Arryn ducked past her brother, but not before getting up on her tiptoes, throwing her arms around his neck, and kissing him on the cheek. “Hi, Reed.”
At that, he chuckled, kissed her on the forehead, and shook his head, rolling his eyes. “Go,” he said with a smile that made Liza’s heart melt just a little more. He really is a good man.
Reed stepped forward. “This is a surprise,” he said. “Are you sure everything’s okay?”
Liza heard the sound of the hair dryer turning on down the hall. “Yeah. I’m sorry to just drop by unannounced.”
“You’re welcome to drop by anytime, Liza,” he said, his expression filled with sincerity.
She let out a breath. “Thanks. Um. I actually had a couple of things to tell you.” She cleared her throat, suddenly nervous.
“Okay,” he said, stepping closer.
“First, it was my brother who broke into my apartment.”
His expression registered shock. “What? How do you know?”
“I drove out to the land where I grew up. It’s . . . it belonged to my grandfather and his father before him. When my father died and my brother went to prison, it went to me.” She waved her hand in the air. “Anyway, I went out there to . . . I don’t know, just to see it, I guess.” To confront some ghosts.
“Your brother was there.”
“Yes.”
“When was this?”
“Yesterday.”
He blew out a breath, running his hand through his hair. “Jesus, Liza, why are you just telling me about this now? And how do you know it was him who broke in?”
She licked her lips, her eyes going behind him for a moment, picturing her brother as he’d looked standing there in the midst of what she’d once considered hell and now just looked like a barren plot of earth. “He told me it was him. And I didn’t tell you yesterday because I don’t want him arrested.”
“You don’t want him arrested? Liza—”
“No, please, Reed. What he did scared me and it was wrong, but I’m not afraid of him. For the first time since that night, I don’t fear Julian. He’s . . . broken.” She didn’t quite know how to put her feelings for her brother into words. All these years she’d thought of him as a monster, maybe even on par with her father. “I don’t want to make excuses for what he did, but I’d also never considered how our upbringing had affected who he was. How it had warped him into a person he wouldn’t have otherwise been.” He was a victim of their father’s abuse too.
“He might be broken, Liza, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be punished for what he did.”
“Maybe.” Maybe not. She didn’t have all the answers, but all she knew was what felt right to her, and what felt wrong. “I don’t know, but I’m not pressing charges, so there’s nothing to be done.”
“I can press charges without you.”
“But you won’t.” Their gazes clashed for a moment and then Reed let out a sigh, breaking eye contact.
Down the hall the sound of the hair dryer stopped. “Do you want to take a walk?” Reed asked. “I don’t have anything in the house and there’s this coffee shop down the street.”
Liza nodded. “Sure. That’d be great.”
Reed smiled as though he’d been expecting her to say no. “Yeah? Okay. Let me just go tell Arryn we’re leaving. And I’m going to text Zach and tell him I’m sending his runaway daughter home.”
Ten minutes later they were stepping outside Reed’s building and walking toward the coffee shop Liza could already see on the corner.
“You said first earlier,” Reed said, glancing at her.
“Huh?”
“When you told me about your brother, you said first. What’s second?”
“Oh.” Liza smiled and then took a deep breath. “Something pretty great happened today, and partly, it was because of you. I came to say thank you.”
“Yeah?” Reed smiled. “I can’t wait to hear about it.” He looked over, caught her eye, his expression going serious. “You deserve great, Liza.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The latte Liza ordered was extra frothy, just the way she liked it. When she brought her cup away from her mouth with a satisfied sigh, Reed smiled and reached over, wiping what must have been a bit of foam off her upper lip.
Liza let out a small embarrassed laugh, following his finger with her own to make sure it was all gone. His finger dropped from her mouth and their eyes locked, the air