Page 44 of Hold

“Thanks a bunch. You just wait till it’s your turn.”

“It’ll never be my turn.” Megan smiled. “Better get it over with now. Rip the Band-Aid off, so to speak.”

“Fine. He’s in a study group I’m in. He fixed a couple of things around the house. We fight a lot. That’s it. Okay?”

Megan laughed and Cat scowled. “Sonot okay,” Megan said. “You fight a lot? That’s passion right there.”

“Shut up, Meg.”

“Yeah, Meg, shut up,” Cat said. “This is serious, T. Did you get that paperwork in like I told you?”

“Yes.”

“How long ago?”

“Three months.” Actually, it was six weeks, but Thea wasn’t about to tell her that.

“Look.” Cat did that thing where she jumped from bitchy mother to caring sister in a blink. She put her hand out to cover Thea’s. “You look better. Less tired, less… hopeless. If this guy’s done that for you, I’ll love him to the end of time. But first”—she gripped Thea’s hand hard—“you have to sort out your little abandonment problem.”

“Jeez, Cat,” Megan said, “it’s been two years. You think you could give her your royal approval to move on, maybe?”

“I wanted her to move on fifteen years ago,” Cat said. Thea rolled her eyes. They would never forgive her for Gabe.

“I’m not ‘moving on,’” she said, pulling her hand away. “There’s nothing to tell. Liam’s just”—hot as hell, and my fingers are constantly itching to touch his beard and his hair and wrap themselves around his bicep and—“really, truly, being a friend right now.”

“Giving Jake a job?”

“What about me?” Jake had heard his name. She hoped he hadn’t heard the rest of the conversation.

“Liam’s here,” Thea said.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he said, dropped the soccer ball, and ran into the house, closely followed by Benji. His cousins looked after him in surprise.

“So they’re fans of Liam, too?” Cat said slyly.

“Please, stop,” Thea begged. “I’m well aware that things could get very complicated. Which is why I’m telling you not to make a big deal out of it. Especially in front of the boys.”

Her sisters seemed to accept this and fell silent. Ellen brought the baby back into the pool, and there was peace for a few minutes.

Then Kane brought Liam out to the patio. “At least have a glass of iced tea,” he said. “I feel bad taking you away from your family.”

“It’s not a problem,” Liam said. He lasered in on Thea right away. Her cover-up helped her return his gaze with some courage this time.

“Oh, do have a glass before you go,” Ellen said, stepping out of the pool like Aphrodite from her shell. Megan, in a gold and black bikini, was lounging like Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, and Cat, even after twenty years of marriage and two teenage sons, was striking with her dark hair and strong jaw.

Yet, among all her beautiful family, Liam was looking ather. And Thea was smiling at him; she couldn’t help it.

“Okay, thanks,” Liam said to Ellen, accepting the glass of iced tea.

“It’s not a leak,” Kane told her.

“How is that possible?”

“It was your drain pan under the air conditioner in the attic,” Liam said. “The pipe must have gotten blocked and it overflowed. There’s a safety shutoff on the units nowadays that stops the unit from running when the tray fills up. But yours…” He paused.

“Is ancient. Dammit.” Ellen thumped her thigh. “I knew we should have done the mechanics first.” She mock-scowled at Kane. “You and your heated wet bar.”

“Yeah, complain when it’s winter and you’ve got fifty guests and ten feet of snow outside,” he retorted.

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