me, his face pinched. God, how many times had I sat across from this man at a kitchen table? But he hadn’t been a man back then.He’d been a boy. A boy with the power to break my heart. And that, at least, hadn’t changed.
“Look,” he began, running a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry I’ve been MIA. This week has just been so?—”
“Crazy,” I said shortly. “You’ve said.”
He eyed me warily. “I should have been the one to tell you Chloe was in town. That must have been shocking, hearing it from Josie.”
I shrugged. “Not quite as shocking as Chloe showing up in my classroom today.”
His eyes widened. “She what?”
I released a sigh. Maybe this would be easier if I just said it. “It’s fine, Liam. I understood from the beginning that your life was complicated. It was probably silly to jump into something so quickly.”
“Hang on.” His eyes flashed. “What are you saying? My life isn’t that complicated?—”
I let out a bitter laugh. “Come on. You just moved to a new city. You have a new team, a new routine to get used to. Your daughter is struggling. My brother, who doesn’t like you very much to begin with, is your boss, and could trade you any time he wanted. And now your ex-wife is back, wanting to work on things, and?—”
“Wait just a fucking second,” he growled, expression furious, eyes blazing, and for the first time I really appreciated what a fearsome competitor he must be to face off against. I’d be shaking in my skates if I had to stare at that expression across the ice. “What, exactly, did Chloe say to you?”
“She said the two of you were working on repairing your relationship.” His mouth dropped and I barged ahead, needing to get this over with before I lost it. “And that’s fine, really. I get it.”
Liam’s eyes narrowed. “You get it? It’sfine?”
I fidgeted, not understanding the source of his anger. What the hell else was I supposed to say?
He didn’t let up. “It would just be fine with you, if I went back to my ex-wife? Seriously, Gracie?”
I clenched my teeth. “Since I don’t really have a say in the matter?—”
His hands slapped down onto the table, hard, and I jumped in my seat. “Of course you have a say in the matter!” He gestured between the two of us. “We’retogether.”
I sucked in a breath. “I’m not going to beg you to choose me, Liam. She’s the mother of your child?—”
“Do you have any idea what the mother of my child is like?” he asked, voice low and dangerous. “You must have some idea—you knew her in high school. And all of that petty shit she did? That’s still her, Gracie.”
I shook my head, not understanding what this had to do with me.
“When we ran into each other during our senior year of college, I thought she’d changed. Grown up. I really did.” He gave a bitter laugh. “Turns out she’s just a really good actor.” His hands clenched into fists on my table. “But now it’s much worse, because now it isn’t just me she can lie to. It’s my daughter.”
My mouth felt dry. “She lies to Josie?”
“Half the words out of her mouth are lies!” he snapped. “She crashes into our lives, gets Josie all excited. Fills her head with all of these ideas about how things are going to be. And then she gets bored and takes off again and I’m the one left to pick up the fucking pieces.”
I didn’t think I had ever seen him so angry, and the urge to reach across the table and put my hand over his was overwhelming. I slipped my hands under my thighs just so I wouldn’t be tempted. “So you’re saying?—”
“I’m saying that I most definitely am not repairing shit with Chloe.” He was pretty much glaring at me. “And I can’t fucking believe that you thought I would.”
My back straightened at that, a spark of anger building. “Well, what the hell was I supposed to think, Liam? When I haven’t heard from you indays?”
