by Helen Lacey
“And today?”
He shrugged lightly. “Today I probably have a little more clarity in my thinking.”
Relief worked its way through her. He hadn’t moved out. He wasn’t angry. “I was giving your mom and Kathleen privacy. Gwen asked if I would arrange a meeting between herself and my aunt...away from the rest of the family.”
“Nice of you to let me know.”
“She also asked me not to say anything,” Kayla explained. “And I didn’t like keeping it from you, but she insisted. She was worried you would try and talk her out of it.”
“I probably would have,” he said. “My mother has been through a lot these last couple of years. Losing Liz nearly broke her. I won’t simply stand by and allow her to be hurt again.”
“Of course not,” Kayla said, her heart lurching forward. Whatever Liam’s flaws, his need to protect those he loved was as intrinsic to him as breathing. He was an honorable man and he expected the same in return. “I’m sorry about Dane and how it—”
“How it looked?” he said, cutting her off. “How you looked? Relaxed. Happy. You had a life before me, Kayla,” he said, clearly frustrated and nursing a headache. “I get that. So did I. We both have a past, we both have friends who we care about and old lovers who might cross our path every now and then and I—”
“Dane was never my lover,” she interjected, indignant and fighting the exasperation clamoring through her blood.
“I know that,” he said quietly. “And I know it’s irrational, but if you’d been sitting in Ash’s or Lucy’s living room I wouldn’t have reacted that way.” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “But it wasn’t Ash or Lucy’s living room, was it? And if that sounds like some stupidly macho double standard, well...that’s because it is.”
As expected, Liam always spoke the absolute truth. He wouldn’t color it with lies. Not ever. “We were only talking. I told him I would be subletting the apartment until the lease ran out. That’s all.” She sighed heavily. “And you would have been welcome to stay. He respects that I’m married and even before that there was nothing between us except friendship. I promise you. But,” she added and wagged a finger, “that doesn’t mean you have the right to act all stupidly macho and scare the living daylights out of him.”
Liam gave a rueful grin and then ran a frustrated hand through his already tousled hair. “I think that seeing you together, looking so relaxed and happy, I just flipped out. Knowing you could talk to him, when we can barely discuss the weather without getting into an argument...it cut deep.”
Kayla’s heart felt as though it might burst in her chest. “I’m sorry... I didn’t think it through that way. And if it had been the other way around I probably would have reacted the same way.”
“You know, I’ve never considered myself the jealous type,” he admitted wearily. “But then...I’ve never been in love before, so I guess that’s clouding my usual good sense.”
Kayla’s insides rolled over and she rose to her feet. She was about to cross the room and head directly for his arms when the office door opened and his father and Kieran walked across the threshold. J.D. O’Sullivan looked unusually old and tired and Kieran’s bloodshot eyes and gray pallor indicated he was in the same state as his brother.
“Women!” J.D. said on a huff, obviously not spotting Kayla. “Damned contrary creatures! You’d think that after thirty-six years of marriage I’d get more than my bags packed on the steps and the door slammed in my face. I can’t believe she won’t talk to me. She won’t even let me take her to that museum thing tomorrow night, when everyone will expect us to arrive together and—” He stopped speaking when he noticed Kayla by the window. “Oh...right...you’re here.”
“Have either of you heard of the concept of knocking?” Liam asked.
“This used to be my office,” J.D. said and shrugged. “I figured I was welcome anytime.”
Kayla saw the pulse in Liam’s cheek throb. They had a half-finished conversation that needed resolution...something she figured they were not going to get while his father and brother were in the room.
She pushed back her shoulders, moved toward her husband and grasped his arm. “I’ll see you at home,” she said and kissed his cheek. Then she turned toward the other two men. “It’s good to see you again, Kieran. Will you be at the benefit tomorrow night?”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” he replied and grinned. “By the way, welcome to the family.”
“Thanks,” she said and then faced J.D. “If you’re coming tomorrow night, I’d like you to remain civil with my father and with Mrs. O’Sullivan. And remember that the event is about raising money for the hospital, not an opportunity to air grievances or start a squabble...with anyone.”
She turned her head, smiled at her husband and then quietly left the room.
* * *
“Have I just been put in my place?”
Liam was smiling as he watched his wife leave and then focussed his attention on his father, who was scowling. “Looks like it.”
“She’s got a lot of sass, that girl.”
“Don’t I know it,” he said and laughed as he glanced at his brother. “You look like hell.”
Kieran groaned. “You don’t look much better. I don’t think I’ve drunk that much in years.”
J.D. puffed out his chest. “That’s another thing...did you have to get Jonah trashed last night? Things are bad enough between me and him and me and his mother without you two making it worse.”
Kieran laughed. “He’s got a cast-iron gut and drank us under the table. And I think he made out just fine last night. Last I saw he was wrapped around some blonde in the hall outside his room last night.”
Liam ignored his father’s scowl. He didn’t want to talk about his new brother, his father’s battles with Kathleen or his parents’ fractured relationship. “Did you two want something?”
“I want you to talk to your mother,” J.D. said. “She listens to you.”
He considered his father’s words and was about to agree, but something held him back. He looked toward his brother, saw Kieran nodding and then felt an inexplicable kind of relief at the building realization that his parents’ marriage wasn’t his problem to fix. All his life he’d fixed things, like sorting out squabbles between his younger siblings or taking over the reins of the business. Expansion and growing the O’Sullivan portfolio had been his priority. Even when Liz died, he’d been the glue that kept the family from falling apart. But he couldn’t fix this.
Absolute truth means absolute control. Over everything.
Kayla’s words echoed in his head. She’d accused him of being a control freak. But he couldn’t control this. It wasn’t his to control. He had to stand on the sidelines and allow his parents to work it out for themselves. Without interference. Knowing it would challenge every one of his principles. But he had to do it. He needed to step aside this time.
Instead, he had to work on his own life and marriage.
Before it was too late.
“I have to be somewhere,” he said and grabbed his keys and jacket. “You both know the way out.” Then he left before they had a chance to reply.
Twenty minutes later he pulled up outside Derek and Marion Rickard’s home. His gut was churning, but he knew this was inevitable. Kayla was his wife and the mother of his unborn child. And she needed her parents in her life. They were an important part of who she was. And he had to make it right. Perhaps that meant he would be reasoning with the unreasonable...but he had try.
He got out of the Silverado, turned his phone to mute so he wouldn’t be interrupted and headed up the path. It was Kathleen who answered the door and she invited him over the threshold without a word. His mother had met with her the night before and he hoped they had made peace. Kathleen was Jonah’s mother, and Jonah, as disagreeable and obnoxious as he seemed, was his blood. Lo
sing his sister had galvanized the importance of family to Liam and he would do what he could to carve out some kind of relationship with his half brother.
“I’d like to see—”
“Derek’s in the kitchen,” she said and smiled. “Go easy on him, though, will you? He’s had a rough couple of days.”
He’s not the only one.
Liam nodded. “I’ll do my best,” he said and strode down the hall.
Derek Rickard was inside the pantry, scanning the contents, when Liam entered the room. He took a few steps into the kitchen, crossed his arms and waited.
The older man straightened when he realized he had company and closed the pantry door. “Well, I was wondering how long it would take you.”
Liam’s shoulders tightened. “Too long, probably. We need to talk.”
His father-in-law nodded. “You’re right. So...talk. Stand there and tell me that you love my daughter and you’ll do anything for her.”
Liam sucked in a long breath. “I love your daughter...and I’ll do anything for her.”
Derek Rickard moved from behind the counter and dropped into a chair. “Love?” His gray brows rose. “You pursued her. You dated her. You married her. You got her pregnant. Knowing,” he said with a kind of anguished emphasis, “that it would create a problem between her and her family...do you actually call that love?”
He considered the older man’s logic. To Derek Rickard, it seemed cut-and-dried. But it wasn’t. Liam walked around the table and grasped the back of a chair. “You’re right... I pursued her. I pursued her for months before she agreed to go out with me. I pursued Kayla because the night she crashed into my car in the parking lot at the hotel, I got out of my vehicle and took one look at her and felt as though I’d been struck by lightning. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. I could barely string two words together. Have you ever felt that? Did you have that feeling when you first met your wife? If so, did you ignore it? Did you walk away? Could you have walked away?” His knuckles were white around the chair. “Well, I couldn’t. Maybe that sounds foolish...but it’s the truth.”
Derek looked at him, long and hard. His hands were on the table, linked together. Finally, he spoke. “Yes, actually, I have felt that. When I first met Marion, I thought she was the most beautiful girl I have ever seen and I couldn’t wait to see her again. I knew, the moment I met her, that she was all I wanted. She still is.”
Liam nodded. “Then you understand. And don’t tell me it’s different,” Liam said and waved a hand when the older man went to protest. “It’s no different. Look, I get that you dislike my family and have a problem with everything my father did. Hell, I’ve got a problem with it. However, he’s still my father and I have to forgive him for making a monumental mistake that has now broken my family in two. So, if you want to hate me,” he said evenly, “then hate me. Give it all you’ve got because I can take it. But what I can’t take is my wife’s tears and unhappiness because the father she has adored and looked up to all her life is acting like he despises her.”
Derek looked as if he wanted to get to his feet and go a few rounds, but to his credit, the older man remained seated. “Do you think I enjoy seeing my daughter unhappy?”
“Not at all,” Liam shot back. “But she is unhappy and some of that is because of you. Not all of it,” he amended. “I have my own part in this. But right now she needs your support, not your disapproval.”
“She’s had my support and love since the day she was born.”
“Until the moment she did something you didn’t approve of,” Liam said, pushing down his rising anger. “All I know is this, we both love her...but if you don’t learn to at least accept our marriage, at some point one of us is going to lose her. And whichever way that turns out, Kayla is going to be in the middle of a whole lot of heartbreak.” Liam took a heavy breath. “As her husband, I can’t allow that. And as her father, you shouldn’t allow that, either.”
Then Liam turned and strode from the room, leaving the other man staring after him.
By the time he got home it was after four o’clock. Kayla’s car was parked in the driveway and he was so pleased she was home he rushed from his vehicle and took the steps two at a time.
He found her asleep on the sofa, her legs curled up, and her face resting serenely on her hands. Liam grabbed a cotton throw from the back of the sofa and draped it over her shoulders and then headed upstairs to shower and shave. When he returned downstairs twenty minutes later, dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt, she was still asleep. He dropped into the chair by the window, rested his elbows on the leather arms and linked his fingers together. She looked insanely beautiful as she slept. And peaceful. Without a worry. His gaze traveled down, over her slender neck and throat, and farther to her still-flat belly. Knowing their child was sheltered and growing inside her filled him with a kind of joy he hadn’t known he could feel, and a deep-rooted need to keep them protected and safe.
All his life he’d sought to do the right thing...much like Kayla had. He’d been raised to be responsible and to take those responsibilities seriously. To always think of others, but at the same time, expect the best from those around him. In his personal life, he’d dated casually, never getting too close because he didn’t want to lead any woman into thinking he was ready to settle down when he wasn’t. At work, he was fair, but demanding. His staff, he knew, respected him, but he suspected they also feared him a little. His work ethic, his strict moral code and unflappable belief in the truth above anything else had made him what he was—generous in nature, but also impatient and arrogant. So, when Kayla had asked for time to tell her parents about their relationship, he’d mistaken that as a sign of her reticence and lack of commitment in their relationship. In him. In them.
And it had hurt. His heart and his pride. He should have had more patience, helped her through the reluctance she was feeling rather than make demands and call her a coward.
His gaze moved back to her face and he saw that her eyes were open.
“You’re awake.”
“You’re staring.”
“You’re beautiful,” he said and smiled. “And I can’t help myself. Anyway, you looked as though you needed to rest.”
“I did,” she replied, unmoving. “I got home an hour ago and flaked out. Growing this baby inside me has made me realize how much I need to rest.”
“It’s been a long week,” he said quietly and nodded, meeting her steady gaze. “I spoke with your father this afternoon.”
Her eyes widened immediately. “You did?”
“I went to see him. To talk. I got the feeling he’d almost been expecting me at some point.”
“And how did that go?”
“He listened to what I had to say. The rest is up to him.” He edged forward a little. “I get it, you know...how it is for you. How hard it has been to go against your parents’ expectations...probably for the first time in your life. The truth is, we both come from close families. But I had three siblings and growing up we all kind of scrambled for whatever attention we could get, in between one another. And even though I stepped into my father’s shoes and took over the business, I’m sure that if I’d decided to bail on the business and Cedar River like Kieran and Sean did, my father would have blustered his way through his disappointment. He would have sold the hotel and found something else to spend his money on.” He took a long breath and kept their gaze linked. “But for you, there was only you. And I understand now that it’s a different kind of family obligation. A different kind of duty that you feel. That there’s only you and them.”
She sat up slowly, crossing her legs. “Why the change of thinking?”
“My brother.”
“Kieran?”
Liam shook his head. “Jonah. He said it was different for him. He said that being raised as an only child created a different kind of
dynamic. It made me think of you and then it made sense.”
A small smile curved her lovely mouth. “You said he was your brother?”
Liam shrugged. “Can’t change DNA. And I’m going to try and build some kind of relationship with him...as long as he meets me partway.”
“I’m glad,” she said softly. “I think he needs you, even though he probably doesn’t know it yet. And it might help him to stop being so angry at your dad.”
“Maybe,” he said and shifted in his seat. “But frankly, I’m tired of worrying about everyone else’s relationships. The only one I’m concerned about right now is this one...you and me.”
Her brown eyes shimmered and her smile widened. “Then what are you doing way over there?”
It was all the invitation he needed. He got up and joined her on the sofa, taking her hands in his own. She pressed forward, but Liam pulled back a fraction. “Kayla...let me get this out, let me finish this, and once we’re done, then I’d like to spend the next few hours making love to you.” He raised her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. “I know I’ve been impatient and angry and sometimes downright unbearable during the last few months. Particularly since Vegas. It’s no secret that I’m used to getting my own way,” he admitted ruefully, holding her hands within his. “When I want something, I usually get it.”
“Like me?”
He shrugged. “You knocked me on my ass that day in the parking lot, do you know that? I told your dad today that it was like being struck by lightning. And it was. But my attraction to you made me bullheaded and determined to get you and I didn’t really care about the consequences. Even though I knew what they would be.”
“That my parents would never accept it?”
He nodded. “And maybe they never will. We have to consider that possibility. And you have to decide if you can handle that. I’ll be here, every step of the way with you, but we’ll do this at your pace. The whole family knows the truth about Kathleen and Jonah and soon that news will be common knowledge in town...especially now my mother has decided she wants to end her marriage. Which truly sucks,” he said and sighed. “But there’s nothing I can do about it. Nothing I can say. All I can do is be here for you. For us.”