by Kait Nolan
“Dude, I really hope you’re more coordinated in the field,” Mitch ribbed.
He didn’t have the distraction of Riley in the middle of war.
Apparently satisfied he was in one piece, the distraction herself sat back on her heels. “You jumped too high.”
“Huh?”
“You missed the optimal exit point of the arc. Instead of using your momentum to fling you forward, you wasted the energy by going up. That’s how I always beat Wynne.”
“The champion remains supreme,” Mitch said. “Pay up, y’all.”
Riley helped Liam into a sitting position. “You owe me pizza.”
“It’s not like pizza is a hardship under any circumstances.”
“Okay, I can’t take it anymore,” Norah declared. “When are you two going to publicly announce that you’re dating?”
Riley’s mouth dropped open. “Don’t be ridiculous. We’re not dating.”
“We’re not,” Liam confirmed, hating the embarrassed flush that crawled up her neck.
Riley threw her arm out in a “See?” sort of gesture, as if that reinforced her point.
“But we should be.” Liam was acutely aware of the awkward silence that descended in the wake of that declaration.
Riley laughed, not quite meeting his eyes as she got to her feet. “Clearly you hit your head harder than we thought.”
Norah pouted. “Well damn. I guess I lost that bet.”
“Can’t win ’em all, sugar,” Cam told her.
Everybody suddenly got busy with the clean up of the job site. Riley was already striding away from him. Liam followed her around the back side of the tower, where she was gathering up tools.
She started to duck around him, still not looking him in the eye, but he grabbed her arm. “Hold it.”
“I need to—”
“You need to stop running away from me and listen.” Liam kept his voice low.
“To what?” she hissed back. “To you trying to humor me? Make me feel less like an idiot? That’s nice of you, Liam, but it’s not necessary.” Her tone indicated it wasn’t even possible, and that just pissed him off.
He caged her in against the wall of the tower. “I have been trying to tell you for weeks, but every time I get close we have some kind of disaster or you bolt like a damned rabbit. So let’s clarify something before there’s another flood, fire, or parental invasion. You are not in this alone.”
And then his hands were in her hair, his mouth on hers in a blistering, possessive kiss that poured out every ounce of the dark, desperate wanting that had haunted him for months.
Riley didn’t move.
Heart pounding, Liam eased back. Her pupils were blown wide with shock. He was already cursing his rashness but he had to ask. “What do you think?”
Those eyes narrowed and her hands fisted in his shirt. “Oo rah.”
She yanked his mouth back to hers, fingers clutching at his shoulders, sliding around to his nape to pull him closer a she proceeded to kiss him like she meant it. Like she’d stumbled out of the desert and he was the oasis designed for the sole purpose of quenching her thirst. His tongue traced the seam of her lips, and she opened for him. She tasted rich and sinfully sweet. Every cell of his body screamed, Oh, hell yes, and his brain supplied applause and cheers as accompaniment.
Wait, that wasn’t his brain.
Their audience was hooting, hollering, and clapping with great enthusiasm.
“You go, Riley!”
She broke free, hiding her face against his chest. Liam turned his head to glare at the grinning onlookers, staying where he was as a wholly ineffectual shield.
“I was right!” Norah gave a fist pump.
“I called it first,” Judd said. “Pay up.”
More money changed hands—didn’t they have anything better to do than bet?—and friendly ribbing ensued.
“Sorry. I didn’t plan on an audience. You okay?”
She lifted her head and smiled at him—really smiled for the first time in he couldn’t remember how long. Something buoyant and huge expanded in his chest, and all Liam could think was that he’d do just about anything to lighten her load and make her happy enough to do it again on a more regular basis.
“I feel like sending a message out to every teenage girl everywhere who ever had a crush on her best friend’s big brother—don’t give up.”
“You had a crush on me in high school?”
Riley laughed “Buy me that pizza you owe me, and I’ll think about telling you about it.”
Liam swung an arm around her. “Now that’s a bet I’m happy to pay up.”
Chapter 10
“This will be just lovely.” Sharilyn shut the car door. “I haven’t seen Molly in ages.”
Riley hadn’t seen her either since the news that she and Liam were a thing had swept through town like wildfire. Molly’s response to that was to invite Riley and her mother over for a family dinner. Nothing Liam could say changed the fact that Riley felt like she’d been summoned, and she was more than a little nervous about it.
Hey, I know you’re as much a mother to me as my own, but I really want to do the horizontal boogie with your eldest son. That copacetic with you?
Riley had no idea how she’d react to this. Sharilyn had been ecstatic and hadn’t been able to stop talking about what a fine, upstanding serviceman Liam was. Which was patently true, but had left Riley so on edge, she thought she might’ve ground down a layer of teeth.
Clutching the casserole dish in a death grip, Riley headed for the front door. The front door for company, not the side door she’d been using all her life. Happy-faced cosmos and zinnias lined the walk, and the beds were neatly mulched. Liam’s doing, she was sure, along with the freshly-painted siding and trim of the house, and the newly-built planter boxes lining the windows. Since her hands were full, Sharilyn rang the bell.
Moments later, Molly pulled open the door, beaming. “Welcome! Oh, what have you brought here?”
“Corn casserole,” Riley managed.
Molly leaned in to buss Riley’s cheek and tugged the dish out of her hands, leaving Riley wishing she had something else to hold on to. Her gaze flicked to Liam, standing barefoot in the hall behind his mother, looking completely at ease in a polo shirt and khaki shorts.
“Don’t just stand there like a bump on a log, Sergeant. Kiss your girl hello.”
He bent to give Riley a chaste peck that bore no resemblance to their playground interlude but left her thinking all kinds of sweaty thoughts anyway. “Hi.”
“Hi.” And the winner for best deer in the headlights impression goes to…
Molly leveled a Look in Liam’s direction.
He grinned. “Yes ma’am.”
They hadn’t been together long, but Riley recognized the expression in his eyes as he laced his hands behind her back and reeled her in.
“Liam!” Riley hissed. But he stopped her warning with another kiss that absolutely justified those sweaty thoughts.
She struggled to give him a stern glare when he pulled back but was sure she missed by a mile.
Entirely unrepentant, he said, “I come from a PDA kinda family. You know this.”
And she’d always loved the easy affection between John and Molly. “Yeah but…” What could she say to that?
Molly nodded, satisfied. “I swear, you two move slower than molasses in winter. It took me six months to even get you near each other.”
Liam shifted his attention to his mother. “It…what?
“Well you weren’t doing anything about getting together on your own, so I had to do something to push you together.” She looked so pleased, Riley half expected to see feathers peeking out from her mouth.
“So you blew up the water heater?” he asked.
“No! Of course not. But that apartment’s been sitting empty for ages. I figured having you renovate it would put the two of you in the same general vicinity and nature might finally take its course.”
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��You were trying to get us together?” Riley couldn’t wrap her brain around the idea of that.
“Of course I was. I’ve been waiting years for you both to grow up enough to figure it out. It’s about damned time, too. Honestly, I thought I was going to have to bring in reinforcements.”
“Years?” Riley repeated. “But how did you…”
Molly tapped a finger to the medallion around Riley’s neck. “Because you wouldn’t have given this to him if he didn’t matter, and he wouldn’t have worn it all these years if you didn’t.” Smiling, she picked up the casserole dish and headed for the kitchen. “Sharilyn, tell me all about you.”
Riley and Liam watched them go.
“You know, I used to think I was in control of my life,” Riley said.
“She likes to leave people with that impression.”
Somewhere in the middle of all her embarrassment, Riley felt a bit of a glow at the idea that not only had she earned Molly’s approval to take over the business but also as a worthy match for her son. She respected Molly more than almost anyone else, so her approval meant a lot. But at the same time…what went along with that approval? Expectations of…what?
Riley shied away from that thought.
Liam combed both hands through her hair, massaging her scalp as he went. “Relax. It’s just dinner. You’ve had dinner over here hundreds of times.”
“I wasn’t thinking about getting naked with you all those other times,” she murmured. “Not most of them anyway.”
Liam laughed. “Why, Miss Gower, have you been fantasizing about me?”
“It’s the dimples.”
Confusion flickered across his face. “I don’t have dimples.”
“Oh but you do. That summer you lifeguarded at the city pool? You had these board shorts that rode really low on your hips so the dimples at the top of your very fine ass showed. You wouldn’t guess half the things I’ve thought about doing with you because of those dimples.”
“Your fantasies and my fantasies should talk.”
“Given that we’re more or less back in high school with our living situations, talking is about as far as they’re going to get.”
“There’s always the back seat of the Mustang. Classic for a reason.”
“I’m not that desperate yet.”
Liam bent to press a kiss just above her collar bone. “Bet I could change your mind.” His voice was a dark velvet promise that proved they’d both be winners of that bet.
“Liam, come set the table!” Molly called.
He winced. “I’m too old for this.”
“Remind me again why you haven’t gotten your own place yet?”
“Seemed prudent to settle on a job and known level of income first.”
Riley couldn’t fault the sensibility of that. She patted his cheek. “C’mon, Boy Scout. We have to go be good children.”
They headed into the kitchen.
“—surprised you didn’t do a big cookout,” Sharilyn was saying. “I have such fond memories of cookouts over here.”
“Oh we still throw them from time to time, but Wynne couldn’t make it home and I thought the kids might appreciate not being paraded in front of half the town.”
Liam walked over to squeeze his mother’s shoulders. “The kids appreciate your self-restraint.”
Molly tugged him down for a noisy kiss. “No matter how big you get, you’ll always be my baby.”
Riley relaxed as they finished setting out silverware, napkins, and serving dishes. It was hard to be anything but relaxed at this table, surrounded by the scents of fresh fried chicken, potato salad, and fried green tomatoes. Some of her best memories were here.
Beneath the table, Liam’s knee nudged hers. How many times had that happened growing up, crammed around the table with him and the rest of his family? Always an accident then. It was very much on purpose now, a harmless, flirty gesture that kept distracting her from the conversation.
“How are things going at the market?” Molly asked.
“Really well Matthew’s happy, so I’m off the probationary period as a checker. That was a relief. I was worried about learning to run the register, but the computer actually makes it really easy.”
“Technology is a beautiful thing,” Molly agreed.
“When it works anyway. We had a young girl in the store today trying to buy her groceries and there was something wrong with her EBT card—wasn’t anything to do with her, the system had been squirrelly all day—but the lines were pretty long and someone said something rude about ‘some people’ loud enough she could hear. Poor thing got so upset and embarrassed, she ran out of the store without any groceries.”
Riley’s heart ached for the girl. She well remembered the various sly comments and judgmental remarks heaped on her as a child when they’d been in dire straits.
“That’s awful,” Molly said. “Who was it?”
“I didn’t know her. Really young. Nineteen or twenty maybe? Sandy hair. Dark eyes. Row of piercings going up one ear. I’ll never understand why people need more than one set of holes.”
Riley stilled. That was Tara Honeycutt. She had way more on her plate than anybody her age deserved. “Who was the jerk?”
“Gary Hopper.”
“Clearly the apples don’t fall far from the tree,” she muttered.
“Amber Hopper was in your class, wasn’t she?” Liam asked.
Riley’s hand clenched around her fork. “Yes, yes she was. Her sister, Brandy, was two years ahead.” And between the two of them, they’d made junior high a living hell.
Molly frowned. “Amber is the only fight Wynne ever got into. She never would admit what it was over.”
“I remember that.” Liam forked up another tomato from the platter. “Cruz pulled her off. Said he was sure Wynne was going to pull half the hair out of that girl’s head.”
“Wynne was my little Zen child,” Molly said. “It would’ve taken a lot to rile her to that point.”
Riley realized everyone was looking at her.
“You must’ve been there,” Liam said. “You and Wynne were always joined at the hip.”
She dropped her gaze and poked at her chicken. “Yeah, I was there.”
The silence dragged out, until she felt a twitch between her shoulders.
“She was a bully, okay? A stupid, hateful, privileged little snot, who liked to take pot shots at me.”
“Over what?” Sharilyn asked.
“Wasn’t important.”
“Wynne wouldn’t have been so mad if it wasn’t important,” Sharilyn said.
Riley sighed. “Fine. On that particular occasion, she’d called us poor white trash one too many times for Wynne’s taste.” She’d also implied that Riley’s mother was sleeping with the pastor to receive preferential treatment among the church’s charity cases. But Riley wasn’t about to admit that. “It was a long running thing. Amber and her sister bullied me from about fourth grade on, always making sly, catty comments designed for maximum humiliation.” This many years later, she could still feel the burn of shame.
Sharilyn clutched at her pearls. “But…Mary Ellen Hopper was the one who organized the fund-raiser so we didn’t lose the house.”
Yeah, Riley had heard plenty about that, too. That had been the year she’d taken over all the money management and turned her babysitting into a profitable enough enterprise to keep the wolf from the door.
“The whole family is a bunch of self-important, sanctimonious assholes. The kind of ‘Christians’ who do very public good works to be seen doing them, so that they get credit for it, not because they have a shred of actual decency or give a damn about helping others. Every single hand up they gave came with a price tag. And they never, ever missed an opportunity to remind me that they were better. The Hoppers and people like them are the primary reason you have to practically hold a gun to my head to get me to accept help. Because I refuse to ever be made to feel like less or that I didn’t earn what’s mine, ever again.”<
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The moment the words were out, Riley wished she could take them back. The relief of having finally admitted it wasn’t worth the anguish on Sharilyn’s face pale.
“I had no idea. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Because I was the one who did the protecting. Riley shrugged. “You had enough to cope with.” And she hadn’t managed that particularly well. “There was nothing you could do about it. There’s no law against people being hateful.”
“You didn’t tell me, either.” There was hurt and no little bit of temper in Liam’s eyes, though Riley knew the latter wasn’t directed at her.
“Stand down, Marine. It was a long time ago. And nothing you could’ve protected me from.”
“I could’ve done something.”
“You did. You taught me to stand on my own two feet.” She smiled in an attempt to break the tension. “Besides, there’s karmic justice. She married a guy with the last name Butts. So now she’s forevermore Amber Hopper Butts. If that’s not the Universe kicking her ass, I don’t know what is. Maybe that’s small and petty of me, but I’ll take my entertainment where I can get it.”
She stabbed the last bite of fried chicken, determined to put an end to the discussion. “Did I hear a rumor about cobbler?”
~*~
“Liam! Riley!”
Liam tightened his arm around Riley’s shoulders and kept his voice low. “Don’t make eye contact. First rule of traversing enemy territory—keep moving and don’t draw attention to yourself.”
“Enemy territory?”
“Getting cornered by the Casserole Patrol this close to the start of the fireworks means we’d be guaranteed to miss the show.”
Her arm snaked around his waist and she leaned into him. “My big bad Marine is afraid of three elderly ladies?”
“Three busy bodies, more like. If they manage to pin us down for a conversation, they’ll have an engagement announcement in tomorrow’s paper and names picked out for all three of our future kids. Rumor has it, they’ve already started knitting baby stuff for Cam and Norah, and they haven’t even set a date for the wedding. No, thank you. They can interrogate us later. We’re setting up at the perimeter.”