“I didn’t mean it! It was an accident. You know I only love you.” Tears were beginning to roll down Jenna’s face.
“That’s fucking pathetic,” Liam said. “How do you accidentally fuck somebody? Were you too drunk? That’s no excuse.” He managed to push away from her and walked briskly toward the counter where he could call the cab company, or possibly the cops.
“Liam!” she screamed after him. “Liam! If you send me out of here, you’ll be sorry! I’m the best damn thing that ever happened to you!”
Serena flashed briefly into his thoughts. “Not even close,” he said. “Now get the fuck out of my store.”
She ran at him with her arms out and fingers hooked into claws. Liam instinctively reached out and grabbed her arms, trying to protect his face. She kicked out at him instead, her pointy-toed shoe connecting with his shin. It was enough to make him loosen his grip. She pulled free and then grabbed his hair. She yanked his head down and kissed him. He managed to grab her arms again and wrestle free. In his attempt to get her away, he pushed too hard and she fell backward, landing hard on her ass.
She sat stunned for a minute and then began to wail. “You fucking bastard! You’re fucking crazy!”
Liam tuned her out and turned to call the police but found Lance already standing there.
“I already called, bro,” he said. “They’re on their way.”
Jenna was still yelling loudly but hadn’t made any attempt to get up and when the police arrived a few minutes later, they hauled her to her feet and led her out of the store. Liam went to the two customers who had witnessed the events and apologized, offering them some free samples and coupons. It was only then that he remembered Sam.
He found the boy peeking out from behind one of the aisles near the back.
“Hey, kiddo,” he said. “Sorry about that.”
“That lady was really loud,” he said.
“Yes, she was,” he said with a heavy sigh. “She’s just very sad and lonely and doesn’t remember how to act around people.”
“Oh.”
“But enough about that. Show me the test results. Did you finish all the freshwater tanks?”
Chapter 11
After going through all the brochures, clippings, and ads, Serena felt she had a pretty good sense of Liam’s and Lance’s business. She finished setting up the Facebook and Twitter accounts, and began to do some brainstorming and pricing for print, radio, TV, and internet ads. She was writing furiously on a notepad when she heard the door close and Sam yelling that they were home.
She smiled and went out to meet them. He hugged her tightly and began telling her about his day.
“Hold on a sec, kiddo,” Liam said. “Just let us ask your mom what she wants for dinner and then you can talk while we get it.”
“It doesn’t really matter to me,” Serena said.
“Can we have pizza?” Sam asked.
“With hot peppers and anchovies?” Lance asked.
“No way! I just like pepperoni,” Sam said.
“Pepperoni pizza it is,” Liam said. He leaned over and kissed Serena tenderly. She leaned into him, too, enjoying the feel of his lips on hers.
“Ewwww!” said Sam.
Liam laughed and pulled away. He put his hands over Sam’s eyes while Lance gave Serena a kiss, too. When they were done, he took them away. Sam glared at Serena and Lance.
“I know you were kissing,” he said sternly. “I think you know how I feel about that.”
Serena burst out laughing. Her son said the strangest things sometimes.
“What do you want on your pizza?” Liam asked her.
“Hot peppers and anchovies.” She managed to keep a completely straight face.
Liam’s grin faltered. “Really?”
She smiled. “Just yanking your chain.”
Liam’s grin returned, full wattage, and her stomach did little flips. “If you’re looking for something to yank…”
“Ha-ha.” She rolled her eyes. “Just get me a Canadian.”
“Pepperoni, bacon, and mushrooms it is,” said Lance. “We’re just going to go to the Pizza Pizza on the corner. Back in fifteen!”
Serena and Sam waved good-bye, and then she sat down on the couch so he could tell her all about his day. She was amazed that they had managed to keep him occupied all day, and it sounded like he had actually learned something while he was there.
“Oh, and the best thing was when this crazy lady came in!” Sam said.
“Crazy lady?”
“Yeah! She was yelling her head off, and she swore worse than you do, Mom! She was all like, ‘Liam! I love you!’”
Serena stiffened. “What?”
“Oh yeah,” Sam said. “She kept going at him and hugging him and then she even kissed him, but he pushed her down.”
Serena’s head reeled. She didn’t think she had heard correctly, but she had Sam repeat it and the story stayed the same.
“What did the crazy lady look like?” Serena asked.
“I don’t know,” he said, shrugging. “She was taller than you and she had really messy hair.”
“Dark or light hair?”
“It was light. And after, the cops came and dragged her out! Then I tested the freshwater tanks…”
Sam continued to babble, but Serena was distracted. A blonde showed up at the store saying she was Liam’s wife. Liam had gotten married eighteen months ago. So was he still married? If he was, he shouldn’t be with Serena now, no matter what the relationship with his wife. And even if he wasn’t married anymore, wasn’t it a little soon for him to be moving on? Did that make Serena the rebound girl? Neither scenario made her terribly happy. And it didn’t explain why he would push the woman down. He never seemed even remotely violent to Serena. The news of this incident was bothering her on a number of levels. It clearly highlighted the fact that she had rushed into a relationship with two men about whom she knew nothing. It was exactly what she’d been trying to avoid. Stupid friggin’ hormones!
The twins returned shortly after that, and they ate their pizza in the living room while they watched Finding Nemo. Serena was quiet, and though Liam and Lance were sitting on either side of her, she wasn’t really responding to either of them. They had each asked if there was something bothering her and she just shook her head. When the movie finished, she took Sam into his room and tucked him into bed.
As she exited the room, she found the men standing in the hall waiting for her. What did she do now? She had no idea. So she avoided their eyes and went back out to the living room to clean up, only to find that they had already taken care of it.
“Serena,” Lance said.
Serena stopped and looked at him, feeling the tears beginning. She couldn’t stop them. When Lance tried to comfort her, she held him at arm’s length then did the same to Liam.
“What’s wrong?” Liam asked. “Obviously something’s bothering you.”
Serena had wanted to work up to it more gradually, but she found herself blurting, “Who was the crazy lady at the store that got dragged out by the cops?”
They stared at her for a moment, and Liam ran his hands through his hair and then shoved his hands in his pockets.
“Sit down and let us talk to you,” Lance said.
“Fine,” she snapped, sitting in the chair beside the fish tank. “Talk to me.”
They sat down on the couch and looked at each other. Then Liam began slowly. “The woman is my ex-wife—”
“Soon-to-be ex-wife,” Lance corrected. “The divorce should be finalized within a couple of weeks.”
“So you’re still married,” Serena said. It was a statement.
Liam shook his head. “I wouldn’t say that. We’ve been separated for over a year now.”
“But you only got married eighteen months ago!” Serena cried. “How the hell do you end a marriage after only a few months?”
Liam took a deep breath and sighed. “Jenna and I were high school sweethearts,” he began. �
�I was the quarterback of the football team, she was the head cheerleader. The typical story. Everyone thought we were the perfect couple. But we went off to university and drifted apart. She went to University of British Columbia and I went to York. We hardly ever saw each other except on holidays. We both saw other people, and it seemed like it would work for us to just be friends.
“When my parents died…” He drifted off for a moment. “Well, I had a really hard time dealing with it. She came over a lot, just to be with me. She had known them well and missed them, too. So we decided to start seeing each other again. But she had changed while she was away. We both had. She’d started getting into drugs and alcohol, and it was something that she continued doing. At first it didn’t seem so bad. She would only do it on the weekends. But then she started drinking during the week, too. I was already beginning to question whether I wanted to be with her anymore.”
“So how did you end up marrying her if she was that bad?” Serena asked. “I just don’t understand.”
Liam took another big breath. “I’m weak, Serena. I was insecure. My parents were gone and Lance was still there, but she was like my link to the happier times I had with them. I didn’t want to let her go. And the whole community sort of saw us as that quarterback, cheerleader pair, the couple that stays together through all the tough times. I don’t know if I can really describe it well enough to make you understand, but there was a lot of outside pressure for us to get married. So I proposed.”
“And she obviously said yes,” Serena said. She was feeling pretty sorry for Liam. She could understand how he must have felt, even if she hadn’t had any experiences like it. But she had to be careful not to make her choices based on emotion anymore. A good sob story wasn’t necessarily a reason to stay with him.
“She did,” Liam said. “Lance bought a house and moved out and Jenna moved in with me. That’s when we had all the renovations done. She had to have all the latest designs and said the house was too dated. She wanted to change everything, even to get rid of the fish tank.”
“That’s when I stepped in for the first time,” Lance said. “There was no way I was going to let her get rid of that tank. It meant so much to Dad and it was our best memory of him.”
“Thank God,” Liam said. “I was just a pathetic little—” He broke off and thought for a moment. “Well, I was just going along with everything she wanted, all the renos, and the big wedding. I wanted her to have our mother’s engagement ring, but it wasn’t big enough for her. I just didn’t want her to go. And after we got married, things really went downhill. She quit her job because she was so often stoned or drunk she just couldn’t function any more. She was a complete mess and started getting into really violent tempers. She threw stuff at me, and even came after me with a frying pan once. She did all kinds of crazy shit. There’s a scar on the back of my head from where she hit me with a hardcover book she threw.”
Serena was starting to feel a little ill. She had felt the ridged line on Liam’s head when she’d been running her fingers through his hair while he—well, she’d felt the scar. How anyone could have treated Liam that way was beyond her. And he put up with it. It was funny how the media always made such a big deal out of domestic violence when the woman was the target, but she didn’t often hear stories like this one.
“Plus she was fucking around on me. I even caught her at it once, but still, I stayed. But after the book incident, I’d had enough. I called the cops, had a peace bond put on her and asked her to get out of the house. She keeps calling me and shows up at the store every once in a while when she’s been drinking. She alternates between threatening me and begging me to take her back. Today was just more of the same. She came at me, trying to claw my face, and when I tried to get her away from me, she fell and started screaming. I’m sorry Sam had to see that.”
“You couldn’t help it,” Serena said. She knew that now. “But I guess I’m just wondering why you didn’t mention this before. I saw the wedding pictures in the clippings today, and then I heard this story about a woman kissing you…” She trailed off, the lump in her throat returning.
“Serena, I thought you had already seen all the clippings. I figured you’d ask about it. And when you didn’t, I figured you were okay with everything,” Liam said, pleadingly.
“I should have said something, too,” Lance said. “I guess this relationship has been a bit of a whirlwind. We all got caught up and didn’t stop to really talk about things.”
He had voiced Serena’s thoughts exactly. She didn’t know what to think anymore. She wanted them so badly, she was even pretty sure she loved them, but she knew so little about them. They needed to backtrack and do things the right way.
“I wish we had talked more, too,” she said. “I already—care for you both. More than I thought possible. But this has thrown me for a loop. You’re both still almost complete strangers. This was a discussion we should have had long before we slept together. I want…no, I need to have some time to think about this with a clear head. When I’m close to you, I can’t think straight.”
“What are you saying?” Liam said. “Don’t you want to see us anymore?”
“I want very badly to keep seeing you,” she said as the tears began to fall. Again they made a move to come to her, but she held them off. “But I have to have some space right now. I need to think. And we need to learn more about each other. We just rushed things too fast.”
“Serena, I—” Liam began, but Lance put a hand on his shoulder to cut him off.
“If you need space, we’ll give you space,” he said, shooting a warning look at his brother, who had opened his mouth to protest. “We’ll take it slow. We don’t want to lose you for good, and if this is what you need, then we’ll give it to you.”
Serena nodded, blinking through her tears. She made no move to get up when Liam and Lance stood. She could hear them heading to the bedroom to get their things and the click of the lock as they left. She curled up on the couch with a blanket, not wanting to sleep in the bed she had shared with them.
* * * *
“For fuck’s sake, Lance!” Liam shouted when they got to the car. “You can’t just let her get rid of us like this! It was all a misunderstanding!”
“Liam, calm down,” Lance said, climbing into the driver’s seat. “She’s scared of getting hurt again, you know that. And she just found out today that you’re still technically married.”
“But—”
“I know, Liam!” Lance snapped. “I know you won’t be for much longer. And I know you want her. Do you think I don’t? I honestly think I’m falling in love with her, and that has me just as scared. But we won’t get her to stay with us unless we give her the space she needs. We never said it was the end. We’ll get to know her better, because she was right about that. We are almost perfect strangers.”
Liam crossed his arms across his chest and looked out the window. He knew he was being childish, and he probably sounded desperate and pathetic, too. But he knew, knew, that he loved Serena. He had never felt this strongly about anyone. Even when he and Jenna were at their best, it was never like this. He could honestly see himself spending the rest of his life with Serena. She was beautiful, thoughtful, smart, a wonderful mother, and maybe a little klutzy, but that didn’t really matter. He was angry at himself for not doing things the right way. Most of all, though, he was worried that she would disappear from his life for good.
Chapter 12
“I just feel…confused, I guess,” Serena said to Lisa the next day. She had called her friend to talk about the twins and everything that had happened.
“I don’t blame you for being confused,” Lisa said. “They should have been more honest with you up front. But it sounds to me like it was more of a miscommunication.”
“You’re right,” Serena said. “I know you’re right. But you have to agree that we did rush into this.” Lisa was silent. “Lisa, we did rush into this, didn’t we?”
“If you were
twenty-two, then I’d say yes,” Lisa replied. “But you’re old enough now that you know what you want. You don’t need to spend as much time figuring things out.”
“But I hardly know them!”
“I know,” Lisa replied. “And you do need to get to know them more. But there’s no reason you can’t keep seeing them in the meantime.”
Serena groaned with frustration. “You aren’t helping at all!”
“If by helping, you mean agreeing with everything you say, then no, I’m not being helpful,” Lisa said. “But I’m giving you my honest opinion here. I think you all care too much about each other to just let them go. And if the sex was so good, then why not just keep doing it?”
“Lisa—”
“Serena, I want you to be happy. And I think that those men may just be the answer,” Lisa told her. “So I’m not going to tell you to give up on them completely.”
Serena ended the conversation more confused than ever.
On Monday, Serena was relieved to get to work. Being in the apartment yesterday had been horrible. Sam had asked continually if they could go to Liam’s and Lance’s store when he found out they weren’t there. He pouted and whined and started asking if Liam and Lance could come visit them again.
“Not today, sweetie,” she had said. “They have work to do, and they won’t be here so much anymore.”
“Why not?” Sam said. “They’re nice and they helped me cook for you. They let me go to the store and look after the fish. I want them to stay here!”
Serena’s head hurt thinking about it. In the short time the Dalton twins had been in their lives, she had fallen in love and Sam had started to see what life with a father might actually be like. She’d been so careless. And now they were both hurting. Of course being at work meant Serena was now looking at the Dalton’s Aquariums and More! file, and she had to think about them. She had some great ideas for ads, but she needed to talk to them about it and wasn’t sure she was ready. With a sigh, she picked up the phone and dialled the store.
Landing the Big Ones [Hedon Falls] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 11