Full Circle (6 page)

Liam tore his gaze from the women’s retreating backs. “Don’t worry, it wasn’t a date. You’d break both my legs, right? Maybe an arm or two.”

“No way, I don’t want to handle all of our clients alone.” Justin grinned. “If you don’t hurt her, it’s all good.”

“I’d never do that.”

Not purposely, anyway, but the accusatory glares of the gossip group reminded him that there was one way he could hurt her. Elisa already trusted him about as far as she could throw him, and if she got wind of his disastrous past she’d definitely end up on the side of the crowd that believed him to be a heartless thug.

“Hey, man—is there anyone with the last name of Black around here?”

Justin’s forehead crinkled. “Don’t think so.”

Good. Liam didn’t think so, either—a university board member with that much wealth and influence would have no reason to be in such a small town. That was one reason he had jumped at the opportunity to move there when Justin offered him a job at the clinic.

They came to a red light, and Liam gripped the door handle until his knuckles hurt. He did not want any part of his relationship with Kelly Black following him to Windy Flats.

It couldn’t even be called a relationship—more like an attempted one-night stand gone terribly wrong. There had been a huge party, and it was a huge university. He’d had no idea who she was when he had gone upstairs with her. And never in his most demented dreams would he have imagined the stunt that she and her big-shot father had pulled on him.

He sighed and turned his attention to a more appealing thought. “Anyway, we weren’t exactly ‘out’. Elisa was just showing me around town. I think she’s trying to find me a girlfriend.”

“Any hot prospects?”

“Nah. Not yet.”

Unfortunately, the only hot prospect in sight was leaving in two months and had never been interested in dating him.

Exactly what he didn’t need.

Chapter Four

During her pregnancy, Elisa hadn’t stepped one foot inside a baby store. The experience had been plagued with disaster from the positive test to the operating room, and she had avoided all things baby. The only good thing to come of that fiasco was that it revealed Brett’s true colors before she wasted any more of her life on him.

“We don’t have to go baby shopping if you’d rather not.” Laura’s gentle voice cut into her thoughts. “I’ll admit I just wanted to get you alone.”

“It wasn’t a date,” Elisa answered, knowing her friend was bursting with questions about her evening with Liam. She thumbed through a rack of newborn-sized overalls. “And it’s fine if we baby shop. I’m happy for you. I need to get over my hang-ups eventually.”

She also needed something to distract her from the familiar scene that had taken place at the restaurant. Liam had clearly been concerned that the gossip cronies were spreading rumors about him, and as much as she wanted to ease his mind, she suspected the women had been discussing her past and that wasn’t something she could explain to him.

“Are things getting better?” Laura asked.

Her evening with Liam had been a blast. In fact, she’d noticed a disturbing pattern that she enjoyed every day she spent with him. While other men in town sparked no more feeling in her than indifference—at best—Liam made her laugh. He made her feel worthy and special, even if she didn’t particularly want that kind of attention from him. She had given up on dating so long ago, she would be lucky if she remembered how to do it.

During the first few months, after Brett had skipped the state and the baby was gone, she’d tried to meet someone new. But the toll the situation had taken on her became quickly apparent, and none of her dates had appreciated the fact that after a few evenings of anticipation, they wouldn’t be having sex with her. Hell, she couldn’t even bring herself to kiss any of them. Eventually she had given up. What was the point of going out with someone she could never get close to? She would only make him agitated, and then she’d get angry with herself for having the problem in the first place.

“Liam is nice,” she admitted. “But there’s no way—I mean, I’m not sleeping with him.”

Laura picked out a sleeper printed with dinosaurs and draped it over her arm. “You don’t even want to try?”

“I’ll only be here until the end of the summer. I don’t need a man in my life.”

“I know, but maybe he could help you out a little. If you know what I mean.”

Elisa stared at her friend. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this from you. You want me to have a one-night stand with Liam?”

“I want you to have fun again.”

The concern in Laura’s eyes made hers start to sting. She hadn’t associated men, dating, or sex with
fun
in ages. During that first year of college, she and Brett had done a lot of things—stupid things. But for nine long years, she had gone without so much as a kiss. Hard to believe that was even possible, but she’d done it.

How could she think about having sex again? Within a month of getting pregnant and moving in with Brett, he had dumped her for some socialite and his wealthy parents had paid her off so she wouldn’t bother him for child support. Facing single motherhood and mounting depression, she’d dropped out of school to return to this small town and move back in with her parents. If that wasn’t enough to deter her, losing the baby when she was five months along had been a nightmare she would go to the convent to avoid going through again.

“Elisa?”

Laura stood in front of her, a stack of tiny blue outfits on her arm. For five minutes, Elisa had stood motionless in front of that same rack of clothes.

“Oh no. I was supposed to be helping you pick stuff out. I’m sorry.”

“Stay right there, hon. Just let me pay for this.”

After Laura made her purchase, they exited the store and dawdled down the sidewalk, following the streetlamps that lit a path back to Elisa’s car. The breeze blew strands of hair onto her cheeks and dried the tears that lingered behind her eyelids.

Laura put an arm around her shoulder. “In case you ever question it, you should know that we all continue to support you. Myself, and your parents…and I promise you, Justin does too. He gets on your case because he likes to play the protective big brother, but he’s proud of you.”

So Laura had seen her staring at the baby clothes.

She had always known that her family supported her, and she felt bad sometimes for insisting that she had to get away from them, but she just couldn’t stay in Windy Flats.
So much for your big plans,
Brett had sneered on his way out the door of their barely lived-in apartment, back when she still thought the baby was his.
Go home to Mommy and Daddy now. Have fun working at the Mini-Mart and raising your litter of kids.

She shivered and rubbed her arms. No, she could never stay in this town that was going nowhere and risk allowing Brett’s prediction to become reality. And now that Liam lived here, she absolutely had to get away. She couldn’t spend the rest of her life looking at the reminder of that lifeless infant she’d briefly held before saying goodbye. As tiny as her daughter had been, Elisa had seen Liam’s features in her face.

“Honey, what’s wrong?”

She heard sniffling. Her nose was wet. Oh Lord, it was her. She was crying. Tears streamed down her face, just as they had so many years ago.

Laura dug a tissue out of her purse. “Oh, I knew I shouldn’t have brought you here. This baby stuff is too much.”

They reached the car. Elisa shook her head and took the tissue. When she’d cleaned up her face and regained control of herself, she leaned against the hood and swallowed hard.

“It’s not that,” she said. “I have to tell you something…about Liam. Remember how you said I can talk to you in confidence? It’s really, really important that you keep this to yourself.”

Laura looked a bit alarmed, but she nodded. “What happened?”

Elisa puffed out a breath. She felt ill. There was only one way to say this—directly.

“Liam was my baby’s father. He has no idea. He doesn’t know how far along I was when I lost her. I was planning to contact him, but she was gone before I had the chance. And then I figured there was no point because, well, there’s no child.”

“Sweetie.” Laura took her arm. Though her tone remained gentle, her expression was serious. “That doesn’t make it irrelevant. He needs to know.”

She shook her head. “He lost his mother a few months ago. He wants kids. I can’t tell him now. It will only hurt him.”

Panic rose in her chest. “He’ll think I lied, that I tried to hide it from him all along, and really I had no idea until we’d already lost touch. We used protection, and I had no reason to believe it wasn’t Brett’s until my first appointment with the doctor, and that wasn’t until—”

“Elisa, calm down. I believe you.”

“But he won’t.”

“You won’t know until you tell him.”

Elisa closed her eyes. She could not fathom what his reaction would be—or what in the world she would say.

Hey, Liam, remember that night we spent together? Yeah, you got me pregnant, not Brett. And not only did I never tell you about it, but the baby—your baby—was stillborn. Sorry.

She wanted to crawl into a hole just thinking about it.

“I know you don’t want to hear this,” Laura said as they climbed into the car. “But Liam seems like a really good guy.”

Elisa nodded. He was. His hardworking, compassionate self had always been far too good for her, the overconfident, irresponsible cheerleader.

“And you’ve changed a lot since your wild days,” Laura continued, knowing, as usual, what Elisa was thinking. “I’m not saying have ten kids with him, I’m just saying…don’t be afraid of him. He’s not Brett.”

Elisa spoke quietly. “No, he isn’t.”

But after years of missing Liam, she’d just gotten him back. If he knew she’d kept such life-changing news from him, he’d look down on her—leave her—the same way Brett had.

And that’s what she
was
afraid of.

Liam swallowed the last of his beer when Laura and Elisa pulled into the driveway. “Hey, man, your wife’s home.”

Justin peered out the window. “’Bout time. I knew I shouldn’t have let her run loose in a baby store without some testosterone to keep things under control. We probably have six car seats now.”

“I doubt that. Laura seems like a levelheaded gal.”

“Yeah, she is. It’s Elisa who could use some lessons in common sense.” He tossed his beer can into the trash with a grunt.

“I’m sure we’ll have no problem finding a receptionist,” Liam assured him.

“We won’t.”

“So why do you want her to stay here?”

Justin scowled and busied himself with transferring dishes from the sink to the dishwasher. “Who says I do?”

“You always get that poisonous look on your face when she talks about Nashville.”

He shoved a plate into the bottom rack, his jaw clenched. “She needs to stay at the clinic.”

Before Liam could ask why, Elisa’s irritated voice echoed through the hallway as she and Laura entered the house and found the men in the kitchen.

“I can see nothing’s changed here. Big brother trying to run my life again?”

Justin turned on her. “You know I’m right.”

“I know that you don’t know what you’re talking about.” She crossed her arms and glared at him.

Liam glanced at Laura, who gave him a sympathetic smile and set her bags on the counter.

“Justin,” she said pleasantly, “can we talk about this later? It’s late and you all have to be at work in the morning. Together.”

He growled but dropped the subject. “The kids are asleep,” he mumbled to Laura, then brightened as he patted her bulging abdomen. “How are you feeling?”

She shrugged and leaned against the nearest cabinet door. “Really tired. Lots of pressure. But that’s part of being seven months pregnant.”

Justin hugged his wife for a long time and Liam looked at Elisa, who stood with him on the opposite side of the kitchen. They needed to leave, and his car was at home.

“Is that ride still available?” he whispered. “I don’t have a car here.”

A look of panic flashed across her face. “Sure.”

She answered him quietly then raised her voice. “We’re leaving, guys. See you tomorrow.”

Justin and Laura nodded, and thankfully, didn’t ask any questions.

“Oh wow,” Elisa proclaimed a few minutes later, when Liam pointed her to the driveway of his new house. “This place is gorgeous.”

Pride surged in his chest. It was his first home—more expensive than he’d planned, but he had bought it knowing that he wanted to stay for a long time, possibly forever. He’d had the money for a house in Dallas, but he had stuck with apartments since he’d lived alone and stayed way too busy to bother with a yard and constant home maintenance. But he had moved to Windy Flats hoping to change his single status and slow his life down. He wanted to tend his large lawn, and someday, he wanted to watch his sons or daughters play on it.

But while he watched Elisa stare at the house, he knew she wasn’t picturing a big, happy family playing a disorganized game of flag football. She was picturing her small, aging home and wishing for something bigger. Something better.

Something she would never find in Windy Flats, or in him.

He gazed at the limestone two-story that he still couldn’t believe belonged to him. “Thanks. I sank quite a chunk of my savings into the down payment, but it’s worth every penny. I plan to be here a while.”

She mumbled something that sounded like, “Why?” He just smiled, mainly because he didn’t know what to say.

“I’m sorry.” She shut off the engine and dropped her keys into her lap. “Just because I’m not happy here doesn’t mean you can’t be.”

“I’m glad you realize that. Why don’t you come in? Only for a minute,” he added when she opened her mouth to object.

“I don’t know. Laura was right, it is getting late.”

He glanced at his watch. “It’s nine forty-five. Give me fifteen minutes.”

She stared at the wheel. He listened to her breathe while she chewed on her lip. Finally she pushed her car door open.

“All right. I don’t know why I’m doing this, but okay.”