“I . . . can come back?” Dinah offered with an officious businesswoman-looking smile.
“No. No, Liam was just . . .” Kayla looked back at him, trailing off with her mouth still open.
“Leaving,” he finished for her. “The sink’s all fixed, Ms. Gallagher.”
Kayla’s eyebrows drew together as he walked past her and Dinah, but Liam just kept walking. Clearly he’d screwed everything up, so now he was fixing it.
She didn’t want Dinah to think anything was going on, so it wasn’t. There was no reason that should bother him. No reason his teeth should be gritted together or his stomach should still have that same sick feeling it had had when he’d imagined Aiden on the other side of that door.
It was fine. Good even.
“Liam?”
She stood at the top of the stairs he’d walked halfway down and he turned to face her, though he was tempted to just keep walking. Her face was bathed in the odd orange glow of the apartment exterior lights. She looked confused, and maybe a little hurt.
Surely he was reading into things.
She walked down so that she was only a step above him. She looked at him as if she expected him to say something, but he didn’t know what she wanted from him.
Finally she leaned down and brushed a kiss across his mouth. “Tomorrow?”
And she looked genuinely worried, as though he’d reject her. Which was the craziest damn thing. Surely she didn’t think that was possible. Not when she was so sweet and gorgeous and he was a cranky ass.
“Tomorrow,” he repeated with a nod. This whole mix-up of a night didn’t matter. He wouldn’t let it.
Her smile was quick and beautiful and no matter that he felt a little. . . weird about her wanting to keep things from her family, he supposed it was best for both of them. God knew he had to keep it from his until he was sure Aiden had moved on from his little plan.
It was for the best really. Besides, maybe his mood would best be assuaged in his workshop rather than by having sex with Kayla.
He rolled his eyes at himself. In what fucking lifetime?