Page 24 of Mercy
“Son.”
Glancing at Mercy, a pained expression crosses her face as she averts my gaze. Do I clarify that it’s a male friend? Do I let her think I have a date, so she’ll move on to someone more appropriate for her? Jessica glares at me, puts her arm around Mercy, and they walk to the bedroom. Shit. Jessica knows. This is exactly what I was afraid of. Nash finding out and Mercy getting hurt. The two things I worried most about are going to happen.
Running a hand through my hair, I glance at Nash, “I’ll see you later.”
“Okay, I’m going to go find out what’s wrong with Mercy. Bye dad.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Arriving at On-Call, I sit in the booth across from Xander, and he arches an eyebrow at me.
Within a few minutes, the waitress brings us a couple of beers. Sitting with the owner does have its perks.
“What?” I ask.
“You look like hell, Liam. What’s going on?”
Exhaling a deep sigh, I shake my head, “I fucked up so bad, Xander.”
I take a long gulp of my beer and am pleasantly surprised. Sometimes, he orders some off-the-wall garbage. I’m not a fan of craft beer. I prefer the normal shit.
“What did you do?”
Running a hand through my hair, “I shouldn’t even talk about it,” I said.
“Well, you certainly look like you need to talk to someone.”
He’s not wrong, in the least.
I tell him about Mercy, Nash, and her work at the hospital. And this asshole has the gall to appear amused. He rubs his chin with his thumb and finger as his lips turn into a smirk.
“I never thought I’d live to see it. Liam Lexington is in love.”
“Xander, I am not. It’s just sex.”
He shakes his head, an expression of disbelief on his face as he arches an eyebrow. “No, I have seen you with just sex. What I haven’t ever seen is you so torn up about a woman. I’ve never seen you so worried about them getting hurt.”
“Are you going to help me or not?”
He laughs, “I get the Nash thing. But is she, his girlfriend?”
“No, well, according to her they’ve only ever been friends.”
“Wow, Nash hasn’t tapped that?”
Glaring at him I bite, “Don’t fucking talk about her like that.”
“Settle down, Liam. Can you at least admit that you have feelings for her?”
“It’s just sex, Xander, I barely know her,” I said.
He raises an eyebrow, “Well then, it’s an easy solution. Let her go. Problem solved.”
I groan, “I’ve tried. Every time I say, ‘that’s it’ and every time I’m a liar.”
Picking up my glass, I take a gulp of my beer.
He shakes his head, “Because you have feelings for her.”
