‘It’s time I was going anyway. But I’ll come and see you again, Bobby, if that’s okay with you?’
Laura gave him another look. She didn’t want Liam and Bobby becoming any closer than they were…!
‘Great!’ Again Bobby gave Liam that toothless grin.
‘Upstairs, young man,’ Laura told her son firmly. ‘While I see Liam to the door.’
Bobby followed them out into the hallway, running up the stairs with all the exuberance of his youth.
‘There doesn’t look too much wrong with him now,’ Liam remarked as he watched Bobby disappear up to his bedroom. ‘What happened?’ he prompted, turning back to her.
‘A fall at school. Nothing’s broken, though, so he should be back at school on Monday.’
‘He’s a fine-looking boy, Laura.’
She swallowed hard, reluctant to look up into the hard handsomeness of Liam’s face. A face that, after seeing the two of them together like this, was so obviously—to her, at least!—a mature version of Bobby’s…
She drew in a deep breath, lifting her head in defiance. ‘I like to think so.’
‘You must be very proud of him.’ Liam gave an acknowledging inclination of his head.
‘Very,’ she confirmed curtly, still uncertain of where this conversation was leading. If Liam had seen Bobby’s likeness to him, guessed that he was actually his son, why didn’t he just say so?
‘Have dinner with me, Laura,’ Liam said instead.
Her eyes widened in alarm. ‘I can’t leave Bobby—’
‘Not tonight,’ Liam interrupted. ‘I realise that at the moment Bobby is your first priority, that for today, at least, he needs all your attention. But tomorrow is Saturday; I’m sure by then he’ll be settled enough for you to leave him with Amy for a few hours. By that time you will probably welcome the break too,’ he added as she would have protested once again.
Laua’s mouth closed with a snap. Since when had Liam become so attuned to another person’s feelings? He was certainly showing more sensitivity than she had ever known from him before.
But did she want to have dinner with him, tomorrow or any other evening?
The answer to that was a definite no! But there was much more at stake than her own feelings…
‘In that case…thank you. Dinner sounds fine,’ she accepted tersely. ‘But could you find somewhere discreet for us to eat? I don’t relish the idea of having reporters leering all over us!’
Liam’s face tightened at this reminder of the reporters waiting outside the house. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll make sure it’s somewhere no one will recognise us.’
Very few people would recognise her anyway—at least, until that photograph of the two of them had appeared in the newspaper today they wouldn’t have done!—but Liam was another proposition altogether. But he had issued the invitation; it was up to him to find the venue.
Not that it was a dinner Laura was particularly looking forward to. She just felt in the circumstances, until she had ascertained exactly how much Liam had guessed about Bobby’s true parentage, that it might be better to meet Liam halfway. Dinner together sounded harmless enough.
Although, as she had discovered only too well this morning, what sounded harmless didn’t always turn out that way. Who would have thought, when Liam had arrived so unexpectedly this morning, that the two of them would end up in each other’s arms before he left again…!
‘It will be a business dinner, Liam,’ she told him firmly.
His brows rose mockingly. ‘Will it?’
‘There’s no other reason for the two of us to meet.’
‘If you say so.’
Laura frowned darkly. ‘Liam—’
‘Your son is waiting upstairs for you to bath him,’ he cut in dryly, reaching out to lightly grasp her shoulders. ‘If mothers are usually right, then little boys shouldn’t be kept waiting!’
She was very aware of the warmth of his hands on her shoulders. ‘How about big boys?’ she teased.
Liam shrugged, his mouth thinning grimly. ‘We’re just as impatient for what we want, but we’ve learnt to hide it better!’
‘And what do you want, Liam?’ she prompted softly.
He grimaced. ‘Like most people, what I apparently can’t have.’ He sighed heavily. ‘Tell me, Laura, do you hate me very much?’
She drew in a shocked breath at his words. Hate him? Of course she didn’t—Well…maybe eight years ago for a while she had, she accepted. But that was so long ago, and her successful marriage to Robert, Bobby’s birth, had more than compensated for that.
‘I have too much in my life that’s good to feel hate towards anyone,’ she answered truthfully.
Liam looked down at her with assessing eyes. ‘Did you love Robert Shipley?’ he ground out harshly.
Her face softened with the remembrance of that love, eyes glittering with unshed tears. ‘Very much,’ she responded.
‘He must have been quite something.’ Liam nodded, his hands dropping away from her shoulders. ‘I would like to know more about him.’
Laura looked up at him warily. ‘Why?’
‘Because you loved him!’ Liam rasped harshly.
‘I see no connection between the two things.’ She shook her head uncomprehendingly. ‘I certainly see no point in the two of us talking about my husband.’
‘No?’ Liam glanced up the stairs. ‘From the little Bobby said about him over breakfast, he obviously adored him too.’
‘Why shouldn’t he have done? He was his father!’
Too defensive, Laura, she instantly rebuked herself with a pained wince. But she couldn’t help it. There was much more to being a father than the mere act of bringing a child into being. And Robert had more than filled all those other roles necessary for being a father.
‘Yes, he was,’ Liam conceded gruffly. ‘I’ll call for you here tomorrow night about eight o’clock, shall I?’
The sudden change of subject threw Laura for a few seconds. Would she ever be able to keep up with this man’s change of moods…?
‘I don’t think that’s a good idea.’ She shook her head. ‘If, as I suspect, there’s going to be more speculation about the two of us in tomorrow’s newspapers, then it would be better if we weren’t seen leaving my home together tomorrow evening.’
‘Good point,’ Liam conceded. ‘Okay, I’ll telephone here tomorrow with the name of the restaurant. If you don’t mind meeting me there…?’
