Page 92 of The Route to You

Liddy set her hands on her hips. “Why do you think?”

Holding her gaze, he answered at the same time as the word crossed her lips, “Elle.”

He shook his head, a spark of disappointment and resignation going through him. “She called an emergency Liddy intervention. Not surprising.”

Liddy gave him a crooked smile, then came into the room and sat on the bed. “She somehow still thinks I can get you to change your mind more than she can.”

Kyle went back to the box he’d been packing. “If you crossed the Atlantic to come see me, you must think so too.”

“You wound me,” Liddy said, setting her weight back on her hands. “Actually, I came in hopes that maybe you wouldn’t feel so alone. I also told Elle she needs to back off . . . and I think she’s almost ready to apologize to you for blowing up about the whole Sloan thing. Though I can’t say you helped your case by announcing you’re moving into her house.”

He wasn’t surprised Elle had told Liddy about it. But he was shocked that Liddy had taken off work to be here. A planned vacation was one thing, but Liddy had a senior position with Camden Enterprises, and time off didn’t come so easily. “So, you flew all the way here to offer . . . support?”

Liddy nodded, her gaze settling on a framed print of Monet’s The Water Lily Pond on the wall. Just the sort of mass-printed art Mom picked from the store that Kyle remembered Sloan used to roll her eyes at in high school. Not at his mom, but the art itself. She’d always been a little highbrow about things like that, and maybe he needed to remember it. Whitewashing his memories of her wouldn’t help anything.

“I mean, I have to admit, it took me a moment to swallow the information that Sloan is back in town, and you’re friends again. And then both Mom and Elle called this week to tell me that you’re moving into her house and . . . well, it’s hard to be the family member who’s never there with boots on the ground but getting all the crisis calls.”

Kyle stuffed a shirt into the box. “So, are you here to tell me I’m being an idiot or not?”

“Oh, you’re always an idiot, Kyle, that goes without saying.” Liddy winked, her smile spreading slowly. “Lovingly.”

“Uh-huh.”

“But we’re all idiots when it comes to love.” Liddy shrugged. “Look at Elle and Quinn. Or how messy things were with Isla and Aiden.”

“And you and Callum⁠—”

“Oh, we were sane compared to the rest of you.” There was laughter in Liddy’s eyes, though.

“Yeah, but you said the key word there. This isn’t about love. It’s just me accepting help from a friend⁠—”

“—an ex-girlfriend⁠—”

“Yes, but that ended eight years ago.” The defensiveness in his tone increased. “And why shouldn’t I accept her help? I helped her when she needed it, no questions asked. Not for sex or a relationship.”

“You may be shocked to learn I’m on your side in all this, Ky. And Sloan’s too—which is what I told Elle. That she should think long and hard before judging a woman who went through the hell you described and is just trying to put her life back together. You’ll be glad to know she felt pretty bad when I pointed that out to her.”

Kyle lifted the box. “But . . . ?”

“But you guys would do yourselves a lot of favors by being a little more careful.” Liddy stood and grabbed another box. “Like maybe establishing some ground rules.”

“Rules don’t work,” Kyle said, nodding toward the door for Liddy to follow him. If anyone shouldn’t be helping him move, it was Liddy, who’d spent a lifetime dealing with scoliosis. But maybe that was why he wouldn’t stop her either. He knew how much she hated being told what she could and couldn’t do.

“Hate to tell you, but rules do work.” Liddy’s voice rang behind him.

Kyle took the hallway that would lead out to the back door, rather than through the living room again. “I distinctly remember Elle telling us about friendship rules with Quinn that clearly all got shot to hell.” He reached the door and felt for it with his right hand, careful not to push his left shoulder against it as it opened.

“Yeah, but I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about rules you make to yourself. Or vows, if you will.”

Kyle squinted as the shade of the house gave way to the bright sun that drenched the side and front yard. “Like what?” He held the back gate open for Liddy to pass through.

Liddy waited for him and then walked at his side as they went toward the truck. “Like making sure you’re not making any decisions based on her status in your life. Sloan may be your friend now, but she hasn’t been great at her permanence in your life. So don’t decide anything while thinking she’s still going to be there in a few months.”

“I’m not that stupid.”

“And you probably should consider dating and having a social life that doesn’t involve hanging out with your roommate. Or at least not closing yourself off to social opportunities because of her.”

Fair.