Chapter 14

F or the hundredth time since they'd left Seattle, Liam glanced to his right to check on Jasmine. He'd never known her to be so quiet. They were ten minutes out from the restaurant where they were meeting her family, and she'd spent the entire drive staring out the window and fidgeting. It was unnerving.

He'd watched her gradually getting more subdued as the day had gone on. She'd been her usual chaotic self when they'd woken up—if a little more tired after their mind-blowing night. She'd tortured him by doing a virtual yoga class—naked, since she didn't have any workout clothes at his place—and they'd listened to an audiobook together while he made pancakes for breakfast. But by lunchtime, when they headed to her place so she could get ready, her spark had fizzled into a nervous energy.

"Are you okay?" he asked, and she jumped, as if she'd forgotten she wasn't alone.

"Shit, sorry. Yeah, I'm fine. I just feel a little out of it. And I'd rather be doing literally anything else."

"Just a couple of hours and then we'll think of excuses to put them off for the next few months," he promised, reaching across the center console to squeeze her knee. When he pulled it back, she stopped him, clinging to him. He'd never regretted having a manual drive more. He could hold her hand until he had to shift gear, at least.

"Any last-minute advice on impressing your parents?" he asked, and Jasmine snorted.

Her voice was flat when she replied, and Liam hated it. "Don't bother trying. Seriously. I gave up when I was twenty and they chewed me out for refusing to double-major. I've been a hell of a lot happier since."

Something about that niggled at Liam's mind, and he filed it away to figure out later. He was doing a shit job of calming Jasmine as it was. Needling her further was a terrible idea.

"What's with the dress?" he asked instead, and Jasmine frowned down at herself. "You look amazing," he added quickly. "It's just black. You always wear bright colors. I don't think I've ever actually seen you in black—well, except for the wedding, I guess."

The dress in question was beautiful. Knee length black linen with a ruffled hem. She looked gorgeous, as always, but wholly unlike herself.

"I call it Jazz Lite ," Jasmine said with a bitter laugh. "It's how I dress when I need to see my parents, so they can't fuck with my confidence by trashing the clothes that actually feel like me. "

Well, that was devastating. And not exactly the subject change he was hoping for. Liam pulled his hand away from Jasmine's so he could turn into the restaurant parking lot, fighting to keep his face neutral. Jasmine was the last person he expected to struggle with shit like this. She always seemed so sure of herself. The thought of anyone making her feel otherwise…

"What?" she asked. Great. Not only was he doing a terrible job of keeping her calm, he apparently couldn't keep his confusion off his face, either.

"I'm just surprised. You're like the most self-assured person I know. I can't imagine anything shaking your sense of self."

"A little false confidence goes a long way," she replied with a wry smile. "And I have a lot of false confidence. Unearned, I might add. Fake it till you make it, right?"

"I believe we have a rule about that," he pointed out, because if he didn't make a joke about it, he was going to turn his Volvo around and head right back to Seattle. How the hell was he supposed to sit through dinner with the people who had made her feel like this? Meeting Maggie's parents had been bad enough.

Jasmine rolled her eyes at the reminder, but she seemed a little brighter, at least. It was something. He released his seatbelt, and brought her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to her palm. "It's just dinner, and I'll be right here the whole time. You've got this."

She sucked in a heavy breath. "Yeah. It's just a couple of hours. We can manage that. "

"Exactly. Rule number three: we're in this together."

A soft smile fell over Jasmine's face, but it was quickly replaced by a cheeky grin. "Did you get that one from a Hallmark card?"

She scrambled from the car before he could answer. He caught her as she rounded the car and swatted her lightly on the ass. "Brat," he murmured in her ear, before kissing her on the cheek and pulling her into his side, ready to face her parents.

" I finished in the top ten of my half marathon last week." Jasmine's little sister, Rose, beamed proudly at her parents.

"Where in the top ten?"

Rose's smile slipped a little at her dad's unimpressed question. "Eighth. But I beat my best time by fifty-eight seconds, so I know I can do better next time."

Liam felt Jasmine tense beside him as her parents turned away from her sister. The light in Rose's hazel eyes dimmed. She took a deep breath before setting her jaw and looking up like nothing had happened.

Rose, twenty-five, was the carbon copy of their mom—honey blond and lithe, with sharp hazel eyes, and a heart-shaped face. Xander was thirty-six and favored their dad, with darker hair, blue-grey eyes, a square jaw, and a stocky build. Jasmine fell somewhere in the middle, but the thing that struck Liam most about the Cannon siblings was how tense they all were.

"Your turn, Xan," Jasmine's mom said, clasping her hands on the table in front of her. Jesus. They hadn't even had their entrees yet.

Xander cleared his throat, and Liam wondered if his parents clocked his knee bouncing below the table. "I closed the deal with that East Coast hotel chain I was telling you about. Eight figures."

"Excellent work as always," their dad said, lifting his glass in cheers. Liam wasn't entirely sure what Jasmine's dad's company did, but it had something to do with lumber. Mr. Cannon turned to his middle daughter and sighed. "Anything to share this month, Jazz?"

"Hmm. I did get a parking spot in front of the bank for the first time ever last week, so that was pretty cool."

"On Fifth Avenue?" Liam asked, and she nodded, her eyes twinkling. "Damn. That's very impressive," he told her family, who were frowning at them.

"Isn't that street a no-parking zone?" Xander asked.

"Well, I didn't get a ticket, so I guess that's two achievements." Her family didn't look impressed. "What about you, baby?"

Ah. His turn. He was prepared for this. "I hit my reading goal for the year last week—eighty books."

"But it's only July," Rose protested. "If you already hit your goal, why not make it a bigger goal?"

"I read and set the goal for fun. It's not that serious." Liam shrugged, doing nothing to clear up the confusion on Rose's face .

"But the point of goals is to push yourself to do better. If you already hit the goal, you can do better than that."

Jasmine sighed. "God, Rosie, pull your stethoscope out of your a?—"

"Anyway," Liam interrupted, cutting Jasmine off while fighting the laugh that was bubbling up. "I up my goal every year. Just for fun."

"Reading is a great hobby," Jazz's mom said after glaring at her middle child.

"It is," Mr. Cannon agreed. "And if you're reading that much, you must be learning a lot."

"Oh, absolutely. I love… learning." Liam had quizzed his moms on some of their recent favorite reads, so he would have an answer if Jasmine's family asked what he read, but if they wanted to assume he read non-fiction, that was fine with him.

"You could take a leaf out of Liam's book, Jazz. When was the last time you read a book?"

Jasmine gave her parents a saccharine smile. "Actually, Liam and I have been reading a lot together lately. And he generously shares everything he learns."

"I didn't need to hear that," Xander muttered under his breath, quiet enough that his parents, across the table, didn't hear, but Liam and Jasmine did.

Jasmine glared at her brother. "You follow him on Instagram too?" Liam posted the books he read significantly less than his dad did, but he still shared the odd book recommendation, and most of his pictures featured a Kindle or a book somewhere in the background.

"I only followed him after Dad told me you were dating," Xander protested. Shit, Liam hadn't even noticed.

"Maybe if you spent a little less time on Instagram and more time touching grass, you'd be less of a pain in my ass," Jasmine grumbled, and her brother actually looked a little chastised.

"I'm sorry, okay? I didn't realize they would make you come to dinner. My lips are sealed from now on."

Jasmine sighed but didn't complain further, leaning into Liam as their entrees were served.

The conversation turned to work as Mr. Cannon and Xander spoke about a colleague while they ate. Liam tuned them out, focusing on his own dinner and Jasmine. She was pushing her pasta around with her fork, but not eating it.

"You okay, darling?"

She swallowed, wincing. "Hmm? Oh, yeah. I just don't feel a hundred percent."

It could be the stress of the night making her feel out of it, but her cheeks were paler than usual. Liam held the back of his hand to her forehead and frowned. "You are a little warm. Do you want to try my soup instead?"

She shook her head, leaning into his hand as if she liked how cool it was against her warm skin. "No, thank you. I'm still getting dessert, though. I need chocolate."

"The cannoli?" he asked with a knowing smile. He'd seen the way her eyes had lit up upon spotting them on the menu.

"God yes. I can't wait."

And she shouldn't have to, as far as Liam was concerned. "Excuse me." The server passing by stopped and gave him an expectant smile. "Could we please get a rush order of the chocolate cannoli?"

"Absolutely, sir. I'll get those to you as soon as possible."

"Thank you."

"You didn't have to do that. I was joking when I said I couldn't wait," Jasmine said. Liam tucked a hand behind her, and she sighed as he rubbed her back.

"If you want chocolate, you're getting chocolate. I've got you."

She pressed a kiss to his shoulder. "Thank you."

Jasmine's dad cleared his throat, and Liam forced himself to look away from Jasmine. "I assume you two met through Maggie, but how did this happen?" He waved a dismissive hand between them.

"Oh yes, do tell. I have to say, Liam, I was very surprised to hear Jazz speak about you. She's never been serious enough with anyone to want to introduce them to us before," Mrs. Cannon added, as if she hadn't practically forced Jasmine to introduce them. "Not to mention, she's never told us she was in love with anyone, either."

Jasmine tensed. I might have made it sound like things were really serious between us , she'd said. That explained that.

"There's not much to tell," Jasmine said, setting her fork down. "We've known each other since Maggie and Cal got together, and we started dating after their wedding."

"Maybe let the romance reader tell the story in the future. That was pitiful," Xander said with a snort, and Jasmine elbowed him.

"There's got to be more to it than that," Jasmine's mom said.

"I met Jazz when I went to visit my dad at work," Liam began, and they all withdrew their attention from Jasmine. "I knew there was something wrong with my dad, and was hoping to speak to Maggie to see if she knew what was going on, but she wasn't there. I had no idea she and my dad had been seeing each other, or that she'd quit her job. But, after a little convincing, Jazz spilled the beans. And, well, I was pretty enamored with her from the moment I laid eyes on her. I was obviously pretty shocked that my dad was in love with someone younger than me, but all I could think about was Jazz."

Jasmine was looking up at him with curious eyes, as if wondering how much of what he was saying was true.

"Pursuing anything seemed like a bad idea, since Jazz and Maggie are best friends, but we ended up spending a lot of time together in the lead up to the wedding and when it was over, I realized I didn't want to stop spending time with her. So when the opportunity came up to see each other more, and see what became of it, I jumped at the chance. With Maggie's blessing, of course," he added as an afterthought.

"It took us a little while to figure it out, but I couldn't be happier that we did," he finished. It was the most honest he'd been with Jasmine about his feelings, hidden behind the veil of faking it for her parents. But it felt good to get his feelings out there. And the way Jasmine was looking at him, wide-eyed and a little stunned, he could only hope she was catching up.

"Well, it's nice to see Jazz finally putting some effort into something, at least."

Hurt flashed through Jasmine's eyes, and he watched her closing up as her dad's words sank in. Fuck it. Liam had been more than patient with these assholes.

He turned to Jasmine's parents and leveled them with the smile he'd learned watching his dad take people down in court. "I understand you're Jazz's parents and think that gives you free rein to treat her, and your other children, however you like. I'm not here to debate your God awful parenting skills, but I've been sitting here all night listening to you saying rude things about the woman I care more about than anything in the world, and I think it would be best for all of us if you cut that out going forward."

Four pairs of eyes, ranging from shock to indignation (her parents) and impressed (her siblings), bore into him, but Liam only gave a shit what Jasmine thought. And she was looking at him like he'd just handed her the world on a platter.

"I have an order of chocolate cannoli?"

They all turned to the server standing awkwardly at the foot of the table.

"Perfect," Liam said. He lifted Jasmine's barely touched pasta plate and set it aside. "Just here, please."

The server placed the cannoli in front of Jasmine and scurried away with a deep breath.

Ignoring the stunned silence around the table, Liam leaned in and pressed a kiss to Jasmine's warm, flushed cheek. "Eat up, darling."

J asmine was quiet on the walk back to the car, leaning on Liam like she needed him to hold her up.

"You want to talk about how terrible your parents are?" he asked, already sure he knew the answer.

Jasmine shook her head, laughing softly. "Definitely not. Even if I didn't feel like death warmed up, what's the point?"

Concerned, Liam ran his eyes over her. She looked exhausted, her skin even more pale than it had been when she'd first mentioned feeling unwell. "What feels wrong?"

"Everything," she replied with a groan. "My head hurts, and my whole body aches. Can I come home with you tonight? I need a good sleep, and I always sleep well with you," she asked almost shyly, as if he could ever say no.

"Of course you can. I wasn't going to give you a choice, actually. I want to keep an eye on you."

He helped her into the car and grabbed her a water bottle from the trunk. She was burning up when he kissed her forehead, and Liam was ninety-nine percent sure she was coming down with something. As he climbed into the driver's seat, he ran through a mental checklist to make sure he had everything he might need to help at home: cold medicine, Tylenol, electrolytes, a small stockpile of tissues because he couldn't pass up a deal at Costco. Hopefully he had everything she might need. Anything else, he could probably rope Maggie or his parents into picking up for him so he wouldn't have to leave her.

Jasmine leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes, and Liam thought she'd fallen asleep until he pulled onto the I-5 and she spoke up.

"Liam?" She sounded sleepy enough that he wasn't entirely convinced she was awake.

"Yeah, darling?"

"What you told my family about how you felt about me, about us, how much of that was true?"

Liam hesitated for a moment. He didn't want to scare her off. They hadn't exactly talked about their feelings. They hadn't even discussed what came after their arrangement. But he couldn't bring himself to lie to her. Not about that.

"All of it," he replied honestly and Jasmine sucked in a breath.

"All of it?"

"All of it was true," he confirmed. She was still for a moment, and he almost opened his mouth to apologize, to take it back. But then she reached across the car and set her hand on top of his on the gearshift.

"Good."