Page 58 of Trusting Liam (Taking Chances 2)

I backed up a couple steps and held out my arms again. “Is this really what today is going to be about? I’m not putting up with this shit from you.” Looking at the rest of my family, I said, “I’m sorry. I’ll apologize to everyone later, but I’m gone. See you all next Sunday.”

“Bye, Liam! Bye. Go hide out again because a girl you were with for four months doesn’t want to be with you anymore.”

“Kristi,” Dad barked. “I said enough.”

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“Oh, but what a shock it was!” she continued. “She wouldn’t even let anyone call her your girlfriend—did you really think she would just change one day?”

“Again, fuck off, Kristi!” I yelled, and turned back around to face them. “You don’t know anything about what happened between Kennedy and me. Got that? None of you do—well, except maybe Dad. Finding Kennedy and fighting for her is something I would do again, and again.” I looked at all of their expectant and frustrated faces, and shrugged. “I didn’t meet Kennedy at the gym. I met her a year and a half ago in Vegas.”

“What?” Mom whispered, and looked at Dad. “You knew this?”

Dad’s eyes didn’t leave me, but I couldn’t tell if he was mad that I’d just thrown him under the bus, or if he was simply waiting to see what I would tell everyone.

“I met Kennedy one night and we hooked up,” I started again, but Kristi cut in.

“Wow. She just keeps getting better and better.”

“Think whatever you want about that, but know that I’m the one who initiated it then . . . so don’t go putting your bullshit theories on her.” Looking back at everyone again, I said, “It was only one night, but I thought of her for months. I would’ve done anything to find her again. And I mean fucking anything. But I had no name, nothing. Six months ago, my boss told me about his nieces who had just moved here from Florida, and weren’t happy about it. He wanted help introducing them to people, and anything else I could offer them. I knew Dad was looking for new people at the gym, and he agreed to interview them. Nothing more. I didn’t know until after the interview that it was the same girl from Vegas and her twin sister.” Narrowing my eyes on my sister, I said, “That is why Kennedy freaked when she saw me at the gym during her first week. Not because she dropped a drink—she dropped it because I was there.”

Kristi scoffed. “It doesn’t change what she did to you, or what she’s doing now.”

Aunt Bree looked like she wanted to agree, but I was sure the reason Uncle Konrad was whispering to her was to try to stop her from saying anything else. My mom looked shocked and mad that she was just finding all this out. Aunt Aubrey and Uncle Jeremy, my dad’s brother and sister-in-law, were staring at me just like Dad was . . . without judgment. Just waiting for what would come next.

“No, it doesn’t change what she did. But now you know why I wanted to be with her so bad. She fell back into my life, and I wasn’t letting her go again no matter how hard she tried to fight her feelings for me. No matter how much I fucking hate what’s happening now, everything finally makes sense. Why she was cautious, why she tried to push me back, why she still wouldn’t let anyone actually define our relationship . . .” I trailed off and focused on my sister again. “Yeah, I was mad when I found out. I was mad she’d waited so long to tell me. But you? You have no room to sit there and judge her or be a bitch about what’s going on because all you know is that she was married. Think about everything she did when it came to my relationship with her in the five months from when she moved here until her ex showed up, Kristi, think about it. And now think about her ex. They were married when she was eighteen, and he left her and disappeared out of the blue one day only a few months in, and just showed up again four years later. I fucking hate what is happening, and I hate not knowing who she’s going to choose. But really, you can’t blame her for being confused when she found out that the reason he left her was because he had to go undercover for the police department.”

Kristi’s pissed-off expression disappeared when I finished, and was replaced with wide eyes that were filled with shock. But she never said anything. No one did.

“Yeah. So there’s the whole story. Have fun with that.” Without another word, I turned and walked out of my parents’ house. No one tried to stop me, not like they could have after everything that had just gone down in those few minutes. And now that I’d just told the entire story, I was right back where I’d been for the last month.

Hurting. Frustrated. And waiting. Always waiting.

November 30

Kennedy

“DID YOU NOTICE the way Kristi kept looking at you today?” Kira asked as we walked up to our condo.

“Yes! You noticed it too?”

Kira gave me a look and laughed. “Kind of hard not to. She looked like she couldn’t figure out what to say to you, so she just kept telling me everything.”

“Oh well. At least she doesn’t look like she wants to kill me anymore. I wonder what changed.” I was about to put the key in the door, but stopped and looked at Kira with wide eyes. “Do you think . . . do you think Liam is seeing someone?”

“No. No way. If he were, Kristi would be throwing it in your face after how she’s been acting the last month.” Kira didn’t look worried about the possibility that Liam had found someone, but when she saw my face, her expression softened. “Have you talked to him?”

I shrugged. “I’ve tried. Whenever I call him or text him, the first thing he asks is if I’ve decided yet. When I tell him I’m still trying to, he says, ‘I’ll be here,’ and then hangs up . . . or stops responding.”

Kira suddenly looked uncomfortable, but before I could question her expression, she asked, “And are you getting any closer to deciding?”

I thought about that for a minute, and finally said, “If I had to make a decision right now, I know who I would choose. But whenever I think about making the decision, I feel like I’m still not giving Rhys the chance he deserves—so I don’t.”

“It’s been more than a month,” she reminded me.

“I know,” I groaned. “I know it has. I really need to spend some time actually talking with Rhys . . . I’ve been ignoring him even when I’m near him.”

Kira didn’t respond; she just nodded her head as she turned to face straight ahead.

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