by Theresa Jane
He had traveled across the world for me. He had dropped everything and come home to me because I was in trouble. How could I see it as anything else, and how could I hold back what I knew I had been feeling for a long time? Long before he admitted his feelings to me and long before I was willing to admit my own to myself.
“Liam,” I started, prompting him to look up from his guitar and his fingers to still. The room was thick with the silence as my mind started to drift into unconsciousness, and I heard myself mutter, “I care about you too.”
Chapter 32: Recovery
“Freya,” came a small voice, pulling me from my light doze. Then I felt a tiny body launch themselves at my bed. Then, they were scrambling up my side and wedging themselves between Liam and me. “Are you feeling better?”
“Who invited the monstrous munchkin?” Liam grumbled as Davis tried to, not so discreetly, push him from the bed.
“I’m fine, Davis,” I answered, eyeing Liam warningly as he glared down at Davis.
“Why are you in here then?”
“Someone won’t let me leave,” I answered. I never took my eyes from Liam even as I saw Lucinda and Jarred enter the room.
“You can leave when the doctor allows it and not a minute sooner.”
“Freya,” Davis whispered, tugging at my shirt so I would move closer. “Is Liam holding you here against your will?”
“Definitely,” I smirked, looking up at Liam as he eyed us angrily.
“Don’t worry Freya; I’ll rescue you from the mean dragon.”
“My savior,” I chuckled, pulling him onto my lap and wrapping him up in a tight hug. Liam was mumbling angrily beside me, but I didn’t miss the way he shuffled a little closer now that Davis wasn’t between us, his arm resting casually over my shoulders.
“Good to see you’re safe, Freya,” Jarred smiled. He leaned down on my other side and placed a kiss on my forehead before stepping back and wrapping his arm around Lucinda. She smiled at me tiredly, and I looked down in surprise to find a small bump. I had completely forgotten, in all of the chaos, that she was pregnant.
“You can see the little guy now,” she confirmed, absently running her hand over her stomach as Jarred looked at her adoringly. I was noticing that whenever his wife was in the room, his eyes rarely rested anywhere else.
“Where’s your other offspring? Did the devil finally come looking for her?”
“Liam,” I hissed, shifting Davis so I could give him a scolding hit. He didn’t even flinch when I hit him on his shoulder. Instead, he shrugged and leaned over to flick Davis’s nose. Davis replied with an adorable growl, baring his teeth at an unfazed Liam.
“We all need to go home sometime,” Liam mumbled, rubbing where I had hit him across the arm.
“She’s at daycare,” Lucinda explained, reaching over and taking Davis from me. She hoisted him from my lap and set him down beside the bed where he continued to glare up at Liam.
“Davis insisted we come and see Freya,” Jarred smiled, ruffling his son’s hair before Davis bent down and crawled under the bed. “He wouldn’t go to school until he knew you were feeling better.”
“We wanted to make sure you were okay as well,” Lucinda smiled warmly, resting her hand gently against my arm. “We were worried about you. Why didn’t you call us?”
“I didn’t want to be a burden. Besides, I don’t know your number,” I admitted guiltily. I hadn’t even thought to call anyone else. I was always so used to dealing with everything on my own.
“It’s not a burden, and Liam should have given you our numbers. Silly boy, trying to keep you all to himself,” Lucinda scolded, giving Liam a dangerous glare.
“Lucinda, it’s all right. I’m fine now.” I assured her, cutting off whatever remark Liam was going to fire back. I leaned up and gave him a kiss on the cheek to stop anything else he wanted to say. Instantly, he seemed to relax. He returned my kiss by pulling me closer and pressing a kiss into my hair and resting his chin on top.
“Why do you do that?” Lucinda interrupted. I felt my cheeks warm with embarrassment.
“Do what?” I asked in confusion. Lucinda was looking down at me with a puzzled expression.
“Everyone calls me Lucy or Luce, but you call me Lucinda.”
“But that’s your name,” I frowned as Liam chuckled silently beside me. Clearly, he knew something I didn’t, and he was enjoying the show. Jerk.
“But we’re friends. My friends call me Lucy.” She shrugged.
“Okay?” I answered uncertainly, looking to Jarred for help. He just shrugged his shoulders and offered me a smile.
“You should call me Lucy. If you’re going to be important in Liam’s life, then you’re important in mine.”
“Mommy, why are you angry?” Davis piped up, tugging at his mom’s sleeve as he climbed out from under the bed. What had he even been doing under there?
“I’m not mad,” she replied with an odd mix of frustration and sweetness in her tone.
“But you have your angry face on,” Davis argued.
I felt Liam bury his face in my neck trying to hide his laughter from the already-fuming pregnant woman. His breath warmed the side of my neck while his lips felt like sparks against my skin whenever they touched.
“Come on Luce, we should probably get going,” Jarred suggested, sending me an apologetic smile as he tried to usher his angry wife from the room. “Davis needs to get to school, and so do I.”
“Get better, Freya,” Davis yelled before jumping up and kissing my cheek. I smiled as he ran out of the room ahead of his parents. Lucy and Jarred were still arguing in heated hisses as they followed. I couldn’t help but smile even wider.
“Thank you for coming to see me. It means a lot.”
“You’re welcome, Freya. We just wanted to make sure you were okay,” Jarred answered as Lucy continued to glare at him.
“Thanks, Jarred," I then turned my attention to Lucy and said the only thing I could think of to make peace with her. “Thanks, Lucy.”
I watched as she froze for a moment. Then she nodded her head as if acknowledging something and then turned from the room. I heard her calling for Davis as she left, but I was sure he had darted off to some more exciting part of the hospital. Jarred gave me one last smile before he followed his wife.
“You know you just made her week, right?” Liam chuckled beside me.
“What?” I frowned, shifting so I could face him. He had finally started to relax his hold now that we were alone.
“She’s been bugging me for weeks about that. She really wanted to be your friend.”
“Why?”
“You’re pretty awesome, Freya,” he smiled, pressing a gentle kiss against my forehead. I was beginning to love the way he did that. It felt so natural for him to do and made me feel all warm and gooey inside. Like the center of a chocolate lava cake.
“Sometimes, I don’t think I play well with others,” I shrugged, fiddling with his jacket. It had never been easy for me to make any kind of friends. The first four years of elementary school I sat alone at lunch, and it didn’t improve much when I got to high school.
“You don’t,” he chuckled, and I looked up at him, slightly offended by his words. It was one thing to know you struggled making friends. It was another thing entirely to have someone call you out on it. Even if that person did make your insides melt to mush with a single kiss. “You speak your mind. People, generally, don’t like to hear the truth.”
“Then why ask for my opinion?”
“I like that side of you. I love the way you set people in their place and never try and boost their ego.” He smiled. It was a smile I rarely saw because I only saw it when we were alone. It was the smile that made me fall even more in love with him.
“I sound like a horrible person,” I mumbled, making a sour face.
“Not even close,” Liam smirked. “You know exactly what to say when I’m acting like a spoiled rock
star.”
“You are a spoiled rock star,” I grumbled, snuggling further into his side as he pulled out his phone and started to check his messages. My eyes were starting to burn and my chest was tired from all the excitement and talking. I had slept for two days and still it didn’t seem to be enough.
I was floating on the edge of sleep when Liam’s voice pulled me back. I could tell from his tense body that I wasn’t going to like the conversation. I probably wasn’t going to get any sleep now.
“Freya, who’s this?” he asked, shoving his phone in my face. He forced me to sit up and look at the image on his phone’s screen. When I saw what he had been looking at, my blood immediately ran cold. My vision tunneled until I felt as if I was on the street again, staring into his wild eyes as he walked toward me. Where had he found that image?
“Freya?” Liam prompted, pulling me back from my thoughts and forcing me to look at his worried eyes. I was saved from answering, however, when my nurse entered the room.
“Haven’t tried to run again, I see,” Mary smiled, gesturing between the two of us as she checked the chart again. I cringed, knowing it was unlikely Liam had missed what she had said. “I wouldn’t leave either if I had arms like that wrapped around me.”
“What do you mean? Where were you going?” Liam demanded, looking at me intensely as I tried to get Mary to shut her mouth. Apparently, I couldn’t catch a break.
“This one tried to escape as soon as she woke up,” she smirked, her eyes focused on my chart. She wasn’t even looking at my crazy eyes or the universal slicing signal across the throat. She just carried on merrily about her work while digging the nail deeper into my coffin. Liam was going to kill me. “Something about not being able to afford medical treatment. Silly girl, this man wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”
“What?” I cringed away from the anger in his tone, but I couldn’t hide from him as he loomed over me. His eyes had darkened and his hands were clenched. He had taken his arm from around my neck a few moments before, and I kind of wished it was still there.
“I didn’t want to be in debt. I would have been fine.” I assured him, but it only seemed to make him angrier. I should have just stayed silent because it seemed whatever I said only made his jaw clench tighter.
“What is wrong with you?” he asked in a low and deceptively calm voice. It didn’t match his posture at all.
“Well, I think they said I have pneumonia-” I began, well aware that it wasn’t the question he was asking.
“Freya, you need to take care of yourself,” he cut across me.
“I’m fine, Liam,” I answered, looking to a smug Mary for help, but I could tell she was never going to side with me. Liam already had two days to win her over while I was unconscious.
“I can’t believe you would jeopardize your health like that. Did you think I wouldn’t help you?” This sounded like dangerous territory. I think Mary sensed it too because she silently excused herself from the room. Convenient. She starts the trouble, and I’m left to deal with the fallout.
“To be honest, you didn’t really factor into it,” I answered in a small voice and I immediately regretted telling him the truth. It sounded wrong as soon as it left my lips. It sounded heartless.
Suddenly, he got up from the bed and looked at me for a long time. Silence hung heavily between us, and I couldn’t force my mind to come up with the words I needed to fix the problem. How had this gone so wrong so quickly?
I was going to strangle Mary if she ever dared to show her face again. Lucky we were in a hospital.
I was pulled from my thoughts when Liam turned and made to leave the room.
“Liam?”
“I have to make some calls,” he muttered before he disappeared and left me in an empty room. The room suddenly felt very chilly without him in it.
“Great,” I mumbled, falling back against my now cold pillows. I couldn’t do anything right. The man had flown halfway around the world to see me, and I had hurt him without even meaning to.
I was startled from my sleep when the door to the room was flung open and Liam came storming back in. I wasn’t sure how long it had been, but apparently, he had worked himself up into a frenzy.
His eyes were wild, and his hair looked like he had been running his hands through it continuously. It was poking up in all directions and looked like it had started to fray at the ends. All around, he was giving off a mad-scientist vibe. All he needed was a lab coat and goggles to make the look complete.
“You know, I understand that someone caring for you is a foreign concept and I know that me caring for you seems unlikely, but I do. I don’t care about a lot, but I do like you. I want you to be safe and if that means I can never let you out of my sight again, then so be it," he finished, breathing heavily in front of me.
“Okay,” I answered dumbly. I was still groggy from sleep, so I only made out about fifty percent of what he was saying, but I knew before I had fallen asleep that I had hurt him.
“Okay?”
“I was wrong,” I admitted. I rubbed my eyes to get them to focus and pushed up on my elbows so I could see him better. “I should have called someone."
“You should have.” He nodded in agreement, his voice firm.
“Next time, I’ll call you,” I assured him as his body started to uncoil.
“You won’t refuse medical attention?”
“No, I’ll get the best medical attention on offer.”
“Good,” he nodded, sitting back in his chair as if he had won a draining battle. In comparison to most of our fights, this was a relatively mild one.
“Liam?”
“Hmm…” he mumbled, his eyes closed as he rested his head against the back of the couch. I couldn’t help but wonder if he had even slept since he had come back. Judging from the bags under his eyes, I’d say he hadn’t done much.
“What are you doing?”
“What do you mean?” He frowned, but his eyes remained closed.
“Liam, I’m better, I mean you could go back on tour now.”
“I’m not leaving, Freya," he answered firmly, his body tense but unmoving.
“But, what about your fans-”
“You’re my priority, and I’m not going back on tour until you’re well again.”
“Liam, you can’t stay here,” I frowned as he sat up and opened his eyes. I could tell just from that look that he wasn’t happy with me. I could have just kept quiet, but instead, I had chosen to poke the bear. I was beginning to think I enjoyed the drama of the fight.
“How can I leave when I know you’re not telling me the truth?” he demanded, pulling his phone out again.
“What are you talking about?”
“Who is this man, Freya?” he asked, showing me the photo again, and I felt the tightness in my chest return. I looked at the man who had been following me and tried to school my face. If I didn’t show any type of reaction, maybe he would drop it.
“He…he’s just some paparazzi guy,” I stuttered, not able to tear my eyes away from the image.
“Then where’s his camera, Freya?” So, I had been right about the camera thing. Paparazzi without a camera was like an off-duty cop not carrying a gun.
“I don’t know; sometimes he doesn’t have it.”
“Sometimes? He’s bothered you before?” Liam demanded, losing any control he had.
“He’s been following me for a while now. He always has the same hat on.”
“How long?” Liam ground out, and I finally looked away from his phone to see that he was trembling with rage.
“I first noticed him the day I ran away from you at the café.”
“That’s why you were so shaken up? Why have you been keeping this from me?”
“I didn’t want to worry you. I thought I was being paranoid,” I offered weakly. Now, I knew that I had been lying to myself. I should have trusted my instincts.
“Freya, this is ser
ious. This man has been following you for weeks,” Liam nearly shouted at me as he stepped closer to the bed. “How could you have put yourself in this danger?”
“I didn’t know. I’ve never been stalked before.” I replied, my temper flaring to match his own. “How was I to know that it was anything out of the ordinary? I don’t understand your world, Liam.”
He was silent after that and just watching him, I could see his mind was ticking over with everything. His jaw was tightening with pent-up rage, and I knew it was only moments before he exploded again. However, to my surprise, he slumped to the floor so he was kneeling in front of me and held one of my hands tightly in his.
“I’m just scared, Freya,” he started in a quiet voice, not raising his head as he held my hand tightly. “I’m scared because I left you here all alone while I was halfway across the world.”
“Nothing happened.”
“Yes, but now I’m left with the thoughts of what could have been. I could have lost you because I was busy being a rock star,” he spat venomously.
“Liam, it’s your job. This is what you love doing,” I reasoned. “You’ve been doing this long before you met me.”
“It’s different now,” he muttered almost so softly that I thought I might have imagined his words but the flutterings in my chest were real. “I won’t leave you again.” I was left speechless as he continued to kneel by my bedside but was quickly pulled from the silence as the door to my room opened again.
“I never thought I’d see you on bended knee. Ryan will never believe this,” Ant smirked as he pulled out his phone and snapped a quick picture.
“What are you doing here, Ant?” Liam grumbled as he got to his feet, crossing his arms over his chest defensively.
“Thought I’d come and check on my best friend. Make sure he hasn’t lost his mind, but clearly, I’m too late,” he mocked, sitting in the chair Liam had been occupying for the last few days.
“No one’s getting married, Ant,” I mumbled, not really sure which Ant I was going to get this time.
“Could you imagine the outrage? Those teens can be pretty vicious when they feel like they’re losing their heartthrob. I predict death threats in your future, Freya.”