HDU #2: Dirt (8 page)

“So Liam Brody
cooks,” she observed with a little smile once he was finished.
 
“Kind of surprised.”
 
He grinned as he watched her approach
the counter and pucker her lips with excitement.
 
“‘Kind of’ being a complete understatement,” she exhaled in
awe as her big eyes scanned the array of home cooked food.
 
There were sides of fried apples,
fluffy yellow cornbread, slaw and main dishes of grilled chicken and pulled
pork, both drenched in a barbecue sauce that smelled of delicious pepper and
vinegar.
 
Amanda bent over, winding
her hair around her hand so she could breathe in all the aromas.
 
“This smells incredible,” she murmured
as she stood straight again, opening her eyes to see Liam wearing a smirk.
 
She frowned.
 
“What?”

He bit it
back.
 
“Nothing,” he answered,
though he let his gaze linger on her shirt for more than a few seconds.
 
Amanda looked down at her raglan.
 
It was splattered with water from her
freshly washed hair and had been reduced to just about total transparency.

“Oop.”
 
Hastily, Amanda fanned her wet hair
over her chest again, shooting Liam a narrow-eyed look as he grinned.
 
“You forgot to pack me a bra.”

He laughed.
 
“‘Forgot’ isn’t exactly the word.
 
But I should remind you that I’ve seen
you completely naked before.”

Amanda groaned
at the memory.
 
“Only because you
forgot to knock.”

“Again, not
really the word.”
 
Liam smirked as
he opened the fridge, grabbing two bottles of cider with one hand and setting
them onto the counter beside a bottle of Riesling and a bottle of tequila.
 
He grinned as Amanda tilted her head
curiously.
 
“Pick your poison,
birthday girl.”

Amanda stared
for a bit.
 
Dragging her lower lip
between her teeth, she reached for the tequila.
 
Liam cocked an eyebrow.

“It’s gonna be
one of those nights?”

She broke into a
wide smile.
 
“Oh yeah.”

~

The wooden
rocking chair rolling to and fro, Amanda brought her bare knees up to her
chin.
 
Beyond stuffed from dinner,
they’d retreated to the front porch, a six-pack of cider sitting between their gently
swaying chairs.
 
The drink tasted
like juice after the bottle of tequila that they’d emptied a third of during
dinner.

Her eyelids
heavy, Amanda tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear as she studied
Liam.
 
He had his Air Force cap on
again as he leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and a bottle of cider
dangling from one hand as the evening sun shone in his eyes, lighting his
irises to a maple color that she’d never seen before.

“So,” she
started, narrowing her eyes at the smirk he flashed her the moment she
spoke.
 
“
What?
”

“You’re going to
ask about my parents,” Liam said, laughing when her cheeks flushed.

“I… we just
never finished our conversation at the supermarket.”

“It’s fine.
 
I told you it’s not some traumatic
story.
 
I just find it funny that
you’re so curious.”

Amanda gave a
defensive little shrug.
 
“You saw
Merit and my neighbors and my family.
 
You have an idea of how I grew up.
 
I just want an idea of how you did.”

He nodded but
gave an inquisitive frown.
 
“Why?”

Amanda flashed
him a look.
 
“I don’t mean to shock
you but you’re my boyfriend,” she said.
 
“And sometimes couples like to get to know each other.”
 
Her own mouth formed a smirk as he
shook his head at her, fighting his laughter.
 
“I understand that you might not know that though.”

“Ah, shit, you
went for it.”

“I’m
kidding.
 
I’m sure you got to know
some of your past girlfriends.”

“Not really,
no.”

“Right.
 
Last time I give you the benefit of the
doubt.”

Liam’s lips
twisted up.
 
“So what exactly do
you want to know about my parents, smart ass?”

Amanda
giggled.
 
“I don’t know.
 
Just… what they were like in general
when you were growing up?” she asked, tilting her head curiously, her cheek
resting on the top of her knees.
 
Liam watched as her damp hair tumbled down the front of her shins.
 
He took a long drink of his cider, his
eyes still on her auburn tresses as they blew forward in the wind.

“I grew up in a
single-parent household.
 
One of
those stories.”

“Just Mom?”
Amanda asked.

“Just Dad,” Liam
corrected.
 
He eyed her as her
lashes fluttered for a surprised second.
 
“She left when I was barely two so it was just how I grew up.
 
I don’t have any memory of her, really.
 
The memories I do have might not even
be mine, they might just be details Logan told me growing up that just…
manifested themselves in my head.”

“Like what?”

“She was
tall.
 
Blonde.
 
Cheerful all the time, really
comfortable with everyone, talked a mile a minute.
 
Kind of like Logan.”

“So you were
more like Dad?”

Liam scratched
his capped head as he stared back out into the sun, the corners of his lips
slowly curving up into a big laugh.
 
“I fucking hope not.”

Amanda giggled,
taking a swig of her drink.
 
“Well,
what was he like?”

Liam
shrugged.
 
“Wasn’t home a lot.
 
Worked two jobs.
 
Didn’t get paid a whole lot for
either.”

“Oh,” Amanda
cooed with a frown.

“Spent the rest
of his time at bars, on the prowl.”

She raised her
eyebrows.
 
“
Oh
.”

Liam gave a low
chuckle.
 
“It wasn’t like
that.
 
I mean it kind of was but he
wasn’t looking for one-night stands, he was on the prowl for a wife to help him
raise his kids.”
 
The smirk on
Liam’s face was tinged with incredulousness as he shook his head.
 
“He had no idea what to do with us for
as long as we lived with him.
 
Couldn’t cook, wouldn’t clean, was… fucking awful at helping with
homework,” he laughed.
 
“I remember
him telling me the capital of the U.S was Seattle.”

Amanda burst out
laughing but caught herself.
 
“Sorry,” she grimaced.

“No, you should
laugh.
 
Especially since he still
probably thinks it’s Seattle.”

Amanda cocked
her head, biting back her grin.
 
“Where does he live now?”

“Vermont, still.
 
With his latest wife.
 
Hopefully the last one.”
 
Off Amanda’s reaction, Liam gave a
short laugh despite the lack of a smile on his face.
 
“He married three times while I was in high school.
 
Which is saying something considering I
dropped out at fifteen.”

“
Fifteen?
” Amanda repeated, her head
shooting up and her posture darting straight with surprise.
 
Her cheeks flushed when Liam laughed at
her.
 
“I’m sorry that’s just… earlier
than I would’ve imagined.
 
Why
fifteen?”

“You know what,
before I answer this, tell me what you were like in high school.”

Amanda blinked
at him.
 
“Dear God, no.”

Liam grinned,
taking his cap off and fixing his gaze on her.
 
“Tell me.”

She eyed his
intent look, biting the corner of her lower lip with a wince.
 
“Fine.
 
I was a straight-B student who lived in Megan’s shadow, who
was convinced that the greatest thing about herself was being lucky enough to
be friends with someone so pretty and glamorous.”
 
She peered up at Liam with narrowed eyes, bracing herself
for his smirk but there was none.
 
Twirling a wavy lock around her finger, Amanda looked down at her
feet.
 
“Basically defined myself by
being her best friend.
 
Actually
thought I’d done good for myself by carving out a role as her little lapdog
since at least I got to be near her.
 
I never really thought I could be more than that and the saddest part
was that I didn’t mind.
 
At least
not until she and Brandt… slept with each other and I had no one.
 
That
was what it took for me to realize I didn’t want to be her sidekick
anymore.
 
Which I realize is sad.”

Liam nodded,
silent for a moment.
 
“Better late
than never,” he said.
 
“Timing
makes all the difference.
 
You
wouldn’t be where you are now if you’d realized things earlier.
 
You might not have been in New York,
you might not have had the chance to show the world what you can do.”

Amanda
considered it.
 
“True,” she agreed
quietly.

“Would’ve been
nice for you to to stick up to Megan sooner but it’s not like those years you
spent in her shadow went to waste.
 
You learn from the bad times, the lessons make the good times.”
 
Liam’s lips curved up.
 
“Plus, you needed her to hate me.”

“Very true.
 
Not that I wouldn’t have material to
hate you without her,” Amanda giggled, taking his Air Force cap and plopping it
onto her head.
 
“
Womanizing douchelord.
”

Liam shook his
head with a sneer.
 
“You personally
made that one up, didn’t you?”

“It just sounded
so right.
 
Especially after you
dumped that bikini model for her younger sister.”

Liam immediately
bit his lower lip to suppress what she hoped was a sheepish grin.
 
“Yeah.”
 
He paused.
 
“That was fucked up.”

Amanda’s brows
shot up at his honesty.
 
She
couldn’t help bursting into laughter.
 
“You’re telling me, asshole.
 
What happened there? That was a side of you that I never got the
pleasure of meeting.”

“I’m glad.”

Amanda chewed on
her lip, making a face.
 
“Didn’t
you… feel bad doing that to people?” she asked, immediately self-conscious of
her question the minute it left her lips.
 
It was a fair enough thing to ask but the way she phrased it sounded so
simplified and childish.
 
She
blamed the tequila.

“I recognize
that I should have.”

Amanda stared,
appalled.
 
“But you
didn’t
?”

Liam turned to
her, his shoulders hunched.
 
“I
wasn’t the same person six months ago, Amanda.
 
Were you?” he asked.
 
Amanda felt her lips parting to retort with some sort of rebuttal but
her tongue came up empty.

“I couldn’t have
been more different,” she finally murmured.

Liam nodded, taking
a swig from his bottle.
 
“And
neither could I.”

Amanda felt the
frown between her brows deepen.
 
She blinked her bleary eyes, out of the blue recalling a story she’d
read about Liam a year ago.
 
He had
been vacationing with his stunning then-girlfriend, Alyssa Bernardes, before
dumping her two days into their St. Barts getaway.
 
The night following the abrupt breakup, he was photographed
having drinks with the year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover girl, booking a
new bungalow for them to go back to after their nightcap.
 
After spending the next two days and
nights in that very bungalow with his new fling, Liam had taken a chartered
plane home
with
Alyssa
, who later revealed to The Durt that she’d spent the entire
flight crying in the bathroom while Liam read a script.
 
“How did you even get to be that way?”
Amanda mumbled, mostly to herself.
 
In her past six months with Liam, she hadn’t given much thought to the person
he had been before her.
 
There was
too much else going on and it was easier to take comfort in the fact that he
was obviously a changed man.
 
But
suddenly, in the peace and quiet of their Southern vacation, Amanda finally had
the time to realize and remember.
 
“You were…
horrible
to those
girls.
 
What was wrong with you?”

Liam’s laugh was
clipped, a tad bitter.
 
“A
lot.
 
And trust me, I didn’t
discriminate — I wasn’t the kindest person to anyone around me but the
tabloids were just more inclined to report about my being an asshole if it
involved sex.”

“Am I supposed
to feel better about the fact that you were an asshole to everyone?”

“Amanda.”
 
Liam turned to her with a look both
genuine and annoyed.
 
“I was a
different person.
 
The day I first
emailed you, I was still that person.
 
I didn’t give a shit about anything let alone anyone.
 
All I thought about was my career and
making enough to pay Logan back for fucking his life up.”