Page 29 of The Love Chase

“Yes, Liam. I’m sure.”

Liam pulled me into his chest and wrapped his massive arms around me, resting his chin on the top of my head.

“I’m going to make this up to you, Em.”

I swallowed down the tears burning in my eyes, wishing Liam knew just how much it meant for him to be holding me like this. Wishing he felt the same as me.

When he finally pulled back, he ran a hand over his styled hair, messing it up even more. “We should probably talk about what comes after the wedding.”

My mind immediately jumped to the wedding night and my face burst into flames.

Liam’s eyes widened. “N-not that. I mean—” He trailed off, his hands messing with the hem of his shirt again. There were few times I’d seen Liam flustered, but I had to admit the pink tint on his cheeks was a good look for him.

I tried to hide my smile as I opened the door wider. “Come inside.”

His shoulders loosened a fraction at the invitation. He gave Luna a loving pat as he stepped inside, and she thanked him with a mouthful of slobber.

“Want some tea?” I asked, going into Jameson’s immaculate kitchen. Normally I wasn’t a tea drinker, but it was far too late in the day for caffeine, and Liam was already making my heart race enough. Tea would have to do it this time.

“Uh, sure.”

I tried not to snort at his answer. Liam was strictly an energy drink or coffee drinker. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen him consume tea—unless it was sweet tea. Basically, caffeine was his middle name.

“Is that another thing that California changed about you?” I called. He had taken a seat on the couch, Luna—all seventy-five pounds of her—curled up on his lap as if she were a lapdog. “You drink tea now?”

I could hear Liam’s sigh all the way in here. Maybe I should stop poking him about California and how much he had changed, but my heart often felt like it was bleeding in his presence, and it made me feel infinitesimally better to hurt him back.

Yes, I was aware how horrible that made me sound.

Love wasn’t rational and neither was heartache.

I supposed it would probably be a good idea for me to try to be nice, to get along with him again, even if I hadn’t quite forgiven him yet.

A tense silence settled between us when he didn’t deign to respond, and I fixed us both a cup of chamomile tea, hoping it would calm us down so we could discuss what came after the wedding.

My hands shook at the thought, my ears burning beneath my hair. Surely, he couldn’t want to talk about that, right?

I brought the mugs over to the couch, trying not to shake as I handed one to him and sat on the other end of the couch, leaving plenty of space between us.

Luna looked at us, her ears flopping as her head went back and forth. Did she feel the tension building? Did she sense my anxiety about Liam being here? About this conversation?

It was so frustrating because it never used to be like this with him. Liam was the easiest person to be around—the one person I was the most comfortable with, the person I could be my complete self with. But ever since he left, it was like something cracked between us, and in its place was a ten-foot-thick wall that was impenetrable. I didn’t know how to be around him anymore. Was being me even acceptable to him after all the women he’d been with?

I wasn’t about to pretend I wasn’t me. I wasn’t about to change to please him.

Though, he’d never made me feel like I had to before, and I didn’t know why I was suddenly feeling like that was the case. Those tabloids had gotten in my head and made me feel insecure when it came to Liam—a foreign feeling after decades of friendship.

I met Liam’s gaze and felt heat rush into my cheeks. I took a sip of tea for something to do, scalding my tongue in the process.

“So,” he started, wincing at his own sip of tea. “After the wedding.”

I waited, unsure of where he was going to go with this, not wanting to embarrass myself further.

“Bridget says that it’s important to make this appear as a legitimate marriage, which means we need to live in the same house.” His eyes stayed on Luna’s head the entire time he spoke, his hand stroking down her back in soothing motions.

Like the first time the thought had occurred to me, my stomach dropped to the floor.

“A-all right,” I stuttered, knowing I didn’t have much of a choice. “But I’m not living in your parent’s house, Liam.” This was going to be challenging enough as it was. I didn’t need his parents throwing an even bigger wrench in this whole thing.

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