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Zoe exhaled slowly, like she knew what internal battle I was fighting. How could she, though? “How was she before you realized she had a fever?”
“Quiet,” I answered. “That should’ve been my first clue that she felt poorly. She admitted she was tired.”
Zoe’s lips curled into an amused smile.
“She kept saying she wanted to stay here,” I told her.
The smile fell, and she pinched the bridge of her nose. “I was afraid of that.”
We were tiptoeing around something big. And right now we didn’t have time to tiptoe around anything. “No bullshit,” I said.
Zoe dropped her hands and stared at me. “No bullshit.”
“Maybe sheshouldbe able to stay here.” The words came out quietly, a little raw around the edges. “Maybe that’s best for her. It was her home.”
Zoe opened her mouth but didn’t speak at first. Behind her eyes, thoughts raced; I could practically see them. She’d be assembling binders in that brain of hers, figuring out the millions of things that went into what I’d just said.
“I’m assuming you don’t intend to become the primary caregiver,” she said carefully.
“Fuck no.”
She exhaled a quiet laugh. “Didn’t think so.”
Why couldn’t I say the words? They were just a few letters strung together.
You could stay here too.
That’s all. That’s all I’d have to say.
But they stayed lodged somewhere deep inside my gut. Out of self-preservation, most likely. I was losing every battle when it came to these two girls. The little one and the very grown one.
And I knew that if I were faced with Zoe and her eyes every fucking day, it was only a matter of time before I’d never get over her.
Not for the rest of my life.
Hell, I was halfway there the day we met, and each time I’d shared a room with her—had to watch her with that idiot who never deserved her—it got worse.
“I could stay,” she said quietly.
My eyes snapped to hers and held.
There would’ve been no shock on my end if an actual bolt of electricity had arced through the air between us. I half expected to see one. Bright and white and powerfully hot.
“If you’re open to some company,” she continued. “I’d still spend some time at my place during the day. I know we’d have a lot to figure out, and wehaveto try and be nice to each other.”
“And when you say that, what you mean is ...” My voice trailed off. I bloody well knew what she meant.
“I mean thatyouhave to be nicer tome.” She swallowed, looking so uncharacteristically nervous that it was hard to keep hold of her gaze like that. “I know you don’t like me, Liam. You’ve always made that clear. But I won’t have Mira grow up watching us act the way we used to. I’ll mind what I say when you piss me off, but you have to promise the same thing.”
Right.
That was why I’d done it. Why I’d always snapped and snarled when she came too close. Zoe believed exactly what I’d always wanted her to believe.
She didn’t know what she was asking.
The slight pause before I answered had her cheeks flushing the slightest bit of pink.
“I can be nice.” I said it like someone had yanked the words out with a hook, and her eyes sparked with the tiniest hint of amusement. Glad she found this so fucking funny.
