“You don’t need to take on the worry of what I think of my father,” Liam said in a hard tone. “That’s not your responsibility. If I want to be with you, then I’ll be the one to deal with that.”
Natalie looked up at him. “If you want to? Does that mean you haven’t decided?”
His fierce expression faded. His thumb brushed against her cheek softly. “It means I’m starting to realize it was a bigger decision than I’d been imagining.”
Her heart seemed to drop when she heard that. So…she hadn’t been too wrong when she’d thought that making love was much more of a simple, mundane occurrence to him than it would have been to her. Now that he fully understood all the baggage that might come along with their intimacy, he obviously was losing interest.
Surprise, surprise.
“Don’t, Natalie,” he warned softly.
“Don’t what?” she asked, wondering what he’d spied on her face.
“Don’t think that I’m not making love to you right this second because I find you lacking in any way. You think you’ve led a secluded life so far. If you had any idea how sexy I think you are, you’d probably run out of this house and begin a life of isolation in earnest,” he added under his breath wryly.
Laughter burst out of her throat. He smiled at the sound.
“I guess you probably think I’m a real idiot, for not really getting how complicated this situation was for you,” he said.
“I don’t think you’re an idiot. And it’s complicated for both of us,” she whispered.
“I just need to absorb it all, that’s all. I don’t want to screw this up.”
She nodded. “I understand.”
He grimaced and grabbed a handful of her loose hair, seeming distracted as he let the length run through his fingers. “I kind of doubt you do, actually, since I’m not so sure I understand myself.” His head came up. “Do you think it’s selfish of me to ask you to sleep here tonight? Just to sleep. I meant what I said before—maybe I mean it more now. I don’t want to take you back to your place, but I will, if you want me to.”
“
I don’t know, Liam,” she said doubtfully. “I don’t think that’d be a very good idea.”
He nodded. “Okay.”
“I mean…what would the point of that be? Me sleeping here?” she asked impulsively.
He shrugged. “Beyond my selfishness in wanting you near me, you mean? No point, I guess. It just…seems right,” he said slowly. “It seems like you should be here.” When he saw her indecision, he stood, her hand in his. “Come on. I’ll show you the guest room. It’s not as nice as I want it to be, but it’s getting there. You can decide after you see it.”
Natalie chuckled, but she let him lead her out of the room. She was so bowled over by the events of the evening that laughing seemed like her only viable reaction.
Either laugh or cry…
“My decision has nothing to do with how nice the guest room is, Liam,” she chastised as they walked down the hall, hand in hand.
“And here’s the guest bath,” Liam said thirty seconds later as he leaned into a doorway and flipped on a light. “There’s a couple new toothbrushes and other stuff you can use here in the drawer.”
“I can’t believe how much you’ve done to it,” Natalie said in amazement as she inspected the fully decorated guest room, complete with fresh pale blue paint on the walls, white wainscoting and trim and what looked to be brand-new fluffy bedding ensembles on the twin beds. Two matted and framed watercolors of sailboats hung on the wall. All was fresh and as pristine as Lake Michigan itself on a sunny morning. “Why did you do the guest room before your own bedroom?”
He shrugged. “I don’t care about how quickly stuff gets done for myself, as long as I have a bed to sleep in. But my niece and nephew—Brendan and Jenny, Colleen’s kids—are all excited to come and stay, so I had to get things ready for them.”
Natalie smiled as she sat down in the cushioned wicker chair next to the window. It filled her with warmth to think of him setting that priority, to consider Liam working so hard to complete a space where his family could come and visit.
Surely her instincts were good when it came to him. Their situation may be strange and emotionally volatile…
But Liam, she trusted.
She realized she should have been put off by the fact that he’d stopped making love to her, confused by his actions. Instead, she understood his ambivalence about plunging into a love affair, because she shared in it. Somehow, it felt all right to move cautiously.
At least to sleep on things.