Page 29 of Hold

His throat got stuck or something. There might have been a silence. Only when Chloe said, “Hello, Thea. Hello, Liam. My, don’t you look hot. Want to kick everyone else out and—?” did Thea break position and stand up with a yelp of “Children! Children in the room!”

The dress almost reached her knees and floated around the rest of her in a way that should have helped him but only hinted all the more at what it covered. At least the hole at her neck was in its proper place now. Her cheeks almost matched the dress.

Liam was holding the box with his contribution to the dinner. It was Zahra who took it from him, saying in a kind voice, like one you’d use on an invalid, “That smells so good. I’m starving.”

He followed her into the kitchen, blinded, stupid, but the mundane act of putting the sliders on a serving plate gave him some breathing room so he could go back into the living room with some idea of not acting like a horny teenager.

David also helped him out by immediately pouncing on him and demanding he show him and Seth the truck. After twenty minutes of standing out in the street, beer in hand, staring down into the engine of the Chevy, Liam finally felt like he’d regained his equilibrium.

This was as good a time as any to bring up the money.

“You weren’t married long,” David said, frowning, when he told him about his tight funds. Liam could see him getting into his accountant role. “Was the divorce that expensive?”

“She stretched out the separation agreement negotiations. Wanted half my house.” Liam’s jaw hurt from getting the words out. “I bought it when it was a piece of shit, andIbrought it back before she and I got married. I gave her any of the furniture she wanted, but I was damned if she was getting my house too.”

“Must have been hard to persuade the judge.”

“It didn’t get that far. Just a few months of a pissing contest back and forth between our lawyers. Me quitting my job was part of the compromise. She wanted to see me suffer one way or another.”

“Nice lady.”

“Yeah. In the end.” Liam looked determinedly at the Chevy’s hood, not wanting to see sympathy in their eyes. “Still, I got my house and the mortgage that goes along with it.” The mortgage, which always made him wince nowadays, thanks to the broker who’d given it to him—and taken his wife in exchange. He’d actually been relieved when the bank sold it to some huge, faceless company. “And my new job is a big pay cut, so…” Time for confessions. “I’m not going back to school yet.”

The twins stared at him. Waited.

He hooked a hand behind his neck. “I could afford only this one class. Like I said to Zahra, I wanted to make sure I had the language immersion theory down before I start in the fall. But I’m not taking any more classes.”

“So why did you—?” Seth began, but David nudged him and he fell silent.

“Let me ask you a question,” David said. “Do you own this truck outright?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Any other student debt?”

“No.” His dad had been true to his word on that. Unless you counted the debt of obligation Pat continued to cash in on.

“And you fixed up your house? You know what the value is now?”

Liam told him.

“Well, then, I hate to break it to you, but you should borrow the money and get into the fall program as quick as you can.”

“What?”

David snorted a laugh. “Welcome to the twenty-first century, Mr. Retro.” He nodded at the truck. “You put a lot of equity into your house when you renovated it, and your mortgage is half of what the house is worth. You can get a home equity line of credit so you only borrow what you end up spending on school. Or you can get a regular ole student loan.”

“I thought you couldn’t get loans for graduate school.”

“Who told you that?”

Liam ran his hand down his beard. “My dad, probably. Mr. Retro, Senior.” Pat didn’t believe in debt. Liam didn’t realize how much he’d assimilated his father’s beliefs.

“Debt is great when you don’t borrow more than you can pay back,” David said. “This is an investment in your career. You know how much more you’ll make as a principal, I assume? Well, so the thirty thousand you spend now will make you more than a hundred thousand a year. And since I assume you’re gonna be studying part-time, you’d better get on it.”

Liam pondered his words. They gave him hope, which he’d learned was a tricky emotion. He’d been waiting ten years to get this degree, to move forward into the career he really wanted. Avery’s destruction of their marriage had pushed that idea back at least five years, or so he’d believed. If he listened to David, he could have his master’s in three.

Going back to work for his dad had been a blow, he could admit it. He’d figured that even when he started the new job, he’d have to work on the weekends for his father to save enough money to get back to school. If he followed David’s advice, he could concentrate on doing what he loved.

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