Page 124 of Free to Fall

Still, I find it hard not to admire her. She’s one pissed off mama bear I chose to greet in her den after I terrorized her cub. “It’s my fault Laura left.”

“Oh?” It’s said from queen to peasant with an undertone of No shit, Sherlock.

I shove to my feet before moving restlessly around her meticulously organized office. I come up on a photo that stops me dead in my tracks. I instinctively raise my fingers to touch it. It’s Laura and her brothers, one of them holding her, the other a balloon. My head cocks to the side as I study it more intently. “I’ve seen this photo somewhere else before.”

“Men are so intuitive about some things and so plain dumb about others.” Cassidy’s remark startles me from a closer study of Laura as a child. But her voice has lost its hostile edge—in fact, it’s kicked up several degrees. Her fingers reverently touch the frame. “You’ll figure out where you saw this photo one day.”

“Maybe by then it will be easier to fix what happened between me and your daughter.”

“You can’t change what you said to Laura, Liam. She’s never going to forget it. That’s not the kind of woman I raised her to be.”

If her voice had been laced with fury, I’d have thought it was bitterness talking. But the wise words edged in sympathy make me want to howl in pain. My lip trembles, but I firm it up so I can rasp out, “Bailey misses her. If ... if you could let her know. I’ll ... I’ll make arrangements if ... if she ... Laura, that is ... if she wants to spend time with ...”

I can’t even finish stammering out my request for Cassidy to pass along to Laura when I feel a painful punch against the side of my arm. I gape in astonishment before I lift my hand to my biceps. “I’m a little embarrassed to admit that hurt.” A lot.

“I intended for it to. I said you can’t change the past, Liam, but what about your future? Do you want to change that?”

I shake my head.

Her eyes narrow to slits.

“I don’t know what the future holds. All I know is I want Laura in it.”

“Then sit down and tell me what happened—all of it, starting with that woman who gave you such a beautiful child.”

“You sound a lot like Alice.”

Her face softens. “A compliment. You’re capable of them. That’s good to know.”

Still a little stunned over the fact a woman the size of a pixie managed to nail me with a solid hit, I repeat my story—something I’m surprised Caleb hasn’t shared. From the moment I met Ashleigh to when Laura rightfully left. I unburden myself to Cassidy. When I’m done, she leans back in her chair and asks, “What would you do differently?”

“I wouldn’t have attacked Laura,” I declare immediately.

“Really?” She tilts her head to the side.

“Yes.”

“I wonder about that.” I’m about to defend myself when Cassidy continues. “Love is a gift, but the price we pay for it is the ability to hurt and to be hurt.”

“Your husband made me read the legend of Amaryllis.”

Cassidy’s eyes flash at that. “Did he?”

“Yes.” I wet my lips before admitting, “I’d like to think I’d I wouldn’t have attacked her.”

“Maybe you wouldn’t—at least not in the same way.” Cassidy concedes. “After all, Laura had just had a gun held to her head—literally—for the second time. And the one person she relied upon to be by her side wasn’t there for her. The only advice I can offer is to give her time, Liam. As her mother, as a woman, all I can advocate is patience and time. Laura will come around if and when she’s ready.”

Knowing my time’s up, I thank her and leave before I do something desperate like throw myself at her feet to try to find out something more. Some secret key to unlock the deep freezer Laura’s hidden her heart in. It isn’t until I’ve been escorted outside of the mansion behind me I ask, “But when that doesn’t work, what do I do?”

There’s no answer. No one whispering secrets in my ear on how to win back Laura’s heart. But I know if it ever shows signs of defrosting, I plan on melting it the rest of the way.

No matter how long it takes.

Chapter

Sixty-Nine

After returning from California, I make an appointment to meet with Dr. Moser, bypassing Alice all together. I don’t need her playing mind games with my head right now. What I need is to reclaim the part of myself Liam tried to destroy. Still, I’m not going to lie to myself or put patients in danger. I approach Moser with a solution—one which I think he might like.

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