The saxophone wailed the opening notes to a new song. Natalie blinked. The two other couples were leaving the dance floor. Their faces were so bland, as if they hadn’t noticed the magic of the moment at all.
The thought penetrated her sensual lassitude. She started out of Liam’s arms. He didn’t say anything when she took her glasses from him, donned them and walked toward the dining room.
They hardly spoke for the next several minutes, the one exception being when Liam grabbed the bill from her when they returned to the table.
“You shouldn’t have to pay, it’s a business exp—”
She pulled up short when she saw the expression on Liam’s face. She’d been about to say the dinner was a business expense, but he’d halted her with a glance. He flipped a credit card into the leather folder. They waited in silence while the waiter returned, and the silence still hadn’t broken once they got in the car and reached the outskirts of Harbor Town.
Natalie wasn’t being silent to be obstinate. She was being quiet because her thoughts were coming too fast and chaotic to form a coherent sentence. Had she really been so keyed into him out there on the dance floor that she’d lost all sense of time, or purpose…or self? She’d known she was uncommonly attracted to Liam, but this was…unprecedented, in her experience.
And why was he so silent and somber? She wondered nervously as she gave him a sideways glance as he drove. His shirt showed up starkly white in the darkness, lit up as it was with moonglow. Despite all her uncertainty about the wisdom of her desire, she longed to ask him into her town house. But maybe—given his withdrawal—he wouldn’t be interested? Surely he was second-guessing his occasional moments of attraction toward her, as well.
Second-guessing it…regretting it?
Liam had turned on the air-conditioning, but the atmosphere seemed to froth and boil in the small confines of the car. At last, he pulled into her driveway and the car came to a halt. He remained turned in profile, confusing her even more.
“Thank you for dinner,” she tried to say, but her nervousness made her voice come out as a whisper. “Liam?” she asked when he didn’t respond, just repositioned his hands on the top of the steering wheel.
“Yeah?”
“Are you…are you going to tell me about the meeting with your mother?” Natalie asked, suspecting the topic was partially responsible for his strange mood.
His face was cast with shadows, but she could feel his stare when he turned his head. “There isn’t much to tell. I told her I was trying to gather information to better understand what Dad was going through when he caused the accident. I asked her about him coming home from the city on the night of the crash. She essentially told me I was being disrespectful to my father’s memory and that I was a huge disappointment to her for agreeing to investigate the matter.”
“Oh, no,” Natalie whispered.
He laughed mirthlessly and reached for her hand. He pulled it into his lap.
“It’s okay. She was just taken off guard. I breached her defenses unexpectedly, if you know what I mean, so she had to let go with the heavy artillery.”
“Still…I’m sorry. It was never my intention to alienate you and your mother.”
“I know that,” Liam replied. Natalie became highly aware of the side of her hand resting on his muscular thigh and the way he stroked her wrist and thumb with warm, calloused fingertips. “Truth is, I’m mad at myself.”
“Why?” Natalie asked.
“I should have asked her years ago. I’ve been a coward, colluding with her silence.”
“No,” Natalie protested warmly, leaning forward. “You’re not a coward. That’s ridiculous. It’s like you said—families keep this stuff close. It’s normal that you and your brother and sister have followed Brigit’s lead in that regard.”
His low grunt sounded doubtful, but Natalie knew she likely wasn’t going to talk him out of his opinion.
“And so you told her that it was me who had asked you to do the investigation?”
“Yeah,” he said. He seemed preoccupied as he watched himself stroke her hand. She, too, was distracted. It was hard to concentrate while Liam touched her.
“Your mother couldn’t have been very thrilled about that
.”
He looked up. “No. She wasn’t. That was about when she accused me of agreeing to investigate my father just because you were pretty. Apparently my mother thinks you charmed me into it, and I was too helpless to refuse.”
Natalie gave an uncomfortable laugh. “I know that made you mad.”
“It did.” He turned her hand and laced his fingers through hers. Natalie responded naturally and closed her hand, holding him. Her heartbeat started to throb against her eardrums.
“But like I told you yesterday, she was partially right,” Liam continued.