Page 19 of Harboring Secrets
“I’m not an ogre,” Shane protested.
“If the swamp fits.” Archer answered with a shrug.
“Those are fighting words.”
“Please save your weird foreplay for later, when you’re alone.” I cracked the lid off my container of gravy and dumped it on my fries.
“So, little traveler, tell us about one of your adventures.” Shane reached over and dunked one of his fries in my gravy.
“What do you want to hear?”
All the memories that came to mind were ones that Liam was tangled up in. My brain was convinced that I had no memories prior to meeting Liam. That he was the reset button or something.
“I don’t know. You’ve been all over the planet. I figured you’d have something to say.”
“Wait here.” I stood and went to my room. Well, not my room, but my room until I found a place to live. On the top of the dresser was a box of postcards that I’d sent here for myself. Kieran had not only kept them safe for me, but he’d stacked them in the box in the order they were received. After a quick flip through the most recent ones to pull out any that mentioned Liam, even though some were still en route, I took the box out to the living room.
“Wipe your greasy paws off before you touch them.” I set the box down in the center of the coffee table.
“What’s that?” Archer asked. Shane was already wiping his hands with a napkin.
“I sent myself a postcard every day that I was gone. I tried to get as many from the places I was as I could, but there’s some generic ones in there too.”
Shane dug out the first postcard. “Beautiful British Columbia. I forgot you started your world tour in Canada. How was it?”
“Friendly and maple syrup-scented.”
Shane rolled his eyes. “So glad you’re back.”
The next hour or so was spent with Shane and Kieran taking turns asking me about the postcards. Some of the days were more memorable than others. There were a couple of mentions of storms and rain and other bad weather. That sort of weather would always make me think of Liam now and how we’d met.
I knew it was supposed to rain, but rain never bothered me. I wasn’t anticipating a microburst to dump on me the way it had. It rained so hard that day it was like an entire lake had been upended overtop of me.
The rain was warm, luckily, and not icy needles. But it came down with a force that made my skin sting. Ducking into the hotel lobby had been a matter of self-preservation. It was the luckiest rainstorm I’d ever been caught in.
At least I used to think so.
I wasn’t sure if I should forgive him. I wanted to. But I’d also wanted to dive into his arms and kiss him stupid. Clearly my judgement couldn’t be trusted right now. It did please me, however, that he was staying in town. Just knowing where exactly in the world he was made going to sleep that night a lot easier.
Chapter 10
Liam
Itwasasmallvictory for sure, but not only did it give me hope, but it felt like step one in the win-Brodie-back mission was accomplished and I could move on to phase two. As soon as I figured out what that was.
My social circle was woefully small now. I’d let most of my friendships suffer when Piper had gotten sick. Of course she’d been my priority. But even after she was gone, I hadn’t let people near me. Their comfort was sandpaper on my skin and I couldn’t stand it. Their sympathy choked me.
One thing I could always count on from my old friend, Oren, was that he was the least sympathetic person on the planet. He’d never treated me any different, no matter the stage of Piper’s illness.
That didn’t mean I didn’t avoid him sometimes. In fact, I hadn’t called him in a while, but that wasn’t unusual for us. We didn’t have the kind of friendship that needed constant nurturing. We were solid like bedrock.
He answered on the third ring, sounding vaguely amused to hear from me.
“Well, well, well. Liam Lawson. I thought I’d be hearing from you soon.”
Oren was also my lawyer. Something I hadn’t needed until Piper passed. With the way John and Marsha were acting, I wasn’t willing to deal with them anymore.
“This isn’t a business call.”
