“Oh.” She twisted to face him and crossed her arms, like she was suddenly cold. “Not fond of prevarication, huh?”
“No, but I do love big words.”
He waggled his brows until a weak smile quivered on her mouth.
“You’re saying I can lie as long as I do it with four-syllable words?”
“To be honest, lying with big words is probably the worst,” Liam replied. “That’s what the doctors did after the accident. They kept saying I had a good chance of regaining the use of my legs.”
“Maybe instead of lying, they were being optimistic.”
“Call it what you want, but they weren’t being truthful.” The emotional weight of the memories swept back over him. “I’m pretty sure it was all because of Dad. He couldn’t face his son becoming a cripple. No one wanted the responsibility of breaking the bad news to him, so they all pretended it was a temporary condition. If my sister hadn’t gone into bulldog mode and forced the doctors to state the true odds of recovery, I might still be stuck in limbo, hoping my spinal cord would miraculously heal.”
“Could they have been trying to protect you?” Her shoulders scrunched. “Like they thought the truth would hurt you?”
Why was she defending them?
“I promise, everyone was protecting themselves, not me. Yes, the truth would hurt. But I still had the right to know it. I needed to deal with the anger and loss and move on, not waste my time with false hopes of something that could never be.”
“You’re right,” she whispered, like she was confessing a murder. “They led you on, didn’t they? I don’t blame you for hating everyone who lied to you.”
“I never said I hated them.” He tilted his head and squinted at Carly, as if he could understand her better from a different angle.
“You said you couldn’t forgive a lie, though. At least, you implied it.”
“I can forgive anything, Carly. Even a lie. Some things are just harder to forgive… like the night I encouraged my best friend to drive drunk. Forgiving myself was the hardest.”
She nodded solemnly. “But some people hurt you so much that they aren’t worth the effort it would take to forgive them, right?”
Liam considered the ongoing hurtful attitude of his father. If anyone qualified for that category, it would be him. “Sometimes I feel that way. But the truth is, unforgiveness poisons the person who carries the grudge. If you can, it’s better to forgive and then put up a healthy boundary to protect you from the person who hurt you. I try to avoid them as much as possible.”
For some reason, Liam’s explanation made Carly look upset. Maybe someone had hurt her badly. It seemed like a hug might make her feel better.
Liam edged closer, prepared to open his arms, but she scooted backwards, toward the door.
“A boundary. That makes sense. That’s a good solution.” She tucked her hair behind her ear. “G’night, Liam. I’ll see you tomorrow before I leave.”
“Wait.” He could imagine her hiding in her room until the roads were cleared. He couldn’t give up without a fight. “Want to work out with us again in the morning?”
“Sure. I’ll be there.” Her heavy sigh was almost a moan. She muttered something about “you’re going to pay for this,” in an irritated voice as she pushed her door open.
Now he felt guilty for asking her.
“Don’t feel pressured to go,” Liam said. “Bran and I won’t judge you if you’d rather sleep in.”
She squinted at him. “Are you withdrawing the invitation?”
“No. Of course not. But why are you going if you’d rather not?”
“Let’s just say I find it impossible to say no to you.” She gazed up at the ceiling.
“You can’t say no to me?” He flashed her a saucy grin. “In that case, I can think of a few other things I’d like to ask you.”
Her lips rolled in over her teeth, and she bit down, but couldn’t hide her amusement. “Correction… it’s almost impossible to say no to you. There are a few exceptions.”
“What about snowmobiling? Want to go with me tomorrow? Or is that one of those exceptions?”
She sighed again.
“Yes, I’ll go snowmobiling.” Slipping inside the door, she closed it partway, only her face peeking out. “Now, I’m going to bed before you can give me any more invitations.”
The door clicked shut. But Liam wasn’t ready to throw in the towel. Here and there, Carly had given him glimpses of genuine emotion. Maybe there was still hope.
What was the awful mistake that she was so afraid to reveal? He couldn’t imagine Carly doing something so terrible that he would despise her for it.
Then again, I never dreamed my own father would say the most hurtful words of my life.
CHAPTER 15
CARLY
With her insides scrambled like they’d been through a blender, Carly could only think of one way to calm herself. She called Nora.
She answered on the first ring. “Hey, roomie. You’ll be jealous to know I’m currently chowing down on a Tiki Taco.”
It was their favorite food truck. “Yum. Eat a spicy salmon roll-up for me. Although I can’t complain—every meal has been great since I got here. The chef is amazing. And Bran cooked our lunch himself. Shrimp scampi. It was fantastic.”
“He cooked? I thought you said Branson Knight was blind.”
“He is. But that doesn’t slow him down. He does anything he sets his mind to. Pretty much like Liam does.”
