Sweet as Sin (25 page)

Pete wants you to call him back, too. Don’t forget Tyler’s allergy medicine at eight and they need a bath yet. I’m going home.”

The slam of the door gave her a small zing of satisfaction but it snapped open before she reached the top step.

“Livvy! What’s wrong?”

Like one too many blocks in a tower, her

control toppled and she whirled on him,

unleashing the emotional hurricane that had brewed all day.

“What’s wrong? What’s wrong is you left here at nine this morning and it’s after six. Where the hell have you been?”
Please don’t say you just
had things to do. Please tell me the truck broke
down, that you got stuck in the mother of all
traffic jams, that aliens descended and kidnapped
you, anything but—

“I had some stuff to do.”

Livvy closed her eyes. “You couldn’t call? Or at least answer your phone? Even for Gina and Pete?”

John scowled and yanked the cell from his pocket. Resignation hardened the lines around his mouth. “Damn, I forgot to charge it last night and…I never thought about calling, Liv. I’m sorry.

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I just figured the kids would be okay with you. Is Gina all right?”

“They moved her to a regular room. But those kids in there don’t know me from Eve. I met them yesterday, Murphy, yesterday. Your sister asked
you
to take care of them, not me. I took a day off to help you, not do it for you. The dentist was important. I understand that. But it’s half an hour each way. You could have walked there and back twice since you left.” She poked his chest. “You used me and I don’t appreciate it.”

He thrust his hands deep in his khaki pockets and rolled his tongue around inside his cheek. His eyes shot to the decking floor before rising to hers.

“Okay, where the hell is this coming from? I should’ve called, I get that, but you are way too pissed off for just that. What’s wrong?”

“You figure it out.” She turned once more for the stairs and made it down two before his voice stopped her.

“I can’t figure out shit unless you talk to me.”

Hurricanes are hard to stop and she was no exception. She stomped back and fixed him with a glower. “Why bother? You couldn’t give me the consideration of a two-minute phone call. I watched my mother sit by the phone, waiting for my father to call, wondering where he was, night after night. He never called. When he’d finally Inez Kelley

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come home he’d blow her off, say he just had things to take care of. Sound familiar?”

John had the decency to look guilty. “Oh shit.”

“Yeah, oh shit. He screwed anything in skirts while my mother waited for a phone call and a lie.”

“You think I was out screwing someone?”

“I don’t know where you were, Murphy. That’s the point.”

John shook his head. “No, the point is you decided I’m guilty because your father was a dick.”

“Takes one to recognize one, I guess.”

A flush of anger darkened his cheeks. John balled his fists. “Okay, we need to back up here before one of us says something really out of line.

I was not… Christ, Liv, I thought you trusted me.

You did yesterday. What happened?”

“You didn’t call. This is where I’m selfish. I don’t share well. If you want to be with me, then you treat me with enough respect to call me and tell me the truth. That’s the only thing I’ll ever ask of you. That you don’t make me wonder where you are and who you’re screwing.”

“Uncle John, are you and Livvy fighting?”

PJ’s timid voice called from the threshold and she averted her face. The boys didn’t need to see her tears or hear her anger. It wasn’t their fault their uncle was an ass.

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“Yes, PJ, we are. You go back inside and keep an eye on Tyler for a minute. I’ll be right in.” His calm baritone soothed her as he meant it to soothe the child, and she had to steel herself from softening. She didn’t face him until the latch clicked.

He avoided her eyes. “I swear I wasn’t with anyone else, Livvy. I just had some things I needed to take care of, stuff that…only came up because of everything that’s happening with Gina.

I should have called. I’m sorry.”

“That makes two of us.” Unable to stay any longer, she darted for the stairs. This time she made it down five.

“I heard what you said last night. Your other secret? I heard it, Liv.”

Shock and dread tilted her world to the left and her vision spun wildly.
He heard?
She gripped the railing and her eyes squeezed shut. “I thought you were asleep.”

“I was. You woke me when you said my

name.”

She blinked to clear her eyes then reclimbed the steps. She folded both arms to hide her shaky hands and focused her attention on his chin. “If you were awake, why didn’t you say anything?”

His jaw shifted as he gritted his teeth. The tightening of his lips brought passionate memories Inez Kelley

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to the front of her mind and she pushed them down. “I was just stunned, I guess.”

“You had to have known, Murphy, had some

idea.” Braver now, she raised her eyes to his.

He shook his head. “I knew I…meant

something to you but I didn’t know that. Did you mean it, Livvy? Was it just the moment or is that how you feel?”

Andrea’s taunts slammed into her. Could she stand here and admit she was in love with him and him not tuck tail and run? Is this where he started pulling back because she did the unthinkable and fell for his moody ass? He’d told her he didn’t want forever but she’d thought maybe… Was she willing to risk it? John was giving her an out, a chance to lie, blame it on the sex.

Livvy didn’t want a lie. She lifted her chin. “I meant it. I love you.”

He smiled, the edges of his lips tilting just slightly. “I like hearing that.”

Silence, only silence, passed between them.

Part of her heart wept as she realized he wasn’t running but he wasn’t going to repeat those words to her either. Her head shook, denying her disappointment. She spun around and headed for the stairs.

“What does this mean, Livvy? You love me but you’re leaving me? Is this over now? Is this how it ends?”

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He couldn’t have hurt her more if he’d literally stabbed her in the back. Livvy stopped her descent.

Was this over?
No, her love wasn’t over. She just needed to be loved in return. She wanted him to love her with the intensity she loved him. Sucking back a sob, she held it until her lungs burned like acid, digging for the courage to answer him.

Had every look, every kiss, every tender

moment they’d shared been a lie or wasn’t he feeling the same? No one was that good of a liar, were they? She’d thought, hoped, he was falling in love with her too.

He’d nicely volleyed the ball into her court, making her the villain. If this—them—they were over, it wasn’t her choice. It was up to him.

An ex-high-school-volleyball captain, she turned back to him and served. “This is an argument, Murphy. What you do with it is your choice. You know how I feel and where I live.”

She managed not to run and not to break

down…until she was inside.

John watched the sun glint off Livvy’s hair as she walked across the grass. Her proud stance belying the pain in her eyes, she slipped from his sight and his chest lurched. An exhale of frustration burst from him and he threw his body into a deck chair.

His full pocket bit into his thigh and he eased the Inez Kelley

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small blue box out. He worked his jaw back and forth until he had the courage to open it.

The stones sparkled, sending rainbows of light across his hand. It had taken hours to find what he wanted. He’d ended up driving over a hundred miles just to find a better selection and lucked out finding a jeweler who had exactly the right stones.

He’d just had to wait for the stones to be set.

Although never imaging he’d ever need one, once his mind had been made up, he knew exactly which ring he wanted Livvy to have.

Nearly three carats in total, he’d winced at the price but knew she was worth twice that. Livvy was beyond special, she was his angel. He’d chosen a side and hit the ground running. This was what he wanted. He wanted Livvy. Forever.

Monsters, demons, whatever, he’d battle them all just to see her face every morning until he was too old to remember his own name. But he’d screwed up. She’d run from him crying and he had no clue what to do to get her back. How could a man who juggled dozens of imaginary monsters not get a handle on one human female?

The lid snapped shut sharply and he dropped his head back. “Shit.”

“You said another bad word.”

He fixed his nephew with a sarcastic look.

“Yes, PJ, I said another bad word.”

“That’s okay. Mommy says that one.”

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“I probably taught it to her.”

PJ leaned on his knee and looked up at him.

“Why was Livvy mad? Was I bad today? I didn’t mean to spill the orange juice and I only hit Tyler once, maybe twice, I don’t remember.”

“No, I’m sure you weren’t bad. But don’t hit your brother. Hitting hurts. I hurt Livvy’s feelings, that’s why she’s mad.”

“Are you going to say you’re sorry?”

“I did. She’s still mad. She’s mad at her father and using me as target practice.” John rose with a grunt and shoved the box back in his pocket.

“Where’s Ty?”

“In the living room. Livvy said we could make cookies tonight. She said I could mash the butter.

Is she coming back?”

The house seemed hollow. John closed the

door and listened for what was different. There was more noise than usual. The TV blared some squeaky-voiced song and Tyler stood in front of it shaking his rear end in a strange dance. PJ

rambled on, pausing only for breath. The air conditioner hummed and, from the back, the rumble of the clothes dryer droned.

It hit him like a sucker punch. Livvy was gone.

His house had no heartbeat.

Even when she was at work, her presence

lingered. Now it was as if she’d taken her spirit with her, with no plans to return. Cold that had Inez Kelley

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little to do with the blowing air seeped into his muscles. John leaned back on the door, mind spinning. A headache began to throb behind his eyes.

“Livvy made chicken. We saved you some.”

Kicking off the door, he palmed the top of the little boy’s hair. “I’m not hungry, PJ.”

“Livvy wasn’t hungry either. But it was good chicken. Can I have ice cream now? I ate all my dinner.”

John scooped ice cream into bowls and wished PJ would shut up. If he said Livvy’s name one more time, John was going to go crazy. Tyler came running and John put him on the barstool in front of a cereal bowl full of Neapolitan. Both PJ

and Tyler’s eyes bulged at the adult-sized serving.

John ate from the carton, not tasting a bite. Ice cream didn’t satisfy. He wanted buttercream.

“PJ, when your Mommy and Daddy argue,

what does your daddy do?” He’d sunk to a new low. He’d asked for relationship advice…from a five-year-old.

Pink and brown cream coating his lips, the little boy screwed up his eyebrows in thought.

“Mommy cries and yells, Daddy says bad words and goes outside.”

“Okay, did that,” John said with a wry grin.

“What about after? How do they stop fighting?”

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Vanilla and strawberry slid down PJ’s chin.

“Daddy says he’s sorry, Mommy calls him an idiot and then he kisses her. Her face goes all goofy, like this.” Half rolling his eyes, he looked like he was having some type of seizure, which made John smile.

“Yeah, but what about when your Mommy is

wrong and your daddy is right?”

PJ shrugged. “Daddy says he’s sorry anyway.

Daddy says it takes a big man to crawl. But I’ve never seen him do that. And even Tyler doesn’t crawl anymore, but he did for a long time…and he wore a diaper.”

“Nuh-uh, I’m a big boy!”

The two argued while John shoved the ice

cream carton back in the freezer, spoon and all.

“All right, enough. Eat your ice cream. And then we’re going to go see Livvy. I need to learn how to crawl.”

For fifteen minutes, Livvy hoped John would follow her. As half an hour slid by, she knew he wouldn’t. She sank onto the couch and clutched a small throw pillow to her stomach, swallowing her tears.
Love sucks.

Andrea stumbled up the hall, rubbing sleep from her face. Seeing Livvy on the couch, she stopped. “Hey, you’re home. There’s a change.”

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When Livvy didn’t speak, Andrea grew solemn.

“What happened?”

“We had a fight.” Her voice was husky,

tattered.

Andrea swooped her long hair over her

shoulder and sat beside her. “Bad?”

Livvy shrugged, unable to explain how

something so small had exploded so nastily. “He was gone all day and didn’t call. I…I freaked out on him a little bit, accused him of being with someone else.”

“Oh, Liv.” Andrea rubbed her knee. “Not all men cheat, you know.”

“I know. But…yeah, I wish that was all I said to him.” At Andrea’s inquisitive look, Livvy raised her eyebrows. “I told him I love him. You were right.”

“Oh, Livvy, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to be.”

Tears filled Andrea’s eyes then and she wrapped her arms around her older sister. Livvy let loose her control and wept. Andrea pulled back with a grin. “Want to egg his house? We could slit his tires. I know, let’s get a dog and let it shit in his yard.”

A small knock at the front door drew her head up and Andrea looked at her warily. Hope rushed at her like a tornado—violent, fierce and terrifying.

Andrea strode to the door as Livvy held her breath.

“Is it Murphy?” she whispered.

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Andrea shook her head. “Not unless he shrank.

But it is for you.”

PJ, with chocolate stains on his red tee shirt, stood smiling like a cat. In his sticky hand, he clutched a large bunch of Mr. Truman’s prize roses. The distinctive pale cream color was unmistakable. Livvy assumed they had been snipped without permission.