Torn (25 page)

“You okay?” Liam asked as he leaned in and grabbed my hands.

 

“Oh yeah, just food sitting heavy. Are you ready?”

“Yep, let’s get you home and out of those clothes and rub that beautiful body down.” He said as he
stood up and helped me up. I wanted to look back and see if I could see who the other woman was, but I
was actually a little heartbroken. Was he ready tomove on? I shouldn’t blame him; I told him that I
couldn’t continue on with him so why would I hold him back?

We headed back towards my office building; he had found me and parked next to my car.

 

“I’ll see you at home. I love you! Drive carefully.” He leaned in and kissed me very passionately and
opened my car door for me.

 

“I love you too. See ya at home.” I smiled and gotinto my car. I waited as he backed up and I quickly got
out my phone and dialed up Courtney.

 

“Hey! Is it just me or is the week going to take forever?” Courtney asked.

 

“Hey, yeah. Where are you?” I cut to the chase.

 

“I am out to dinner with Jason. Why?”

 

“Oh, ummm, I was just out to dinner with Liam and I saw Caleb with another woman. She looked like
you from behind.” I said with my heart dropping into my stomach.

 

“Is that a bad thing? I don’t mean to sound rude, but Ryleigh, he is allowed to go out, right?” She pulled
the phone away from her mouth but I could hear hersay something about ‘its Ryleigh.’

 

“Tell Jason I say hi. Look, you are right. He should be able to have dates and have fun. Well, you’re out, I
should let you go and I will talk to you later. What time is your flight on Friday?”

 

“It is at noon. Yours?”

 

“What airline?”

 

“Southwest, are we on the same flight?” Her voice definitely went up an octave there.

 

“Yes! That is too funny! I thought you guys would be heading out there earlier. We can all ride together
then!”

 

“Perfect! Alright, Ryleigh, our food just got here! I’ll talk to you later!”

“Bye!” That made my evening. I hadn’t bothered to ask her what time or airline that they were going to
fly out there on and we both managed to grab the same one. This is why we were best friends. I laughed
to myself.

I began to drive down the highway towards home. My stomach was starting to feel a little less full and
unfortunately as was my heart. I should just be happy for Caleb and enjoy the thought he was getting
into the dating scene. Maybe I was just acting a little too jealous and I had no right to be. He wasn’t
mine.

I found I was driving a bit faster to get home. I needed that massage now more than ever. I needed to be
with Liam more than ever.

 

I pulled into the driveway to find the lights were all out. I know for a fact that he drives a lot faster than I
do and he left a few moments before I did. I was going to go in and give him a call.

 

I walked in to find that he had lit candles all over the house! I dropped my bag on the floor and my jaw
soon followed. I couldn’t believe he had done all of this for me.

 

There was a small note where I typically put my keys.

Come upstairs so I can prove that I am sorry.
I headed upstairs to find that he had even more candles lit in our room. I am not sure when he had time,
or if he had it already planned out, but there were flower petals all over our bed.

“What is all this?” I asked with a huge grin.

 

“An apology?” Liam said as he walked over to me and began to pull off my top. “Body massages are
absolutely no fun when you have clothes on.”

I unbuttoned my pants and he slid them down, as they got down to my ankles he began to kiss my legs
all the way down to my ankles and then lifted each leg out of my pants. He kissed each foot as they rose
up and both times made me smile.

Liam began to kiss up my leg and slowly made his way up. I could feel his tongue slip in between my
legs, toying with my clit. I had to grab a hold ofhis shoulders so I wouldn’t lose my balance. I threw my
head back, letting out a soft moan.

He grabbed my ass and picked me up and carried to the bed and laid me down, still continuing to lick
between my legs. I then felt him stop and began to massage the back of my thighs, calves and my feet.

 

“Wait.” I raised my head up frowning at him.

 

“Okay. I’ll stick to the punishment.” He said quietly as he rolled me onto my stomach and rubbed my
back.

“Ca…Liam, your hands feel so good.” I whispered. I couldn’t believe I let out a “C” sound! I played it off
as it was a sound as he was rubbing into my back. He didn’t seem to notice. I was so incredibly glad that I
caught myself. He massaged for what seemed like a lifetime, but I wasn’t going to complain at all. This
actually made me very relaxed around him.

“I love you.” He breathed into my ear.

 

“I love you, too. Look, Liam…” I began.

“Ryleigh, I know. I have to earn your trust back and after being a dick this morning, I kinda screwed
myself. We will get back to where we were. I love you and you take as much time as you need.” He
rolled onto his back. I could tell he was frustrated with me.

I rolled out of bed and headed into the bathroom.

 

“Thanks Liam.” I smiled.

 

I shut the bathroom door and smacked my head for the close call of almost calling out the wrong name.
I wish I hadn’t seen him tonight. He wasn’t a distraction until I saw him again.

I came out of the bathroom a moment later and foundLiam lying in his boxers and he started to doze
off. I really wanted to take advantage of this moment to get a hold of Caleb, I really wanted to talk to
him and see how he was doing.
I grabbed a pair of shorts and a tank out the closet. When I came out Liam had slightly woken up.

“What you doing?” He asked sleepily.

 

“I’m not tired quite yet. I am going to downstairs and watch a bit of TV so I don’t disturb you. Okay?” I
asked as I came back to the bed and leaned in for a kiss.

 

“You can watch it up here if you want.”

 

“Nah, I’m just going to go downstairs. I want to get something to drink as well. I will just see you in the
morning. Love you.” I gave him a kiss and headed out of the room towards downstairs.

I grabbed a glass of water from the kitchen, chugged the first glass and then did a refill and then headed
into the living room. I began to go around the house to blow out the remaining lit candles. Glad that we
didn’t have a fire, that would have killed the weekend plans, for sure. I laughed to myself.

I picked up my purse and grabbed my phone. I opened my text messages and texted Caleb.

 

Hey. I know you are probably busy. Saw you at the Mexican restaurant, but wanted to check and
see how you were.

I flipped on the TV waiting for a response. I managed to find some sort of cooking show that caught my
eye. I never understood why I could do the same thing they were doing, but my meals never turned out!
I quickly changed the channel after I realized that I was only starting to get hungry.

I found an old episode of The New Girl and checked my phone. Nothing. I suddenly had a pit in my
stomach. He definitely had moved on. Good for him.

 

My phone buzzed.

 

Yeah, doing fine. Still a little pissed that I let someone get to me and I caused a scene at your
mom’s house. Guess I won’t be invited over for dinner for a while LOL! How are you?

 

Nothing on his date. Hmmm.

 

I am fine. You would be invited over again, don’t worry. My mom loves you. I will be gone for the
weekend; Courtney- my friend- is getting married. So, good date?

 

I felt like an absolute idiot for even asking that.

 

Umm. No date. She and I are JUST friends. She has a relationship, pretty serious.

 

I sighed with a big relief. I still felt like an idiot!

 

Oh, okay. Well, I better hit the hay. I have a busy week this week and then the wedding. Lunch
next week?

 

I took a big gulp of water, I was actually nervous at his response to the lunch.
Sounds great. Have a great trip. Good night!

I didn’t respond. I didn’t want to look like a bigger moron. I set my phone down and continued watching
the show. I laid my head down and suddenly all of my energy or alertness was draining. My eyes were
definitely getting heavy. I shut off the TV and headed back upstairs to bed.

The next couple of days were just amazing. Liam and I were getting along really well. Ava had to make
fun of me when I arrived at work on Thursday; she had said that I looked ‘incredibly refreshed’. I had to
laugh at her and tell her only someone who was getting refreshed each night would know the look, but
it was just a look of getting excited for this trip. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that we hadn’t been
having any sort of refreshments going on in my home. I felt bad that I kept holding out on him, but I
really didn’t know if I had that same passion for sex with him as I once did.

Work had been going rather smoothly, I was dreadingwhen I would get back though. I knew that
missing a Friday, during end of month was going tokill me. I made sure that all of my reports were done
on Thursday night. I had gotten a call at 7:30 that night from Liam asking if I was ever going to come
home.

I had packed up my things as soon as I got off the phone with him.

 

“It’s about time you got home! I was thinking that I was going to have to pick you up on the way to the
airport.” He leaned in and gave me a kiss.

“I know, but since it is End of Month, it’s just so hard to get everything done before the actual end of the
month and here I am taking a day off ON the last day of the month. I was trying to get all my reports
done so the rest of the department could possibly finish up the last couple of items up. I am hoping they
can work on it, so on Monday it won’t be a complete and utter hell for me.” I kissed him twice more and
headed to the kitchen for a beer.

“I ordered us some Chinese; we don’t have any food here. I was going to go pick up something but this
way we don’t have to have food just sit here while we are gone.” He said as I handed him a beer as well.

“Liam, we’re only going to be gone a few days. I think if we got some food, it would’ve survived. But
Chinese does sound good.” I opened my beer and took a big chug. “I guess we’re starting our weekend
this evening? Cheers!”

“Cheers!” We both laughed and then we heard the doorbell. The delivery guy had the best timing ever.

“That smells amazing! I can’t wait to dig in!” I took another sip of my beer and then grabbed the plates
out of the cabinet. The taste of the beer actually made my stomach turn a little so as Liam piled some
food onto my plate I grabbed a tall glass of water. I was starting to feel the pre-flight jitters.

“Are you all packed?” Liam asked as he dished outsome crab cheese wontons.

“No, but after dinner that is my number one task.” I said grabbing a few noodles with my fingers.
After we had devoured our food, I headed upstairs to pack. I didn’t think I was going to be able to sleep,
the nights before flying always got me both nervous and excited. I loved the idea of having a mini
bachelorette party and then going out Saturday night.

Most of all, I was so excited to be there to witness Courtney and Jason’s big day. They were so happy
together and this was going to be the best day ever. The two of them really were each other’s ‘ONE’ and
it made me so happy to think that they were going to spend the rest of their lives together.

Chapter Seventeen

My alarm went off at 8:15. I didn’t want to rush around on my vacation, but I definitely didn’t want to
oversleep. Liam and I got ready and figured we could eat some breakfast at the airport, but he made us
both a cup of coffee. My stomach had felt nauseous all evening and this morning wasn’t any better.

“You all ready?” Liam asked as he sipped his coffee and looking at his watch.

 

“Yep! I am more than ready. We are still gonna have enough time to pick up Jason and Court, right?”

“We will. We can actually head out now, and then we’ll have time to sit in a nice restaurant for some
breakfast rather than eating something fast. Wouldyou rather do that?” He asked as he dumped the
last little bit of coffee down the drain.

“Sounds yummy. Do you want to take our bags out to the car, Jeeves?” I joked and rinsed my cup out.

 

“Har. Har. Har. Yes, I will put the bags in the car. Call Court let her know that we are on our way.” He
said and gave my ass a slap as he went to go load up his car.

 

“Yes Sir!” I saluted to him with a laugh.

 

I grabbed my phone and my charger; I placed the charger in my purse and dialed up Courtney.

 

“Hello Mrs. Goodson! Are you ready to go?” I excitedly shouted into the phone.

 

“Can you believe I will be called that in 24 hours?” Courtney squealed into the phone. “We’re all ready
to go! Are you on your way?”

 

“Yep, we are loading up the car now and then we will be over. We were thinking of eating at a
restaurant in the airport, you in?” I asked.

 

“I am totally in! I am starving, but what else is new?” She sounded a little down about that.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“Ryleigh, I had to go get my dress let out a little bit! I am starting to show already! I can’t seem to stop
eating and it is so hard to think I am going to be this huge ball!”

“Court, don’t get upset. You’re pregnant and you have always been thin. This is going to be really new to
you! You have to remember that you’re pregnant, not getting fat! Okay? We’ll be there in 15 minutes
and then we can eat a ton together!” I smiled trying to reassure her.

“Alright.” I could hear her smiling on the other end. “See you in a few.”
We hung up and I headed out to the car. Liam was organizing our luggage so we could fit Jason’s and
most of all Courtney’s luggage. Knowing her, she was going to need all the room she could possibly get.

As we pulled up to Courtney and Jason’s place we parked in the driveway and we both got out. I was
heading up to the house when the door opened.