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“As far as I can tell,” she said, looking more at the long stretch of Liam’s legs than the direction of the tree.

Alright, she wasn’t just looking at his legs. She was absolutely checking him out. But she shouldn’t be doing that if he had a girlfriend, right?

She bit her tongue for as long as possible until the words pushed past her lips likes blades of grass breaking through a first snow. “So do you take photos alone usually? Or do you go with a friend…or a girlfriend?”

That was super subtle.

Liam grunted as he shifted to the next screw. “No, I typically go alone.” Then he shuffled to the side and poked his head out to stare at her between a few branches. “And to answer your fishing, no, I don’t have a girlfriend, like I told you last night.”

Instead of her typical embarrassment at having been called out, relief flooded through her limbs. Until, of course, Melody’s words slunk back into her mind. “That’s not what your cousin seems to think.”

Again, Liam’s head popped back out, but Claire focused ahead on the dim light outside. The sun was swiftly setting, the only light in the front room coming from the fire burning in the hearth and the soft light from the kitchen.

“And what does she think?” Liam asked.

His no-nonsense tone made her pause. Was he defensive because he did have a girlfriend—or because he was annoyed with Melody? “Oh, nothing, really.”

Liam pulled back to the third screw. “That’s good. Because Melody knows very little about my life.”

His gruff tone drew her attention back down to him, but all she could see were his legs and torso—a nice, tapered torso that was revealed even more as he raised his arms.

“Are you upset with Melody or something?” she asked, an odd swirling occurring in her stomach as she stared at him.

“No.” He grunted as he tightened the screw. “I just don’t appreciate definitive statements from uninformed people.” He poked his head out again, and she pulled her eyes from his torso. “What makes her think I have a girlfriend, anyway?”

“She just said that you had been dating someone on and off. She and your mom think that that’s why you’ve been in a mood.”

His frown deepened. “When have I been in a mood?”

She secured the tree with one hand while using her other to make a numbered list with her fingers. “The airport. Kew Gardens. Around London—”

“Alright, alright.” He ducked back beneath the tree, grunting as he shifted to the final screw. “I can see why she’d say that, but that’s not why—”

“I know,” she interrupted. “It was because of your job.”

“Exactly. Wait, you didn’t tell her…”

She shook her head. “No. I promised I wouldn’t.”

“Thank you.” He grunted again. “Anyway, I wouldn’t be in a mood because of that relationship.”

Claire hesitated. That relationship? “So you were dating someone, then?”

Liam didn’t respond for a minute. “It’s true that I dated a woman on and off for a few years. But when I say dated, I mean that we went out on a few dates. We were never anything serious. I haven’t even seen her since the summer when she was dating someone else.”

Claire couldn’t explain the weight that lifted from her shoulders as he spoke. He’d said himself he didn’t have time for a girlfriend. But if he worked somewhere else, would he have time then?

She gave a firm shake of her head. She would not even finish that thought.

Liam shifted beneath the tree. “So now that you’ve done your fishing, am I allowed to do mine?”

Her heart thumped. “I guess.”

“Do you have a boyfriend waiting for you back home utterly distraught that he can’t spend the holidays with you?”

She stretched her lips into a grim line. “Oh, I’m sure he’s finding comfort in the arms of someone else right about now. Same as when he was with me.”

Liam stuck his head out. “He cheated on you?”