Giving the impression that they were together. As in together together.
The waitress smiled at him as he thanked her. And his eyes lingered on her as she passed on up the aisle.
Did she notice?
Gabrielle felt like secondhand goods for the brief instant it took her to remember that Liam was free to exchange glances—and phone numbers and anything else he wanted to exchange—with anyone he wanted.
No matter how it might look, they were most definitely not together together. Nor would they be. Even if he fell in love with her, it wouldn’t work. His flirting with the flight attendant was a perfect reminder of that. And she wasn’t the type of woman who dated casually. Which was why she didn’t date much.
If she and Liam were ever to have a personal, intimate, together together relationship and it ended, her heart would be irrevocably broken. Things would never be the same between them again. Marie knew it. And so did she.
They were Threefold. A family. If something went wrong between Liam and Gabrielle, Marie, who loved them both, would be caught in the middle. She’d suffer right along with them. She’d eventually have to choose, and based on Marie’s difficulty in trusting men, she’d choose Gabrielle.
Which wasn’t fair, either.
Bottom line was, she and Marie needed Liam too much to risk losing him. And he needed them, too.
For the next several minutes, as Liam’s arm touched hers and sent little shivers of awareness through her, Gabrielle tried to concentrate on the pretty attendant parading up and down the aisle, smiling as she passed. Noticed the way Liam’s gaze had followed her again. And told herself, quite strongly, that she wouldn’t ever, ever want to be his woman. And when he leaned over and spoke to her, his breath on her neck urging her to turn her head to taste his lips, she forced herself to remember the things he’d said during late-night talks in their college years, about being attracted to other women while he was in a relationship.
If he was hers, and looked at another woman like he’d just looked at the attendant...she’d never be comfortable around him again.
So...maybe right now, dodging her burgeoning feelings for him was hard.
Losing him as a member of their family would be hardest of all.
* * *
“LIAM?” THE VOICE was soft. Hesitant. He heard it, but it didn’t register immediately. He and Gabrielle were standing, arm to arm, at the baggage claim carousel. Glued to each other’s sides so they didn’t get lost in the busy Florida airport. He knew for certain she hadn’t said a word.
Fact was, she hadn’t said much to him at all since shortly after takeoff. She’d said she was concentrating on the papers in front of her. Knowing her as he did, he didn’t question the statement a bit—at first. But when he noticed her staring at a page—a biographical report on Donaldson’s real estate deal gone bad—so long he’d practically had it memorized himself, he knew that she wasn’t working.
“Liam?”
The voice came again. Gabrielle spun around, looking just over his shoulder.
“Oh!” Her mouth formed a circle with the word. She turned toward him, glanced at his face, and then behind him again.
“It’s Tamara...”
The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He felt as though spiders were crawling up his spine.
Turning so quickly the long black trench coat over his arm tangled between the legs of his suit pants, Liam pasted a smile on his face.
Whatever his feelings about the girl’s conception might be, she was not going to pay for his father’s sins where he was concerned...
He saw her and lost his breath.
Her eyes...looking into them was like looking into a mi
rror. The doubt there—he could read it as clearly as he’d grown up reading his own. Was he wanted? Was he good enough?
Their father had a lot to answer for.
A slender redheaded woman stood behind the girl. She moved forward, as though to protect her. Liam didn’t give her a direct glance.
“Tamara?” he said, his smile growing so much that it hurt his face. “Oh, my God, look at you!” he said, holding out his arms to her. “You’re beautiful.”
She was a baby. A child. A young woman. His little sister. And when she flung herself into his arms, he grabbed her and hung on for dear life.