Page 120 of Best Kind of Trouble
And yet…
I could see him enjoying it. He’d give me one of hishere we fucking gosmiles, and then he’d lean into the experience—just like he did with making jewelry.
He’s right. The situation we’re in is complicated, but it has never felt that way when we’re together. It feels right.
I fall back into a fretful sleep, until I’m awoken by the buzzing of Liam’s phone on the side table. It’s early, before six, so I glance at the screen, worried something might be wrong.
Seconds later, the phone clatters down from my shakingfingers. I squeeze my eyes shut. If only I could unsee what I just saw. It feels like the floor has fallen out from underneath me, again. I’m that naïve girl who believed in Jonah. The fool who kept looking the other way when the numbers weren’t adding up.
I’m the girl who was born with an overly soft heart, tailor-made to be broken.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
LIAM
When I wake up on Tuesday morning, I reach for Briar but find the bed empty. I pull on my pants and leave the bedroom. The place is small enough that it only takes me seconds to find her. She’s already dressed and is sitting at the little kitchen table with Karma curled up on her lap. A mug of coffee sits forgotten in front of her as she stares off at nothing.
Something has changed. Something all the way bad.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, striding toward her.
Her gaze shifts sharply to me. “Don’t come any closer.”
Alarm pulses through me, and I stop in my tracks and look around, half-expecting to find someone else in the apartment. Yesterday, it felt like we were perfectly in tune. How could that have slipped away in a single night?
“What happened?”
“Your…your phone buzzed, and I thought something might be wrong because it was so early. So I checked the screen, but…” She pauses and swallows. “It was an update for a dating app.”
It takes me a few seconds to understand what she means, because I haven’t been using any dating app. Haven’t had amillisecond’s thought about being with another woman since I got to know her. Then it hits me…
I downloaded that app to get Hannah off my back.
“Briar—” I take another step closer, but she’s still got that wild look, almost like she’s afraid of me, so I stagger to a stop. “It’s not?—”
“I know we’re not together. You’ve got every right.” She looks down into her coffee mug. “But this is just so much like what happened with Jonah. Sophie found out what he was up to when he left his phone at her place. After everything, I…I can’t do this. I’m not ready. I should have known I wasn’t ready.”
“It’s not what you think,” I say, my heart racing, blood pounding in my ears.
She gives me a sad smile. “That’s what he said to Sophie too.”
Jesus Fucking Christ.
“I amnotJonah. I downloaded that damn thing after we kissed the first time, because I wanted to be able to look my sister in the face and tell her I was trying to date other women. I didn’t want to lie to her.Oryou. But, yeah, at the time I figured it might be better if both of us found someone else. You seemed to think the same.”
“Liam, I don’t need to know this,” she says, tears forming in her eyes.
Feverish desperation flashes through me, frying my nerve endings. I have to fix this. I have to make it right, but I’m not sure how. Maybe it’s too late to make anything right. Maybe there was never a real chance of making anything work between us.
But I can’t let her misread this situation.
“I haven’t messaged a single person on there sincereactivating it. I couldn’t bring myself to even look at it. You can check. Iwantyou to check.”
Tears are streaming down her face now. The need to make it better is so overpowering it nearly topples me, but I don’t go to her. I need to respect her boundary.
“Please.”
“Liam,” she says again, a different kind of plea. Like she’s saying,Please, stop, you’re hurting me more.
