Page 74 of Over the Line

Instantly, my pulse was thumping. It was Liam, wasn’t it? It had to be. After that look we’d shared, and all the texts and conversations and driving ourselves out of our minds?

Fuck. Yes. It had to be Liam.

The text pinged again.

“You want me to check that in case it’s important?” Jasmine, who was in the passenger seat, gestured at the phone.

Panic almost had me snatching my phone out of the cup holder with a “No! It’s fine!”

That would’ve been a dead giveaway. Instead, I casually said, “Nah, it’s probably just work. It can wait.”

“Your work texts you this late?” Chris asked from the backseat.

“Sometimes,” I muttered. “I’ll be home in twenty minutes. It can definitely wait.”

They didn’t press the issue, and we continued up the freeway toward Cranberry. My phone remained silent, thank God—Liam wasn’t one to be pushy, and he knew I sometimes didn’t have my phone in front of my face. I continued toward the kids’ townhouse, chatting with them about the game as I drove and pretending I wasn’t going out of my mind with the need to read that damn text.

Finally, though, I pulled into their parking lot and stopped in front of their stoop.

“Thanks for the lift,” Chris said.

“Any time.”

He came around to the passenger side to help Jasmine out. Poor girl; she was small to begin with, and she’d definitely entered the “off-balance and hard to get up” phase of pregnancy. Which was only going to get worse over the next eight weeks or so.

Chris made sure she was steady on her feet, though, and he took her purse so she could use the handrail on the way up the stoop. He paused to give me a smile and a wave, then continued inside with Jasmine.

I smiled as I watched them go. I’d made a lot of mistakes as a father, but my son had grown into a man who treated his partner like gold. Whether that was because of or despite my parenting, I was proud of him.

After they’d disappeared into the house, I headed out. I made sure I was out of sight before I pulled over, snatched my phone out of the cup holder, and read the message.

Liam

If you text me on your way up my driveway, I’ll open the garage door.

All the air rushed out of me. Oh, fuuuck. No, he wasn’t being explicit about it, and he wasn’t beating around the bush with “hey, if you’re not doing anything else” or “do you want to come over?”

Those were not difficult lines to read between, though, and he knew damn well I wouldn’t come back with “eh, not tonight.” The only answer was “Fuck yes.”

I closed my eyes and tried to catch my breath and gather my thoughts, not that it helped.

I still didn’t know if it was right or wrong. I didn’t know if my son would ever understand if he found out or if he’d even care at all.

But God help me, I could not go another night without Liam.

Coming up the driveway.

I put the phone aside and continued up Liam’s winding driveway. The floodlights guided my way like runway lights, leading me straight to the garage’s fourth bay, which was already halfway open.

As the door continued to rise, Liam appeared and—oh God, I wanted him. All my concerns and doubts were still there, but they were hard to hear over how much I wanted the gorgeous man gazing back at me.

Then I realized he was waving my dumb ass into the garage. I shook myself—then adjusted myself—and blood pounded in my ears as I pulled into the garage. I barely even heard the opener start closing again over the thundering of my pulse. All the way to Sewickley, some part of me had put up a half-assed fight about all the reasons I shouldn’t do this. I’d sort of considered turning around at least half a dozen times, though even I couldn’t say for sure if I’d ever been in danger of actually doing it. Not after losing my stupid mind over him ever since that night in his kitchen.

One look at Liam through my windshield, and any hesitation I’d had left was a distant memory. Whatever fire I’d seen in those eyes outside the locker room was a weakly glowing ember compared to what burned in them now.

Oh, fuck yes…

By the time I was out of the car, the garage door was mostly shut and there was nothing but space and clothes between us. We closed that space fast, and finally⁠—