All In (Keep Breathing Book 2), стр. 59
“Thanks.” I brush my nose, trying to hide the conflicted feelings her words bring me. Words I had no idea I’ve been waiting and needing to hear for so long.
“Daddy, I got bigggggg chocoolatee,” Matty says as he toddles over to me. He climbs into my lap and chomps into his giant cookie. The thing is as big as his head. I go to say something to Holly about the size of the cookie, but she’s still paying at the counter.
“My son, a daddy,” my mom gushes again. “It’s obvious he adores you. Which means you’re doing something right, which makes me proud of you.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
HOLLY
"This looks amazing, Glen," I tell the general contractor as he puts the finishing touches on the lobby. His team has been working all night to finish mounting the marble walls and the several LED screens which hang flush to the walls and columns in the reception area. There was a minor delay on delivering the marble which pushed the work back, but in the end this looks amazing.
“Thank you, Holly. We should be finished in an hour. Then we will clean up and it should be ready to set up and show off.”
“Perfect. Thank you, Glen.” I smile and admire the newly installed granite tops on the reception desk.
“Um…Holly, I think you have a visitor.” Glen points behind me. I spin around and come face to face with Liam’s father. He gives a gentle smile and a wave. What is he doing here? He’s dressed in white polo and tan slacks, looking ready for the country club circuit, but he appears much more relaxed and calmer than the man I met weeks ago.
“Holly? May I have a word?” He steps in closer to me and though he might not look as much like the angry bear he had been the last time, my guard instantly goes up.
“You okay, Holly?” Glen grips my shoulder. “You look a little pale,” he whispers in my ear.
I nod. “I’m okay. This is something I have to do.”
“I’ll be close by if you need me, Holly,” Glen tells me before he turns to walk away.
I cross my arms over my chest and brace myself. "Mr. Morgan, if you came here to change my mind, I haven't. Now if you'll excuse me, I have tons of work to do."
"I didn't come to talk to you about that. Please, Holly, can I have a moment of your time?"
"Does Liam know you're here?"
"If he did, he'd be down here already.” He smirks. “I only need ten minutes. Then I promise to be out of your hair."
"Alright. We can talk in the side office.” I give in, my curiosity getting the best of me. The meeting with Liam’s mother went well and I only wonder if this is some sort of repercussion of that.
I direct him to the small office off the lobby which is used for a night security suite.
“It looks amazing in here, by the way,” he says as he stands in the middle of the room. “The lobby feels much more welcoming than before. Not so drab.”
I smile. “Thank you. I wanted to give it a modern look with all the high tech feels, but also make it welcoming and airy, so I opened it up, but I’m sure you don’t want to hear about that. What did you want to talk to me about, Mr. Morgan?”
"My boy is happy," he says bluntly.
Okkkay. That was the last thing I expected to come out of his mouth.
"Pardon?"
“My wife came home the other night and gave me an ear full. Showed me pictures upon pictures of you three and wanted me to take a good hard look at them. Told me to forget my thoughts of what I felt or what happened in the past and to look. And I did.” He grins and folds his hands out in front of him. “And you know what I saw? Liam smiling. Truly smiling. It's something I wasn't sure I was ever going to see again. My wife is over the moon and she will have my ass if I don’t make this right.”
“Shouldn’t you be telling him this? Making it right with him?”
“I should and I will, but I don’t think he’s ready to listen. I made many mistakes with Liam. And with Landon.” Garrett pulls out a chair and sits down. “I love my sons, but I’m no father of the year.”
“No parent is perfect,” I tell him and press myself against the door.
“No, but I put a lot of pressure on them so they could take over and be great. What I didn’t see was maybe wanting perfection helped enable a habit. Did Liam tell you about his past?"
"He did."
"Did he tell you about Sara?"
The mention of her name makes my stomach turn. I hated her for Liam. I’ve heard about women trying to trap men with babies all the time for the money, but what I never saw before Liam is the after effects these women leave in their wake. Yeah, I hated her for what she did to him. "He told me a little bit."
"She's the reason I was so quick to judge you. She did a number on him. After he was already going through so much. That car accident messed him up. I know he was in pain...it was just watching him fall into a hole. He was angry at everyone and mainly me. I was driving the car that night he got hurt.”
My eyes go wide.
"He didn't tell you?" His eyes go as wide as mine is disbelief.
After all the things Liam told me about his dad, I’m shocked he left out that piece