“You built him a man cave… inyourgarage?” Cassie said, repeating what I’d told her.
“Yep.” I took a sip of my virgin piña colada as Ellie and Cassie sipped on their very not-virgin ones.
“That seems verypermanent,” Ellie said, giving me a knowing smirk.
“I figured he’d be spending a lot of time here, so I wanted him to have his own space. He built this house to meet all of my needs. The least I could do was create a space for him while he’s here. For when he’s here to see the baby and stuff, I mean.”
I kept pretending the man cave was just for Liam to enjoy when he came over, but we all knew I wanted it to be his whenever he wanted—because he was here all the time. Like, permanently. He played along, acting like it was a great idea, but I was too chicken to come right out and ask him to move into this big ol’ house with me.
Even when all this stalker crap was over, I couldn’t imagine lying in my big bed alone. Or not watching him through the kitchen window every morning as he tried to feed my chickens without spiraling into a full-blown panic attack. Liam had practically built thisplace from the ground up, and I wanted it—so badly—to be his as much as it was mine.
I wanted us to watch our son grow up together. For Liam to be a part of all our baby’s firsts—crawling, walking, riding a bike. I wanted him to be by my side for each milestone, not watching some video clip or listening to someone explain it to him later.
“Cut the show, missy. We know you want him to move in with you,” Cassie said, taking a sip of her drink.
“When are you going to sit down and talk to him about it?” Ellie whispered. Jace, Colt, and Liam were in the man cave on the other side of the wall—close enough to hear us if we didn’t keep our voices low.
“I’m not sure. Just thinking about bringing it up makes my heart start racing. Part of me is convinced Liam wants it too, but there’s another part telling me to run for the hills and protect my heart at all costs.”
“That’s a valid feeling, considering everything that has happened,” Ellie said.
“You couldaccidentallytext him again,” Cassie suggested. “That seemed to work out for you last time. When you didn’t text back that night, I knew you had either fallen asleep or were getting laid. So glad it was the latter.”
“I’d love to just shoot him a text and ask, but if I can’t even talk to him about real-life crap like that, how are we going to raise a whole baby together?”
“Fair point,” Cassie said. “Look at you being an adult.”
All night, I’d been hiding my feelings behind yummy food. This moment was no exception. As I devoured another one of Cassie’s delicious pinwheels, the guys walked into the living room from the garage. I studied their faces, and all three looked extremely suspicious.
“Why do you all look like you just committed a crime?” Cassie asked, confirming my suspicions.
They tried to play it off, exchanging quick glances, but it only made them more suspicious.
“We just came in here to check on you guys,” Colt said, acting casual yet somehow doing it terribly.
“Colt Charlie McKinley,” Ellie said, eyeing him.
Before we realized what was happening, the guys broke apart from each other, each taking a different angle as they shot us with giant water guns.
Ellie, Cassie, and I each took off running in different directions as streams of ice-cold water hit us on the back.
“Ah!” I screamed, heading down the hallway with Liam close behind. He chased me into the nursery, easily catching up to me. The room was empty since we still hadn’t put together any of the baby furniture, so I had nowhere to hide. I ran into the closet and tried to close the door behind me, but Liam stopped me. I was cornered. When I turned around, he stoppedshooting the water. Instead, he pulled me close and pressed his lips to mine, sliding his hand under my loose shorts and squeezing.
“Fuck, I could take you in this closet right now,” he rasped. “But we both know you couldn’t be quiet enough.” He kissed down my neck, focusing on a single spot as he bit down.
I didn’t push him away. I wanted him to take me in this closet. My nipples became taut against my bra, and I let out a soft gasp as his teeth dug into my skin.
“We have to go back before they get suspicious, Liam.”
He released a frustrated groan as he licked the spot on my neck where his teeth had been.
As I dropped my gaze, something in Liam’s black work bag caught my attention. I bent down, pulling it open wider.
“I’ve been looking for this book everywhere,” I said, holding my book up. “It’s one of my favorites.” Liam’s cheeks turned red. “Why was it in your bag, though?”
“I found it one day and just tossed it in there for safe keeping,” he said.
“Then why is there a sticky note tucked into it?” I flipped it open, finding the sticky note on Chapter 23, but I never used sticky notes to keep my place.
