WIP, FWIW
“Cherry, you coming?” Liam had turned the car around and pulled up to the end of the parking lot.“Yeah, hold up.” I glanced at William. “You need a ride?”
He shook his head with a rueful grin on his face. “I—uh, I’ve got someone inside who’s gonna drive me home.”
I bet you do, I wanted to say, but that would be too snarky, given the moment. I just nodded back at him and scooted down the sidewalk towards the car. Danielle was in the back seat.
“You need anything, sweetheart?” I asked after I had buckled myself in.
“No. Just wanna go home. Shouldn’t have had that tequila.”
Liam laughed. “Tequila’s the big leagues, sport, you shoulda stuck to beer.”
I held myself back from squirming, reminded that I had drunk scotch with him that first night. This wasn’t about me.
“Thanks for what you did back there, by the way,” Danielle replied.
Liam took his hand off the steering wheel and waved in a dismissive gesture. “It was nothing. Guy’s an asshole.”
“Yeah, well, I did kinda lead him on.” A very uncomfortable silence ensued. Long enough to remind me that I had done the same thing. I hoped I was the only one thinking that.
“Runs in the family,” Liam muttered, hopefully low enough so Dani wouldn’t hear.
“Ha! I heard that,” she said from the back seat. “Good one.”
Great. As though my life weren’t enough of a farce already, my daughter and Liam were chummy enough to share those kinds of jokes. Perfect. At least her hearing was excellent, right?
Liam looked quickly at me. “Sorry.”
I shrugged. “It’s fine.”
“We still need to talk,” he said, still looking at me. And he was driving, for Pete’s sake.
“I’m back here, guys, if you don’t remember,” Danielle said.
Liam met her eyes in the rearview mirror. “Right. Which is why we’re gonna talk later, just me and your mom, okay, sport?” Thank goodness he then returned his gaze to the road.
“Grown-ups have all the fun,” she said, slumping into her seat.
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