by Joanna Sims
After dinner, they caught a PG movie, and then Liam drove them home. The first thing Callie did was get on her tablet to video chat with Tony. Kate slipped off her shoes, dropped them on the floor and then joined Liam on the couch. She leaned into his body, her back resting against his chest, her head tilted to the side so it was tucked into the crook of his neck. She loved the way this man felt; she loved the smell of his skin and the feel of his hands on her body.
“Hmm,” she murmured, her eyes closed. “This is nice.”
“You feel nice.”
His voice was groggy, and she knew him well enough to know that if she just stopped talking to him, he’d be asleep in no time. Liam had never spent the night at her house, not even on the couch. The man was so tired, it just didn’t make sense for him to drive the hour it would take him to get back home.
Kate slowly extracted herself from Liam’s arms, helped him out of his boots and then covered him with the blanket that she kept draped over the back of the couch. She kissed him on the cheek.
“Thank you for tonight, Liam.”
He mumbled, eyes still closed, “I love you.”
It was so easy for him to say to her, and yet, those words always seemed to get stuck in her mouth right before she got them out. She did love Liam—and she had managed to tell him once before. Honestly, loving him was a no-brainer. He was kind, and smart, and successful, and funny. He was so good with Callie. Why couldn’t she commit herself completely to this man? Was she permanently broken? Or just too set in her ways to imagine her life as a plus one.
After she gave Liam another kiss good-night and checked on Callie, Kate went to her bedroom, got ready for bed and turned off the light. Normally, she was so tired that pretty much the second her head hit the pillow she was asleep. Tonight, she stared up at the ceiling, her mind whirling. She tossed, turned and then finally snapped on the light and threw back the covers. Sitting on the edge of the bed, beyond irritated to still be awake when she was tired as heck, Kate finally got up.
Long after Liam and Callie had gone to sleep, Kate sat up paying bills and answering emails. She just couldn’t seem to get her brain to shut off, so she figured she may as well get some work done. Several hours later, she stood, stretched, her neck stiff and back aching.
“Okay,” Kate said aloud to herself. “Let’s try this again.”
Once again in bed, Kate lay on her back, her arms under the covers, eyes wide open. And the truth was, she knew what was keeping her awake. This was the first time a man had spent the night in her home, and it was freaking her out. All he was doing was sleeping on her couch. He hadn’t asked her to marry him, even though he had hinted at it, and he hadn’t moved his stuff into her drawers. And, yet, this felt like a giant step further into relationship-land.
“Kate Marie.” She blew out her breath. “It’s not the end of the world, it’s just the next natural step. What’s wrong with you?”
Chapter Nine
“I’m exhausted.” Her friend Lorrie hoisted her saddle onto the rack and slumped down onto her tack trunk.
Kate continued to clean the bridle she had just used on the trail ride she had taken with her friend.
“Everyone in the house has been sick except me.” Her friend leaned back and closed her eyes. “I think this may be the first time I’ve closed my eyes in days.”
The horse trainer finished her chore, hung up the bridle and then said, “Let’s go get something to drink before you head out. I feel like it’s been forever since we’ve had a chance to catch up.”
“It’s been a while.” Her friend sighed before she opened her eyes. “You’ve been busy, I’ve been busy.”
Lorrie dropped her hands on her thighs with another sigh, groaned a bit from the sore leg muscles when she stood. “I’ve been feeling so guilty about not coming out here and riding.”
Side by side, they walked out of the barn, stopping to give some love to the old cats gathered at the entrance of the barn. They took the stairs up to Kate’s office above the barn, where a pot of coffee was ready to brew.
Her friend sat on the small love seat. “That coffee smells so good.”
“It’ll be done in a second.” Kate sat, kicked her boots off and put her feet up on the desk.
“So...” Lorrie eyed her with interest. “How’s it been going with the hot veterinarian?”
“It’s going fine.” She shrugged noncommittally. “So far.”
A disappointed expression passed over her friend’s face. “Oh.”
The bubbling, popping sound of the coffee at the tail end of brewing got Kate out of her seat. “What?”
Lorrie wrinkled her nose a bit. “Is the sex bad?”
Kate kept on pouring coffee into a cup as she gave a surprised laugh. “Why would you think that?”
She handed her friend a cup and sat back down one of her own.
“Because...” Lorrie blew on the coffee. “If it was good, you wouldn’t use such a horrible word like fine to describe your relationship.”
Lorrie took her first sip of coffee. “Ah. Thank you. This is exactly what I need to help me make the drive home.”
“Fine just means fine. As in, everything’s fine between us.”
“Fine,” Lorrie said with a teasing laugh.
That made Kate smile into the rim of her cup. The coffee did taste good, and it would give her the pick-me-up she needed to help her get the rest of the work on her daily to-do list done.
“No...” She put her cup on the desk. “Liam is more than fine. He’s so kind. Considerate. A real adult, which can be really hard to find in a man...”
“Amen.”
“...and he is so amazing with Callie. He treats her like she matters. He always has. I only wish I could have gotten Lloyd to treat her with half as much love and care. All he’s done is disappoint her. Remember I told you about the phone call and Callie packing?”
Lorrie nodded.
“Well, I called yesterday, no answer. I called the day before. No answer. I’ve texted, emailed.”
“No answer.” Her friend filled in the obvious response.
“He’s such a jerk,” Kate said with a frown. “Callie deserves so much better.”
“She has better now.”
Kate looked up.
“Liam,” Lorrie told her. “She has Liam.”
“That’s true,” she agreed. “But nothing is set in stone there. And I’m still not sure where it’s going yet.”
“Do you want it to go somewhere?”
Lorrie knew her like no other, and her friend had managed to ask the question. Where did she want things with Liam to go?
Her friend got up to refill her cup; she held up the coffeepot. “More?”
Kate put her hand over the top of her cup with a shake of her head.
With a refreshed cup of coffee, Lorrie took one of the armchairs on the other side of Kate’s desk.
“Do you think that you would ever get married?” her friend asked. “If the right man—like Liam—came along?”
She crossed her arms in front of her body.
Lorrie filled in the silence. “It’s hard to give up control, I would think. You’ve been the head of your own life for years.”
“I try to imagine what it would be like to have to answer to someone else. I’m not sure I’m really cut from that cloth.”
“Liam seems like he’s cut from that cloth.”
Yes. Liam was definitely the marrying kind.
“We haven’t talked about it, really. Not in so many words. He’s hinted and I’ve avoided.”
With a sigh, the horse trainer stood. Break time had to be over. “Why does every relationship have to end in marriage? I like how things are between us. He has his space, I have mine. We see each other when our schedules allow. What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing at all. It’s not written anywhere that you have to get married, Kate.” Lorrie stood up as well, rinsed her mug out in the sink. “Liam and you can go on like this forever, if that’s what you both want. Is that what you both want?”
* * *
“Well?” Kate asked, a hint of anxiety in her voice. “Can he go back to work?”
Liam had his computer set up on a small folding table, examining the X-rays he had just taken of Visa’s hairline fracture.
Visa had been a worry in the back of Kate’s mind; Liam had already been out once before, and the fracture hadn’t healed enough for him to “okay” a return to work.
Liam looked up from the radiographs. “He can go back to work.”
Kate’s face lit up in a way that pleased him. He’d grown to love the planes of her face, the sweetness in her eyes, and the taste of her lips. He missed her when they were apart, and he couldn’t wait to get her back in his arms the moment he saw her.
“Did you hear that, Visa?” Kate unhooked the straps for the cross ties and led the horse out of the bay. “You just got released from jail.”
Liam walked beside Kate and Visa as she led him past the stall that had been his cell for the last several months. He had something to talk about with Kate, and he hoped that she would be as excited as he was about the news.
Kate took off Visa’s halter and released him to a small fenced pasture where he could get the “silly” out, running and bucking and rolling on the ground without any interference from other horses.
The minute Visa realized that he was free, he began to run from one end of the small pasture to the other, kicking and bucking happily along the way.
One of his interests as a large-animal veterinarian was helping to heal and return to full function horses that would otherwise be put down because of an injury.
Kate, surprising him, wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed him tightly. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to. Her animals, all of them, were second only to Callie. Saving Visa, such a young, beautiful horse with so much life left to live, was a gift to her. And she appreciated him for it.
Liam held on to the woman he loved, his chin resting lightly on the top of her head, loving the smell of the honeysuckle shampoo that she used.
“I really thought I was going to lose him,” she said after a moment.
“I was going to do everything in my power to make sure you didn’t.”
She unwound her arms from his waist, and he reluctantly let her go. Kate was affectionate only to a point, and rarely in public. And he understood. Here at the Triple K she had to maintain a strong leadership image for the men under her charge. Even in the new millennium, there was a lot of sexism in the industry. It couldn’t always be easy to be the boss of men.
“You are one hell of a good vet, Liam.” She leaned forward, resting her arms on the top of the fence. “I’m grateful to have you.”
“Thank you.” Liam joined her at the fence. “I’m glad to be here for you.”
He wanted to be there for Kate in all aspects of her life—not just as her vet, not just as her part-time lover and boyfriend. He wanted more. But he also knew, just from her body language and facial expressions and avoidance, that trying to move their relationship further along would only be met with resistance. It was early enough in the relationship that he could afford to be patient. Yet if Kate wanted the status quo to go on indefinitely, that wasn’t what would work for him. He craved companionship; he craved family. He wanted Kate and Callie to be his family.
They left Visa to graze happily in the pasture. Liam had seen him trot and gallop without any sign of lameness. Visa was one of his best success stories, and particularly because he was one of Kate’s horses, he was gratified that his plan for the young gelding had worked. There had been no guarantee that it would.
“Can you stay for dinner?” she asked as they walked through the barn back to his equipment.
“Not tonight.” Liam began to pack up his gear.
It satisfied his ego to see a flash of disappointment in her eyes. It felt good to know that she wanted him to be with her, even if he couldn’t be there as much as he wanted to.
Liam lifted his gear, and they walked out to his truck together. After he loaded his equipment, Liam stood next to the open driver’s door.
“Callie’s going to be disappointed you can’t make dinner.” Kate squinted against the sun.
“How about her mom?”
“She’ll be disappointed too.”
“Good,” he said with a smile. “That’s exactly how I want it.”
He snuck a quick kiss before he said, “Today is a good news day all around.”
She waited for him to continue.
“My kids are coming for a visit next week.”
Kate’s face lit up. “Liam! That’s great news. I’m so happy for you.”
He climbed behind the wheel. “I want them to meet you.”
“Of course.”
“And Callie.”
Kate nodded without any hesitation in her eyes.
Liam shut the door, cranked the engine, then hung his arm out of the window. “I’ll talk to you tonight.”
She nodded again with a wave. They had begun a ritual of speaking on the phone every night before they went to bed.
“Hey.” He started to pull away, then stopped. “I love you.”
He was rewarded with a fleeting, sweet smile. “Me, too.”
“Good,” he said again. “That’s exactly how I want it.”
* * *
His kids looked different in real life—he’d been communicating with them via phone, video chat, email and text, everything but face-to-face for so long that it seemed strange to have them in the truck with him again. They were taller, older, different.
“You guys hungry?” Liam had just picked up the two teens from the airport.
“I’m gluten-free.” Sarah didn’t look up from her phone.
“Since when?” he asked his younger child, who had begun to mature into something resembling a woman now. She was wearing lip gloss.
“Since forever,” his daughter said rather sullenly. He was well aware of the fact that Sarah hated her new school, hated her stepfather, hated Seattle, and, in general, currently hated her mother.
“Well, don’t worry. I’m sure we can find some gluten-free food for you. I won’t let you starve.”
“Sure you won’t.” When had Sarah become so sarcastic.
“What about you?” he asked his son, also engrossed in his cell phone.
Both of his kids, like so many other kids nowadays, were total phone junkies.
“I could eat,” Cole mumbled.
“Mom wanted me to tell you that Cole has to watch what he eats because of he just got his braces.”
“Mind your own business,” Cole snapped at his sister.
Sarah kicked under the passenger seat in response.
“Your daughter can be a real asshole.”
Yes, he’d expected them to be different, but these were completely changed kids.
“Watch your language, Cole.”
“Ooh. You’re in trouble now, jerk.”
Liam caught his daughter’s eye in the rearview mirror. “What the heck is wrong with the two of you? You guys actually used to like each other.”
It was a tense, quiet lunch, with Sarah complaining mostly about the lack of gluten-free selection. They stopped at the grocery store to pick up gluten-free food for his daughter and stock up on some snacks for his son. Cole spent most of the trip laughing at something his friends put on Snapchat while Sarah took charge of the shopping cart. He had his kids back with him for not even a half a day, and already he wanted to send them back. And he felt like a horrible person because of it.
“Everything in your rooms is the same,�
�� Liam told them when they got back to the cabin he had built as a wedding gift for their mother.
When they arrived at the ranch, a place they had called home for the first part of their lives, that was the first time he actually saw some lightness, some happiness, come into his daughter’s blue eyes. It had been fleeting, but it had been there. That was a start.
Cole went straight into his room and shut the door.
“Great.” Sarah paused in the doorway. “My Little Pony.”
Liam stood in the great room staring at the two closed bedroom doors. This was not how he had imagined his first day with his kids. He’d look forward to this for such a long time, and it was off to a dubious start at best.
“So? How’s it going?” Kate picked up her cell after the first ring.
He had stepped outside and walked over to his workshop, away from the house so his kids couldn’t hear his conversation.
“Honestly.” He shut the door to his workshop behind him. “They act like I’m punishing them by even having them here.”
“Oh,” Kate said sympathetically. “They’re teenagers. It’s their job to act like everything is a pain in their neck. Just give them a couple of days to shake off the grumpiness, and I’ll bet they’ll warm up.”
He hoped she was right. One week of sullen and sarcastic would be a long week indeed.
“I think we should postpone our dinner with them.”
“Sure,” she said easily. “Let’s just keep it flexible. There’s always next time.”
“No,” Liam said quickly. “I want them to meet you and Callie this time. I’ll talk to you tonight.”
* * *
The week had passed quickly for her, but it was strange not to have Liam around. His children’s visit was keeping him occupied, and the only time they really had a chance to talk was at night. She missed him. She missed making love too. Her body was actually letting her know that it missed having private time with Liam.
He met her and Callie at the door of his cabin.
“Hey!” He didn’t kiss her as he usually did, but the smile on his face and the smile in his eyes let her know that he was as glad to see her as she was to see him.