Page 107 of Off The Ice

Or being stuck with my mother—the fear I still carried deepest, the one I worried I’d never truly escape.

“Besides.” I shrugged, feeling a weight on my chest. “It would be easier to go back to my life than have to start all over.”

His jaw clenched, hands firm on my waist as if they were superglued there.

“I’m kidding,” I teased. “He doesn’t want me back. He didn’t even want me when he had me. I wasn’t kidding about the convenience, though. Apartment hunting is more brutal than I thought. I doubt I’ll find another one that I’ll be as comfortable in as my old one.” I sighed longingly.

“You can change whatever you want in the condo,” he said suddenly. “You know that.”

I drew away from him, confused.

“What—”

“Paint the walls, rearrange furniture — hell, buy all new stuff if you want. I’ll give you my card.”

Blood rushed through me. What was he talking about?

“Liam, Liam, stop,” I said, holding a hand to his chest as I stopped dancing.

“You can’t go back to him because you’re scared of change, Cassie,” he said, eyes ablaze with emotion. “That life you had wasn’t anywhere close to being good enough for you.”

“I know that,” I said with a sigh of acknowledgment. “But I can’t stay with you forever either.”

“Why not?”

My heart fluttered.

Because I’m falling for you when that’s the last thing in the world I should be doing. The last thing you would want.

“What’s happening here?” I asked, not wanting to overanalyze the way I was so prone to doing.

My head was swimming, and I took a step back to steady myself, but he closed the distance between us immediately.

“I don’t want you to be with him, Cassie,” Liam said fiercely, reaching for my hand. “I want you—”

“Cassie!” Maggie said, running over to us, saving me from whatever Liam was going to say. “Your phone has been going off non-stop. I figured it might be important,” she said, handing the device over to me.

I looked at her, blinking back into reality. My heart was hammering in my chest. Anxiety from all the unknowns around me.

I turned my head back to Liam, his eyes filled with something I couldn’t read.

“I’ll be right back,” I told him, taking the phone from Maggie and stepping away.

I left him behind, along with the tension that had found its way between us. Taking a breath, I let the air return to my lungs at the narrow escape from whatever had just happened.

Because as safe as I felt with Liam, no one in the world had ever made me as nervous, either.

I was scared of what he was doing to me. Scared to get attached to someone else who didn’t want me.

I made my way toward the exit, hoping for some fresh air, and my phone started ringing again. This time, I saw the caller ID, and my heart dropped.

I should’ve known. I should’ve expected this. After all, I’d spent my life going through the same cycle.

But it didn’t matter how vigilant I was. How good I thought everything had been going. The second I let my guard down, my mother was sure to sweep in and ruin the carefully constructed peace I’d found for myself.

“Hello?” I answered the phone call, already knowing what they were going to say,

“Cassie, dear?” my mother’s neighbor’s voice sounded. “It’s me, Kathy. I just wanted to let you know your mom was taken off in an ambulance tonight. I thought you’d like to know.”

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