She looked from Liam to Gwen and back again. When she realized she wouldn’t make any headway with either child, she dramatically sighed and shook her head. “I can’t believe you’d risk your health like this.”
“Mom, go now, before you say something you can’t take back,” Liam warned. “I’m not budging, and frankly, I’m not in a mood to be nice about this.”
Gwen breathed a sigh of relief when their mom turned and stormed out. She securely locked the door behind her.
Liam leaned against the doorway again and held his hand out to Gwen. “Come on. Sleep with me, sis. I think we both need the comfort.”
She cuddled in bed with him, as she had countless nights as a child, and closed her eyes. “She’s not going to give up that easy, is she?”
He snorted, amused as he draped an arm around her. “Nope. Not even close. She’ll regroup and try again. You okay?”
“I wasn’t thinking we’d have to deal with her this soon. I thought we’d have until this afternoon, at least.”
“We haven’t dealt with anything yet.” She thought he’d drifted off to sleep when he spoke. “You’re not regretting asking me to move in, are you?”
“Nope. I wubs you.”
He nuzzled the back of her head. “I wubs you, too.” After a moment, he spoke again. “Are you okay?” he quietly asked.
He didn’t need to clarify. It was the first time he’d brought up Jack and Tim. Liam always did have a knack for knowing when not to press her too hard when she was upset. “Not right now, I’m not. I will be. As long as I’ve got you.” She hugged his arm closer around her waist. This reminded her of when they were kids, when Liam would hold her while she cried over teasing at school or something their parents said to her.
It made her feel safe. “I think it’s going to take time,” she admitted. “A lot of time.”
“Just remember, no matter what, I’m here for you. I won’t abandon you, I promise. You and me, kid. Always.”
“Yep,” she agreed. “You and me.”
They slept until noon. Gwen awoke first and lay there listening to Liam’s deep and steady breaths. In sleep, he’d rolled away from her even though he kept his back pressed against hers.
Thank god for him. When teased in school, he was there for her. They provided alibis for each other with their parents as teenagers, and he was her shoulder to cry on when needed. He’d never treated her as a pain in the butt little sister. He’d always made time for her, taken her under his wing to protect her from their parents.
When he first got sick, she was the one who slept at his bedside in the hospital every night during that first stay until they diagnosed him and he ended up moving in with their parents.
When she caught Dickweed cheating on her, her first call had been to Liam. He even went to the lawyer and to court with her during the divorce hearings, holding her hand and drying her tears more times than she could count.
Eventually he rolled over to face her. “You awake?” he mumbled.
“Yeah.”
“You want to talk about it?”
“I can’t yet.”
“Okay.” He lay there quietly for a moment. “When you’re ready to talk, I’m here to listen. I swear, kiddo. Do I need to plan a return trip out there to kick their asses?”
She managed a faint smile. “No.”
“No, I guess I wouldn’t need to kick Tim’s, would I? Just Jack’s.”
That made her smile. “I think we’ll be too busy kicking Amy’s ass when she gets home to worry about those two men. In fact, I’d rather not think about those two men at all.”
It hurt way too much.
Later that day, once Gwen was wider awake and fully caffeinated, she called Ruthie. “Thanks again for helping me out. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”
“No problem. I’m sorry I was reluctant to do it at first.” She hesitated. “I had a lot of fun. Thank you for trusting me to take care of him.”
Gwen felt a rush of sadness for her friend. She remembered kick-ass Ruthie, afraid of nothing.
She remembered the baby shower she’d been planning for her friend.
Gwen’s tears caught her off guard. What did she have to feel sorry for herself about? All she did was have a few fuck-filled days with some hunks, end of story.
Ruthie lost herself, and nearly lost her life.
And she lost her baby.
“Gee? What’s wrong, sweetie?”
Gwen couldn’t help it. She broke down sobbing as she spilled the entire story to Ruthie, leaving out the part about Amy’s guy being married and Amy being knocked up. If anyone would understand, it was Ruthie. Although Gwen felt guilty as hell for burdening her friend with her relatively petty problems.
After she finished, she heard Ruthie sigh sadly. “Want to come over for whine and wine?” she joked.
Gwen laughed as she grabbed a dishtowel from the kitchen counter to wipe her face with. “Whine and Wine” nights were one of their special things, had been since they were both old enough to drink. Ruthie hadn’t suggested one in years.
Maybe her friend was starting to heal.
“That sounds good,” Gwen said. “You don’t think I’m horrible?”
Ruthie snorted in amusement. “Honey, hell no I don’t think you’re horrible. I envy you. You got to live out one of your fantasies.” She paused, her voice growing somber. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you, hon. It sounds like they were great guys.”
Gwen’s turn to snort. “I thought they were. Tim was great. Jack was just an ass, it turns out. Tim’s a better man than I.” She realized what she said as Ruthie burst out laughing. “Well,” she said, laughing with her friend, “you know what I mean.”
Despite their mother’s dire warnings that Liam should continue living with them, her passive-aggressive protestations that she didn’t mean to make him miserable, and resolve-weakening bouts of tears, Liam called in a few favors with friends since Bob was unavailable to help them move Liam’s stuff. Catching up with work from being gone for so long on his trip or some such nonsense.
Gwen guiltily pushed away her irritation. Bob was a good guy. He didn’t deserve for her to be ticked off at him.
The next afternoon, they got Liam’s stuff packed and relocated, some of it to Gwen’s house, some to a storage unit.
Their father didn’t weigh in on the topic, preferring to let his stony silence speak for him as he sat in the living room and read his newspaper without lifting a finger to help.
That night, as Gwen and Liam sat on what was now their couch and ate pizza, she unexpectedly broke down sobbing. The day’s events had kept her mind off Tim and Jack. She hadn’t checked her e-mail or her BlackBerry, preferring to let that issue remain undisturbed for a while.
Now, with another lonely night alone in bed ahead of her, she couldn’t help but think about them.
Or about the fact that Tim hadn’t e-mailed her. She’d hoped against hope that he might.
She thought about breaking down and e-mailing him and rescinding her request for him not to contact her, but her pride wouldn’t let her do that. What, beg a man I have no chance in hell with to e-mail me?
That would flat out be masochism of the bad kind.
Liam stroked her hair. “How about calling them?” he suggested. “Or at least call Tim.”
“No. Jack made his position perfectly clear. I was an idiot to get my hopes up.”
When her phone rang a little later, she felt her heart jump until she realized it was Amy.
“Gee, I’m sorry,” Amy said immediately.
Gwen didn’t want to fight with her anymore. She’d had enough recent loss in her life to last her a lifetime. Alienating her sister wouldn’t help things. “I’m sorry, too. When are you coming home?”