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Twenty minutes later, Amelia emerged from her bedroom.
“I smelled food,” she said as she stepped into the kitchen.
“Daddy make pasghetti,” Grace announced proudly.
“It looks great.” Amelia turned her radiant smile towards Liam, but her expression faded as she seemed to remember that they no longer had the kind of relationship in which they shared stolen glances.
“We’ll see,” Liam said. “Please, have a seat, if you feel up to trying to eat.”
Amelia went to the kitchen table where she helped Grace into her high chair before sitting down. Liam carried a bowl of spaghetti with red sauce (spaghetti from a box and sauce from a jar, of course) and set it in front of Amelia and Grace. Amelia, he knew, would probably have made a side dish or two — salad or garlic bread or something like that.
Amelia didn’t seem to mind that there weren’t any side dishes. She just smiled and held up her plate. “It looks great.”
Liam dished up food for Amelia, then for Grace, and finally for himself. They all took bites at the same time. Amelia was the first to react. She jumped to her feet, one hand clasped over her mouth, and ran to the bathroom. Grace spat out the mouthful she’d taken and made a betrayed face. For his part, Liam managed to chew and swallow his bite of spaghetti, though it wasn’t easy. The spaghetti was crunchy in places and so soft as to be soggy in others. The sauce was strangely sweet and somehow very watery.
“Ew,” Grace said. She stuck out her tongue.
“Sorry, princess.” Liam made an apologetic face. “I’ll order something.”
Yet his gaze was pulled to the hallway, where Amelia had disappeared with her hand over her mouth. She was clearly going to be sick. She’d had some kind of stomach bug anyway, but Liam’s terrible meal must have pushed things over the edge.
It was yet another piece of evidence that Liam wasn’t a family man. Even the simplest task, making an edible dinner, had proven impossible for him. He should stick to what he knew, which was business, and not get mixed up in Grace and Amelia’s lives any more than he had to.
“Pizza?” Grace asked hopefully as she shoved the plate of congealing spaghetti away.
“Of course, princess.” Liam cleared the table, threw away the spaghetti, and loaded the dishwater. Then he placed an order from his favorite local pizza place — quattro stagioni for himself, a cheese pizza for Grace, and a salad for Amelia, just in case she felt brave enough to try to eat again later.
Over dinner, take two, Liam played a children’s movie about bears that sang and danced for Grace, who ate her pizza while bobbing her head happily. Liam wasn’t so easily distracted. He kept hoping that Amelia might appear. Every shadow drew his gaze to the door. He wanted to apologize for the terrible spaghetti incident. He wanted to try to be friends.
Amelia never came back out of her room, though. Liam handled bedtime alone, then made a cup of mint tea and knocked on Amelia’s door. She answered, still pale, but managed a smile for Liam.
“I made you tea. Sorry about the spaghetti.”
“Thanks for the tea. And don’t worry about the spaghetti. Everyone has a cooking disaster story or two.”
Liam hesitated. “Do you want to watch a movie or something? It might help distract from your nausea.”
Amelia sucked in a breath, then let it out in a puff.
“I don’t think that would be wise,” she said finally. “But thank you for the invitation.”
“You’re right, of course.” Liam hesitated a moment longer, wanting to say something to break this terrible tension between them, but knowing there was nothing he could say. “Good night, Amelia.”
“Good night.” She closed the door gently, and Liam went to his own bed, alone, wishing that things were different. He still cared about Amelia, but he couldn’t be with her. It seemed that she understood that now, which was a good thing.
So why didn’t it feel like a good thing at all? Why did Liam want nothing more than to run down the hall and tell her he’d made a terrible mistake and that he loved her, stomach flu and all?
CHAPTER 21
AMELIA
Amelia sank onto her bed and felt tears spring to her eyes. Again.
She had always prided herself on being levelheaded. At work and in her personal life, she’d always considered things carefully and made logical decisions.
Or at least, she’d tried to.
This last week, though, Amelia had been the opposite of her usual calm self. She’d found herself crying in the bathroom more than once while Grace was napping. She’d even reached out to Katie in tears and spilled part of the story — namely how she had fallen head over heels for Liam. Katie had been supportive, though she’d also pointed out that she’d warned Amelia of exactly this issue.
