Know Me Well (Wishful 3)

“I’d do the same thing for my sister.”

“Do you take this active a role in ensuring Wynne’s well being?”

Liam brushed that off. “Lack of opportunity. Wynne would be the first one to applaud my trying to help. The two of them have been joined at the hip since they were five.”

“Not so much the last couple of years.”

That gave him pause. He hadn’t seen his baby sister since his welcome home party in December, but he’d assumed she was better at keeping up with Riley than she was with the rest of the family. “Are they on the outs?”

“Not deliberately, but with Wynne being all caught up in her life down in the Big Easy, she doesn’t come home often and Riley’s tied to the business.”

Liam wondered if she felt as abandoned by his sister as she had by him. “So who has Riley’s back?”

“I do. And your mom does. But she misses Wynne.”

“For a long time it was like they were two bodies who shared one brain. They were always so tight.”

Autumn nodded. “And was Wynne the reason you looked out for Riley back in school?”

Liam paused mid-step. “I didn’t think I was obvious about it.”

“You weren’t. But I notice that kind of thing.”

She would.

“Riley hasn’t had the easiest life. There haven’t been too many people she could really count on, and she’s always been considered a part of my family.” Which was the absolute truth, even if he hadn’t thought of her as a sister in years.

“So now you’re home, you’re just falling back into that old pattern, huh?”

Autumn was an incurable romantic. Always had been. She was clearly fishing to find out more about his interest in Riley. Liam knew better than to bite.

“I’m just helping out a friend. That’s it.” His protest did nothing to wipe the look of speculation off Autumn’s face. Time to redirect. “I didn’t know you and Riley were all buddy buddy.”

“We weren’t growing up. Since she’s younger, we didn’t run in the same circles any more than you did. But when she came back to Wishful after college, she moved into the other half of the duplex I live in, so we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well over the last few years. I like her.”

So did he, despite the fact that she was more apt to bite than smile at him these days.

As they reached the Mustang, Liam patted Autumn’s arm and disentangled himself. “I gotta be gettin’ on. Have to figure out how I’m going to

perform an automotive miracle.”

“Liam?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s a kind thing you’re doing for Riley. The latest in a long line of kind things you’ve done for all sorts of people since you came home. But remember it’s also important to take something for yourself.”

“Do as you say, not as you do?” He gave her a pointed look.

She looked suddenly weary. “What I want isn’t an option. What you do is.”

“You can’t know that. I don’t know what I want.” He tried to forcibly shut out the image of Riley that popped into his mind.

Her lips curved. “You’re a smart man. You’ll figure it out.”

Shaking his head, he waved goodbye and slipped into his car, his mind full of the impossible.

He had no right to act on this attraction, no right to complicate Riley’s life when his own was such a damned mess. Even if the attraction was returned—and it appeared that it was—he had nothing to offer her. He had nothing to offer anyone, for that matter. Until he figured out what the hell to do with his life, he didn’t have any right to look at a woman like Riley.