Page 90 of Every Little Kiss
Liv set her feet on the ground. “There’s an article about the accident in there?”
Avery had asked if she could include some newspaper clippings, but Liv had assumed it would be their wedding announcement and the article on Sam when he’d been hired on as chief surgeon in Sacramento. But the accident? Liv hadn’t even read those.
“In a pocket on the back page.” Liv had never looked that far, only flipping to the pages that Paxton found interest in. “And the article talks about a search-and-rescue K-9 team who sat with Sam and Paxton until the storm had cleared.”
Liv already knew this story. The police had told her what had transpired when they’d shown up on her doorstep that Christmas morning. But hearing about it again, while naked and completely exposed on another man’s porch, brought on a strange sense of shame.
Liv grabbed her dress and tugged it over her head, covering herself.
“There are a lot of K-9 teams.” So then why did it hurt to breathe?
“Teams that fly down out of the sky to rescue Paxton?” Carolyn said with soft steel. “Why do you think he’s obsessed with a superdog who flies and saves people?”
Liv thought about how Bullseye had sought out Paxton, how easy Paxton was around Ford, and how Ford had come to Sequoia Lake for his certification. Then she told herself it was just a coincidence. Because the alternative was too painful to comprehend.
“What does the dog look like?”
Above the sound of her thrashing heart, Liv listened to Carolyn describe the dog, heard herself say that there must be a simple explanation—that didn’t include Ford misleading her. But nothing about what she was feeling was simple. It was heavy and complicated and at odds with the peace she’d fought hard for.
Carolyn finished reading the article, and Liv didn’t remember standing up or walking back to her house. But when the back door slammed shut on its hinges and the sound of the house settling around her became defeating, she remembered the suffocating feeling of isolation that rained down.
She remembered how loud the silence could be. And the longer she stood there, staring at the wall lined with memories, the more she remembered. Until the silence grew to a point that she was afraid it would never stop.
Ford didn’t even bother with shoes. He took off across the beach at a swift pace.
He’d come back out on his deck, pizza in hand, stupid-ass grin on his face, to find Liv gone. At first he thought she’d gone to the restroom, but after a good twenty minutes had passed, he went to check—only to find it empty.
Like the rest of his house.
He’d called her five times, left five messages, with no response. He’d considered the idea that Paxton had changed his mind and wanted to come home—not a far stretch since a sleepover with Carolyn sounded about as fun as a tea party with the Queen of Hearts—but then he spotted Liv’s car parked in her driveway.
He also saw a soft glow flickering from one of the bedrooms. Meaning she was the one who’d changed her mind about the sleepover. And for the life of him, Ford couldn’t figure out why.
Harris had warned him that kissing a single mom got women thinking. Ford wondered what kissing Liv naked on his porch had meant to her. He thought about all the options, and the first inkling of doubt began to creep in.
“Liv?” he called as he tapped on her back door. When she didn’t answer, he let himself in and quickly scanned the dining room and kitchen. There wasn’t a single light turned on in the entire house, but he could see a glow coming from down the hallway in Paxton’s room.
Maybe she’d already picked him up and come back.
He rapped a knuckle softly against the door frame. “Liv, you guys in there?”
The only confirmation he got was a small sob coming from inside the darkened bedroom. Ford opened the door and stepped inside, his heart dropping into crisis mode.
Liv sat on the child-size bed, her body curled tightly in the corner, a tissue in her hand and a laptop in her lap. The light glow from the screen showed enough tear tracks to know that she’d been crying for quite some time.
Alone.
No Paxton, no emergency, just Liv with those sad fucking eyes and heartbreaking sorrow.
Ford had just experienced the single most life-altering moment of his adult life, and while he’d been grinning like an idiot over it, she’d been wading through the fallout.
“Liv,” he said softly, entering the room.
She looked up at him and recoiled, making him stop dead in his tracks. So did his heart. Because she hadn’t just been crying—she’d been mourning. Ford had been around enough survivors to recognize the difference.
She stood and rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand. It did nothing to erase the red rims and wet cheeks. Or the bad feeling burning in his chest.
“Is everything okay—”
