I hurried downstairs and nearly collided with Liam when I rounded the corner. I stumbled, but he didn’t reach out to help me regain my balance. I ended up bumping my thigh into the corner of a side table and air hissed between my teeth.
That hurt like hell.
“Ollie told me I needed to give you a ride to work. He’s working out something for you to have transportation, but for now you’re stuck with me.” He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and leaned forward slightly. There was an awkwardness to him, almost like he didn’t know the right way to communicate with people.
“You’re going to drive me to work?” I looked at him dubiously.
He raised one shoulder in a half-shrug. “I mean, unless you’d rather walk.”
“A ride would be nice, thank you,” I said hastily, before he changed his mind.
“Just don’t expect this to become an everyday thing.” He leveled me with a glare before turning and heading down the other hall. “I have a life, and I’m not stopping it for some girl I don’t know.”
“Understood.” I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me.
He opened the door leading into the garage, and I was forced to follow. Being stuck in a car with Liam for even ten minutes was not on my list of fun things to do.
He let me pass him and then he shut and locked the door behind us.
I took a deep breath before opening the passenger door to the white Jeep Cherokee. Liam slid effortlessly into the driver’s seat, and a moment later the engine purred to life. He reached up and adjusted the beanie he wore. He went to put the car in reverse, but stopped suddenly and glanced at me in confusion.
“Did you eat breakfast?”
“Uh…”
“You didn’t, did you?” He glared at me, like the fact that I’d skipped breakfast was the most offensive thing on the planet.
“No,” I said softly, ducking my head.
He mumbled something unintelligible under his breath and stormed from the car into the house.
A minute later he returned with an orange and a paper towel. He slid into the car and plopped the items in my lap.
“There. Eat that.”
My nose wrinkled with distaste. “You’re so bossy.”
I hadn’t left one controlling man to end up with another.
“I prefer the term concerned.” He grabbed a pair of sunglasses from the cup holder and put them on.
“Concerned, huh?” I laughed, raising a brow. “If that’s what you call concerned,
then…” I trailed off, letting him fill in the blanks.
He shook his head and ignored me.
“Thanks, though.” I held up the orange. “I am hungry, but I was running behind, and—”
He held up a hand to silence me. “Just eat.”
I sighed. Not even a simple thank you could crack his icy exterior.
I felt that he’d been hurt, a deep soul-crushing kind of hurt, but I didn’t know him well enough to ask, and I wouldn’t be sticking around long enough to find out.
Liam reached over and turned the radio on loud enough to drown out any chances of a conversation, and I was okay with that.
I ate my orange in silence, careful not to let any juice drip on my clothes. The last thing I wanted to do was show up for work with stains on my clothes; my morning had already been enough of a disaster.