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Nathan gave his sister a wide-eyed, incredulous stare. “No, I wasn’t,” he hissed.
Liam glanced between them with a wry grin. “You like football, Nathan?”
He nodded frantically. “Denver is my favorite team. I wanna play there someday.”
“Gonna have to work really hard if you want to do that,” Liam said.
“I know; I will,” Nathan said. His eyes held the fervent light of unfettered hero worship.
“You ever been to a game?”
Nathan and Daisy traded a look. “No. Mom said the tickets are too expensive for her. But I’m gonna ask for my birthday again. I ask every year,” he said quietly.
Liam swallowed, slowly pulling his phone out of his back pocket. He crouched down so that he was closer to eye level with Nathan.
“Tell you what,” he said gently. “If you give me your mum’s email, I can send you and your sister passes to come to training camp one day. How does that sound?”
“Sweet! Mom, he needs your email,” Nathan yelled over his shoulder.
I stifled a laugh.
Mira munched on her Goldfish and waved at Daisy.
Daisy smiled, studying both Mira and me openly.
“Thank you so much,” the mom told Liam, her eyes shining with grateful tears. Her ring finger was empty, and the bags around her eyes told me just a bit about how tired she was. “This will be the highlight of his year.”
Liam finished tapping something out on his phone. “Just sent it over to the office. They’ll have it under your name.” The three posedfor a picture, and Liam leaned over to speak to Nathan. “You make a nice sign for camp, all right? I’ll make sure you meet some of the guys.”
His chin trembled. “I’ll make the best signever.”
“Good.” Liam nodded. “See you in a few weeks, yeah?”
Even though Liam had started walking away, I paused for a moment, watching as Nathan crumpled into his mom’s embrace and lost his battle to tears, completely overwhelmed by what he’d just experienced.
My cheeks were wet when I joined Liam again, and he studied my face.
“You’re crying?”
I exhaled a watery laugh. “I can’t help it. You made that kid’s life.”
I could tell that Liam was uncomfortable with the praise, because he adjusted his shoulders and sighed heavily. “Just sent an email, is all.”
“Okay.”
At my patronizing tone, he gave me another look. “Don’t make a big thing of it, Valentine. And I’m still not hugging you if you keep crying.”
I rolled my lips together, a weak attempt to hide my burgeoning smile. “I’d never expect you to.”
One question at a time,I thought.
A few more like that and I could only imagine what I’d uncover. Or how dangerous these new sides of Liam could be.
Chapter Fourteen
LIAM
Let it be known that I had the patience of a fucking saint.
