Tory was quiet, too. He’d seen her drop her phone, then scramble to pick it up again. He could only assume her call had been bad news. When he questioned her, she just shook her head.
“The past coming to get me.”
He could understand how that felt.
Back on land they stowed away the canoe and paddles. He locked the boathouse door and shimmied up the birch tree to return the key.
He built a new fire in the fire ring, broke out some hot dogs from his cooler and laid them on the metal grill he’d positioned over the flames.
He didn’t even pretend it would be a balanced meal. He had rolls if Tory wanted them. Ketchup. Potato chips. Good enough, as far as he was concerned.
Tory didn’t complain.
He had a feeling she didn’t even taste the food he gave her. Her gaze rested on the land for sale across the water, as if she’d like to return there, pitch a tent and never go home.
“Why can’t it all be this easy?” she asked suddenly. “Just you and me. A fire. A little food. A stupid canoe and a lake.”
“I don’t know.” That all sounded good to him. Much better than returning to fight with his own mother over his inheritance.
“I hate my mom. Sometimes I hate myself.” A tear slid down Tory’s cheek, and she swiped at it angrily. She wasn’t one to let her emotions show, which meant she kept them all bottled up inside, the same way he did. He’d learned over the years to his detriment that wasn’t the best strategy. He hoped she knew he wouldn’t think less of her if she cried in front of him.
Liam scooted closer, took her in his arms and tugged her in until her head rested against his shoulder. “It’s all right,” he said. He kept his gaze on the lake so if she needed to let loose a few more tears, she could do so privately. When she was in his arms, everything else faded away a little. He remembered what Noah had said: they’d get through this.
They wouldn’t lose the ranch.
He could stand just about anything else.
He thought he felt her shoulders shaking, so he kept on murmuring words into her hair until she drew in a deep breath and pulled back a little.
“Why do you hate yourself?” he asked when she had pulled herself together.
“I’m not the person I wanted to be. Not by a long shot. I’m petty. And scared. And I made a really big mistake.” Her voice cracked. Liam couldn’t guess what she meant. Had she committed some crime? That seemed to be more Steel’s thing.
“What kind of mistake?” The question came out more harshly than he’d intended.
She looked up at him. “Not that kind of mistake. I didn’t do a hit and run, if that’s what you mean.”
“I didn’t—”
“Didn’t you? Because I’m a Cooper?”
Liam sighed. “What did you do?”
“I… left. When I should have stayed. Now I’m as bad as my mom. As bad as your mom.”
“Hey, slow down.” Liam shifted into a more comfortable position, gathering Tory back into the circle of his arm. They were seated again in the sand, their backs against one of the large logs of the fire ring. “Do you have some kid I don’t know about?”
“No.”
“Then you’re not as bad as either of our mothers.”
Tory gave this a moment’s consideration and shook her head. “Maybe not. But I left Olivia when she needed me, and that’s pretty much the same thing. She looked up to me, Liam. I was a mom to her when Mom left.”
“She had your aunt.”
“That’s what I keep telling myself. But it’s an excuse. Truth is, I knew I was going to hurt her badly, and I did it anyway.”
Liam listened to the waves crashing on the shore. Located a bird from its call in one of the trees overhead. “Olivia will forgive you.” That was the answer to most things, wasn’t it? Forgiveness.
Not that he was any expert in that.
He was as stubborn as his old man had been in that regard, and he had the uncomfortable feeling that if he examined the sentiment, and his own behavior to some of the people around him, he’d have some apologizing to do.
Liam hated apologizing.
“I should probably go home. Face the music,” Tory said.
“Stay.”
Hours later, Tory had to admit she loved being with Liam. She loved this strange little resort by the lake, too. She knew their time here was temporary. Sooner or later she’d have to go home, face Enid—and Olivia.
For now she was content to put that off.
She and Lance had sat together after lunch for a long time, watching the world around them. When they’d gotten too stiff, they’d stood up, cleaned up their makeshift meal and explored the rest of the resort.
Now they stood beneath one of the treehouse cabins she had so longed to see when she’d been a child. There were six of them, three on either side of the lodge. Around them, tucked into the woods, were more cabins—normal ones that sat on the ground. They were cute and rustic, but it was the treehouses that had always captured her imagination.
“Can we go up there?” She touched the railing of a rickety-looking staircase that wrapped around one of the trees that made up a corner post to the little building that was suspended between several large pines.
On closer inspection, Tory realized cunningly hidden posts held up the little building. That meant no damage had been done to the trees themselves and that if they grew at different speeds, the treehouse wouldn’t be twisted between them, she supposed.
“This is the sturdiest of them. I think it will hold,” Liam said. “It’s a damn shame the place has been let to fall apart like this.”
“I can’t believe no one’s come and squatted here.” She let her hand rest on the staircase railing, her chin tilted so she
