Page 37 of Wants and Needs
Besides music, I mean.
He’d want me to be straightforward, right? To tell him the truth and explain why I reacted the way I did.
Because I wanted to protect him.
I have no fucking clue if Liam is even single. I guess he is, because he went alone to CJ’s party and because he was alone at family dinner the day London and I flew in, but the possibility is still there.
But because I don’t know, and I didn’t want the royal Dick to think Liam had been pining for him—whether he has been or not—I jumped the gun and now I have to deal with it.
Looking at Liam now, I promise myself that whatever happens next is his choice.
Whatever that asshole does or says, I won’t lose control again, and I’ll just do what Liam wants.
With that in mind, I get an idea and pull my phone out.
There’s a message notification, and I bet it’s Mike getting back to me, but I ignore it and go to my notes app.
Are you mad at me? Is there anything I can do to help? Or do you want to be left alone for now?
I give it a second, read it and think about anything else I should be asking, and decide there’s nothing for now. Doing my best not to disturb him, I slide the phone over to him and just wait until he sees it. I’ve got nowhere to be after all.
It takes him a few minutes, but when he opens his eyes, he looks down at the table right away. I watch his face closely as he breathes out more easily and his frown starts to disappear as he reads. Just a little at least.
He grabs my phone and types, then slides it back when he’s done, all without looking at me.
I’m not mad, but I’d like to go home please.
My heart feels like it shrivels up and dies while also melting.
The “please” is what breaks me and it brings back the furyfrom all that stupid shit the grave robber said. I might sic Wolf on that asshole.
He’d deserve it for sure.
I nod at Liam to show him I’m doing what he wants, then call the waiter over and ask him to get us our lasagnas to go as well as the check so I can pay.
It’s only ten more minutes until I have the bag of food on my forearm while I order us a car and lead Liam out the door. I hold on to his shoulder so he doesn’t even need to open his eyes if he doesn’t want to.
When the big SUV stops right in front of us, I get Liam situated in no time, then nod at the driver when I climb in as well.
I’m thankful that the address to their building was still saved on my app from when the Trents invited me over to dinner, because that means I don’t have to disturb Liam at all. It’s half an hour of silence on the way uptown, and Liam’s face has smoothed over by the time I open the door for him and we walk into the building.
The doorman smiles softly at us, though Liam doesn’t see it, his eyes focused firmly on his feet.
There’s an elevator waiting in the lobby, and that’s when I know I’ll have to ask Liam what floor he lives on, but he presses the twenty-third floor, which is where I went to dinner...
Didn’t he tell me he lives a couple of floors below them?
“I need to tell Dad everything that just happened,” he mutters without looking at me.
He doesn’t take off his earbuds until we’re standing in front of the same door I knocked on all those days ago, and only oncethey’re back in their case and he lets out a big breath does he put the code into the keypad and open the door.
I walk a couple of steps behind him, unsure of what to do, what to say, if I should stay...
We find Liam’s whole family sitting around the table, clearly waiting for dinner to be done by the state of the table and the scents flowing around the room. They all turn to us, seemingly in sync, and Liam opens his mouth but... nothing comes out. He just stares.
The twitch in his left hand draws my eyes down, and I have a feeling he wants to take his earbuds out again.
But he resists, and for some reason that realization has me stepping up again and butting in, uninvited a-fucking-gain. But I don’t care about the consequences. I’m not willing to leave Liam to his own defenses, even in front of his whole family.
