The side of his face told me I wasn’t the only person who Liam had managed to piss off recently. A jagged cut ran across his right cheek, purple bruises shining on each side of the gash.
Clara glanced between us. “I’ll give you guys some space. But listen to me, Liam—if I come back up hereand she’s crying, I’ll give you a shiner on the left side to match the one on the right. Got it?”
He looked down, shame flooding his expression. “Yes, ma’am,” he said quietly.
“I’ve been trying to get a hold of you, you know?”
“Yeah… sorry I didn’t call back.”
“Why are you here, Liam?” I asked, making sure every ounce of annoyance in my voice landed.
“I came to apologize. I made a mistake, Molly. What I said—I didn’t mean it.”
“You made more than a mistake. You broke my heart while making it painfully clear where you stand. So leave me the hell alone,” I said, instinctively holding my stomach.
Liam looked down. I could tell my gesture hit him in a way no words ever could.
He met my gaze again. “As I see it, we’re tied together for at least eighteen years now, Molly.”
“Then sucks to be you, huh?” I shot back. “Because I’ll never forgive you for the way you treated me these past few weeks. I’ll never forget watching you walk out my front door that afternoon. It felt like someone ripped my heart right out of my chest, and I will never put my heart on the line like that again.”
I stepped out from behind the counter, standing toe-to-toe with him. I jabbed a finger into his chest. “Last night was the first night I didn’t cry myself to sleep in weeks. I finally realized I can’t make you be agood dad, but I sure as hell can be a good mom. With or without you.”
Before Liam could say anything back, the bell above the door chimed, pulling both of us out of the argument.
It was Jace.
Oh no.I tried sucking in my stomach as much as possible, hoping Jace wouldn’t notice. I loosened my apron, hoping it would cover our secret.
Jace lit up the moment he spotted Liam. “Dude, I’ve been trying to get ahold of you all week.”
Liam shifted his attention away from me and toward Jace.
Jace’s expression changed almost instantly when he noticed the cut on Liam’s face. “What the hell happened to your face?”
I’d been wondering the same thing, but we didn’t exactly have time for small talk.
“I got into a fight with my dad.”
Why would Liam want to fight his own father?
“You finally lay that piece of shit on his ass?” Jace joked, clearly in on something I wasn’t.
“Something like that,” Liam said. “I don’t think I’ll be seeing him anymore. I told him everything I’ve always felt about him. He didn’t take it well. We threw a few punches, and I left. Told him it’d be the last time he ever saw me.”
“Damn,” Jace said. “What finally made you do it?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell it at the next guys’ night.”
Jace snorted. “You’d actually have to show up to one, you know. You ditched the last one to work a double shift, and the one before that you bailed on us for…”
He glanced around like he was trying to jog his memory.
Liam had never told Jace what had really come up the night he canceled on my brothers—the night he stayed at my house and everything changed between us forever.
“Why are you here?” I asked, cutting into their conversation. Jace wasn’t exactly a regular customer.
“Nice to see you too, sis,” he said with a grin. “I’m actually here because of Cassie. She wants to throw a big shindig out at our place Friday night. Everyone’s invited”—his eyes slid to Liam—“even you, Carson.”
