Liam's Perfect Woman (Home to Harbor Town 2) - Page 24

“Why are you asking about this all of a sudden?”

He grimaced when he heard the offended, stiff quality of her voice. “I’m sorry, Ma, I don’t want to upset you, but it’s something I’ve been wondering about.”

“Why? It happened sixteen years ago. Why should it matter now?”

He considered his mother’s face in the dim light. He couldn’t help but recall that she’d had a heart attack a year ago. It had been a mild one, granted, and Brigit currently was a picture of health. Still…the thought hovered over him like a dark, threatening cloud.

“I’m investigating the events that led up to the crash,” he said quietly.

The silence seemed to swell and billow.

“I don’t understand, Liam.”

Her bewildered expression pained him. He wanted the truth. But at what cost was he willing to get it?

He picked up his mother’s hand, trying to reassure her.

“Someone has hired me to find out any information I can about why Dad behaved so uncharacteristically that night.”

“Someone hired you?” Brigit regarded him like a stranger who had suddenly sat beside her speaking a foreign language. “Who on earth would want to hire you—”

He saw the moment when she guessed at the truth. Her face settled into a cold, grim mask.

“Of course. The only person who would want to hire you for such a ridiculous task would be someone who was involved. That woman I saw you with the other day at your house…the one wearing the dark glasses. That was the Reyes girl, wasn’t it?” she asked.

“Natalie Reyes. Yeah.”

“I see,” Brigit said coldly. She removed her hand from his.

“I don’t think you do at all,” Liam said slowly.

Brigit’s sharp blue eyes flashed to meet his. “Don’t I? She’s a very pretty girl.”

Liam attempted to bury his anger at the insult, knowing his mother had cause to be upset. “I didn’t accept the assignment because she’s pretty.”

“She’s paying you a good sum, then?”

“I didn’t accept it for the money, either,” he shot back. “As a matter of fact, I’m going to return the money this evening. I want to do this for me, Mom. For us. For Marc and Deidre and Colleen…for Dad. Doesn’t he deserve to have someone try to understand him? Everyone has painted him as such a selfish bastard over the years. Is it really so strange I would want to get a more realistic picture of the man who caused that crash…a more human picture?”

“Selfish bastard?” Brigit repeated. Liam noticed her lips had gone white at the corners and she moved them as though they were numb. “That’s how you’ve been seeing your father?”

“No! Of course not. I’m just saying, most people would look at the situation from the outside and—”

Brigit stood up abruptly, halting him. “I’m not going to say anything more about this, Liam,” she told him in a low, shaking voice that set off alarms in his head. “I can’t tell you how disappointed I am in you at this moment, that you would consider doing something so disrespectful of your father’s memory. All for a girl.”

Liam sprung up from the couch, his worries about his mother’s well-being evaporating beneath the cold sarcasm of her tone.

“I’m not doing it for a girl. I’m doing it for the truth. I’d think you’d want that as well, Mom, but maybe I’m seeing things a little clearer now. You’re pretty damn happy leaving everything locked up tight, aren’t you? That suits you just fine.”

She walked out of the room. A few seconds later, he heard her rapid footsteps on the stairs.

Guilt ripped through him when he recalled her incredulous, hurt expression.

Natalie had a sneaking suspicion who was visiting when she heard the brisk, authoritative knock the following evening, just before the door opened.

“Let’s get one thing straight. I kissed you first the other day, but you sure as hell kissed me back.”

Natalie sat at her desk, stunned into complete silence not only by the first words that flew out of Liam’s mouth, but the unexpected sight of him standing in her office. He wore a white long-sleeved cotton shirt with the unbuttoned cuffs rolled back once and a scowl on his face. His short, golden-brown hair was mussed, as if he’d been raking his fingers through it in frustration.

Tags: Beth Kery Home to Harbor Town Billionaire Romance
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