Bloom

Chapter 49

Athena

“You’re sure he said that he wanted me to call him?” I glance down at my phone even though the question is directed at Leanna.

“Yes,” she says solemnly. “I can tell you word-for-word what he said that night, Athena.”

That night.

It was days ago.

I was busy prepping the flowers for the last minute wedding order. Liam dropped by Wild Lilac.

Leanna said he was dripping in sweat and seemed on edge. He asked her to relay a message to me that he wanted to talk. She forgot to tell me until the next morning because we were both so focused on setting up the wedding flowers.

Twelve calls and close to twenty text messages later, and I still haven’t heard a word from him.

I even stopped by the Dehaven Center. A temp was sitting in Audrey’s chair since she had scheduled a few days off for a girls’ trip with her sister before the wedding.

The only thing the man sitting behind the reception desk would tell me was that Liam was unavailable.

“There’s an explanation for this.” Leanna sets a lily in the middle of an arrangement before she tugs it back out. “He hasn’t ghosted you, Athena.”

She just gave a voice to my biggest fear.

Today is my birthday.

I’m having dinner with my family in six hours at Nova, and I haven’t seen or heard from the man I love.

“You’re supposed to be at home getting ready for tonight.” She taps me on my hip. “Go and do that. I’ll cover things here.”

I’m here because I can’t spend another second at home alone.

I’ve been to Liam’s apartment building twice, but I couldn’t get inside. I’ve done everything in my power to reach out to him.

“He knows about my mom,” I confess quietly. “I told him about my mom and my dad.”

“Your dad?” Leanna sets a hand on my shoulder. “You’ve never mentioned your dad before.”

I haven’t mentioned my mom to her either, but most of Manhattan knows the name Simone Millett.

“He wasn’t a great man.” I look up at the ceiling. “I told Liam about that. Do you think…”

“No,” she answers before I can finish my question. “He doesn’t strike me as the type of man to dump a woman because her parents are screwed up.”

She doesn’t know him.

I do, and I have no idea if he’s that type of man.

I wanted to believe he wasn’t, but reality is forcing me to accept that he might be.

“What am I supposed to do about tonight?” I ask, scrubbing a hand over the back of my neck. “My family thinks they are meeting him.”

Her hands find mine. “Athena, they love you. They love you so much. They’ll understand. Be honest with them, and they’ll understand.”

It’s advice I need to follow, but first I have to do the impossible.

I need to be honest with myself that Liam Wolf may not be the man I thought he was.