"What is going on in that beautiful mind of yours?" Liam asked her without looking up. Cora had been so caught up in her thoughts his voice startled her, and she jerked in surprise which caused the tweezer to scrape her wound. Cora hissed in pain and tried to pull her foot back.
"Easy," Liam said keeping a gentle but firm grip on her foot.
"Sorry," Cora relaxed her foot and let him continue.
"So, are you going to tell me?" Liam prompted.
"Tell you what?"
"What you were thinking about?" Liam asked while still working on her foot.
"What makes you think I was thinking anything?" Cora asked instead.
"Because your face went from happy to sad, then a grimace."
He had been working on her foot. How had he seen all that? "You saw all that while working on my foot?"
Liam stopped what he was doing and looked pointedly at her. "I notice everything about you, Cora. I always have. Always will. When you’re happy or sad. Frustrated. Or when you just need a shoulder to lean on."
Cora could only stare at him with her mouth hanging open. She didn't know what to say. When they had been together, he had always seemed to read her moods.
~
Liam shook his head and went back to digging in her foot when Cora stayed silent. He cursed himself for opening his mouth and revealing too much. Cora had made it painfully clear she wanted nothing to do with him. So why reveal so much to her? She already hated him. Telling her how much he cared and noticed about her wasn’t going to suddenly change her opinion about him.
“Where’s your boyfriend?” He asked fishing for information from her.
“I know what you’re doing, and it won’t work.”
“What? Ask you a question?”
“You’re playing interrogator. You asked an assumptive question, and I’m supposed to confirm or deny it.”
Damn, he forgot how intuitive she was. “Maybe. So, are you going to tell me if you have one or not?”
“Why should I? We broke up.”
Yeah, why should she? It’s not like he gave her any reason to remain faithful to him like he had for her in hopes they could put aside their differences and get back together. “Because I want to make sure you're happy.”
“You didn’t have to break into my house to find out. A phone call works just as well.”
“Would you have answered my call?” Cora clamped her lips shut. “That’s what I thought. I was respecting your wishes and giving you space like you asked for but you're upset with me when I do that.”
“Yeah well, I’m a girl, were complicated.”
“You don’t suppose.”
“Are you done yet? I still have things I need to do,” Cora snapped at him.
Liam stayed quiet, and after a minute he grabbed hold of the corner piece of the shard. "Here we go. Take a deep breath." As Cora inhaled Liam tugged on the piece and it pulled clean out of her foot. Cora cried out but quickly silenced herself. Liam dumped the shard in the sink and cleaned out her foot with alcohol and put gauze and bandages over it and wrapped it tightly. "All done. Try to stay off it for a while."
When Cora remained silent, Liam stole a glance at her and felt his heart break. Cora was hunched over with her bottom lip between her teeth and a tear rolling down her cheek.
"Oh, Cora. I'm so sorry." He tilted her head back and swiped the tear away.
"It's not so bad," she grumbled with her eyes closed tightly.
"There's my brave Amazon." It had been a long time since he had called her that. But it felt right. She was an Amazon warrior. Fierce and protective. It was also a nickname that she hated and always seemed to rile her up.
Just like Liam predicted, Cora's eyes popped open, and she glared at him. "I am not your anything. Thank you, Liam, for your help. I can take it from here."
"Kicking me out already?" He smirked. He knew it had been coming. She had made her feelings plain and clear.
"I think it’s for the best," Cora said looking away from him.
"Best for whom?" Liam asked losing his playfulness.
"Look, Liam. I appreciate what you did, but I think you should go. I'll be careful on my foot, but I have to get the downstairs cleaned up." As far as excuses went, it was lame, but she needed him gone. She should never have answered the door, to begin with. Now that he knew she was injured it would give him another excuse for him to want to visit her and she didn't want that.
Liam looked away clenching his jaw. "I’ll take care of downstairs and get the window boarded up. You just rest." Liam started to walk away but pivoted on his heel to face her again. “And don’t think our earlier conversation is over. I still need to talk to you about your client.” He fled the room before Cora could protest.
She didn't want his help, and she sure didn’t want to discuss her clients with Liam. He had never seemed interested in them before. Why now? And how did he even know she had a new client for that matter?
Cora slid off the counter carefully and went into her room to change so she could ask him. She could hear Liam downstairs sweeping up the glass. It should be her down there doing that. It was her house after all, but she knew she was hardly in any condition to be cleaning up the glass or boarding up a window. Cora slipped on her pajamas and hobbled downstairs. She finally reached the bottom step just as Liam was finishing up putting a board on the
