Page 108 of P.S. You're Intolerable

“And I want you to trust I’m not going to leave you because you do something I don’t like. I’m not going to send you away.” He tore his eyes from the road to glance at me. “Do you hear me?”

I nodded. I hadn’t known I’d needed to hear it until he’d said it. I had been sent away and tossed aside by too many people. Elliot had listened and recognized my tender spots, and he was giving reassurance specially tailored to me.

“I hear you.”

And I’m falling so hard for you.

“Good.” He shot me a sidelong glance. “Now, are you absolutely sure you want to be friends with Miles Aldrich? Because—”

Snorting a laugh, I brought his hand to my mouth and bit his knuckles. This man…

“I like you so much,” I whispered.

He exhaled audibly. “Like you too, sweetheart. More than words.”

My day hadn’t started out so swell, but riding home with Elliot, my cooing baby in the back seat, our hands joined, and a tumult of butterflies in my stomach wasn’t a bad way to end it. Not at all.

Chapter Thirty

Catherine

Thingsweregoingsowell. My head was finally above water, my feet were on steady ground, and that was when Liam decided to pop back up.

I hated Liam.

Hated. Him.

He’d texted me once last week, and I’d just rolled my eyes.

Liam:Hey, Kit! Long time, no talk, eh? We need to catch up as soon as you have a minute. I want to know how the baby is, and how you are. We have a lot to discuss.

We had nothing to discuss. Not over text, when he was on another continent with no intention of coming back or stepping up. He didn’t get to jump in whenever he liked without any concern for the waves he made.

This week’s was harder to ignore.

Liam:Hey, Kit. I get you’re angry, but you can’t keep my baby from me. I want to meet her. I’m emailing you tickets to fly to Sydney. We’ll talk about how we’re going to do this co-parenting thing in person.

I didn’t know how to reply to him, so I didn’t. This wasn’t me burying my head in the sand like I had about the house. Adequate words would not come to me. What could I even say to this man after he’d abandoned me and Joey?

I had a feeling if he pressed me for a call now, what I had to say would involve many curse words and copious amounts of yelling. One thing was certain: I wouldn’t be using that airplane ticket.

Elliot walked up behind me, so I laid my phone down on the counter beside the sink and watched him in the mirror.

“That’s quite a frown you have,” he remarked, his hands landing on my shoulders. “What’s going on in here?”

I was in the bathroom, touching up my lipstick for a night out with Elliot. Raymond and Davida were in the living room with Joey. Raymond to babysit, and Davida to nose about Elliot’s house.

This would be our last night together for a week. Elliot was leaving in the morning for Dubai, taking Daniel with him as his assistant. I didn’t want him to go, and he hadn’t hidden his reluctance to leave, but his responsibilities were far spread, and he couldn’t put them off forever.

Besides, I had plans that would fill my time during his absence. Work on the house had begun. Raymond’s cousin wasn’t the fastest worker, but he was methodical and came cheap, so I was a fan. While Elliot was away, I’d be spending half the day in the office and the other half at the house, doing some of the work myself. It was all coming together, thanks to Miles’s detailed plan. If not for him, I would have still been wandering around the home improvement store.

Elliot knew about this. He grumbled when I wouldn’t allow him to take over, but he had grudgingly accepted I needed to do it on my own.

I handed him my phone. “Liam.”

He glanced at the text, his expression unreadable. “Is this the first time he’s contacted you?”

“Basically.”

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