Venus rising boxset, p.88
Venus Rising Boxset, page 88
Honey-girl,
I’m sorry if I made you feel pressured. I just want you to know your options. I like the idea of having you in my house, in my bed, and waking up next to you every morning. But you don’t need to decide now. Just think about it.
Liam
Leading his first class of the day, an afternoon class made up mostly of stay-at-home moms, housewives, and businessmen on their lunch break, Liam found he was having trouble keeping his mind on task. Like yesterday, he couldn’t stop thinking about Hilary. Unlike yesterday, it wasn’t because he was worried he’d played his hand too soon—man, her old-fashioned sayings were rubbing off on him—he was feeling jittery and anxious, and wanted to know if she’d gotten the flowers he’d sent her, hoping she would contact him when she did.
Last night’s phone call had been more than a little awkward, and he hadn’t wanted to make it even more so by bringing up the moving in thing again. He wasn’t entirely sure what had prompted him to make such an inane offer—she’d been lying on his chest, all soft and sweet and smelling wonderful, and his brain had taken the mental trip that it was the perfect moment to see if she wanted it to be like that every night—and he’d managed to freak her out, although she’d tried not to show it too much.
Despite knowing she was being perfectly reasonable, wanting to think it over, part of him still felt hurt and rejected. Logically, he knew it was an overreaction on his part. He shouldn’t have just blurted it out, and he definitely shouldn’t have expected her to say yes right away.
Absently, he walked around the room, trying to focus on correcting his students’ forms as they went through the motions. Some of them, students he’d had for a while, were looking at him as though they knew he wasn’t all there. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to buckle down and not think about Hilary for the last ten minutes of class.
Feeling relieved, he headed back to his office when the class was over. Relief and anticipation... had Hilary gotten the flowers yet?
Shutting the door firmly behind him, he didn’t have another class until later in the afternoon when the kids were out of school, he went for his phone where it was waiting on his desk. One missed call, one voicemail. Quickly he punched in the voicemail button and the password.
“Hey Liam,” Hilary’s shy, sweet voice filled his ear, and he relaxed back into his chair, taking pleasure in her happy tone. “Thank you so, so much for the flowers. They’re absolutely beautiful. I’ve never... no one’s ever...” She started to sound teary, which made his chest ache, and he rubbed the center of it. “I love them. And the card. Thank you. Um... I’ll be home alone tonight… do you want to come over? We can talk. Okay... I’ve gotta go, but thank you. I’ll talk to you later.”
While he wanted her back over at his place, he decided it was probably better to see her again in her own space, her home ground, as it were. Hopefully, she’d be more comfortable talking about the future and what her plans were.
Although he wanted to call her, she might be busy, so he texted her instead.
I’ll come over after my last class. Be there around 8.
Feeling more lighthearted, he began sorting through the various amounts of paperwork he needed to take care of before the afternoon and evening classes, easier to concentrate now.
Freshly showered—in record time—and feeling energized despite the fairly long day he’d had, Liam practically bounded out of the elevator in Hilary’s apartment building. He’d stifled the impulse to buy her more flowers on the way, not wanting to overload her with them.
The door to her apartment was only three down from the elevators, so the second he came out, he could see the older man standing there, talking with Hilary while she stood in the doorway. She didn’t look happy until her head turned and she saw him. Then her face lit up, and he felt a rush of warmth run through him to know his mere presence was the reason for her expression.
The man standing in front of her turned, his face both exasperated and tired. He had dark brown hair and eyes, although he was silvering throughout the hair and losing a bit of it in the front, giving him a fairly pronounced widow’s peak. The lines on his face had more laughter in them than frowning, but right now, he looked patently unhappy.
“Hey... Liam, this is Jessica’s dad, Mr. Swift. He was looking for Jessica. Mr. Swift, this is my boyfriend, Liam.”
Mr. Swift nodded at Liam but kept his hands jammed in his coat pockets, his voice low as he replied to Hilary. “Boyfriend? So only one of them?”
“Yes,” Hilary said rather shortly. Liam didn’t blame her.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Liam said, putting out his hand to try to ease some of the tension.
The older man sighed and shook Liam’s hand. “I’m sorry, I’m being rude. I’m having a rough day, and I was hoping to talk to my daughter.”
“You should go to Justin and Chris’ house, she’s going to be living there soon enough,” said Hilary, making it clear to Liam this was not the first time she’d said it. He wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what they had been arguing about when he got off the elevator.
“I don’t want to go there,” Mr. Swift said in a hard, clipped manner, a scowl descending on his face. “She should be here. This is where she lives.”
“But she won’t be living here soon,” Hilary insisted. “You should meet them. I think it would make you feel better about the whole situation. They’re good guys.”
“I don’t want to meet them. They’ve brainwashed Jessica, they’ve brainwashed you and Jay, and they’re on their way to brainwashing Cassie,” he snapped. Liam assumed Cassie was Jessica’s mother, and he could only hope the time she’d spent with the guys on Saturday had made a difference. It had been obvious she’d been uncomfortable while she was there, but from her husband’s words, it seemed she may be coming around.
While he knew he shouldn’t get involved, he couldn’t help but want to defend his friends. “I’ve known both of them a long time, Mr. Swift,” he said, trying to be as placating and reasonable as possible. “They love Jessica, and they take good care of her.”
“Oh, yeah?” Mr. Swift demanded, pulling himself up to his full height—which wasn’t as tall as Liam—glaring at him in a way he hadn’t done with Hilary, who had reached out to grab Liam’s hand too late to stop him. “If they love her so much, they should let her go so she can be in a normal relationship. Hilary told me people are harassing Jessica, bullying her, calling her all sorts of names. If they wanted to take care of her, they wouldn’t put her in that kind of position! She’s a good girl, and she deserves a normal relationship! If they care so much, how can they let that happen to her?!” By the time he finished his diatribe, he was yelling, although thankfully, no one looked out into the hallway to see what was going on.
“Mr. Swift.” Hilary was shooting dagger glares at Liam, who decided to take the hint and not respond. “Mr. Swift... look, you can’t keep Jessica from making her own decisions about what makes her happy. People used to say the same things about mixed-race couples or homosexual couples, and now, most people don’t care. I promise you she is happy, happier than I’ve ever seen her. The guys love her, and that’s why they won’t let her go, but they can’t control the way everyone acts. They protect her as best they can and do everything they can to make her smile and make her feel loved.”
Jessica’s father seemed to sink into himself again... obviously, he had trouble being angry with Hilary, even if the entire situation was frustrating to him.
“She deserves better.”
“She deserves to have what she wants and what she wants is them. You should be talking to her about this. If you can come back tomorrow evening, I’ll make sure she’s here,” Hilary said soothingly. Liam wholeheartedly agreed but remained silent the way she wanted him to. Letting go of his hand, Hilary reached out and hugged Mr. Swift, who didn’t respond for a moment, then let out another long sigh and hugged her back.
“Thank you, sweetheart. I just want to talk to her... I just want...” The man’s face twisted a little, and it was obvious to Liam what he wanted. He wanted to convince his little girl to live her life the way he wanted.
Seeing the pain on his face, the anguish of a parent who knew their child had a hard road ahead of them and couldn’t do anything to make it better, he lost the frustration he had with the Swift parents. They weren’t bad people. They just wanted what they thought was best for their child. Jessica’s dad was finally ready to reach out, even if he should’ve done it weeks ago. Then again, who was Liam to talk? He didn’t have kids.
He tried to imagine little honey-blonde children and had the most unreasonable surge of anger when he thought about any man coming within two feet of his imaginary daughter. Yeah, he might end up having more in common with Mr. Swift one day than he wanted to think. He’d never pictured himself as a dad, but put Hilary into the mix, and all of a sudden, the fictional children seemed all too real.
“I’ll be back tomorrow evening. She’ll be here? Alone?” The man asked hopefully as he pulled away from Hilary.
“She’ll be here,” said Hilary firmly, obviously not willing to commit to more. That would be up to Jessica.
“Sorry I yelled,” Mr. Swift said, looking rather sheepish as he turned to Liam. “I have a bit of a temper. It was nice to meet you.”
“It was nice to meet you too, sir,” Liam said.
He and Hilary watched as Mr. Swift headed to the elevator, giving them a wave before stepping on. Smiling, Liam looked down at his girlfriend. She looked beautiful but tired, still dressed in her work clothes, a button-down blouse and a pair of navy slacks, her bare feet poking out from underneath. The dark circles under her eyes both worried him and reassured him she hadn’t enjoyed the tension between them for the past two evenings either.
“Hey, honey-girl,” he said, bending down to kiss her as he pulled her into his arms, savoring the feel of her soft body pressing against him—it felt so right. Who could blame him for wanting her to move in so quickly when being with her felt this good?
When he ended the kiss, he was leaning against the doorjamb, and Hilary was leaning against him, her fingers wrapped around his biceps.
“Hey there, yourself,” she said, sounding breathless. “Sorry about that... he just stopped by out of nowhere.”
“Not your fault,” Liam said as he allowed her to straighten up, then followed her into the apartment. The smell of tomato sauce cooking was heavy in the air, making his stomach rumble. “It’s good he finally wants to talk to Jessica, though.”
“I hope so,” said Hilary, shooting a smile over her shoulder as she walked into the kitchen. He liked the way her slacks clung to her shapely bottom, watching it sway as she moved in front of him. “He’s still not too keen on the two boyfriends thing, obviously.”
Liam sniffed and smiled with pleasure as Hilary picked up the top of one of the pans on the stove—definitely spaghetti sauce. It smelled like meat, tomatoes, garlic, and oregano. His stomach rumbled again, and Hilary giggled as she looked over at him.
“Dinner will be ready in just a minute. Can you get some bowls down?”
They set the table together, chatting about their day as they moved around each other seamlessly. The tension, the awkward pauses had disappeared. Maybe because they were talking in person, or maybe because of the message he’d put on the card. He hadn’t meant to push her or make her feel like she needed to answer him right away. It was a relief to know things between them on a day-to-day basis hadn’t changed, and they’d moved past the uncomfortable part.
He told her about the day’s classes and how one of his six-year-olds was convinced Liam was secretly a Super Sayan or something from one of the TV shows he watched.
“I miss the days of the Hulk and Superman,” he confessed. “I don’t know who any of these new guys are. Except SpongeBob, and I hate that guy.”
Hilary giggled. “Well, I only know who the Hulk is because of all the super hero movies coming out lately. Although I watched the Superman cartoons when I was a kid.”
“Just the cartoons? What about the movies? Those were classic!”
“Meh.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I liked the TV show that came out in the nineties better than the old movies. Besides, I was a cartoons kid growing up. It was all about She-ra and Rainbow Brite!”
“We’re going to have a Superman movie night,” he informed her. “I’m changing your opinion.”
“If you say so.”
The twinkle in her eye said she was looking forward to it, and he grinned at her. Conversation flowed so easily, so naturally, even when they found things they didn’t have in common. She was always willing to learn more about the things she didn’t know, as was he—although he drew the line at Gilmore Girls—and that was the best part.
As they finished up their meals, the conversation slowly dragged to a halt, both of them facing they hadn’t worked up to the one topic they really needed to talk about. Hilary fiddled with her fork, not quite meeting his eyes, and he took a big gulp of water, trying to think of how to start.
“Soooo... about the other night...”
“So, about my proposition...”
They both halted, laughed, and eyed the other.
Liam grinned. “Ladies first.”
“Right,” Hilary said, licking her lips.
Chapter 13
The evening had been a bit of a revelation. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about what it would be like to live with Liam, having dinner with him like this every night and found she liked it—a lot. Even better was they’d been able to have an enjoyable dinner despite the fact they hadn’t cleared the air yet, but without the tension that had accompanied the previous nights’ avoidance.
“So…” She searched for the right words, twirling her fork between her fingers as if doing so might spin off a way to explain how she was feeling.
After a long moment, Liam took pity on her—or maybe he was just getting tired of the fork twirling—reaching over to pluck it out of her fingers before wrapping one of his big hands around hers. She looked up into his serious, grey eyes, a small, encouraging smile on his face, and felt herself relax.
“Maybe I should go first,” he said teasingly, and Hilary smiled back at him as she nodded. “I didn’t mean to put pressure on you or make you feel like you had to decide right away. I know that’s kind of how it came out and, at the moment, yeah, I would have liked to have known right away, but I get it’s a big decision. I just wanted you to know you had another option other than living by yourself or getting another roommate for this place. I like the idea of living with you.”
“I like it too…” she said quietly, her voice trailing off and then strengthening. “I just don’t know if I’m ready yet. I’ve never lived with a guy before. Or even thought of it as a possibility.”
“Me, neither.” Liam grinned as her head swung up, her eyes wide with surprise. “What, you thought just because I asked you to move in with me after a couple of months, I’m a move-in whore? Nah, that’s all you, sweetheart. Only you.”
Hilary blushed as he looked at her with tender pleasure, a doubt she hadn’t even fully realized, easing, leaving her feeling special.
“I don’t want to say no… I just don’t feel like I can say yes, yet.”
“Then don’t. Just think about it.” He brought her fingers up to his lips, kissing, then nipping them, which made her laugh even as warmth bloomed in her stomach. “I have something else I want you to think about too.” She tilted her head as he squeezed her fingers, hoping this was about to lead to a sexy place… or a cuddly place… really, any place involving touching him.
“I know you do Christmas with your family, but what would you think about coming down and visiting mine in Florida the day after Christmas? We’d stay a couple days and be back here in time for New Year’s.”
The muscles in her face felt like they froze. Very similar to the way she’d reacted on Saturday night when he’d asked her to move in, except this time he was looking at her, so he could see her do it. On Saturday night, he’d been able to feel her body tense, but he hadn’t been gazing into her eyes, not like tonight.
“What?” he asked, somewhat roughly. “Now what?” The exasperation in his eyes was clear to see.
“Look… I just…” Hilary squeezed her fingers around his, not that he was pulling his hand away but because she didn’t even want to give him the chance to. “This is all just moving really fast. We’re combining our Thanksgiving celebration, now you’re talking about Christmas and going out of town to meet your family, you asked me to move in…”
“Because these are parts of my life I want to involve you in,” Liam shot back, his eyes blazing, his grip on her hand as tight as hers on his. “What is so wrong with that?”
“Nothing’s wrong with it, exactly—”
“Then what is the problem? You’re getting all uptight over these things that shouldn’t be a big surprise considering where our relationship is going—”
“Where is it going?! You haven’t even said if you love me!”
The frustration, irritation, rising anger, all seemed to rush right out of them, and they were left sitting there at the kitchen table, just two people holding hands. Hilary looked down at their hands rather than continue looking at the startled expression on Liam’s face.
“I’m sorry… Look, I didn’t want to bring it up or try to force you into saying something you don’t feel, it’s just you keep bringing up doing these things that imply… that imply you see certain things in our future, at least, that’s how it makes me feel… and we haven’t ever talked… you haven’t said…”
“Honey-girl,” Liam’s voice was a caress across her skin, the chair he was sitting in grating a bit as he scooted it closer to her. “Hilary. I’m sorry. I should have realized… I should have…” He sighed, and Hilary peeked up at him. The wan smile he gave her made her heart lurch. “I haven’t had much practice at the relationship thing. Obviously. At least not one that means as much to me as this one does. This is the first time I’ve been in a relationship where I want more. More than just dates, more than just a weekend or two, more than just someone to spend some time with. I don’t know how to do this, and apparently, I’m doing it all wrong.”
