Page 15 of My Knight Before Christmas
“Before I put it on the market, she decided to buy Grams’ house.”
My eyes bugged out of my head. “And the rest of your family is okay with that? I mean, good for her, but yikes, that seems like a tricky situation.”
“My aunt and I are excited for her. We’re happy the house is staying in the family. Chloe loves it there. It made the most sense.”
I heard what he didn’t say. I pointed at him. “But you were left to mediate the situation?”
His nod was the only answer he gave.
“I’m sure you did an excellent job of being fair on both sides.”
He ran the hand not on the steering wheel up and down his thigh. “I did the best I could. I’m just sad the whole situation tore our family apart.”
My immediate family was close. Imagining us fighting like that clawed at my chest. “Maybe in a few years, when emotions settle, you can reconcile?”
He offered me the saddest smile. Like when Eyore told his friends they’d be better off without him because his mood would bring them down. Liam looked like he didn’t believe it was possible.
“Remember when you told me about that time you were in college, and your buddies took you to the barbeque joint that makes you get on the saddle when it’s your birthday, and the waitress went the extra mile and gave you a kiss as well?” I asked.
He shivered. “Yeah, I do. It’s hard to forget when the waitress was sixty and purred in my ear.”
I playfully pushed his shoulder. “She’s probably the best kiss you’ve had,” I joked.
His eyes darted between the road and me. “Not even close.”
My cheeks heated like the coils in a toaster. Because of me? Or someone else? The way he looked at me led me to believe itwasme. My stomach twirled like a ballerina. “Anyway,” I drawled, not wanting to know if Liam’s best kiss came from someone else. “A little while ago, Anna and Amy, trying to get me out of a slump I’d been in, took me there. They lied aboutwhywe were there. Instead of saying it was my birthday, they told the staff I just found out I was pregnant.”
“No,” he blurted with horror.
“Yes.” I slowly nodded. “They made me get up in the saddle while the waitress yelled out for everyone to join her while they sang, ‘first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage, congratulations!’”
He leaned forward, bellowing out a laugh.
I smiled. “As if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, the waitress held up my left hand looking for my ‘gorgeous ring’ only to see a bare finger.”
“How are Amy and Anna still alive?” he asked incredulously.
I held up a finger for each reason why I refrained from suffocating them in their sleep. “Anna paid for my dinner and Amy did my laundry for two weeks. Otherwise, their bodies would be in the ocean by now.”
His brows furrowed. “Why did they do it?”
I did not think this through when I chose this story. “Um… I…” I picked at the hem of my blouse. “Besides work, I hadn’t left the house for a while. They were trying to cheer me up.”
He cast me a worried glance. “Why hadn’t you left the house?”
“How close are we to our first stop?”
He side-eyed me. “Nope, not going to work. Why hadn’t you left the house?”
I knew Liam wouldn’t let this go. I sighed deeply, like a child when asked to clean up after herself. I stared at my knees. “They thought the best way to move on from you was to go on another date. They wanted to prove that if I endured the most embarrassing thing they could think of, any date afterward wouldn’t seem so bad.”
Only they’d been wrong. So terribly wrong.
“Avery,” he moaned. “I’m so sorry I put you in that situation.”
I briefly touched his forearm. “I forgive you, remember? I understand how much you had on your plate. Yes, I would’ve waited for you if you told me what was going on, but we really weren’ttogether.“ Forgiveness did not mean we had a future, though. Something I had to make sure Liam understood. “Let’s just take this one moment at a time, alright?”
He turned his signal on, making a right-hand turn. “I’ll always kick myself for my decisions. I was too afraid to let you in. I believed my family drama would make you run for the hills and I think subconsciously by not reaching out, it allowed me to cut ties first. As you can tell from the latest fiasco, my family has some issues which unfortunately I’ve inherited.”
