He placed the steaks on the table next to the salad and walked over to the refrigerator. “Is iced tea okay?”
“I already poured us two glasses. They’re chilling off.”
“Excellent,” Liam murmured with a satisfied grin as he brought the glasses over to the table.
“It looks like it’s possible you weren’t bragging when you said you made a mean steak,” she said as they sat down together. Liam took her plate and began to serve her. Rain began to spatter on the windows.
“I never brag. Only the absolute truth ever leaves these lips.” He’d said it so soberly, but his sudden grin was pure devilry.
“We’ll see.”
His eyebrows quirked in interest at her challenge, and Natalie thought she understood why. With another man, her reply would have sounded cool. For some reason with Liam, it had seemed like she was flirting.
She rolled her eyes and picked up her knife and fork.
The beef melted on her tongue. He’d cooked it to perfection. He was gentleman enough not to say anything out loud, but the look he gave her read loud and clear—I told you so.
They both started to talk at once.
“Why did you let your brother talk you out of buying this place?” he asked.
“What else were you going to tell me about—”
She broke off when his question penetrated her awareness. She smiled a little uncomfortably and took a bite of salad.
“Personal before professional,” Liam said before he stabbed his fork into the meat.
“I didn’t let Eric talk me out of moving here. I came to the conclusion this place was too much work for me.”
“Uh-huh,” Liam said doubtfully.
Thunder rumbled outside.
She paused and sat back in her chair. “Why do you say it like that? Do I seem like that much of a pushover?”
He took a swallow of his tea. “Not at all. I’ve just heard about your brother. He has a reputation for having…strong opinions,” Liam said with the air of someone who was choosing his words carefully.
“And this reputation you speak of,” she said slowly. “Was it, perhaps, provided to you by your sister Colleen?”
He studied her for a moment before he forked some salad. “Let me guess. Eric has given you the opinion Colleen is a bit of a steamroller herself.”
She laughed when she saw the sparkle in his eyes.
“Maybe they’re both a little right,” Natalie murmured, still grinning. “I wouldn’t call Eric a steamroller, necessarily, but he’s very decisive. And he worries about me a lot. Too much, really, but I understand. He was eighteen when we lost Mom and I was only eleven. We don’t have any other family here in the states. My father died in Puerto Rico soon after my mother discovered she was pregnant with me. She and Eric came here with practically nothing but the clothes on their back and my mother’s dreams of giving her kids a chance for something better than she’d ever had.”
“What did your father die of?”
“Cancer. I never knew him,” Natalie replied quietly. Wind-driven rain struck the panes in earnest now. She raised a bite of meat to her mouth and glanced at Liam. “Are you and Colleen close?”
“Yeah, we are,” he said unabashedly.
“And what about your other sister, Deidre?”
Liam nodded. “The three of us are all close in age—eighteen months between Deidre and Colleen, fifteen between Colleen and me. But Deidre hasn’t really lived in Harbor Town since she went to college. She was always working in other towns on her vacations. She was an army nurse for years, but recently she became a civilian. She’s still got wanderlust, though. She’s working in a hospital in Germany, at the moment. We talk as much as we can, but it’s hard while she’s overseas. Deidre is actually one of the reasons Marc and my mom pressured me to leave the Chicago P.D.”
“What do you mean?”
Liam grinned crookedly. “Okay, I was exaggerating a little. But before Deidre was in Germany, she spent two years in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was hard enough for my mom worrying about whether or not I was getting shot on the streets. Knowing Deidre had bombs exploding around her hardly made for peaceful nights for her.”