Liam looked around the gym at the other men. Lots of them were on the thin side, but most of them seemed to punch like demons were talking in their ears.
“Sports?”
“High school, but that was a long time ago.”
Craig nodded. “Okay, let’s start with some basics.”
An hour and a half later Liam pulled into the driveway of his single story bungalow and put the truck in park. He looked at the backs of his hands.
Purple.
He thought of the bruises on Avery’s wrists and how they didn’t fit her perfectly manicured fingernails.
Liam jingled the keys to the front door and was greeted by Whiskey barking from the other side. He opened the door and braced himself.
His lab was sixty pounds of energy that should be reserved for puppies, but at seven years old, it was obvious she wasn’t going to settle down because of age.
He knelt down and let the dog crawl all over him, her tongue lapping his cheek.
“Did you miss me?”
“Your dog is crazy.” Michelle peeked around the corner from the kitchen, dish towel in hand.
“Uncle Liam.”
Liam knelt and caught his niece as she ran into his arms. He swung Cassandra up in the air to a chorus of giggles.
“You spoil her.”
He settled the spirited five-year-old on his hip and pinched her nose. “That’s my job.”
Whiskey barked at his feet, tail wagging, tongue hanging out. He stepped past the dog and into the kitchen. It smelled like his childhood home. “Pot roast?” he asked as his stomach approved with a growl.
“Mom’s recipe.”
He kissed his sister’s cheek. “You’re too good to me.”
“We live here rent free. It’s the least I can do.”
He’d heard that before. “Well, I appreciate it.”
Cassandra placed her hand on his cheek and pulled his attention away from her mother. “Uncle Liam, do you wanna see what I made in school today?”
She’d started kindergarten in the fall, and every day it was the same. From pictures colored with crayons, to watercolors, to plants growing in egg cartons that sat in the kitchen window, to decoupage plates with his pixie nosed niece smiling at the picture placed in the middle.
“Wash your hands.”
“Yes, Mom,” he teased his sister.
“I was talking to Cassie, but you should, too.”
He set Cassandra down and took her tiny hand in his. “You heard your mother.”
“Washy, washy . . . happy, happy.”
Liam laughed. “Where did she get that?”
Michelle shrugged. “Someone at school says it.”
“Mrs. Steel says germs are the enemy, and soap and water are the weapons.”
They walked into the bathroom, and Cassandra marched up on the two-step stool that put her at the right height to wash her hands on her own.
“I like Mrs. Steel.”
“She’s married. So you can’t like her too much.”
He laughed. “Good to know.”
Liam helped her with the soap dispenser and lathered his hands along with hers.
“Uncle Liam?”
“Yes, Pipsqueak?”
“When are you getting married?”
Not anytime soon.
“I don’t have a girlfriend, so I can’t get married.”
Cassandra considered him through their images in the bathroom mirror.
“Why don’t you have a girlfriend?”
Liam considered changing his nickname for her to Twenty Questions. Or Twenty-Q. “I’m a little too busy for that.”
“Mommy says you’re working extra hours and that makes dating hard.”
“Your mom is right.”
“What about when Mommy and I move out? Will you get a girlfriend then?”
He turned off the water and grabbed a towel. “I don’t know.” It would certainly be easier to get naked with a woman.
“Who will cook for you if you don’t get a girlfriend?”
Liam lifted her off the stool and placed her little butt on the counter. “You know, I did cook for myself before you and your mom moved in.”
“Mommy says frozen dinners don’t count.”
He lowered his voice. “One of these days you’re going to go to college, and you’ll realize they do count.”
“You guys coming or what?” Michelle yelled from the kitchen.
Liam made a face at his niece. “I think we’re late.”
Easily amused, Cassandra giggled, and Liam lifted her up and tossed her over his shoulder. She held on to his back, her head closer to the ground than her feet were, and laughed all the way to dinner.
Thirty minutes later, Liam was on his second beer, and the pot roast was a pleasant memory. Cassandra left to go play in the room she shared with her mom.
“Are you still okay to watch Cassie tomorrow night?”
“My social schedule hasn’t changed.”
“Would you tell me if it did?”
“Family first. Always. We’ve been over this.”
Looking into his sister’s eyes was a lot like looking into his own.
“You seem more restless than normal.”
“Busy, not restless.”
“Did you pick up another job?”
He sipped his beer and set it down. “Why do you ask?”
“You’ve been coming home late.”
He picked up his plate and hers and took them to the sink. “I worked late before you moved in.” She’d been there for a year. Slippery Scott, her slimy ex-husband, had left her and Cassandra a month before they moved in. Michelle had started taking classes after Cassandra started preschool so she could earn her degree. Scott couldn’t handle being a dad longer than a few hours at a time, so when Michelle needed to pull a few nights working the crisis hotline as a class requirement, Scott couldn’t deal.
According to Michelle, he picked a fight one night, packed a bag, and left. Come to find out he hadn’t paid their rent on the apartment for two months. If Scott had stayed in town, Liam would have happily pounded some sense into his brother-in-law. But the coward moved to Atlanta, denying him the chance.
Liam was there to pick up the pieces.
“You’re working extra for me.”
“I’m the boss. I’m working late because that’s what being the boss means.”
She brought the other dishes from the table to the sink while he filled it with hot water. “Sit down. You cooked.”
“I can help.”
“Chelle!”
“Okay, okay.” She sat down and took a drink of his beer.
“So what’s Cassandra’s obsession with me having a girlfriend?”
“I think it has to do with her new friends at school. She started talking about a baby brother or a sister, and somehow she’s concluded that I can’t give her that since Scott is gone.”
“But I can? That’s a stretch.”
“She’s five. What can I say?” Michelle sighed. “He sent a check.”
Liam looked over his shoulder. “Who?”
“Scott.”
He almost dropped the dish he was rinsing off in the sink. “You’re kidding.”
“Four hundred dollars.”
Considering the man had ignored his child support bill ordered by the divorce court for the past five months, the amount was laughable. “Big spender.” Liam went back to the dishes.
“He says he finally got a job.”
“Did you talk to him?”
“No. There was a check in the mail with a note. He said he would send more.” Michelle sounded hopeful.
“I wouldn’t count on it.”
“I won’t.”
He dried his hands on a dish towel and turned to his sister. “You don’t need him.”
She sighed and offered a weak smile. “I know. But she does.”
“Cassandra has me.”
“It’s not the same.”
“I know. It’s better. She can depend on me. Forever and always.”
Michelle walked over and wrapped her arms around him.
Liam kissed the top of her head.
“Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Chapter Six
Thankfully, Brenda didn’t harp when Avery showed up for her lesson. The woman was painfully quiet, and thirty minutes in, Avery figured out why.
The door to the studio opened and he walked in.
Big shoulders. Thick biceps. Liam.
“What are you doing here?”
“Right on time,” Brenda announced.
Avery shifted her gaze between the two of them. “What is this? An intervention?”
Brenda shook off her boxing gloves. “He agreed to spar with you.”
That was comical. “I don’t remember agreeing to spar with him.”
“You did last week, and I don’t look like your demons.” He dropped a bag on the floor and walked farther into the room.
When he was damn near nose to nose with her, she looked up and held her ground. He didn’t look anything like her demons. The fact that he knew she had them was a little unsettling.
Avery weighed her options.
Stay and spar with Handyman Hulk, who didn’t know krav from a bar fight, or find another instructor.
Brenda didn’t have a warm and fuzzy bone in her body. It was one of the reasons Avery liked working with her. She didn’t ask questions, didn’t offer a shoulder to sob on. She slapped Avery into place and pushed her out of her comfort zone.
That zone was just pushed a little further.
“Fine.”
Liam’s whole face changed when he smiled. Even now, with a smirk that resembled a cocky teen’s, he looked completely different.
“All right. Let’s get started.”
Most of their lessons before Liam showed up had consisted of practicing the moves Brenda taught Avery in the past and building on them. In the past few months there were times Brenda would attack Avery without any predetermined moves. She didn’t tell her she was going to attempt to choke her or grab her from behind. She just did it and Avery needed to respond.