by Amy Woods
Paige took a sip of her chilled wine so that he couldn’t see the tears forming behind her eyes. It was white, sweet and cheap—her favorite. He must have remembered from their brief time in the wine aisle of Peach Leaf Produce. It tasted even better for the coffee mug he’d served it in. That made her smile, and her tears receded.
“Sorry about the cup,” he said. “My real dining ware is still in storage. I figured there wasn’t much need to unpack until I found a place of my own, until I decided whether or not I planned to stay.”
A lump formed in her throat and she struggled to form words around it. “Do you? Plan to stay?”
“Well, that depends…”
“On what?”
“On whether or not I’m wanted here and not just needed,” he answered. Paige didn’t miss the solemnity in his voice.
“It’s a beautiful piece,” she said, changing the subject. She buried her face in the mug and took another sip. She hoped it would calm her nerves and cool the scalding blood pulsing through her. “Do you do any painting yourself?”
She could see the disappointment in his expression, and it shot straight through her chest. She had refused to answer the question he’d all but asked. They were both dancing around their true feelings, and Paige was starting to wonder if she might explode at the palpable heat between them.
If he made one move to touch her, she would come undone all over again. Oddly, for a person who always wanted to have the upper hand, she found herself desperate for him to take control, like he had that first time. She wanted him to lead her to his bedroom, and she knew, with everything inside her, that if he did, he would take care of her like he had before—and she would be okay.
But was she ready to be taken care of in the long run? For the rest of her life, even? She could taste freedom that wasn’t yet hers, and part of her wanted to dive into it and let go completely.
“I draw some,” he said, and motioned for her to follow him. He led her down a small hallway and stopped at a door, turning to face her. “If I let you in there, you have to promise to be gentle, okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“Just promise.”
“Okay, fine,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I promise.”
He paused briefly, as if second-guessing his decision to let her into the room, and then he took a deep breath and opened the door. The room’s walls were almost entirely glass.
“This used to be a greenhouse,” he said, “before my great-aunt had the front area added on and turned it into a guesthouse.”
“It’s lovely,” she said. She looked up and could see the night sky above her through the glass ceiling, just like at the gallery. She sucked in a delighted breath and Liam smiled, watching her.
And then, as her eyes traveled around, she noticed that instead of plants, she was surrounded by drawings. They were absolutely everywhere—on shelves, on tables and in standing-up bunches on the floor. Most of them were done in plain gray, but several were clearly drawn with colored pencils. All of them were marvelous.
Without words, she left Liam standing by the door and made her way around the room, stopping to examine each one closely before moving on to the next. Most of them were landscapes and tall buildings. She picked out the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and the Washington Monument. The rest were fascinating images that must have come from the recesses of his mind.
“These are all yours?”
Liam nodded. His expression was a mix of shyness and poorly hidden joy.
“I’ve never shown this stuff to anyone…I’ve cared about…before,” he said. “It’s nice, though. Unless of course you’re standing there thinking I’m the worst person in the world to have ever picked up a pencil…”
Paige laughed at Liam’s easy joke about himself. She was immensely flattered.
“Why am I the first to see these pieces?” The wine must have been doing its job because the leaden fear she’d had upon entering the house was all but completely diminished and had been replaced by a rich sense of comfort. Owen was home safe with his babysitter, and here she was, with an extremely good-looking, charming man who was pure gold at his center. Maybe that’s what it felt like to lose oneself in someone else. She’d forgotten, but Liam seemed set on reminding her.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “I guess I just never saw my own art as all that important. I never had any interest in becoming a professional artist myself. Don’t get me wrong—the money is nice when I sell a piece. I just didn’t give in completely to that life. I’ve always been more interested in the ways art can help people, but I love to draw and paint, so I do it for myself in my spare time. And now I’m sharing it with you.”
“You’ve been to all of these places?”
“Some of them. Others are drawn from photographs I’ve received from friends. It’s soothing for me. Concentrating on the lines and shading gives me space to think.”
“That must be your secret, then,” she said, nudging him softly with her elbow.
“Secret to what?”
“Staying so calm all the time.”
“Everyone needs an outlet sometimes, Paige. You can’t keep all the stress and the pain locked away inside all the time. It has to come out or it eats you up eventually.”
“Is that how you deal with your own demons?”
He nodded. “When I was young, my father wanted me to be just like him. He didn’t want me to be an art teacher or an art therapist, or anything other than an oil tycoon like himself. And I saw what it did to our family. My dad was away all the time, and my mom missed him constantly. He was never a real part of Rachel’s and my life, other than to tell us what he thought of our choices whenever he did happen to be home. He thought I was wasting my time on a career path that would never lead to much financial gain. I tried many times to tell him that it didn’t matter, that art and teaching made me happy, but none of that meant anything to him. What I never understood, though, is why he cared so much about wealth when he and Mom were never happy, in spite of all that money.”
Paige listened to him talk, her heart aching for Liam the same way it did for Owen. How had she not seen it earlier? Both of them had experienced great loss, and both of them hurt because of it. But somehow, Liam had still managed to find something he dearly loved and had made a life for himself where he obviously thrived. Her heart filled with hope that her son would be able to do the same.
“And did it help with what happened with Callie?”
“Yes, I think so,” he said, and then sipped his own wine. “She’d made up her mind and there wasn’t a damn thing I could’ve done about it. If she had been wrong, I would have fought for her. But she wanted something I couldn’t give her, so I let her go when she wanted to go. It was best for both of us. Her leaving me was not my fault.”
Paige saw a new intensity in Liam’s eyes as he opened his heart to her. He was giving her the deepest parts of himself, the stuff she continually refused to give him.
“Just as Mark’s death was not your fault, Paige. You need to know that, once and for all.”
Hearing the truth wasn’t the same as letting it seep into her veins. She wondered if she would feel that way for the rest of her life; if she had changed one thing about the last morning she saw her husband alive, would anything be different now? She knew she wasn’t responsible for his death, but would she ever be able to let go of him the way Liam had Callie? Liam was right. It wasn’t the same, but she knew she would have to make peace with it and move forward if she and Owen were ever to have a chance at a new life.
Paige held her breath as she watched Liam set his mug on a shelf and slowly walk toward her. She could see his heart in his eyes; they burned into hers with a force that made her hands shake until he took her drink from her hands and set it next to his.
He turned back to her and pushed the hair away f
rom her eyes. He cupped her face in his hands, running his thumbs beneath her eyes. She knew he could feel the tears that had slipped out against her will, yet he didn’t seem to mind. Pushing them aside, he pulled her lips against his.
She closed her eyes and allowed him to draw her in, her heart pounding with passion fiercer than any she’d ever known, and as he ran his tongue softly along her lips, she willed herself not to simply dissolve in his embrace. She let him push past her lips, and as he deepened the kiss, she knew she’d fallen hard for him.
She’d finally let herself go, and the feeling was beyond any perfection she could have imagined.
Chapter Nine
“Ready to head back home to meet up with your mom, buddy?”
Liam turned to Owen. The two stood side by side in Liam’s room at the hospital, washing paintbrushes together.
“Yep, and we’re going for ice cream, right? Like you said?”
“Of course we’re going for ice cream. But first I have to find a place to live,” Liam answered, laughing softly at the kid’s eagerness.
“But you already have a place to live at Ms. Rachel’s.”
Liam grinned at his little shadow and resisted the impulse to reach down and hug Owen with his sudsy wet hands. It was his first day in Liam’s therapy class, and Owen had fit right in with the other kids. Liam breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that he would have good news to report back to Paige.
He thought of her as he dried their hands and thought back to that night two weeks ago. If he lingered too long on that memory, as he had too many times throughout the day, he could recall the way her mouth had tasted as she’d kissed him back and the hungry way she’d opened up to him, finally, and seemed to have given him her whole heart. She had refused to stay the night and he’d driven her home rather late, but Owen had not woken up.
He knew Paige was still funny about being seen out with him, and she’d made sure that every date was planned with as little likelihood of running into people she knew as possible. She’d done everything but suggest they only date in the next town over, and he knew she would have if it hadn’t been more than thirty miles away. He understood and was trying to be patient with her, but soon enough she’d have to decide what was most important to her—her image as the new potential principal, or Liam’s place in her life.
He thought back to the call from the Peach Leaf Memorial Hospital director earlier that day. Liam’s professor and boss at the hospital in Abilene had spoken with the director at Peach Leaf’s hospital and vouched for Liam’s successful program. Apparently, the Peach Leaf Memorial director wanted to start a similar initiative at his institution. He couldn’t wait to tell Paige about the offer to start an art-therapy program there for patients. Though Liam hadn’t gone so far as to say as much, he would gladly give up the art teacher job, both for this new opportunity and for Paige—that is, if she wanted him to. And the proximity meant he wouldn’t have to drive to Abilene anymore, and Owen could get the same continued therapy at a much closer location. He just had to make sure Paige was on board.
He still couldn’t really see why anyone finding out about their romance continued to bother her so much. Life was too short to worry so much about appearances.
Liam held up Owen’s backpack so the boy could put his arms through the straps, and then he locked the classroom door and they headed out to his truck. With Paige, Owen and the hospital offer, it seemed like the stars had finally aligned for him. He had almost everything he’d ever wanted.
He struggled to trust it, from time to time, but he wouldn’t allow himself to go down a negative path. He was ready for good things in his life, and he wasn’t about to stop his lucky stars from doing their best.
If he held on, Paige would trust it too, soon enough. She had to—he couldn’t give her up. The two of them had faced too much loss, and in his mind, they deserved a heavy dose of happiness.
“Mom!” Owen called out, waving at Paige as they stepped out onto the sidewalk in downtown Peach Leaf some time later. The afternoon sunshine melted the air-conditioned chill from their skin as Liam lifted his chin to let warmth hit his face.
“I think you may be the only person I know who wants to bask in this heat,” Paige said to Liam.
He leaned down to kiss her cheek. She was adorable in a white linen top and slim yellow jeans. It was turning into a perfect day.
Liam had kept quiet about his surprise at Paige’s willingness to let Owen ride with him all the way to Abilene, but he couldn’t deny how great it felt to know she trusted him with the most important person in her life.
“Shall we, then?” he asked, ignoring the way her eyes darted about after he’d kissed her and the way his bright mood darkened slightly because of it. Paige pushed a button and her vehicle’s lock sounded. Liam got Owen settled in the backseat of his truck and Paige in front.
Give it time, he thought. Just give it time.
He just hoped it wouldn’t be too long. He’d found the family he wanted, and he saw no reason to wait for life with them to begin.
He had a list of three houses he wanted to see, but Liam was pretty sure which one he was going to pick before he even laid eyes on any of them. The first one they pulled up to was a town house near downtown Peach Leaf, across the street from the old library. He liked the idea of being able to walk over and grab a book when the mood hit, and there was a perfect park nearby, with a walking trail surrounding a duck pond.
He loved traveling to see the world’s great cities, but there was a charm to places like Peach Leaf. Once he’d gotten past the idea that just about everybody could get into his business in this small town if they were so inclined, he’d been surprised how easy he warmed to its cozy, comforting feel. He liked the way Ms. Hays at the grocery store had ordered his favorite coffee when she’d discovered him searching the shelves for it in vain, and he looked forward to the farmer’s market downtown every weekend, where he could buy fresh food that tasted like it had been grown with care. People were friendly and genuinely hospitable in a way that he hadn’t experienced in other places he’d lived, and he was getting used to the idea of making his home there.
“Wow.” Paige sucked in a breath beside him and he studied her face as she saw the town house for the first time. It was his second choice of the three he’d narrowed the Realtor’s list down to.
“You like this one, huh?” he asked.
“It’s adorable,” she said.
“Don’t say that for everyone to hear. It’s going to be a bachelor pad for a while. Though not for too long, I hope.”
She tried not to, but Liam saw the shy smile playing at the corners of her mouth. Good. Maybe they were getting closer to being on the same page.
“Where’s the Realtor?” she asked, glancing around the street at the nearby cars.
“He’ll be here soon. We’re a little bit early. I figured we could walk around a bit, check out what’s nearby.”
“I’ve been past this place a thousand times, but I’ve never really noticed it before as a house, you know. I always thought it was another historical building or something.”
Liam grinned, pleased to see Paige noticing her town in a new way. He knew sometimes the best way to see your own city was through someone else’s eyes; because she’d grown up there, Paige probably never thought much about the old buildings she’d seen regularly since she was a child.
“You’d be right,” he said. “It is a historical building. The foundation was poured in the 1800s and it began as a small general store. The owner lived upstairs in an apartment and ran the shop from the ground floor. Then, when the town started to grow and the owner aged, he sold it as two separate apartments. Now, it’s a regular house, but there’s still a stairwell on the outside. The Realtor informed me that I shouldn’t worry—there aren’t two kitchens or anything like that. It’s been remodeled and
updated so now it’s a normal house, with two bedrooms upstairs and two down.”
“I’m impressed,” Paige said, smiling up at him, her eyebrows raised teasingly. “Someone did his research. If you ever have a downslide in your art skills, I’ll be sure to let the history department know you’re quite the know-it-all.”
He laughed, happy to see her in such a playful mood. Liam had fallen in love with every aspect of Paige’s character, but nothing compared to seeing a smile spread across her face.
“Are there any secret passageways?” Owen asked.
“I don’t think so, buddy, but who knows? There may be one that no one’s found yet. You’ll have to check it out when we go inside.
The three of them bought bread at a small drugstore and walked across to the park, where Owen fed the ducks until it was time to meet the Realtor. Liam went to greet him as Paige and Owen went back to his car to put the rest of the bread away.
“Mr. Campbell,” the Realtor said, shaking Liam’s hand. “Good afternoon to you. I know this isn’t your first choice, but wait until you see the inside.”
“Give me just a moment, Mr. Samuels,” Liam said. “I’ve brought some company with me.” Liam heard Owen and Paige coming up the steps to join them, but when he turned to introduce them, he saw the color drain rapidly from Paige’s face.
“Is something wrong?” he asked, reaching out for her hand.
She stared past him at the Realtor, her face the color of paper.
“Well, Ms. Graham!” Tom Samuels said cheerfully. “I didn’t know I’d be running into you.”
Paige wiped her hands on her jeans as she found her voice. “Hello, Tom. How are you?”
Liam’s eyes darted from Paige to his Realtor. “Did I miss something? How do you two know each other? Paige, did Tom help you find your condo?”
