She looked back at the pile of crumbs. “He wasn’t happy with you.”
Connor gave a sardonic laugh. “Yeah, I bet he wasn’t.”
“He umm…” Should she do this? She suddenly had an insatiable urge todo this; to clear the air and open her arms wide; to implore him to let go of the self-loathing anger at himself and know that it was all okay and she understood.
“He what? What did he do?” Connor all but demanded, as if he were suddenly not convinced his dad didn’t hurt or upset her.
“He mentioned the reason he wasn’t happy with you.”
“And what reason wasthat?” His voice held a razor’s edge as if he already knew the answer.
She pulled her lips hard between her teeth and swallowed. “Javier.”
Connor took a step sideways as if attempting to keep himself upright. “He told you about Morales?”
The words sounded less like a question and more like a stinging accusation. The razor’s edge in his voice cut straight to her bones, and a cold, clammy sensation similar to her broken fever draped over her face. She looked at him, but he stared at a window above the sink as he paled right before her eyes.
“Connor—”
“What the fuck all did he tell you?”
“I assume everything,” Liza said gently. “I can’t imagine there was much he left out.”
He gripped his face as he pitched over at the waist. “Fuck. Me.”
“Connor—”
“I should beathis ass.” He hurled himself upright again and began stalking around the kitchen.
“No, you shouldn’t.” A lump swelled in her throat. This was a terrible,terribleidea. “I’m so sorry, Connor. I had no idea. And I’m just so, so sorry.”
He paced back and forth, his shoulders rising and falling as he breathed heavily and furiously. He rubbed his palms over his eyes and then threw them down against his sides as he stomped back and forth, finally passing the open pantry door, which he slammed shut so hard that the wood split halfway down the center.
“Connor,” she gasped, clutching her chest, “please don’t do that. There’s no need to be angry right n—”
“Oh, there isplentyto be angry about right now,” he growled, turning toward her, his seething expression on full display. “Liza, go home.”
She took one step backward on pure reflex to obey the order but stopped. Her mind jolted with the idea that she should have been there way back when it all happened, and since she couldn’t, she would be here now. “I’m not going home until you’re calm again.”
Connor stomped toward her at lightning speed and stopped with his face mere inches from hers. “Get out!”
The shout was so loud and fierce that if he were anyone else, she would have feared for her safety. Maybe even a few months ago she would have feared for her safety, but since then she’d come to know Connor in a way that made her understand that he was all bark and no bite, especially when it came to her. And even that ferocious bark was simply rooted in a place of pain and had nothing to with her.
So Liza didn’t waver, and she simply placed her hands on his red-hot cheeks, and said, “Baby. No.”
The muscle of his jaw flexed under her palms, and he sucked in a breath so hard that his nostrils collapsed before flaring again as he exhaled loudly. “I’m not yourbaby, Liza.”
“Maybe not, but I’m not leaving you like this.” She drew her thumbs across the chiseled lines that flanked his mouth. “And you’re not going to push me away.”
“I don’t want you here,” he growled, chin jutting aggressively toward her, eyes flashing with pure anger.
“I know you don’t. I know you want to hide everything you feel about this from me, and I know that’s why you pushed me away before. But right now, I’m standing in your kitchen, and you can’t just hang up the phone and make me disappear again. You’re not going to push me away right now because I love you, and I’m not angry at you for how you reacted before. I understand everything, Connor. I’m here for you andwithyou.”
He grabbed her wrists. “I don’t want you here!”
“Let go of my arms.”
“Let go of my face!”
