Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58542 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 293(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58542 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 293(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Liam pulled out a bottle of water and a can of pop from the fridge, set them on the table and turned his intense gaze to me. “Is that what you think I do, make the world better place?”
“Yeah, I mean, don’t you?”
“Sometimes I wonder,” he grumbled seriously and dropped down in a chair a second after I did. “Mostly it’s providing security for rich people or saving them from being places they shouldn’t.”
“Okay, sure, but the last people you saved, did they deserve what was happening to them?”
“No.” His answer was quick and firm. The truth without a doubt.
“Then yes, that makes the world a better place. Who knows what those people will accomplish, or their children for that matter?” His expression was so guarded it made me wonder. “Do you think that about what you do?”
His shrug was deceptively nonchalant. “I dunno. Sometimes I think so and sometimes I think I’m just making the problems worse.”
“Maybe sometimes you don’t help out the best people, Liam. But just because someone is a greedy asshole, doesn’t mean they deserve to be kidnapped or killed, or worse.”
His lips curled into a grin. “Something worse than getting killed?”
“Yeah, getting tortured. Not knowing if help is coming, that seems worse to me.” It was comforting to see that Liam not only took his job seriously, but questioned whether or not he was making the world better. “You’re doing your part, at least from my perspective, and that’s what I’ll tell our kid when you’re gone for long stretches of time.”
“You know I won’t be able to tell you everything right?”
I nodded. “Yep. I don’t love that but honestly, I think knowing would only make me more anxious and scared. But I’d appreciate as much info as you can tell me when you’re gone, or better who to contact if I need to pass a message.”
“Seriously?” The disbelief on his handsome face made me smile as I scraped the last bite of lasagna off the plate. “Is this some kind of lasagna high or something?”
I shook my head at his suspicious question and looked at my empty plate with a blush staining my cheeks. I’d eaten the whole piece of lasagna, the salad and the garlic bread. “Maybe I might slip into a food coma soon, but you don’t owe me every single detail of your life, especially your job.”
His gaze seared through me, the intensity making me hot all over even though I knew his gaze was more suspicious than hot. He was trying to figure out if I was being honest or telling him what he wanted to hear. “Thanks for that.”
“Thanks for answering my questions, but now I have another. How do you feel about stand up comedy?”
“Love it but I don’t watch much television.” He stood and cleared the table, rinsing the dishes before stacking them in the sink. Neatly.
“What do you do?”
Liam shrugged as we made our way to the living room sofa. “Read. Fish. Listen to podcasts. Work out.”
Unexpected yet again, well except the fishing and working out part. “What do you read or listen to?”
“Mysteries and biographies mostly, but I’m open to anything.”
I stood and went to the makeshift bookshelf I didn’t think I’d need in the age of e-books, but it turns out sometimes a girl just wanted to feel a book in her hands. “This is my recommendation to you,” I said and handed him a thick book before I took my seat beside him.
Liam looked at the book, scanned the cover and looked up. “Thanks. This is on my list to read.”
I don’t know why but his words pleased me and I spent the first fifteen minutes of the stand up comedy show wondering why I felt so pleased, so satisfied that we shared one little thing in common other than the baby. It was something I needed to examine more closely. Later. Ten minutes after putting that thought to rest, my head slid to his shoulder and my eyes shut.
Sleep claimed me quickly and with it, came inappropriate thoughts and dreams of the man letting me use him as a pillow.
Liam
I didn’t remember falling asleep but when I woke up on Olive’s sofa with one hand resting on her hip and her head buried in my lap, I smiled. Dinner had been unexpected and interesting, two words I was already starting to associate with Olive.
She shocked the hell out of me when she didn’t push about my work, but offered up a more than reasonable compromise since we would forever be connected by our child. But the most surprising part was how she saw me and my work. She still thought I was a hero, not some money grubbing mercenary who chose to help the highest bidder. That wasn’t my job, but that’s how many people saw it.