Page 25

Chapter 25

Brodie

We didn’t manage to leave Mom’s until nearly dinner time. She tried to convince us all to stick around and I might have if Shane and Kieran hadn’t bowed out. I promised Mom to bring Liam around more often, and myself too, and then we were alone in Liam’s car.

“How long are you going to drive a rental? That’s got to be costing you a small fortune.”

“I should buy something when I get back. Will you help me look?”

There was that talk again of him going, but at least he was talking about coming back. It did little to settle my stomach. I’d picked at my lunch, unable to eat very much. The thought of Liam leaving me made me want to crawl into a hole. I wanted to ask him about it, but my throat closed every time I thought about putting myself out there like that.

Suddenly I was back in that hotel room, cutting my heart out of my chest and handing it to him, but he didn’t catch it. I’d left that room hollowed out. Empty except for despair. Having Liam back felt like a dream, but I was terrified if I asked about his plans that they wouldn’t include me.

Fear was never rational and it had my heart running like a scared rabbit ever since that stupid call to John back in Mom’s office. How long had he planned on going back home? The thought that he might have his travel plans arranged and I had no idea made bile rise in the back of my throat, hot and stinging like acid.

Liam pulled into the driveway at our house—was it our house?—and suddenly I couldn’t make myself move.

“Brodie?”

The concern in his voice was obvious and I hated that he couldn’t read my mind. That I was seriously going to have to open my mouth and make the words come out. Once again I was in the position of being the one begging and I hated it. I hated that I was going to and that I wanted it to work this time.

But I wasn’t going to do any of it in my fucking driveway.

“Let’s go inside.” I unbuckled and got out of the car. The autumn evening air was fresh and carried with it a familiar scent that had me stopping in my tracks to breathe it in again. “Smells like snow.”

“It’s not in the forecast.”

“Trust me.” I fished my keys out of my pocket and unlocked the front door. Home felt like a foreign planet all of the sudden, but it wasn’t the house that was different. It was me. It was the knowledge that if Liam walked away again, I’d let him. I had no desire to be John and Marsha, desperately clinging to the shreds of their former life.

I needed to be busy, but there was no mess to clean. No laundry to fuss with. Liam set my laptop bag down on the counter.

“You left it in the car.” He turned to me and tucked his hands into his pockets. He was uneasy and it made my fear spike. “Brodie, what’s wrong?”

“I’m fine. It was a long day.”

Liam narrowed his gaze at me, like he also wished he could read my thoughts. Earlier I’d wished for it, but now I was glad he couldn’t. I didn’t want him to know how pathetic I felt at the idea of him planning a life without me. He had things back home to take care of. I knew that. But the idea of him going and leaving me behind, of maybe not coming back, made what little lunch I ate lurch in my stomach.

“Brodie.” Liam took his hands out of his pockets and crossed the distance between us. Before I could think of pulling away, he was there, tugging me into his arms. “Talk to me, love.”

My body wasn’t mine. I told it to run, but it wasn’t listening. Instead, it did the opposite. It leaned into him. My arms slid around his waist and I gripped handfuls of his shirt like I could keep him if he tried to bolt. Liam nuzzled my hair, his voice barely a whisper.

“Brodie, please.”

My eyes scrunched closed and I tried to get my heart rate under control. It slammed against my ribs like it was trying to break free and climb inside Liam for safekeeping. He couldn’t leave if he had my actual heart.

“You’re coming back, right?” In my head a million different scenarios had played out all day long. Liam and I had met and fallen in love on a whim. Maybe it was the thing I’d gone looking for when I told Shane I wanted to travel. Because once I found him, seeing the world didn’t matter at all if he wasn’t with me.

“What do you mean am I coming back?” Liam sounded genuinely confused as though he hadn’t spent half the day planning to leave. Anger erupted like a volcano and I managed to put some distance between us, even if I still clung to him like I was drowning and he was the only one who could save me. There was at least air and light between our bodies now.

“What do you mean, what do I mean? You talked to John and were all ‘I’m planning to come back to deal with things and I’ll send you Piper’s stuff.’ And then you said you’d buy something to drive when you got back.”

Liam took a breath and then his hands were cradling my face. My eyes closed. I couldn’t stand to see him see me like this. I wanted to disappear.

“Where do you get the idea that I wouldn’t take you with me? Where I go, you go.” Lips ghosted against mine, soft like an apology. “You’re coming with me.”

Relief nearly took me off my feet, but I steadied myself by gripping on to Liam even tighter. “I am?” I opened my eyes and looked into his, trying to search for deception and finding none. “But you never—you said you had to go back. You didn’t mention me.”

Liam combed his fingers into my hair. “There is no me without you.”

He sounded so earnest, so sincere that tears pricked at my eyes and I blinked them away.

“That’s quite the line,” I said, breathless with relief.

“It’s the truth. Until I found you, I was a ghost. I was a round peg in a square hole, wondering if I was going to feel out of place for the rest of my days. And then you came into my life like a sunbeam.”

“A rain cloud would be more accurate.” A smile tugged its way onto my face without my permission, but I didn’t fight it.

“I wasn’t trying make you feel excluded. I’ve been on my own for a while now, and referring to our plans as my plans is a habit I’m going to need to break. For the first time in my life, I feel like I fit somewhere.”

“What about when you were with Piper? You clearly loved her. Didn’t you feel like that with her?”

“Being with Piper came with a lot of expectations. Be the socialite her parents wanted. Start the family they wanted. Do the job my sister gave me. Fill all these shoes that other people picked out. I loved Piper and I don’t want to sound like I didn’t, but I feel like myself with you. I feel like I can finally get to know myself.” Liam kissed me again. His lips lingered on mine, like he was trying to get my body to understand the truth of his words. When he paused, the world stood still.

“Brodie.” He breathed my name like it was the answer to all his questions. “I will never stop being sorry for letting you walk away. I will never stop loving you. Putting you first. Needing you.” His grip on me tightened, pulling my hair a little, making my scalp sing.

“I need you to ask me, Liam. I need to hear it.” I worried he might not understand what I meant, but then his lips brushed against mine.

“Come with me? Please? I want you to come meet my sister, and Oren. I want to show you my condo before I sell it. I want you to see that I’m leaving behind an empty shell of a life. I need you with me. Say you’ll come.”

Playing hard to get had never been my style, but especially now that I’d heard the words I’d imagined hearing, my heart couldn’t have stood to pretend that I didn’t want to go with him. Not even for a second.

I’d follow him anywhere.

“When do we leave?”

“We can go right after.”

“After what?”

Liam grinned at me and before I knew what was happening, he’d bent over and hoisted me up onto his shoulder in a fireman carry.

“What are you doing?” I asked, half laughing. The sudden change of position had completely disoriented me, but I still managed to pinch Liam’s ass in retaliation. Plus, it was right there, all hot and tempting.

Liam yelped and made me regret my actions by smacking my ass. I cried out, even though the pain quickly faded. It had shocked me more than anything. Liam carried me into the bedroom and flipped me over, dropping me on the mattress. I looked up at him and watched his chest heave from exertion and emotion. Slowly, he stripped off his shirt. I watched, frozen, struck dumb by the heat in his gaze.

Unable to look away, I watched him pop the button of his pants open and pull his fly down. Then he kneeled on the bed and crawled toward me, blanketing me, caging me in underneath him.

“Where I go, you go.” Liam repeated, his voice practically a growl. “I let you go once. Never again.”

“Swear it.” I wrapped my arms around him, splayed my hands on his back, and pulled him closer. I let him slot himself between my legs. The way my cock was suddenly hard and horribly trapped in my jeans made me wish he had stripped me bare. It felt cruel to leave so many layers between us.

“Cross my heart.” Liam kissed me. Softly; he licked his way into my mouth and took my breath away. I could feel his love in the way he kissed me. The way it felt like every atom in his body was reaching for me, wanting to touch me and be inside me. Part of me.

Our kiss evolved from gentle to ferocious passion. Teeth clacked. Liam’s fingers found my hair and tugged. I gasped at the spark of sensation that lit my scalp up like a firework. My body arched into his, seeking more. Begging. Wanting. We’d barely started and already I was a wreck of lust, leaking in my underwear and moaning into his mouth.

Liam broke the kiss and tugged my shirt up. I raised my arms so he could get it off me and sighed in relief when he tossed it aside.

“Hey,” he whispered, glancing out the window. “You were right.”

I turned my head to see what he was talking about. A dark gray cloud had rolled in and big fat snowflakes drifted down. My fingers twitched, wanting a pen. If I had a postcard, I’d write, Today it snowed. And it was perfect.