The Best Friend Bargain(49)

He found her right where he knew he would. Lately, she’d made a habit of spending time sitting on the small concrete bench underneath the willow tree in the backyard.

The fading light cast her in magnificent shadow and, for a few moments, he kept still and stared. She’d pulled her hair up in a loose twist that framed her heart-shaped face and exposed the smooth column of her neck. Solitude surrounded her, but it didn’t reek of loneliness or melancholy. It smacked of peace and humility, exposing still deeper layers to the woman he’d thought he knew inside and out.

Her notice got him moving. In quiet moments like this, with just the two of them, nothing felt more right. And more and more, the rightness of their situation plagued him. Was it fair of him to want all the parts of her when he couldn’t offer the same in return? He knew Liv. Knew that she’d taken their relationship to a new and rare level, and he kept taking because he didn’t want to give up the way she made him feel. Not when he could see the unrestrained affection in her eyes.

Which made him selfish in a way he hadn’t known he could be.

Liv smiled up at him and patted the spot beside her. “Hey.”

“No fair you leaving me alone in there,” he teased, sitting and bumping his knee to hers.

“It was that or risk throwing up on my boots, and I really like these boots.”

Alarm swept through him. “You’re not feeling well?”

“I think it was just all the different smells…the noise…and the temperature in the kitchen. I’m feeling much better now that I’ve gotten some fresh air.”

Air ripe with rain on the way. Danny glanced up at the darkening sky. He couldn’t make out much, but the clouds had yet to hide all the stars.

“Do you miss your parents?” he risked asking. They’d avoided the topic since Liv had told him Joy and Jim were going back east to spend the holiday with her stepfather’s family.

“Yes and no, which makes me feel awful. Everything is always so easy with your family and I’m happy that I don’t have to worry about what my mother is thinking. But she is my mom and this is traditionally a day of family. Honor’s mom has texted her at least five times with pictures of their new great niece or some little thing to let her know she’s being thought of.”

“Your mom’s thinking of you, Liv. More than you know.” He took her hand in his, rubbed his thumb over her knuckles.

“Maybe.”

“What sound does a turkey’s phone make?”

Liv laid her head on his shoulder. He couldn’t see her smile, but he felt it. Closing his eyes, he was conscious of everything about her, from her softness to her floral scent, to the tension leaving her body. “I don’t know. Tell me, what sound does a turkey’s phone make?”

“Wing, wing.”

There weren’t many sounds that beat the resonance of Liv’s laughter and he smiled, glad to have lightened the mood.

“Okay you two lovebirds.” Danny opened his eyes to find Mrs. L., hands on her hips, looking at them like she’d caught a couple of escaped convicts. “The food is ready to be served so get your bottoms back in here.”

“Yes ma’am,” Danny said. He helped Liv to her feet and they headed to dinner. She’d set the dining room table pretty spectacularly and once food filled the center, Danny couldn’t remember a more festive or delicious looking Thanksgiving meal.

Conversation never lagged, even as everyone stuffed their faces.

Before they moved to dessert, Danny’s mom stood and tapped the side of her glass with a fork. “We have a Thanksgiving tradition in the Ellis household of sharing one thing we’re most thankful for over the past year and I’d like to keep that tradition going, if that’s okay?” She looked at Danny. He nodded. “Okay, I’ll start and we’ll go clockwise around the table.”

That meant Liv would go before him. She’d had some major setbacks this past year, what with losing her job and the breakup with Will. But the one incredible gift growing inside her trumped any hardship and had to be the best thing to happen to her. For that, Danny was most grateful.

He took a stealthy look at her. Did she still think about Will? It rankled to think she might, another selfish feeling on his part. The guy was the father of her baby, of course she thought about him. Had every right to.

“You’ve got a little honey,” he whispered near her ear. She turned, so he touched the corner of his mouth with his finger. Her tongue darted out to lick it away. Lucky honey.

“Thanks,” she whispered back.

“This past year I’m most thankful for,” Bryce started to say and Danny realized he’d paid zero attention to both his mom and Honor’s thanks. “The love of my life realizing that I’m the love of hers.”