I took a deep breath, realizing I’d held it since I’d heard his voice. My legs were planted firmly on the ground, heels pushed in, my arms crossed. A statue. What the hell should I say?
“Hello,” I muttered. “I—I’m...pleased to meet you.”
Had I said that out loud?
After a second he turned to Nate and shrugged. “I’m sorry.” He smiled, and I noticed his laughter lines had become a lot deeper since we’d last seen each other, but they suited him. “I’m hopeless with names.” He looked at me again. “Nate told me, but I’m afraid I’ve forgotten.”
“Abby,” Nate, Nancy and I said together, my voice twice as loud as theirs combined.
“Abby,” Liam said slowly, deliberately. “So sorry. I’m Liam.”
“Well, yes, we—” I stopped myself. We knew each other. Of course we did. I wanted to laugh, make a joke about it being a small world and wasn’t it a strange coincidence, ha, ha, ha. But I kept quiet. I should have said something. Made it abundantly clear there was history between us. A shared past. I had the opportunity. But I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to say anything.
Liam held out his hand, and when I shook it I swear an electric current passed between us. It flowed out of him and into me, washing over my entire body like a surfer’s wave. I hadn’t felt his touch for so long, but it was as if every pore of my skin remembered him. I looked into his eyes, tried to gauge his reaction, wondered if he’d felt it, too. He must have, surely. It had been too intense to ignore.
“Pleasure to meet you, too.” He let go of my fingers, his eyes giving nothing away, and turned to my daughter. “You’re Sarah?”
Sarah nodded.
“Can I get you a Coke?” Liam asked, and she nodded again. “How about you, Abby?” He held out a Stella, and I watched a drop of condensation run down the bottle neck and onto his hand. I wanted to reach out and touch it, but instead I cleared my throat.
“Water would be great.”
It seemed impossible to take my eyes off him as he grabbed a can from the fridge and handed it to Sarah. When he passed me a glass of water his fingers seemed to linger that little bit too long. My mouth went dry as old toast, so I swallowed a big gulp to compensate, almost emptying the entire glass in one go.
He’d hardly changed since I’d seen him. He always used to keep in shape—ran four or five times a week along with frequent visits to the gym. His dark blond hair had grayed slightly at the temples, and I liked it cut in that style, short at the back and slightly longer on top. Something I could run my fingers through when...
“So, Abby.” Nancy smiled brightly, plucking my mind away from the restricted area. “Nate said you grew up around Preston?”
“Uh...yes.”
“How funny,” she said, smile brighter still. “Like we told Nate, that’s where we’ve moved from.”
“Really?” I tried not to look at Liam but noticed my voice sounded a little shrill.
“Broughton,” Liam said.
“And Nate mentioned you’re from Hutton, Abby?” Nancy said, and all I could do was nod.
“Don’t let her accent fool you,” Nate said. “She’s a Northerner, born and bred. You might even know some of the same people, maybe—”
“Look,” I said, “I’d better get back and start dinner. I just wanted to say a quick hello.”
“Oh, don’t worry.” Nancy waved a hand. “We ordered pizza. There’ll be enough for all of us. Should be here any minute. You’ll stay, won’t you?”
“I can’t,” I said quickly. “I’ve got some work to finish.”
“Babe.” Nate frowned.
“What do you do?” Nancy asked.
“I’m an accountant for Sterling Engineering but—”
“It’s Saturday night,” Nate said. “Can’t it wait?”
“No. But you and Sarah can stay and—”
“Mum,” Sarah half whispered out of the side of her mouth, giving me the evil eye at the same time. “Don’t leave me here.”
I ignored her, and everybody else. “I have a bit of a headache anyway.”
“Oh, no.” Nancy furrowed her brow and tilted her head to one side. “I hope you feel better soon.”
“I’ll come with you.” Nate put down his beer.
I had to get out of there. Alone. “No need. I’ll just lie down for a bit. See you later.”
Nate smiled and blew me a kiss. “Later, hon.”
“I’ll see you out,” Liam said.
“I’m fine.”
“I insist.”
As we walked away from the kitchen where Nate and Nancy had started talking about the abysmal winter and how they couldn’t wait for spring, Liam whispered, “God, Abby, this is a surprise, I—”
Zac came down the stairs, nodding his head to the music coming from his bright orange headphones. We watched him make the peace sign toward us before disappearing into the kitchen.
I spun around to face Liam. “What the hell are you doing here?”
He stared at me and held up a hand. “Hang on. I could ask you the same thing.”
“I’ve lived here. For years.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Are you sure?”
Liam exhaled. “Abby, please.”
“So why here?”
“Why are you being so hostile?”
I pressed my fingers over my eyelids until I saw stars, then looked at him again. “Why here?”
Liam ran a hand through his hair and lowered his voice. “Internal promotion at the bank. Nancy found the house. It was a good deal. She wants to redecorate and—”
“That’s it?”
“What do you mean?”
He was so close to me now. I could barely stop myself from pulling him toward me. I stepped back until my shoulders touched the wall, hoping I might disappear into the garish paper. “You honestly didn’t know we lived here?”
“No, I didn’t. Christ, it was such a shock. When Nate said his wife’s name was Abby Sanders and that she was from Preston...well...I decided it couldn’t be you. Too much of a fluke, you know...” I blinked rapidly and he put a hand on my arm. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything in there. It was a gut reaction.”
“I know. Me, too.”
Liam swallowed. “Should we go back and tell them? We could say we only just recognized each other.”
My eyes widened. “No,” I whispered. “That’s crazy. Not after...” I couldn’t bring myself to say it. “No.”
He leaned in a little closer. I could smell a hint of his aftershave. I wanted him to reach out and touch me, but instead he put his hands in his pockets and said, “It’s good to see you. Completely surreal and unexpected, but good.”
My shoulders dropped a little. “You can’t stay here, in this house.”
“Abby.” He smiled that bloody gentle smile of his. “We don’t have much of a choice. Whether we like it or not, we’re neighbors now.”
Head shaking,