“Yeah. Fancy a game?”
“Love to. I’m a crap player,” Liam said as he took off his jacket and unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt, rolling the sleeves back in preparation for battle. “But you’re on.”
“Are you guys settling in okay?” I said as I racked up the balls and broke, potting two of them instantly and trying not to grin too much.
“Nice shot. Yeah, we’re getting there. The new job’s pretty busy, so Nancy’s doing most of the unpacking. She reckons it’s a good thing.” He grimaced. “She says I’m a big tree who gets in the way.”
I half snorted as I lined up my next shot, which I stupidly missed. “Abby wouldn’t let me touch the kitchen when we moved in. Said she’d never find the tin opener again if I did.” I stood up and surveyed the damage.
Liam smiled. “You guys have been here awhile?”
I picked up my beer and swallowed a mouthful, then realized I’d adopted the same pose as Liam, arms crossed, leaning against the pool table. Mirroring—a classic wannabe tactic. I shifted around and stuffed one hand in my pocket, wishing I was wearing a suit. “Almost seventeen years.”
“And you grew up around here?” He took a shot but missed. Amateur.
“Wembley, where Mum was from. Dad moved south for work after he left school.”
“They still live there?”
“No.” I paused. “Mum’s been gone sixteen years now. Two years less than Dad.”
Liam stopped moving and looked at me. “Oh, shit, sorry, mate.”
I looked at his furrowed brow, saw his head slightly tilt to one side. Something made me continue. “Dad was in the police force for over thirty years.” I drank more beer. “Boasted about how he never took a sick day. Then he keeled over in the garden a year before he was supposed to retire. Can you believe it? Massive heart attack. Dead before he hit the ground. So much for never being ill.” I walked around the table, potted another ball.
“Jesus,” he said, “that’s rough.”
“Yeah. And cancer got my mum. It was shit.” I shrugged. “Even my brother, Paul—”
“He died, too?”
I laughed. “No. He moved to Wales. Married with twins. What about your family?”
Liam shrugged. “Only child. Parents are still around, but we don’t see them much. We, uh, don’t exactly see eye to eye.”
“Sounds like Abby,” I said without thinking.
“Oh?” Liam raised his eyebrows. “How so?”
I hesitated, but only for a second. “Her relationship with her mum is messed up. Always has been. And her dad walked out when she was little. Can’t imagine doing that to a kid.” Why had I told him that when I knew how private Abby was about her life? She’d have my balls on a plate. “Anyway.” I cleared my throat, shrugged and drained my beer. “What can you do?”
Liam didn’t speak for a while. He took a couple of shots, which, I had to admit, weren’t too bad, then said, “Family’s really important to you, isn’t it, Nate?”
I looked at him. It was such an odd thing for one guy to say to another, especially since we’d only just met. But the way he’d said it was even odder. Gentle, almost apologetic. A few seconds passed, and when he still didn’t make eye contact, I said, “The most important thing in the world. Nothing else really matters, does it?”
He nodded slowly and finally looked up. “I suppose not.”
As I shook my head I added, “Abby’s estranged from her parents by choice. Not necessarily hers, mind you, but me and my family?” I waved a hand. “Death and geography.”
He nodded again but didn’t say anything, then finished his beer, too.
“Another drink?” I said.
Liam looked at me and smiled. “Yeah, why not?”
THE CAR IS filled with the warm aroma of cardamom and ginger, and yet, I shivered. My phone rang just as I pulled into our driveway, and I recognized my mother’s number immediately. I sat quietly, holding my breath as if she’d know I was there if I moved, and waited for the beep that indicated a new voice mail.
“Hello, Abigail.” My mother’s tone was typically stern, almost businesslike, not what most people would expect from their own flesh and blood. “I need to speak to you. It’s important. Please call me at your earliest convenience. Thank you.”
I rolled my eyes. No way in hell would I call her. It had been a long time since we’d last spoken, a few years at least since we’d had a proper conversation that went beyond strained civilities. And I wasn’t about to change that now, not after the way she’d treated me. I stabbed at my phone to ensure her message was deleted, gone forever. I took a deep breath, grabbed the paper bags and headed toward our front door.
Once inside, I placed the food on the stairs, slipped off my boots and turned to hang up my jacket. That was when I spotted the long black coat casually draped over the banister. I reached out and touched the soft lapel, closed my eyes as I breathed in the familiar earthy scent of aftershave.
My heart pounded as I picked up the bags and walked toward the conservatory.
Nate’s voice floated toward me. “...of course at that point I’d met my exes at a university party, a bar and a launderette.”
“Well, the launderette sounds kind of original.” Liam’s voice, deep and gravelly. Manly, sexy. My stomach did a few flips, and I cursed under my breath, willing it to keep still.
“Ah,” Nate said. “That’s what my grandmother said, too, until she found out I’d been moderately wasted. Anyway, I’d better shut up or I’ll bore the crap out of you.” His laugh, a sound that had once made my stomach flutter gently, now left me lukewarm.
“He’s a good man,” I whispered to myself. “Nate’s a good man.”
“It sounds like you were really close to your family,” Liam said.
I swallowed. How long had Liam been there? Had he been watching us from his window, waiting for me to leave so he could get to Nate? And if so, why? He’d been a little jealous when we were dating, sure, although he’d never seemed the vengeful type. But so many years had passed since we’d seen each other, I couldn’t be sure I still knew him at all. And yet, everything about him, his voice, his laugh, the smell of his aftershave, was familiar. More than familiar. In so many ways it was as if we’d never been apart.
“Yeah, really close,” Nate said before clearing his throat. “Like I said, my grandfather was my hero. I was devastated when he died. Going to his funeral was one of the saddest days of my life.”
“I suppose after that you didn’t go north much?”
I put a hand on my stomach in an attempt to stop it from lurching. Why was Liam asking all these questions? What did he want? And what was Nate doing, talking about his family to someone he’d just met?
“I wasn’t planning on it at first,” Nate said, and I wanted him to stop talking so I quickened my step, almost running down the hallway as Nate continued. “But destiny, fate or whatever the hell you want to call it decided otherwise because on the night of the funeral—”
“I’m back,” I said as I charged into the room, my glance darting from Nate to Liam, whose beautiful gray eyes stared straight back into mine.
Nate,