by Kait Nolan
Because she felt odd hearing her mom reminisce about her dad with someone else, Riley headed on outside.
Autumn followed her back out to the truck, grinning. “I think I smell a romance.”
“You do not,” Riley snapped.
“Oh come on. Mr. McSweeney’s not part of the beer and pizza brigade like the rest of us. Why else would he be here?”
“He’s an old friend of my dad’s. He just wants to help.” But that excuse sounded weak even to her own ears.
God, it would be just like her to have wrapped him around her little finger. Sharilyn was good at doing that. Was Matthew bankrolling this apartment?
No. Riley had forced her mom to go through the finances and prove she could afford it before agreeing to help with the move. Sharilyn had a budget. This little place was within her means. And surely if there were something going on, they wouldn’t have chosen this tiny studio apartment. Matthew wasn’t married. He had a house of his own and plenty of room.
By her own admission, Sharilyn was turning over a new leaf. She was moving out on her own, not in with a guy. And she was so excited about this. The least Riley could do was have the same faith in her mother that Sharilyn had had in her all these years.
But as she watched her mom and Matthew laughing together, she couldn’t help but wonder.
~*~
“The kitchen is officially done,” Molly announced.
“I’m pretty sure it’s a rule that the kitchen isn’t done until it has food,” Autumn said.
Liam’s stomach chose that moment to let out a growl that rivaled a grizzly. “Case in point.”
Sharilyn collapsed onto the sofa. “The market is closed. Best I can do is PB and J and tap water.”
“You’ve got an in with the owner,” Matthew teased. “I bet he’d open after hours for you.”
From his position kneeling by the entertainment center, Liam watched Riley pointedly not react to the flirting as she began to break down the boxes they’d just emptied.
“I promised you all pizza. I’ll call it in as soon as I get these hauled to the trash.” Riley began to gather up the stack of boxes.
“Here, I’ll help you with that,” Liam said.
She angled her head in question but didn’t argue. Between the two of them, they hauled the flattened boxes to the dumpster around the corner of the building. Liam waited while she’d called in the order for pizza, thankful that the brutal heat of the day had finally broken and a breeze kicked up enough to ease the humidity. She hung up and started back toward the apartment, “They said twenty-five minutes.”
“Good, I’m starved. Hold up a sec.” Liam snagged her hand, towed her to a stop before she rounded to the stairs.
“What?”
“You okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be okay? I’m just tired. It’s been hella hot today.”
“I just thought you might be a little…sensitive,” he decided, “about Matthew flirting with your mom.”
Riley shrugged. “She’s a single, unattached woman in her own place. Whether I think she should be chasing after another relationship is neither here nor there. As long as he’s not bankrolling this apartment, and I know he’s not, then there’s no objection I can raise that would be valid.”
“That’s a real pretty speech. You keep saying it long enough, you might start to believe it.”
She huffed out a breath. “I’m being stupid. I want her to be happy. She deserves to be happy. I just worry. We’ve been down this path in one form or another many, many times before, and in the end, it always comes down to me having to save her from herself.”
Liam couldn’t blame her for being braced for that. That kind of pattern was hard to break. “You want my take?”
Riley shot him a suspicious look, clearly not sure if she’d like what he had to say. “I suspect you’re going to give it either way, so go ahead.”
“I think your mama regrets all those years she’s had to depend on you.” She’d told him so herself. “You’ve been doing the adulting in your family since you were a little thing. That wasn’t fair to you, and she knows it. She wants to make this work on her own.”
“And Matthew?”
“Your mama is a fun, flirty woman. There’s no crime in that. I don’t know if they’re more than friends or not, but he’s a good guy. Steady. Responsible. A fixture of the community. He’s not some fly-by-night cowboy type who’d use her and lose her. And I think he respects what she’s trying to do.”
Riley was silent for a few moments. “I think…I think it’s good for her to have someone to talk to about my dad, someone who knew him well. With Matthew, the fact that she still misses him every day isn’t going to be some secret she tries to hide. He was there. He knows. Whatever else happens with them, I think there’s probably some healing in that. I don’t know if she ever really dealt with those feelings before because she was, on some level, looking for a substitute all these years. So, I guess I’m glad she has his friendship, if nothing else.”
Liam kissed her brow. “It’ll get easier. Let’s go finish helping her unpack.”
Inside, the AC was finally starting to make a dent since the door had been shut for longer than five minutes at a time.
“What took y’all so long?” Judd asked.
“Were you canoodling in the alley?” Autumn teased.
“It’s too damned hot for canoodling anywhere,” Riley said. “If you leave now, our order at Speakeasy should be ready by the time you get there. And by the time you get back, I might’ve decided to pretend you never said that.”
“Then I guess I’m on pick up duty.” Autumn grabbed her purse. “I shall return with sustenance post haste.”
“And beer!” Judd added.
“And beer,” she acknowledged, and shut the door. She was back in a matter of minutes. “So my car’s dead.”
“Is there something in the gas around here?” Liam asked.
“No. I didn’t get the door shut when I came up to start with the unpacking. It’s been sitting there for hours.”
“I told you you needed to get that battery replaced,” Judd said. “I had to jump it twice last winter.”
“I know, I know. I just haven’t gotten around to it.”
“We’ll take care of it,” Liam promised.
“Oh, I can help with that,” Riley told her. “I actually have jumper cables in my trunk.”
The last thing he needed was Riley snooping under her own hood. She didn’t know cars, but even she would be able to tell something wasn’t right. “You keep your hands off that engine,” he ordered. “You can’t be trusted not to put the positive on the negative and the negative on the positive. I spent too many hours fixing Jo to have you blow something up.”
Riley stuck her tongue out at him.
“Just let us finish with this, and we’ll be out to deal with it in a few minutes,” Judd added.
Both women rolled their eyes.
“You forgot to do the King Kong beating of your chest and pronounce yourselves Tarzan to our Janes,” Autumn said.
Judd shook his head. “I tell you, we get no respect.”
“None at all,” Liam agreed, and bent back to the task at hand.
A few minutes later Judd looked past him. “What do you want to bet they’ve gone to go take care of it themselves?”
“Huh?” Liam cranked his head around. But Autumn and Riley were out of sight. “Shit.”
“Eh, let ’em. It’s probably a statement about feminism or something.”
“No, it’s not that. I don’t want Riley to—”
“Liam Montgomery!” Her shout carried from the sidewalk outside.
“—look at her engine,” he finished.
Judd went brows up. “What did you do?”
“What had to be done.” And now it was time to face the music.
Rising to his feet, he headed outside, where Riley had moved Jo nose to nose with Autumn’s Altima. Jo’s hood was up, and Riley stood besi
de her, hands on hips, glaring as Liam came out. She pointed to her engine. “I may not know a carburetor from an alternator, but I know what the whole thing looks like. That is not my engine.”
“Of course it’s your engine. It’s in your car.” Not that he really thought that would work.
“Don’t play dumb with me. I helped your daddy rebuild my engine the first time. I know what a rebuilt one looks like. Even freshly done, it doesn’t look that clean. What did you do?”
“What had to be done,” he repeated. “Your engine was shot. I put in a new one.”
“Well, I can see that. And what the hell was that bill for parts and fluids you gave me?”
“The rest of what I did to it.”
“Liam, you can’t just buy me an engine. That’s not like a gift of chocolates or flowers. We weren’t even together when you did this.”
“I didn’t buy you an engine.”
She flailed a hand in its general direction again, color rising. “Then what the hell is that?”
Oh hell, he knew that look. There was only one thing that would disarm the fit of stubborn she was about to unleash.
“I didn’t buy it. Dad did.”
Riley blinked. “What?”
“The last time he worked on your car, he saw this coming. It’s in the service records at the garage. He picked up a replacement engine at auction. It was just sitting in the warehouse collecting dust.”
She softened. “Your daddy...” One hand rubbed over her heart, as if to soothe an ache.
Liam knew the feeling.
“Then I need to pay back the garage. Or your mother. Or somebody.”
“No you don’t,” Molly swung an arm around her shoulders. “He loved you like a daughter, and he wanted to take care of you or he wouldn’t have bought it. The business accounts for the garage have long been settled. There’s nothing for you to pay.”
“But—”
“No ‘buts,’ Riley. Take this as a last gift from Dad.” Even if you won’t take it from me.
She closed her eyes. “God, I wish he were here so I could hug him around the neck.”
“You and me both, sugar,” Molly said.
Riley gave her a squeeze, then stepped to Liam. “Since you were the one who were kind enough to do all the work, I’ll hug you instead.”
“Now that I can get behind.”
Her grip was tight as she tucked her head against his chest. “Thank you.”
It was a little thing that she’d let his late father do something to take care of her, however indirectly. But it was a step in the right direction. One of these days, maybe she’d actively let him do the same.
Chapter 14
“To two weeks of an empty house.” Riley raised her wine glass to Autumn’s.
“It’s hardly been empty. Liam’s stayed over every night.” She waggled her eyebrows and smirked.
Riley’s cheeks heated. “Fine, to two weeks of a house free of parental units.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Autumn tapped her glass and sipped. “Now, details, woman. I’m living vicariously through you, so hold nothing back.”
Riley shot a look around Speakeasy, but nobody in the pizzeria was listening to their conversation over the currently heinous rendition of “The Boys Are Back In Town” screeching out of the karaoke speakers. “I’m not giving you the down and dirty on our love life.”
Clapping her hands together, Autumn brightened with interest. “Ooo, so there’s dirty? You naughty girl. Dish.”
“Not. Happening.”
“Oh, come on! You owe me for playing chauffeur to your mom. We are not going to talk about how long it’s been for me. Take pity. I need a tale of a good pounding against the wall or the front door because you couldn’t wait to make it to the bedroom.” Autumn tipped back her glass and drank deep.
Riley lifted a brow. “Have a thing for wall sex, do we?”
“You have no idea. Smutty books and toys can only do so much. I have needs.” She tried to make a joke of it, but an innate sadness lurked behind the lust, and the sight of it broke Riley’s heart. Autumn polished off her wine. “But we are not here to talk about me and my non-existent love life. We’re talking about you and Mr. I’m Too Sexy For My Toolbelt.”
Not knowing how to comfort her friend, Riley let the subject drop as their pizza arrived. In silence, they slid steaming slices of the New York-style pie onto their plates.
“We haven’t had time to get around to my toolbelt fantasy. While I’ve been up to my eyeballs in presentation stuff, he’s been working his very fine butt off on the repairs at the shop. He’ll be starting on the floors tomorrow, so the end is actually nigh. Thank God.”
“Hooray for that.” Autumn bit into her pizza, chewed. “I guess you’re waiting until all the repairs are done before he formally moves in.”
Riley stopped with a slice of pizza halfway to her mouth. “Moves in?”
“Yeah, you’re right. There’s not a lot of room at your place. It’d be better for y’all to find a place together, though I’ll miss having you next door. Meanwhile, have you cleared out closet space for him yet?”
“Closet space?”
“Do you need to clean your ears out? You keep repeating me.”
“Because you’re totally fast forwarding our relationship. We haven’t talked about living together. Nobody’s moving. In or out.”
“Why not? If he’s staying over every night anyway, it seems more expedient than having him live out of a bag.”
“We’re just getting started, Autumn. Just dating.”
“Baby, you and Liam aren’t just anything. That complicated history of yours means you bypassed all that. You may not have talked about it yet, but you’ve totally fallen into some level of domestic bliss, and I think it’s adorable.”
“We’re not living together.” They couldn’t be. Not after so short a time.
“Are his toothbrush and razor on the bathroom counter?”
“Well, yeah. He used them this morning.”
“Do you keep his favorite snacks and beer on hand?”
“Yes, but I also keep yours and you don’t live with me. It’s called being a good hostess.”
“Point taken, but the emergency chocolate stash doesn’t count. Does he have his own key?”
“Yeah, but so do you.”
“I don’t use it when you’re not there unless you need me to do something or I need to raid said emergency chocolate stash. Did he clear it with you before heading off to poker night with the boys tonight?”
Riley frowned. “He didn’t ask my permission. He doesn’t need to. He just let me know because it was the polite thing to do.”
“Because the expectation has become that he’ll be spending the night with you.”
She resisted the urge to hunch her shoulders. “We’ve just been spending all our free time together now that we’ve got some privacy.”
Autumn gestured with a garlic knot. “Which is totally code for burning up the sheets.”
“Oh for heaven’s sake, we don’t spend all our time in bed.”
“I bet if he wasn’t in it, you wouldn’t be able to sleep as easily and you’ve already got sides.”
Could she sleep without him? It had been so incredibly easy to get used to having him sprawled beside her or wrapped around her. Who knew her badass Marine would be such a snuggler?
“None of that means we’re living together.”
“Okay, have you, at any point, called him to get him to pick up something from the grocery on his way home?”
“No.”
“Has he called to ask you if he can pick up something on his way home?”
“Take out doesn’t count.”
“No, you’re missing the point. Has he used the word ‘home’ in reference to your place?”
Riley opened her mouth to rebut, then remembered his parting words as he’d left for Mitch’s. I’ll try not to be home too late.
“Ah ha! I can see it on your face. He
totally has.”
Riley gave up pretending to eat the pizza. “Oh my God.”
“From my perspective over here in the cheap seats, he looks happier than I’ve ever seen him. And so did you until you hit panic mode about sixty seconds ago. What’s the matter?”
“I’m not panicking.”
“Your face is taking on the same shade as the banana peppers, babe.”
“It’s just… It’s too much too fast. Circumstances have escalated things between us and we’ve completely bypassed all the normal dating and get to know each other rituals.”
“So? You already know each other. I fail to see the problem here.”
“Relationships have a proper order for a reason. I don’t want him to start feeling like I pushed him into something.”
“You haven’t pushed Liam into a damn thing. That man is stubborn as a mule. He doesn’t do anything he doesn’t want to do.”
That was true enough, but what if he started feeling caged in? Trapped? Riley had seen that often enough in the men her mother dated, when things moved way too fast.
Autumn laid her hand over Riley’s. “He wants to be with you. Don’t start borrowing trouble where there is none.”
“I just—I don’t want to screw this up because we didn’t think things through and rushed into something more serious than either of us was ready for.”
“You’re allowed to rush when you’re in love, when it’s right. You know that in your gut or you wouldn’t be where you are with him.”
“I didn’t say I was in love with him.” She’d kept that to herself.
Autumn arched one brow. “Please. This is me. I have eyes. You’re both crazy about each other and you make each other happy. And you were completely fine with that until I opened my big fat mouth. So I’m going to shut up now, you’re going to go back to being happy and making googly eyes when his name is mentioned, and I’m going to sit over here and smile in appreciation that two of my favorite people got over themselves and found each other.”
“That easy?”
“That easy,” Autumn assured her.
“Why are you so invested in this?”
