Chapter 23

W hen Liam let himself into his dad and Maggie's house, Peach immediately ran up to the front door to greet him. She was a fickle thing; sometimes she loved cuddles and company, and other times she hissed at you for so much as looking at her. But she stamped her little paws on Liam's foot, which he took to mean today was a cuddling kind of day.

"Hi, sweet girl," he cooed, reaching down and bundling her into his arms. She cuddled into his chest, rubbing her fluffy little head on his chin. He kissed the top of her head and she leveled him with a warning look. Peach despised the mustache. "My bad. Where's your mom?"

"Meow."

"Helpful. Very helpful. Maggie?"

There was no answer, but he knew she was here: her phone was sitting on the kitchen table, and her water tumbler was sitting open by the sink, as if she'd started to fill it, but something had distracted her. Peach leaped out of his arms and padded along the counter to the tumbler, where she immediately started licking the straw.

Liam grimaced. "How many times have you done that without being spotted? Gross." He lifted her from the counter, rolling his eyes at her protesting hiss.

He wasn't a cat person, but he was excited about finally getting a dog. Thank God dogs didn't jump up on the kitchen counters to lick straws.

Although Liam loved his dad and Maggie together, he couldn't pretend he wasn't relieved that the only children Maggie wanted were four-legged. Having a human sibling almost forty years younger than him would be more than a little strange, especially since he'd been an only child his whole life.

Peach wound around his legs as he checked for Maggie in the living room, before heading upstairs to her office. Although his dad had a rule against working from home, she still had an office in case of emergencies (and Liam knew she snuck in there to work when she couldn't sleep).

Maggie's office door was wide open, with no Maggie to be found, but their bedroom door was closed. Liam knocked, in case she was changing or something.

"Maggie? You in there?"

He heard a muffled curse through the door before Maggie answered. "Yeah?"

"Are you busy?"

"A little. Is it an emergency?"

What kind of question was that ?

"Define emergency," he called back. "Are you going to be long?"

Maggie said something that sounded suspiciously like, "For fuck's sake," before shouting, "I'll be out in a minute."

Sure enough, a moment later, Maggie exited the bedroom, closing the door behind her and adjusting her shirt. Her cheeks were red, her hair tied in a messy knot on top of her head.

"What were you doing?" he asked as she led him down the stairs.

She looked over her shoulder at him and glared. "I was trying to do your dad, but your son having a conversation with your wife while you're inside her is kind of a turn off, wouldn't you say?"

Liam shuddered. That was the last thing he needed to hear after what Jasmine had let slip the night before. "Please don't talk about having sex with my dad."

"Then take a hint and don't interrupt me when I'm having sex with your dad," she hissed under her breath, sounding strangely like Peach. She took a deep breath. "But also, it's nice to see you. I just wish you'd shown up a couple of hours later."

"A couple of hours? Christ. That's still way more information than I need about your sex life."

Maggie shrugged. "I'm sleeping with your dad. You're sleeping with my best friend. It is what it is. Do you want tea, even though it's like three billion degrees out? "

"I'm good. But you know hot drinks actually cool you down in hot weather."

She gave him a skeptical look. "So you say every summer, but I'm going to stick to iced coffee and water, thanks."

"You need to re-wash your straw, by the way. Peach jumped up on the counter and licked it," Liam told her, and Maggie turned to glare at Peach.

"Peach Penelope Michaelson, you know you're not allowed to lick straws." She slumped into a chair, fanning herself, and turned her attention back to Liam. "This is a reoccurring problem. I don't even want to know how many times she hasn't been caught. Anyway, what's up?"

"Is my dad coming down soon?"

"I doubt it. He was running a bath—that we were supposed to take together, thank you very much—and I told him not to let it go to waste."

"Perfect," he said, ignoring the bath part. "I wanted to talk to you about Jazz."

Maggie clapped her hand to her chest. "You're kidding. I would never have guessed, considering you've spoken about literally nothing but Jazz for the past month."

"It's not my fault she's so…" Liam trailed off, gesturing in the air as if a single word to sum up how incredible Jasmine was might magically come to him.

"Eloquent," Maggie replied with a laugh, but she gave him a warm smile. "But seriously, nothing makes me happier than someone finally seeing her for how amazing she is. It's about time. "

Liam knew he and Jasmine didn't technically need Maggie's approval to do whatever it was they were doing. Checking in with her had been the right thing to do initially, but they were all adults. Still, he couldn't deny it felt good, knowing that the most important person in the world to Jasmine was on board with them.

"She is amazing," Liam agreed. "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. She came by the office yesterday and was acting super insecure about my parents. She's convinced they're going to be upset if they find out we're together, like she's not good enough for me or something, and I have no idea how to convince her otherwise."

Maggie's face pinched with concern. "I wish I could say I was surprised, but I'm really not. Jazz does a great job of acting like she's super confident, but it's not real, and she shuts down whenever I try to talk to her about it."

So Jasmine's false confidence hadn't gone entirely unnoticed. But Liam couldn't blame Maggie for not getting through to her; Maggie had been dealing with enough before she started working on herself.

"I've managed to get her to open up a little," he admitted, and Maggie raised her brows, looking impressed. "We still have a lot to work through, but I think it's getting easier for her." Orgasms were a wonderful incentive. "But yesterday I dropped by the office to see if she wanted to grab lunch, and she freaked out a little."

"About grabbing lunch?"

"About my dad potentially finding out we're together. She seems to think my parents wouldn't approve of her being with me, and maybe I'm not objective enough considering I've only ever had amazing parents, but you know them: they'd be fine with it, right?"

"Of course. Cal loves Jazz and so do your moms. Do you have any idea how many times your dad has mentioned that he thinks you'd be a good couple? I had to stop him from matchmaking last Christmas."

Liam blinked in surprise. "Seriously?" Maggie nodded with the fond smile he had learned was reserved for thoughts of his dad. "Shit. I'm guessing you've never mentioned that to Jazz? Because that'd probably solve a lot of her anxiety."

"I didn't want to meddle. Jazz can be… flighty. She's never been in a serious relationship, and it's not for lack of trying from her past partners. I've seen people tripping over themselves trying to show her how much they cared, and I genuinely don't think she noticed a single one of them." That was the opposite of what Jasmine had said, but Liam didn't find it hard to believe that she truly thought no one had wanted her wholly.

"I think it would help if you talked to her about this. We're working through things, and it's going well, but I think she's going to need more than me telling her shit to believe it. And you're her person."

"I'll talk to her," Maggie promised. "Speaking of talking, is there any chance you can convince her to get a new OBGYN for a second opinion?"

"About her periods? Yeah, I've been thinking about that. She shouldn't be in that much pain. "

"Right? That and the orgasm thing. A decade of trying with no results can't be good, especially now that she's told you and you're actively working on it."

Liam tilted his head, confused. "She didn't tell you? We figured that out."

Maggie's jaw dropped. "Seriously? That's amazing. When did that happen? She didn't mention anything."

"Last Saturday, once she was feeling better," Liam explained, and Maggie's brows knit together. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just… I spoke to her on Sunday morning, after she'd been to yoga. I actually asked her if you were any closer and she said no. Why would she lie about that?"

Shit . Guilt toiled in Liam's stomach. Had Jasmine not wanted her to know for some reason? He'd half expected her to roll over when they were finished and call Maggie immediately, if he was being honest. There must be something wrong if she hadn't told her at all. Liam filed it away, something for them to talk about later. "Maybe she wanted to tell you in person," he reasoned, but Maggie looked no less concerned.

"I've seen her like three times since then. Weird. I'll try to grab her for lunch tomorrow."

"Thanks," Liam said, relieved. "And maybe we could all do dinner with my moms this weekend or something? I don't want her to feel uncomfortable around them and my dad."

"That sounds good. Hey, earlier, when you were talking about Jazz being worried about your parents finding out, you said together ," Maggie said, with a weighted expression. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"It's… complicated," he admitted, drumming his fingertips on the dark wood table. "It's definitely more than sex for both of us. We just haven't talked about it."

"You mean aside from when she accidentally said she loved you while she was sick and you said no take backs?"

At least she was telling Maggie some things . "You can't deny that's going to be a cute story to tell our grandkids someday." Sure, it hadn't been a real I love you , but it definitely implied that she saw him as more than a friend she was sleeping with.

Maggie laughed, rolling her eyes. "True. What's your plan? As a fellow woman with more baggage than an airport who has been wooed by a very charming, if a little intense, Michaelson man, I'm going to suggest you take it slow."

"Only a little intense? Wow, we really need to do better than that. But yeah, slow is the plan. We went on a date on Sunday."

Maggie sat forward, her hands flat on the table. "Are you kidding me? Fair enough keeping her sex life to herself, considering you're my… you know, but she didn't tell me you went on a date?"

"In her defense, I didn't tell her it was a date," Liam added quickly, and Maggie narrowed her eyes at him.

"Oh. That's… unconventional. But this is Jazz we're talking about, so it makes sense, I suppose. Was it a good fi rst date, at least?"

Liam couldn't stop a smile from spreading over his face. "The best."

Maggie reached across the table and squeezed his hand. "You look really happy, Liam. And I'm happy for you, but be careful. Please. You're two of the three most important people in the world to me and I just… Please be careful."

"I will. We will, I promise."

Maggie nodded, looking reassured, and stood up. "This was a lot. I need coffee. So, tell me all about this date," she said, grabbing two glasses from the cabinet. "But for the love of God, leave out the dirty parts. I can just about handle hearing them from Jazz."