Page 126 of Best Kind of Trouble
I knew their mom left them, obviously, but I haven’t given it much thought since getting close to Liam. He’s such a big man, so confident in his body and his abilities, that it’s hard to think about him as a little boy—a boy who was abandoned, just like my sweet, fierce friend.
And now he’s not communicating with the one person who could comfort him…
“I’ll talk to him,” I choke out as a few tourists pass us. One of them glances back, either curious or lost.
“Oh God no, don’t do that,” Hannah says with a bark of laughter. “He’ll know I told you, and then he’ll get stubborn, and God forbid anyone cares about him.” She rolls her eyes. “He’s such a pain in the ass. But thank you for standing by him. That means a lot.”
“Of course I did,” I say through my hoarse, heart-choked throat. Guilt swallows me whole, because Ihaven’tstood by him.
I remind myself of the awful feeling I had when I saw that app on his phone, but as the days pass, I feel increasingly sure he wasn’t using it. The truth was written on his face that day,and I see it in the glances he’s been giving me. Rueful. Full of need.
Still…he’s kept to our rules. He hasn’t even tried to talk to me for the last several days outside of our writing session. So maybe he changed his mind about me or decided I was too much effort, especially after that article my father masterminded.
I should forget what happened between us, or at least stop thinking about it constantly. Of course, it doesn’t help that I’m always around him, seeing him but not interacting with him. It’s as if the beautiful thing we were building has been hidden behind a sheet of unbreakable glass. I can remember it but not touch it. I can watch it but not feel it.
“He’s been doing a good job, though?” Hannah pushes, leaning against the brick building we stopped beside. It smells a little like urine, so I pull her away from it.
“A great job. He’s a genius.”
He already has our next three beers fermenting, a job that’s getting easier as we keg and bottle the rest of Bubba’s brews.
She smiles, nodding. “Yeah, I think maybe he is. But I wish he’d let himself be happy. Every time he finds something that might make him happy, he withdraws. Like with the band. He could have had a really good thing going with them. That agent who was interested in them a couple of months ago already has a meeting set up with them for the New Year. He’s ready to sign them after listening to a few of the recordings they did with Cormac and Mick. Liam could have been a part of that.”
“I don’t think he’s interested in that kind of attention,” I say without thinking. “Not for music.”
She pauses, studying me. “You know…he told me he was on a dating app a couple of weeks ago, but I know for a fact he’s not using it.”
“How?” The word comes out hungry. Crap. Backtracking, Isay, “I’m only curious because the girls at work are always talking about it.”
“What about you?” she asks. “Are you ready to start dating again?”
I shrug noncommittally, grateful she can’t hear the voices shouting inside of me.
“Well, don’t tell Liam.” She raises a finger. “But I created a fake profile of a stupidly hot person and messaged him. I wanted to see what he’d do, because I had this theory that he was trying to pull one over on me with the whole dating app thing…”
“You catfished your brother?” I ask in disbelief.
“He didn’t even read the message,” she says, watching me closely. “And then he must have blocked my stupidly hot avatar or deleted the app, because his profile disappeared.”
“Oh,” I say, trying to sound like I couldn’t care less about Liam and his dating life. “Well…I guess he wasn’t ready.”
“I guess not. Or maybe he’s with someone, and he’s trying to keep it from me. Have you seen him with any ladies at the brewery?”
“No.” My pulse jumps. Is she trying to get a read on me? Or is she serious? “But I try to stay out of his personal business.”
That much is sort of true. Now.
“Okay, I can see you’re not going to gossip.” She averts her eyes to the sky as if she just can’t even with me. “We better get you back, you girl boss, you. I still can’t believe you witnessed the engagement to end all engagements. Nora didn’t seem as excited about it as I am. Say, do you think Eugene will let me be his maid of honor?”
“He’ll probably ask Cormac,” I point out as we start walking again.
“Yeah, that’s true. You think I can be a groomsman? I’d wear a suit and everything.”
“Eugene would probably do just about anything for you,” Iventure, feeling an ache in my chest, because I know Liam would do just about anything for her too. And yet…
She’d asked him to stay away from me, and he’d been willing to break his word forme.
We make idle chatter all the way to the brewery. When we reach the edifice of Silver Star, she hugs me and takes off for Big Catch.
