Page 21

Chapter 21

Brodie

Despite my best efforts to distract Liam and keep him home, and naked, and mine, he dragged me out of the house for breakfast. It was one of those crisp autumn mornings where the sky was clear and the air had a bite to it. I found myself smiling at the beauty of it. This was a postcard moment. Something that I’d have written about so I could hold on to the memory.

I was still thinking about postcards when we sat down at a booth. The thing I loved most about Bennett’s was that it really felt like a family place. Ethan and his youngest son, Taylor, worked here, but his other boys were here frequently.

Ethan came over with coffee and to get our orders. I took the opportunity to ask the question that had popped into my head the minute I walked in.

“Hey, Ethan. Who is sitting in your booth?” Ethan glanced over and his eyes went all soft.

“That’s Mickey. And the guy with the computer is Nash. He’s one of Taylor’s boyfriends.”

“Ah, the famous Mickey. Shane told me about him. I think I saw Nash here the other day.”

Ethan nodded. “He uses this place as his office away from home. WiFi. Coffee. Food. It’s a good thing he’s got going. What can I get you two?”

“Pancakes, please. Two stacks.”

“Extra bacon,” Liam added, shooting me a grin. He knew perfectly well I was going to steal it from him. My heart did a little kick-flip because he knew me. We might not know everything about each other, but not only was I unsure if that was possible, I also didn’t think it was necessary.

People didn’t have to know every detail about another person to love them. I didn’t need his life history to know that he made me feel like I was made of sunlight when he looked at me. I knew the important things. I also loved that we still had things to discover.

I stirred a couple spoons of sugar into my coffee and took a sip. I hummed in appreciation. “Restaurant coffee is always such a risk,” I said.

“Oh?” Liam arched an eyebrow at me. “Are you going to elaborate?”

I stretched my legs out and bumped my feet against his under the table. “Coffee is a personal thing. Everyone likes it different and no two restaurants make it the same. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but it’s easy to fuck up. Too bitter. Too strong. Too weak. Too old. Too cold. Ethan makes it just right. Strong, without stripping the lining out of your stomach, and it’s always fresh.”

“What else do you have opinions on?”

“Everything.” I took a sip of my coffee. “But it’s your turn to share with me.”

Liam’s brow furrowed the way it did when he was thinking about something. “I’m not sure where to start.”

He looked genuinely troubled by this so I reached for him and took his hand in mine.

“It was just a silly game, love. Don’t worry about it.”

Liam looked at me and sadness flashed in his eyes. “I’m not sure anyone ever cared much about my opinions before. My parents told me where to be and what to do and I did it. And then Carol took over when they died. And Piper cared, but we were together so briefly that everything was quickly consumed by her illness.”

I cleared my throat around a ball of melancholy. I might not have had much growing up, but I had people who cared about me and what I wanted. My brothers might be pains in the ass, but the first thing Shane did when he won that money was share it with the family. Debts were paid; houses were bought. He made sure we did fun things too. Things we never would have done otherwise.

“What’s the best kind of cookie? And the worst.” I asked him.

Liam looked at me and the sadness melted out of his expression.

“The worst is easy. Any cookie that looks like chocolate chip, but actually has raisins. That’s a crime and offenders should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

“Okay, now what’s the best?”

“I don’t know what they’re called. But Piper’s mom makes these lemon ones. They’re small and round and kind of crackly on top. They look like little drops of sunshine. They’re sweet without overdoing it and they’re soft like clouds.”

“I’ll see if Mom knows what kind of cookies those are. She probably does.”

“You said she bakes a lot.”

“I want you to meet her. I’m due for another visit soon and I’ll bring you with me.” What I didn’t tell him was that I was pretty sure Mom knew every cookie recipe in existence and that a batch of his favorites would likely be waiting for him.

Our food arrived and we both ate like a couple of starving dogs. With better manners, of course. But only barely. When I finished my food, I leaned back and let out a breath.

“Holy shit, I needed that.”

Liam flicked a look at me that screamed I told you so .

“So, when are we going to see her?” Liam stacked our plates neatly and put them at the end of the table.

“I’ll call her later and work out a good time. She runs a shelter so sometimes she has other things going on. Do I get to meet your sister?”

Liam’s face paled and I watched several emotions flit across his features. Fear. Regret. Hope. Sadness. It made me sorry I asked.

“She still doesn’t know about us,” I whispered. I knew everyone came out in their own time, and I knew Liam loved me. I felt it every time he looked at me, touched me, spoke my name.

“I’ll tell her soon. I promise. I just… I wanted to enjoy this a bit longer first.” Liam held my hand tighter. “I want to tell her, but I don’t know how. I’ve never felt about anyone the way I feel about you and that scares me, because if for some reason it goes badly and she tells me to choose, I’m choosing you. Now and always.”

“What if it goes good?”

Liam scoffed. “Nothing goes good for me, Brodie. Except maybe you.”

I didn’t know what to do with that information and the matter-of-fact way he delivered it. Part of me loved that he would choose me, but the bigger part of me hated that he feared he might have to. Family was supposed to love you no matter what, and I hated that it simply wasn’t true for a lot of people.

“Sometimes you break my heart,” I told him. Liam smiled wanly and smoothed his thumb over the back of my hand.

“I’ll tell her. I promise. As soon as I figure out how. We might have to go for a short trip to see her in person.”

“Yeah? You’d take me to meet her?”

Liam nodded. “I think she’d like that. And you can meet my best friend, Oren, and his husband.”

“Were you ever interested in Oren?” I let my question trail off. It wouldn’t have been unheard of for two male best friends to have fooled around with each other. I can’t say I was a fan of the idea, and I had the sneaking suspicion that if my assumption proved true, I’d hate Oren without having met him.

“God, no. Besides, like me, Oren didn’t discover men until he met the one he fell in love with.”

“Fucking swoon.” I put my hand to my chest and rubbed at the swell of emotion that formed. Equal parts relief that he’d never had any man but me, and a bit of smugness that out of all the men in the world, I was the one to make him look twice.

His eyes darkened and he leaned in. “You’re the only one for me. I know it must hurt you that I haven’t told Carol about us yet—”

“You’ll get there in your own time,” I cut in. I didn’t want him to feel bad that he hadn’t come out yet. Yes, I wanted him to. More than anything, but those kinds of things couldn’t and shouldn’t be rushed. “You need to come out for you, not for me.”

“How did you come out?”

“I don’t know that I was ever in, to be honest. I think I was eight or nine when I announced to my family that I was going to marry Parker O’Donnell. My sexuality didn’t come as a huge surprise after that. I’m one of the lucky ones. My mom never bought into that shtick about tolerance. She says that tolerance is lip service. Acceptance is what matters. That, and love.”

“She sounds great.”

“She’s the best. Everyone thinks so.”

“How do you usually do the whole introduction thing? Should we invite her over? I can cook something, or would it be better to meet her on her own territory?”

I rubbed at the back of my neck with the hand that wasn’t entwined with Liam’s. “I’ve never brought anyone home before. You’re the first.”

Liam looked like the cat that ate the canary. “I like being your first.”

I did too, but I also wanted him to be my last. My forever.

“I’ll call her later and set something up. Maybe we could all meet at Shane’s bar for dinner and drinks. They probably think I’ve dropped off the face of the earth again.”

“We’ve been preoccupied.”

We had. But I needed that preoccupation. After being apart from him, thinking that he was lost to me forever, I’d needed to bask in his attention. To bathe in his scent and seek his touch at every possible moment.

But I also knew that it was time to come up for air. He was right to say that we needed to build a foundation for a life. Sex was great, and I loved living in a bubble with him, but bubbles tended to burst.

“I think I want to write a book,” I blurted out, changing the subject before I popped a boner in the diner.

“What kind?”

“Something about my travels, maybe. Or maybe something inspired by them.”

“What about your postcards? Maybe you could do something with them.”

“I’ll figure something out. What about you? Have you figured out what you’re going to do yet?”

Liam let out a tight, nervous laugh. “Other than being with you, I haven’t been able to decide. I’m sure the right opportunity or idea will present itself before long.”

“Promise me that when you do find something that interests you, that you’ll do it, no matter what your sister might think. Or what I might think. Or anyone else. I don’t want you to be a spectator in your own life.”

Liam lifted my hand and held my gaze while brushing a kiss across my knuckles. My heart flip-flopped in my chest.

“I promise.”

“I’m going to hold you to that. Come on.” I got to my feet and fished a couple of bills out of my wallet to cover breakfast and a tip.

“Where are we going?” Liam added a bill to my stack and I rolled my eyes at him.

“We’re going to figure our shit out together.” I took his hand and dragged him out of the diner and back into the sunlight.