Page 68 of A Forgotten Mistake

“And not because you’re going to go stalk Cameron without permission or reasoning that would stand up in court.”

“The reasoning is that I’m almighty and everyone should obey me,” he says as he starts driving. I realize we’re heading away from his house, and in a few minutes, he pulls into the drive-through at a café. Once he asks what I want, he orders three drinks and hands me mine while he sets the third to the side. It doesn’t take long for me to realize it’s the same drink Cameron had.

“What are you up to now?” I ask as I sip my iced coffee, even though it’s a bit chilly outside. I probably should have gotten something hot, but they knew just how to sucker me in with this holiday spice shit.

“Come, come,” Liam says as he reaches his house and hurries inside. He sets the third drink in the sink and fills the sink with hot water, causing the ice to melt. I feel like I’m watching some half-price science experiment as I sip my iced coffee and decide that I could probably drink this every day for the rest of my life. My view adds a nice touch—sexy Liam waving at an unsexy cup. He clearly expects me to be amazed by whatever is happening, but I’m more amazed at the way these flavors mesh.

“Yeah?” I ask. “When hot water touches ice, it does melt. Very sexy demonstration. Taste this.”

He willingly takes a sip and gives me an approving nod. “Yes, very good, but come on, Gabriel. Just because I took a year off doesn’t mean you get to skip using your brain.”

“I am using my brain! It’s now filled with things like ‘Why did Liam unscrew Matthew’s chair? Why did Liam rearrange the keys on Michaels’ keyboard? And why is this drink so damn good?’ Those kinds of things.”

Liam grins at the fun memories. “No, stop. Don’t distract me.”

“Let me try yours,” I say as I eagerly hold my hand out.

He quickly hands it over and I take a sip, very much enjoying it when I do. “Ooh, that one’s good too.”

“You want it? You can have it.”

“No, I’m not going to just take your drink.”

“You can have my cat too,” he offers. “Anything of mine is yours.”

“Nope. Okay. I’m being focused now. Let me see.” I stare at the third drink and realize what he’s getting at. “The color is quite diluted. They used a shit ton of ice, so the drink is now watered down, but Cameron claimed he put ice in it.”

“Right. He didn’t say that the ice hadn’t melted. He said he put ice in it.”

“Butothers are looking into him as we speak. Just because we went home doesn’t mean we’ve washed our hands of it. There are others who work for the department, so we need to let them do their jobs.”

He sighs and his shoulders slump. It’s all quite dramatic. “Gabriel, why do you hurt me like this?”

“Because I don’t think you should go fucking karate chop some random guy when the only proof we have is that his ice didn’t melt.”

“I could suffocate him with ice and the evidence will melt. That’ll teach him for lying to me,” Liam says, smiling until he gets a decent look at my face.

“Will it teach him? Because he’ll be dead.”

“Instead of finding the missing woman, I suppose I could just sit pretty.”

“Please sit pretty.”

Liam sighs again. “You are the most beautiful torturer that I’ve met in my life.”

What kind of flattery is this? “I don’t know how to take that… but thank you. I’m going to head home and get dinner started. Tomorrow night, maybe we could work on packing and getting your stuff moved to your new house?”

“Sure.”

“That’s so exciting. Your new place is so nice,” I say, realizing that I really need to give him an answer about moving in. I guess I just need a bit more time to get all of my thoughts straight before I cave. I’d have to figure out what to do with my house and… there’s just a lot to think about when we’ve been dating a little over a month.

Then I give him a kiss and hurry out the door.

Lucille Pawl and Butter are probably convinced they’ve been deprived of love, and I can even see Lucille sitting in the window when I pull into the driveway. What’s less pleasant to see is Cole glancing at me before quickly tucking his head and rushing back toward his house. But there’s no fucking way to miss his black eye. I don’t want to be rash, it could have happened somewhere else, but what if our suspicions are right and Cole’s father Davey is being abusive? Would Cole trust me now? Would he take my side if I pushed again for help? Or would he fight it like he has every time in the past?

I see Cole’s father standing out on the porch watching me. He seems to observe things for a moment before he grabs his son’s arm and starts over into my yard.

“Fucking hell,” I whisper before throwing on my best friendly neighbor smile.

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