Page 105 of Spiralling Skywards
Men are strangecreatures, different entirely from women. Less than fifteen minutes after my brother had punched Will on the jaw, he was pouring him whiskey.
I wrapped the sandwich bag I’d filled with ice in a tea towel and passed it to him, he grabbed my wrist. Luke stilled the bottle of whiskey mid-flow and Liam stepped forward from where he was leaning against the kitchen worktop.
I looked down at where Will held on to me. He let go.
“I am so sorry, Sunshine.” He gave a deep sigh. “I was bang out of order. That was a terrible thing to say.” He looked up at my brother.
“You too, man. I am seriously sorry.”
He held the ice pack against his jaw with one hand and raised his glass with the other.
“Here’s to great right hooks from friends. Christmas just wouldn’t be the same without them.”
I stepped back to Liam’s side and raised my glass of wine. I was still pissed off at Will, but I wasn’t going to let him spoil things.
My anger at Olivia had cooled, and I could feel happiness creeping in. Liam and I hadn’t had a chance to talk yet, but I hoped everything that he’d said before her arrival still stood. I hadn’t told him directly that I loved him, but I’d put it out there, he knew.
He laced his fingers through mine and turned to look at me.
“Merry Christmas, pretty girl. Here’s to the first of many.”
He kissed the top of my head and then pulled me over towards the sofa. I flicked on a music channel and The Killers blasted one of my all-time favourite songs, “Somebody Told Me”, into the room.
Sasha came through the door right then.
“Merry Christmas mother fuckers.” She shouted, and knowing that I loved the song, she grabbed a hold of me and pulled me into the middle of the room and we danced around like a pair of lunatics. Wolf Mother’s “Joker and the Thief” was up next and we carried on.
Liam watched and laughed at our antics. Then, when the song ended, he pulled me down into his lap.
“So, Sarah Carter, now what?”
His lips were pressed against my ear, his warm whisky scented breath and just about everything else about him sent goose bumps marching across my skin, despite how hot I was from dancing.
The chair we were sitting in hid us from my brother and Will’s views, so I wrapped my arms around Liam’s neck. I may’ve been pissed off with Will’s attitude and what he’d said to me earlier, but I didn’t want to rub his face in what was going on between me and Liam.
“You tell me, Liam Delaney,” I whispered back, still a bit breathless from my dance moves. “You’ve swept into my country, my town, and my life. You’ve taken my heart hostage and have hijacked all my thoughts. What more could I possibly give you?”
He smiled at me, his blue eyes sparkled and caused my insides to do all kinds of clenchy things that I would never admit to.
“Those three words.”
“What?”
He gestured towards the telly with a tilt of his head. Snow Patrol was playing.
“But they’re said too much,” I told him quietly.
“Never. Not between us. Tell me. You told everyone else, now tell me.”
“I love you.”
“I know.”
He kissed me gently on the mouth and then pulled me up to dance with him. We moved slowly around my brother’s living room, our bodies melded together, my fingers laced around his neck, his hands on my arse, pressing me into him as he quietly sang the words to “Chasing Cars” into my ear. Me and him, we didn’t need anyone or anything. Just each other.
The rest of the evening was spent playing our favourite songs, drinking, talking, laughing, and occasionally dancing around my brother’s living room.
When the drinking games started in the kitchen, Liam and I slipped away upstairs and headed to my bedroom.
