Page 135 of Off The Ice

“There you are, come on.” Maggie’s head poked in, staring at Cassie, who looked guilty as hell, and me, who looked—well, I didn’t know how I looked, but I felt pissed the hell off, and I didn’t doubt my face reflected that.

“Or.” Maggie stared between us with assessing eyes. “Maybe don’t.”

And then she took off like a bat out of hell.

“Cassie—” I started, moving toward her once more.

To explain. To tell her how I felt. Hell, maybe to even try to kiss her again.

“Let’s go downstairs,” she said in a high-pitched voice. “I can’t wait to meet the rest of your family.”

I ran a hand through my hair, looking around as I tried to recuperate from whatever had just happened or decidedlynothappened between us. And what that might mean.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “Okay.”

Chapter Forty-Five

Cassie

Thank God Liam had a gigantic family because if we had run out of aunts, uncles, and second cousins for me to meet, then I would’ve had to confront whatever had happened between us in his bedroom, and that was absolutely not something I was ready to do yet.

Yes, I’d been sleeping in his bed. And yes, sometimes we’d hold hands. But that was all strictly comfort. Platonic.

Kissing? There was no way I could fool myself into thinking that was just another way friends comforted each other, the way I regarded everything else we’d been doing.

Because it didn’t make sense for him to like me.

It made more sense that I’d made it up in my head, just imagining any tension I’d felt growing between us.

But if I thought busying my mind through conversations with his family would free me from the anxiety, I was terribly wrong.

“How did you two meet?” one of his aunts asked.

I knew right away what she thought. That we were a couple. Because that was a question you askedcouples. But also, on the surface, it was just a normal question. If I refused not to answer or automatically tried to inform her that we weren’t together, that would be way more bizarre. Defensive, even. It would be the type of response that might show Liam every little pathetic feeling I’d been trying to hide.

So I settled on a safe, honest answer.

“I’m friends with Maggie,” I offered, hoping that was enough.

“Oh, how perfect.” Her eyes lit up. “Well, you two must be awfully certain of each other if you’re already living together.”

“Oh, no,” I said, about to interject and tell it to her straight.

“But when you know, you know. Isn’t that what they say?”

“Well, I’ve got to go introduce Cassie to everyone else,” Liam interjected,

But he didn’t correct her.

Why didn’t he correct her?

Was it to save me from the embarrassment of having to tell people the real story of why I was staying with him?

Or maybe he wasn’t as bothered by the assumption as I thought he was.

Liam

I felt mechanical in my interactions with my family. Stiff, awkward, like at any moment, one of the screws holding me together would spit out, and I’d crumble.

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