Page 11

Chapter Eleven

O ne look at me, and it was painfully obvious to anyone with functioning eyes that I was not, by any stretch of the imagination, athletic. Still, even sedentary human beings required a baseline level of arm strength to navigate day-to-day life.

Unfortunately, somewhere in my genetic code, something had gone catastrophically wrong. My arms weren’t just weak. They were useless. Truly abysmal, even by small, unathletic female standards.

This explained why, halfway up the endless stairs to Liam’s condo, I was convinced my arms were about to snap clean off. Multiple grocery bags dangled from my hands, their weight pulling on my fingers like they were trying to drag me to the ground.

I looked like an idiot, but at least I was an idiot with a purpose. I’d decided to cook dinner for Liam to prove I wasn’t a freeloading leech, sucking up all of the generosity that he had offered me.

Grimacing, I clutched the straps tighter and heaved myself up another step, silently cursing my life choices. By the third-floor landing, my willpower broke.

Reluctantly, I set half the bags down, arranging them haphazardly against the wall where I hoped they’d remain untouched.

“Don’t worry,” I muttered to the bags like a lunatic. “I’ll come back for you. Promise.”

With a deep breath, I grabbed the remaining bags and resumed my trek upward, silently praying my arms would hold out long enough to make it to Liam’s door.

By the time I got there, I had fresh sweat stains and the revelation that I probably needed to look into a gym membership. But then again, maybe these stairs of his would be enough of a workout.

There was an elevator in his building, but considering the number of people already waiting for the lift, I wasn’t going to be a jerk by crowding the small space with all my stuff. So, I chose instead to permanently destroy the ligaments in my arms.

Dropping the bags, I made a run for the abandoned groceries I’d left in the stairwell, hoping that no one had touched or tripped over them in my absence.

Heaving a sigh of relief when I found them where I had left them, I grabbed the rest and hurried up the stairs to get started on dinner. I didn’t know when Liam got home from work or—training, I guess? But I knew I wanted dinner made and cleaned up before then.

It wouldn’t exactly be the nice surprise I was planning if he came home to a huge mess in his kitchen.

The key Liam had made for me was under the doormat where he told me it would be. I used it to let myself in, carrying a few of the bags with me. I unpacked the food on the granite countertops, displaying the ingredients needed to make the perfect homemade chicken parmesan.

Hopefully, this would help show him how much I appreciated him hosting me for a little while. Moving toward the door, I wandered back into the hallway to get the rest of the groceries, letting the door shut behind me. I bent down, scooping them up in both hands, wondering if I’d bought enough food. I didn’t just want to buy dinner. I wanted to stock his fridge, too. To show him I could pull my own weight and contribute to the household, no matter how briefly I’d be part of it.

Being a burden was the last thing I could handle.

My phone buzzed, and when I saw whose name was flashing on the screen, my heart raced.

Mom.

I didn’t have it in me to answer. I’d have to tell her about the breakup, and I wasn’t in the right state of mind yet to hear her lecture me about how stupid I’d been to stay with the guy for so long when clearly he didn’t want to marry me if it had taken six years of him trying to make his mind up.

I couldn’t bear to sink any lower than I already was. Never mind what she’d say about me living with some hockey player I didn’t know. For years, she’d begged me to move back home with her, but the time I had spent there had been enough to last a lifetime. There wasn’t anything that could make me go back. Not when I finally knew what it was to have peace of mind away from her.

There it was. The pang of guilt that always followed when I rejected the call. Plus, the knot of anxiety because I knew ignoring her would be so much worse than just dealing with her.

I stared at my phone as if it were a bomb about to go off, and then it happened.

The texts started pouring in.

Selfish. Ungrateful. You’ll miss me when I’m gone. And a dozen other messages of similar sentiment, the wording getting more colorful with each message that came through.

I inhaled a shaky breath, hating the way my body still tensed in fear despite her being miles away from me.

I muted the message thread with her, knowing that they’d just keep coming for the rest of the night, and I went to make dinner.

Correction: I tried to make dinner. But one wiggle of the doorknob told me that I’d messed up spectacularly.

“No, no, no, no, no, no.” I shook my head, willing it not to be true as I frantically twisted the handle back and forth to no avail.

“Are you kidding me!” I groaned, staring up at the ceiling helplessly.

“Uh,” A voice called from down the hall, alerting me to the fact that I was not alone. “Excuse me, but you can’t be here. This building is residents only.”

I looked over to see a middle-aged woman popping her head out of an apartment a few doors down.

“I’m staying here,” I told her, figuring it would be enough to satisfy her confusion and send her back on her way.

“Uh, huh.” She nodded skeptically. “Sure, you are.”

She didn’t believe me? I stared at her, dazed, wondering why she was staring me down as if I were some type of criminal. Surely, she’d heard of the concept of people having guests? Then I realized I was frantically trying a doorknob that wasn’t working, looking more than slightly demented as I tried to get it to open without a key.

“Really,” I told her. “I’m staying here. This is Liam Brynn’s apartment,” I offered, hoping that providing some information might show her that I wasn’t some random person trying to break into an apartment.

“I don’t doubt that you know whose apartment it is.” She snickered. “They all do. But really, he’s just a nice young man who wants his privacy, and I think it’s despicable that you girls won’t leave him alone.”

She shook her head, her eyes showering me with buckets of disappointment, the likes of which could rival even my mother.

“ What? ” I said, my voice bordering on screech-like, “You think I’m trying to, what? Stalk Liam?”

“It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last, unfortunately.” She shook her head sadly. “Now, you get out of here before I call security.”

I blanched, panicked by her words. Without the key, I didn’t have any other proof that I was actually staying there, and I was horrified at the prospect of being thrown out onto the streets, barred from entry to the place I’d be living for the next few weeks.

“No, honestly. I’m staying here. As his guest. I just locked myself out two minutes ago. That’s why it looks like—” I trailed off, staring down at my hands, which admittedly looked guilty as they still were latched onto the handle that would refuse to give way.

“Liam never lets women into his apartment,” she said adamantly, her eyes narrowed on me as if the more I said, the guiltier I looked. “No one except his sister, and you’re not her.”

“Right!” I said, latching onto her words, my demeanor desperate. “His sister! Maggie. She’s my friend! That’s how I know Liam. I’m friends with Maggie, so he’s letting me stay here because he has the room!” I scrambled to explain.

Knowing it might be the only proof I had, I picked up my phone and called her, thanking God when she picked up.

“Maggie!” I cried out manically, pressing the button to put her on speakerphone.

“Hi, Cass,” she said, her voice sounding a little scared. “You good?”

“No, actually,” I said, eyes still locked on Liam’s intrusive neighbor. “I’m locked out of your brother’s apartment, and his neighbor thinks I’m breaking in.”

“What?” Maggie snorted before bursting into laughter that filled the hall. “Who is it?”

“I don’t know,” I said, the woman listening in with interest. “But you’re on speakerphone. Can you tell her that I’m supposed to be here and I’m not some crazy fan?”

The sound of Maggie’s laughter mixed in with her words, making her somewhat unintelligible, but she still tried her best to assure the woman that I was, in fact, staying with her brother, NHL star Liam Brynn, and no, I was not a deranged stalker, but thanks for looking out for him.

The woman tsked as if she still wasn’t fully convinced, but she turned on her heel and left without further comment.

“Thanks, Mags. She’s gone.” I sighed, dropping to the floor with my back against Liam’s door. “But how am I supposed to get in?”

“Oh, no problem,” she said airily. “Liam keeps a spare key under the doormat.”

“I used that one to get in.” I groaned.

“No, Liam made you your own key,” she said by way of explanation. “The spare key should still be there.”

My heart jumped. Maybe I hadn’t screwed myself over. I reached down, flipping the mat, finding nothing but the floor beneath.

“Nope.” I shook my head. “No luck.”

“What?” she asked incredulously. “Look again. It’s been there for as long as he’s lived there.”

In case I’d missed something because I didn’t always trust myself, I looked again. Hard. Even looking at the mat itself in case it somehow melded into the fabric. But there was absolutely nothing metallic as far as I could see.

“It’s not here, Mags.” I sighed. “I can’t believe I did this. Your brother’s gonna hate me.”

“Give me two seconds. I’ll call and ask where he moved it,” she said before hanging up.

Just two inches of wood separated me from the cold, dimly lit hallway and the warm, inviting apartment where all the ingredients for a mouth-watering dinner were waiting for me. Yet, here I sat, alone with my thoughts, contemplating the way I managed to screw every aspect of my life up, big and small.

I liked to keep busy, to keep my thoughts at bay. When I was forced to sit down in the moments of lull that life always had, it was harder to turn my brain off. The floodgates opened, and the bad feelings came, and all I wanted to do was curl up into a ball and hide.

Surprisingly, I thought of Liam. The way he made me feel… okay. I wasn’t so overwhelmed during the brief moments I’d spent with him. It was almost like his presence was so colossal that it distracted me from my own life. He gave me something else to think about. That something being him.

Stop, I mentally ordered myself. You’re no better than his fangirls, after all.

I shook him out of my head, relieved when my phone dinged once more, only to have that relief snatched away by the words written on the screen.

MAGGIE: Looks like you’ll have to go to the rink to get his key. Sorry.

Great.