“Since I last saw you? Let’s see. I acted like a damn fool, staking out Lucy’s nightly activities only to find out she’s designing and sewing—all by herself, I might add—not only Amy’s wedding dress but those of all three bridesmaids. Then, she dragged me to the women’s hospital and took me to the NICU to try and scare me off. As you can probably tell, we both refused to blink, and I provided her with the most unromantic proposal you’ve ever heard.”
“Try me.”
“What?” I didn’t understand what he was asking.
“I meant what I said. Try me. I bet I’ve heard a worse proposal story.”
Rolling my eyes, I wanted to drown in my glass of bourbon. “I get what you’re doing. You’re trying to make me feel better, but it won’t work.”
“I won’t ask again. I’d rather hear it from you instead of whatever twisted version finds me after Lucy tells Amy.”
“Fine,” I huffed. “I just handed her the ring still enclosed in its velvet box before she locked herself in her room and cried herself to sleep.”
“That’s bad, but I think I can do you one better with mine.”
I scoffed. “Very funny. You love your wife.”
“I do.” He nodded. “That doesn’t mean my proposal was worth a damn.”
“Look, Liam. I don’t need to hear some story about how you were so nervous you dropped the ring or some shit. I’m not in the mood.”
“Maybe it’s time that you to shut up and listen for once. You don’t own the market on crappy proposals. Mine ended with me crushing a wine glass with my bare hand.”
I blinked at Liam. “I’m sorry. I think the bourbon hit me faster than I thought. I thought I heard you say you crushed a wine glass with your bare hand at the end of your proposal to Amy. That can’t be right.”
Shrugging, he replied, “That’s exactly what I said. Amy and I weren’t always the lovebirds we are now.”
“I find that hard to believe.” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm from my tone.
“Well, believe it. I asked Amy to marry me because she needed a husband, and I needed a wife. Hell, we even signed a contract.”
“You’re fucking with me.”
“No, it’s true. Remember how Jaxon said something about me holding out on Amy? We agreed on no sex, and yet, somehow, lines were crossed, and she fucking lured me into her trap. I tried to stay away from her, which was easier said than done while living in the same house, but it was no use. She kept coming for me until I gave in, and before I knew it, I was falling for my own wife.” He chuckled for a moment, musing, “Damn, she was wily.”
That was the last thing I needed to hear right now. I was already confused as hell, trying to figure out which parts of Lucy were genuine and which were fake. I didn’t need to learn of Amy and Liam’s unlikely love story, believing that maybe Lucy and I could work past our issues and develop a partnership. I wasn’t foolish enough to believe that we might ever find love, but I held out hope that we could eventually find our way to a place where we didn’t despise each other.
Trying to shake the idea of declaring a truce with Lucy, I mocked, “Boo-hoo. Poor Liam had the hot redhead begging him for sex. Some of us have real problems here, man.”
Liam’s blue eyes grew hard, and his jaw clenched, voice deadly as he warned, “Careful what you say about my wife.”
Admitting I overstepped in my frustration, I apologized. “Sorry, you’re right. So, tell me. Where does the broken wine glass come into play?”
Liam’s voice was edged with steel. “She told me something about her past that was deeply upsetting.”
Now,thatdid sound like the Liam I knew. “You always were a caveman.” I chuckled.
“You don’t fuck with the people I love and live to tell the tale,” Liam uttered darkly.
Putting my hands up in mock surrender, I was sincere. “Noted. We might not get along, but I have no intention of hurting Lucy. I can promise you that.”
Softening, he grabbed my crystal tumbler for a refill, and I let him. “You’re really going to go through with this?”
Sighing, I declared, “I don’t really have a choice anymore. The engagement is official. If something happens between now and the wedding day, it won’t be becauseIcalled it off.”
“If you want my opinion?” He paused, handing me the refilled tumbler, and I nodded for him to continue. “Put aside your pride and everything you think you know about my baby sister, and get to know the funny, caring person she is underneath your perception of her.”
Liam’s advice struck a chord with me. The past few months had shown me I didn’t know Lucy as well as I once thought. The dressmaking alone would be enough proof that she cared deeply about those closest to her. But throw in hearing stories from the nurse in the NICU about how she used to come to visit her nephew daily while he was a patient of the unit, and theevidence was mounting that she was not as she appeared. Even this past week, I had a front-row seat to her turning it on and off, portraying different versions of herself to different audiences.
