Torn (24 page)

“Thanks, Joanna. Everything will work out one way or another.” I pulled away and headed back to check
on Liam.

 

When I got to the backyard, Liam was icing his jaw. Avery, my mom and Liam were all drinking again. I
wanted to crawl into a hole.

 

“Did he say why he hit him?” My mom popped up from the porch swing.

 

“No, he didn’t.” I looked over to Liam. “Do you know why?” I asked angrily.

 

“I don’t! I was just walking over to you and he stopped me and I was trying to get by and he punched!”

 

“That just doesn’t sound like him! Are you okay?” I walked over to him and moved the ice pack. He was
going to have a nice bruise.

 

“Yeah, it wasn’t that bad at all.” He acted like that punch didn’t just knock him on his ass.

“Mom, I believe that Joanna and Patrick are getting ready to head out. I think we are going to do the
same thing.” I looked over at Liam, he nodded in agreement. “We have work in the morning and it’s
going to be a short week for the both of us so I amsure we both are going to be incredibly swamped.”

“Short week?” My mom asked as she gave me a hug goodbye.

 

“Yeah, I forgot to tell you! Courtney and Jason are getting married! They’re doing the Vegas wedding!” I
tried to sound excited.

“Oh goodness! Tell her I said congratulations! Havea great time, but be safe!” She gave me a quick
squeeze and then leaned into my ear and whispered, “Call me later.” I nodded and went to say goodbye
to Avery.
“Thank you so much for dinner Avery. I am so sorry about the fuss.” I said as I went to shake his hand.
He completely surprised me when he brought me in for a hug.

“Ryleigh, thank you for coming over. Don’t worry about what happened, nothing was broken and I am
sure that it was just a misunderstanding. Thank you for the wine.” Avery said with a pat to my back.

I knew my mom was saying he was trying to be nicer, but I was not expecting that moment between us.
I actually was very happy about this, I wanted my mom to be happy and I always thought the nonrelationship held by Avery and I was holding that happiness back.

Liam said his goodbyes and I headed into the car. I was pissed. I know that somehow Liam instigated the
whole situation, but wasn’t sure what he had said so I couldn’t prove it and I am positive he wasn’t going
to admit to doing anything wrong.

He got into the car and pulled away as he waved goodbye.

 

“Now are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on?” I asked without looking up at him.

 

“I saw your phone.” He said coldly.

 

My heart stopped.

 

“Yeah, I saw his text to you. He misses you? He can’t wait to see you? So yeah, I fucking said something.
He obviously got a little butt hurt.” Liam said, obviously pissed.

 

“What did you say to him?” I asked trying to keep the tears back.

 

“I just told him that you were mine and that I was not going anywhere. Apparently he thought he might
have a chance.” He said smugly.

I just sat quietly the rest of the drive home. I stared out the window, thinking. Caleb was not one to just
outright punch someone that would have told him that he didn’t have a chance with his wife. I just
wasn’t buying it, but I didn’t want to argue anymore about this.

We got home and I went straight upstairs and began to undress. I was tempted to go soak in the tub but
at that moment I just wanted to go to sleep.

 

“Are you seriously mad at me?” Liam said in a raised voice.

“You know what, I know that I’m married to you andhe knows that. He and I are JUST friends! You really
had no right to say anything to him. It was uncalled for and you should have just let it be. He said in that
message that he had been drinking. Did you ever think that he was just being nice?” I shouted.

“Ryleigh, if you don’t realize that he was hittingon you. You are a bigger idiot than I thought!” He
snapped

“What the fuck does that mean, Liam?” I snapped back.
“He was practically drooling all over you that night at the restaurant and you didn’t even notice and then
tonight he was staring non-stop at you at dinner! Did you really not notice?” Liam said snidely.

“Liam, he is an old friend of mine! How would you like it if I found one of your SKANKS and went and
knocked them out?” I thought I was seeing red at that point.

 

“Shit. Ryleigh, I am so sorry. I just got jealous. I wanted to make sure he knew that you were my wife.”
He tried to say calmly.

“Well, Liam maybe you are the stupid one. He knows that I am married to you and you should have just
kept your mouth shut!” I said as I turned over on my pillow away from him. He headed out the bedroom
and I could hear the fridge slam shut.

I was right when I told my mom that we had an early morning and a short week. I needed to just get to
sleep and then I could finish this upcoming week and have a good time.

 

I pulled my phone out of my purse to set my alarm and I got a text right then.

 

Look, sorry I didn’t mean to punch him. I got fuckin pissed and was sick of his shit.

 

I heard the TV come on downstairs, so now was the best time to get an answer. I laid back in bed and
texted Caleb back.

 

What the hell happened? He said all he told you was that he wanted to let you know I was his!

I kept waiting for him to respond, but I wasn’t getting any response. I fixed my phone that the
notifications were on silent but I could still get my alarm. I would try and talk to him tomorrow.
I always hated Monday’s but this Monday just seemed to suck more. I obviously need to learn how to
operate my phone a bit better, my alarm didn’t go off. I woke up an hour later than I should have. Liam
must have still been pissed off because he had showered and left and didn’t even wake me up. That only
made me even madder at him.

I quickly got ready and realized I wasn’t going to have time to fiddle with the coffee pot OR stop for
coffee. I knew that the office coffee was going to suck; maybe I could send Ava for a coffee break.

 

I drove into work and since I was running late, I managed to hit every light and an accident on the
highway. Perfect! I dug my phone out and called up Ava.

 

“Ryleigh Andrews office, Ava Martinez speaking.” She answered. “Oh Ryleigh, I didn’t even look at the
caller ID first. Are you coming in?” She asked surprised.

“Hey Ava, I am running so incredibly late! I’m having a shitty fucking morning. Is there any way that you
can possibly dip out and grab me some coffee? I’m stuck in traffic and will be there in 15 minutes? I
would love you forever!” I begged.

“Sure! I’ll tell your conference call with the Bradley Partners that you’re going to be a little late and push
it back maybe a half hour?” She asked as I could hear her packing up her bag.

 

“Oh that would be awesome. Thank you so much Ava. I will tell your boss that you are an amazing
woman!” I laughed.

 

“I think she already knows! Do you want your usual?” She asked. I could hear her wrestling with her
purse.

 

“Yeah, just stick with that. I can’t have anything else go possibly wrong. I will see you in a bit.” I said as I
hung up with her.

 

I sat in traffic for a bit longer and thought I was going to lose my mind. I couldn’t see any reason for the
backup so that made me even more furious.

When I got to my building I parked in my usual spot and headed up to my office. I noticed that my phone
was blinking with voicemails and I could only assume that it was my clients wondering where I was and if
everything was okay since they had to push our phone conference back.

Moments later, Ava walked in with a large coffee. Liquid gold is what it actually was.

 

“You are my savior!” I stood up really quick to reach for the cup.

 

“Man, for a cup of coffee? I wonder what would happen if it were something of value!” Ava laughed

I sat back down in my chair and began to load up mycomputer. I picked up the phone to listen to the
few rants that awaited me. The first call was from my conference call making sure that I was okay and
that the push back was fine but they would need to postpone it as well until afternoon.
The second call was from my mom; she wanted to know if Liam was okay after yesterday’s debacle.

I quickly deleted that message before I could hear all that she had to say. I was not in the mood to
discuss Liam at all right now. The thought of him was making me even more pissed off.

I then began to play the last message and I could hear some voices, it almost sounded like Liam. Then a
click. I tried to replay it but it was muffled and only a moment on the message. Just as I hung up my
phone, Ava knocked on my door frame.

“Ryleigh. Liam is here to see you.” She said quietly. “He has flowers in hand, is everything okay?”

 

“Go ahead and send him in.” I said sternly.

 

Liam came around the corner slowly and held out the flowers.

“Look, I’m really sorry honey! I was an ass and I should’ve at least said goodbye to you before I left. I had
an early meeting to get to and I almost forgot about it. I really am sorry.” Liam walked over to my chair
and got down on a knee.

“You pretty much ruined my day. I want you to know that.” I said angrily.

 

“You have every right. I am so sorry. How can I make it up to you?” He begged.

 

“I am not sure, but I will figure something out.” I tried to say without smiling, but was failing miserably.

 

“How about I pick you up here, say 5:30, take you to dinner and treat you to a wonderful back rub?” He
said as he started to stand and pull me up with him.

 

“Sounds like a start.” I said cheekily.

“Alright, I will see you out front at 5:30 sharp.” He said and stole a kiss. “I need to get back to the office,
but I really wanted to say how sorry I was.” He headed out my office door and I finally felt like today was
going to go right for the rest of the day.

I put my flowers in the vase and got to work.
The rest of the day seemed to run rather smoothly. I managed to get ahead on my work, which actually
surprised me; especially since I was so frazzled when I got to work late.

I decided for lunch, to head out and actually grab something. Ava had tagged along; Brantley had to miss
a lunch with her.

 

“So?” I asked her with a nudge to her side.

 

“So, what?” She said with a big grin.

 

“How are things on cloud nine? Mind coming down for a little bit and have a convo with me?”

 

“Ryleigh, I’ve never been this happy! We have only been together for what a week? Two? I have lost
track of all time with him and it just seems to get better! I have to say, though, I am a little nervous.”

 

“Nervous? About what?”

 

“We are going over to his parents’ house this weekend and this is the first time I am meeting them!” She
stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to talk.

 

“Ava, things will be perfect! If you just act like yourself, they will love you as much as you love him.”

 

“Ryleigh! I don’t know if we are at the L word yet.”

“Oh my God, if you don’t think that you are in love with him, you both are blind! The two of you seem to
light each other up! I’ve seen the way you two interact and I have to say, I see this being it for the two of
you.” I smiled and started to walk again.

We decided to do a cheap lunch of McDonalds. We both said greasy and cheap when it came to ‘where
should we go’.

We both devoured our burgers and fries and headed back to the office, with just small chit chat about
the upcoming Vegas weekend for me. Ava had been once but it was when she was 22, which was only 4
years ago, but the way she talked about she wanted to go so bad sounded as if she had never been. I
joked about how she and Brantley should meet his parents and then meet us there and they could do a
double wedding. I just got a dirty glare.

The rest of the afternoon didn’t even feel like we were back from lunch for very long. Before I knew it,
5:25 was already here. I quickly packed up my things and turned off my computer. Ava had left right at
five to meet Brantley at her place; it was her turnto cook.

I headed down the elevator; as soon as the doors opened at the lobby floor, Liam was waiting there for
me. Just as he had promised, it actually made my heart skip a beat just seeing his smile. He grabbed my
hand and pulled me into a kiss and we headed out hand in hand.

“How was your day?” Liam asked as he kissed my hand.
“It was a rough start, but I actually am ahead of schedule. That helps me out a lot, since I won’t be in on
Friday at all.” I smiled at him and kissed his hand back. “Yours?”

“Not too bad. It’s been kind of slow since we closed that project. Now it’s just getting back on track with
the other accounts, but they don’t know what direction they want to take. They have three choices and
apparently that is too many for them. It seems like I have to hold their hand for this and it is more
annoying than it is productive. Oh well, enough of that. Let’s go eat some dinner and then I think I owe
you a back massage.” He said with a wink.

“I think that it is now up to a full body massage which can be your ‘punishment’.” I laughed and did the
air quotes.

 

“Deal. I guess I really did screw up, huh?” He asked sweetly.

I nodded as he opened the door for me for a local Mexican restaurant. I had been to this place a few
times, but only came to drink the margaritas. However, this time I was enjoying some really good food
with those drinks.

“I think I ate way too much.” I groaned as I sat back in my chair.

 

“Well if you are too full, a body massage may not be the best.” He said with a smirk.

 

“You can’t get out of it that easy. We still have the drive home and in that time I think that food will
have settled. You are stuck with your punishment!” I shook my finger at him and gave him a smile.

My heart had stopped as soon as I looked beyond Liam’s shoulder. Caleb was at the bar, but he wasn’t
alone. He had another woman with him. From what I saw, it almost looked like Courtney! She wouldn’t
be out with Caleb. Would she? I didn’t want to take the risk of going over there, especially after the
scene yesterday with Liam and Caleb.