Page 66 of So Bad It Must Be Good

Chapter Sixteen

Liam was quiet, and Kayla couldn’t get over the inclination that something was wrong, no matter how much he protested that it wasn’t.

He wasn’t exactly an effusive guy, but he was always relaxed with her. In a way she’d begun to notice was special. Even when he smiled and talked happily with a customer at the farmers’ market, he didn’t . . .

She didn’t know the word for it exactly. It was just, she understood why she’d always seen him as sort of hard and standoffish before she’d gotten to know him. There was a kind of wall he kept up between himself and people even when he was helping them.

But he didn’t have that with her. Or he hadn’t lately, but tonight, it was definitely there. It bothered her and it worried her, but she also didn’t want to nag him constantly. Maybe he needed some space to worry about his father’s surgery alone. She just wished he’d tell her that.

She could ask him, and maybe she would, but . . . she wanted it to come from him. She wanted him to take that step to laying his problems at her feet without her having to pull them out of him.

Would that ever happen?

With that depressing thought making her gut twist, she cleared the table, taking the dishes to the kitchen sink. She took a deep breath and tried to get her head on straight. Liam had a lot on his mind with his father’s surgery tomorrow. She had to cut him some slack.

This new leaf wasn’t just about barging through life and getting whatever she wanted because she’d once hid in the corners and not gone after anything. It was about balance. Love was about balance.

“I hope you know how much I appreciate this,” Liam said, coming up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist.

It was amazing that something as simple as a hug and appreciation could wipe all that worry and confusion away. She smiled over her shoulder at him. “I know.”

“And how do you know that?” he asked, leaning forward enough to rest his chin on her shoulder.

She turned in the circle of his arms, wrapping hers around his neck. “You’ve shown your appreciation in a great many creative ways.” She rubbed one hand across his beard and some of that ache was back. She’d spent an entire dinner pretending there wasn’t this heavy weight on his shoulders, and she didn’t think she could move on to sex knowing it was there. If he begged her off, she’d let him, but maybe what Liam really needed was someone to ask. “What’s bothering you?”

He blew out a breath. “Can’t get anything by you.”

“I hope that always continues. Now, tell me.”

“So bossy.” But his smile quickly died. “I, um, went to . . . visit my mom.”

Kayla did her best not to react unfavorably. Based on what she’d gleaned from Liam, and knowing Mr. Patrick even if only as Gallagher’s handyman, she had a theory that Liam’s mother was the center of a lot of his . . . hangups. But Mr. Patrick was having surgery tomorrow, and Kayla should be kind. “Is she upset about tomorrow?”

“I thought so. I mean, she is. But she’s, um, worried about Aiden.”

Kayla didn’t want to butt in about family stuff. She really didn’t. When it came to Liam misguidedly putting himself last, well, she’d said a few things, but when it came to actual relationships, she didn’t want to start nosing into things that didn’t really have anything to do with her.

But it was hard to bite her tongue. It irked her on every level that there seemed to be an odd kind of favoritism toward Aiden, and though she didn’t have any siblings, she knew what it was like to be overlooked.

Grandmother had always focused everything on Dinah, and Kayla had tried to contort herself into a million little obedient pieces to get noticed, to feel loved. It had never happened.

Liam didn’t do the same thing, but it was for the same reasons, but he didn’t see it. Was it her job to help him see it? Could it be?

“She thinks Aiden is maybe getting into drugs now. She’s afraid he’s going to hurt himself.”

“It sounds like he needs professional help,” Kayla returned as blandly as she could manage.

“He does, and I suggested it, but . . . Aiden’s not particularly apt to take a suggestion. Mom thinks . . . Well, she thinks if we can get him a little more even-keeled he’d listen. She asked for my help.”

This time Kayla really did bite her tongue and she stepped away, no matter how much she knew he’d read into that. Aiden’s issues were so completely not her place, but she didn’t like how everyone seemed to insist Liam could fix Aiden if only Liam tried.

“I know you feel responsible for Aiden, for your family, and I understand that,” she said as carefully as she could. “But you are not a mental health professional, Liam, and if Aiden really is that bad off, that’s what he needs.”

“I know. I know. But, see, he’s got this idea in his head that he’s unhappy because . . .”

Liam looked meaningfully at her and Kayla couldn’t help it. She rolled her eyes. “Because of me?”

“Well, us.”

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