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She shrugged her shoulders and started bawling all over again. “I’ll just have to go back home.”
Nope. Nuh-uh. Not on Liam’s watch. He would not sit around and let the love of his life walk away again!
Sophie was too drunk to think straight and therefore in no condition to have an adult conversation. So, he cut to the quick and gave her no other choice then to go along with his plan.
He sat her up and made her look square into his eyes. “Now, here is what’s going to happen: I’m going to loan you the money you need. You’re going to accept it. Then you’re going to pay it back. End of. Understand?”
Sophie considered for a minute. She didn’t want to leave Ireland and she couldn’t argue with Liam’s determination. At the moment she definitely couldn’t argue with him considering she wasn’t sure which one of the three Liam’s she was looking at right now was the real one. All three had the same handsome face she adored. She assumed it was the one in the middle.
Sophie burst into tears all over again and nodded her head as she threw her arms around him. “Thank you.” She pressed a lingering, wet kiss to cheek. “You know this isn’t why I called you, right?” she blubbered.
Liam tightened his arms around her and gave a comforting squeeze. “I know that, a stór.”
Sophie sighed and relaxed inside his arms. She had always loved it when he called her that: his treasure. “We’ll need a contract and?—”
“No, no contract, no schedule. We shake on it and that’s that.” Liam pulled away from her, stuck out his hand for her to shake, and she took it with a tear-stained smile.
He’d always known what to do. No matter what the situation, Liam had always found a solution and if by some small chance he couldn’t find a solution, he made one instead.
“Have it your way. You always were the stubborn one,” she teased, nudging him with her shoulder.
“Me? I’m not nearly so stubborn as you.” Liam brought her back under his arm and hugged her close.
“Liam?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” With her bitter tears now dry, she settled against him. He gazed around the room. They had a lot of memories in this house. This was where Sophie usually stayed when she would visit in the Summer. “Being in this house takes me back. We used to play games at that table over there. You taught me how to gamble.”
Sophie grinned. “Yeah, I remember one time I bet my aunt’s statue of Mary.”
“I still have that.”
“You’re kidding!”
“You didn’t notice it in my kitchen? I tried returning it once, but she said that it had been a gift from her mother-in-law and she’d always hated that statue and to keep it.” He could still recall Nan’s laughter. She knew all along where it had gone to.
Sophie smiled. “Remember when she caught you sneaking out my bedroom window?”
How could he forget? If Nan hadn’t come home when she did, he and Sophie would have been naked in her bed and at it like rabbits. “I wasn’t wearing any pants, and she made me stand there in front of her while she lectured us. How old were we?”
“I don’t know. I think I was fourteen? She’s always loved you.”
“She wasn’t so fond of me when she caught us making out on this very sofa.”
“Different sofa.”
“Huh?”
“Same room, different sofa. That one was green plaid. This one is blue.”
Liam looked to his left at the sofa cushion. Now he remembered.
So many memories.
All this talk about sex stirred up feelings in him that were completely inappropriate for this situation. He needed to get off the sofa before he did something reckless—like kiss her. He’d never been able to resist Sophie when she cried, which wasn’t often, but she wasn’t ready for that, and he wasn’t the kind of man to take advantage.
