Page 47 of Persuading Liam

And now it could be both. I clear my throat and try to steady my voice. “Of course, uh, give me a few minutes?”

“Anything,” he replies gently, and I listen as his footsteps carry him away from my door.

I don’t breathe until I hear his bedroom door open and close and even then, a heavy, hitched breath is all I can manage.

Swallowing around the lump in my throat a half dozen times, I quickly change out of my work clothes and twist my hair into a fresh topknot.

My face looks sullen and blotchy, but I won’t try to make myself look happy when I’m not. I’m in love with Liam, and if he doesn’t love me back, then I’m going to have to pull my big girl pants on and figure shit out. Just like I always have.

I give Stephen one more pat on the head and make my way to the couch where I settle on the far end, putting a throw pillow on my lap as a form of self-preservation. Or a weapon. Or both.

Liam appears from his bedroom a few moments later and my heart nearly breaks through my chest to get to him. Like always, he’s gorgeous, but today he looks harried, a little older.

To be fair, if I had gone on two runs before work in one day, I would look worse.

“Hey,” he says, sitting on the opposite end of the sofa, eyeing me carefully as if reading every micro emotion I have.

“Hey,” I answer back, attempting a neutral face that fails.

He turns his body toward me and rubs his hands along his thighs as if he’s nervous. “How was your day?”

I clear my throat. “Uh, it was definitely crazy. Mr. Schuster wants the online paper up on Monday.”

He flinches slightly. “This Monday?”

“This Monday. Fin and I got a lot done today, but I’m still freaking out a bit.”

“Understandable.” Liam frowns. “And all that after what I did this morning. I’m so sorry.”

I swallow the new lump that’s forming. “What did happen this morning?”

His head dips and he looks at his hands as he answers. “I had a dream—a nightmare really, that brought up some memories I don’t handle well.”

I wait while he gathers whatever he needs before he speaks again.

“And all I could think to do was run. It’s what I’ve always done to deal with stress and anxiety and…” When he raises his eyes to mine, I can feel the pain in his chest, the agony he felt when he threw his shoes on in the middle of the night and I get it. He had no other way of processing.

All my worry disappears for now. I drop the pillow and scoot next to him so I can wrap my arms around him. “You can talk to me, Liam.”

He draws a shaky breath and turns to engulf me in his arms. He kisses the top of my head. “I know, thank you. And I’m sorry. I don’t know if I’m strong enough right now.”

Nodding, I pull him closer to me and just hold him. I know we have a lot of work to do and conversations to have if we’re going to get our two struggle buses into the carpool lane, but this at least feels like a start and not an end.

34

LIAM

Marley’s arms around me, her quiet forgiveness, is like a salve to my soul. All the tension, worry, and doubt I carried with me all day fades until it’s small enough to set aside.

I lean back from her arms and cradle her soft chin in my fingers. “I missed you today. That’s crazy, right?”

She smiles and shakes her head before leaning in to kiss my lips. It’s short and soft and feels like heaven. “No. I missed you too.”

Feeling my heart soar, I kiss her lips again, deepening it until I’m drinking from her like a fountain. I pour myself into her in return, praying that she can sense how I feel about her, even if I don’t fully understand it myself. I’ve seen the way Max looks at Gus. I’ve seen the way my father looked at my mother. I know this is the same thing.

Love.

Deep and endless. A craving, a knowing that Marley is the other half of my heart.

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