Page 40 of False Confidence

Jasmine was looking up at him with curious eyes, as if wondering how much of what he was saying was true.

“Pursuing anything seemed like a bad idea, since Jazz and Maggie are best friends, but we ended up spending a lot of time together in the lead up to the wedding and when it was over, I realized I didn’t want to stop spending time with her. So when the opportunity came up to see each other more, and see what became of it, I jumped at the chance. With Maggie’s blessing, of course,” he added as an afterthought.

“It took us a little while to figure it out, but I couldn’t be happier that we did,” he finished. It was the most honest he’d been with Jasmine about his feelings, hidden behind the veil of faking it for her parents. But it felt good to get his feelings out there. And the way Jasmine was looking at him, wide-eyed and a little stunned, he could only hope she was catching up.

“Well, it’s nice to see Jazz finally putting some effort into something, at least.”

Hurt flashed through Jasmine’s eyes, and he watched her closing up as her dad’s words sank in. Fuck it. Liam had been more than patient with these assholes.

He turned to Jasmine’s parents and leveled them with the smile he’d learned watching his dad take people down in court. “I understand you’re Jazz’s parents and think that gives you free rein to treat her, and your other children, however you like. I’m not here to debate your God awful parenting skills, but I’ve been sitting here all night listening to you saying rude things about the woman I care more about than anything in the world, and I think it would be best for all of us if you cut that out going forward.”

Four pairs of eyes, ranging from shock to indignation (her parents) and impressed (her siblings), bore into him, but Liam only gave a shit what Jasmine thought. And she was looking at him like he’d just handed her the world on a platter.

“I have an order of chocolate cannoli?”

They all turned to the server standing awkwardly at the foot of the table.

“Perfect,” Liam said. He lifted Jasmine’s barely touched pasta plate and set it aside. “Just here, please.”

The server placed the cannoli in front of Jasmine and scurried away with a deep breath.

Ignoring the stunned silence around the table, Liam leaned in and pressed a kiss to Jasmine’s warm, flushed cheek. “Eat up, darling.”

Jasmine was quiet on the walk back to the car, leaning on Liam like she needed him to hold her up.

“You want to talk about how terrible your parents are?” he asked, already sure he knew the answer.

Jasmine shook her head, laughing softly. “Definitely not. Even if I didn’t feel like death warmed up, what’s the point?”

Concerned, Liam ran his eyes over her. She looked exhausted, her skin even more pale than it had been when she’d first mentioned feeling unwell. “What feels wrong?”

“Everything,” she replied with a groan. “My head hurts, and my whole body aches. Can I come home with you tonight? I need a good sleep, and I always sleep well with you,” she asked almost shyly, as if he could ever say no.

“Of course you can. I wasn’t going to give you a choice, actually. I want to keep an eye on you.”

He helped her into the car and grabbed her a water bottle from the trunk. She was burning up when he kissed her forehead, and Liam was ninety-nine percent sure she was coming down with something. As he climbed into the driver’s seat, he ran through a mental checklist to make sure he had everything he might need to help at home: cold medicine, Tylenol, electrolytes, a small stockpile of tissues because he couldn’t pass up a deal at Costco. Hopefully he had everything she might need. Anything else, he could probably rope Maggie or his parents into picking up for him so he wouldn’t have to leave her.

Jasmine leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes, and Liam thought she’d fallen asleep until he pulled onto the I-5 and she spoke up.

“Liam?” She sounded sleepy enough that he wasn’t entirely convinced she was awake.

“Yeah, darling?”

“What you told my family about how you felt about me, about us, how much of that was true?”

Liam hesitated for a moment. He didn’t want to scare her off. They hadn’t exactly talked about their feelings. They hadn’t even discussed what came after their arrangement. But he couldn’t bring himself to lie to her. Not about that.

“All of it,” he replied honestly and Jasmine sucked in a breath.

“All of it?”

“All of it was true,” he confirmed. She was still for a moment, and he almost opened his mouth to apologize, to take it back. But then she reached across the car and set her hand on top of his on the gearshift.

“Good.”

Liam shot up, the comforter puddling around his waist, trying to figure out what had dragged him from sleep. He rubbed his face, pausing when he realized the problem: Jasmine wasn’t in the bed. The sheets on her side were wrinkled, but empty. Liam swung around so his feet were on the floor and stretched. God, he was getting old.

He was rolling his neck when he heard groaning from the bathroom, before the unmistakable sound of her throwing up. Shit. He jumped to his feet, raising his fist at the bathroom door, but it wasn’t fully closed. “Jasmine?”

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