have to say about that?”
She kept her expression neutral. “Doesn’t matter. Dad and I don’t talk anymore.”
“Why?” His brow creased.
She shrugged, remembering the night she’d confessed the truth to her father and he hadn’t believe her. “Family stuff is complicated.”
Liam searched her face until she felt like she was under a microscope. “Yes, it is.”
She tried to focus on anything except the man in front of her. It was an impossible task. The man haunted her dreams.
“Why didn’t things with Trey work out?”
Evie just couldn’t explain. She tried to move past him. “Liam, I’m sorry. I have to go.”
He moved with her. “No.”
“What do you mean, no?” She jerked a thumb at her car. “Look, I know you’re famous and you’re here to perform. But I have to get to work.”
His hand rested on the door, preventing her from opening it. “Where do you work?”
She sucked in a breath. “An art gallery.”
“The same gallery you worked in growing up?”
It felt like an insult, even though she knew he hadn’t intended any offense. She should be so much further in life. “Yes.”
Liam looked her up and down, and she wanted to hide. She probably looked like a disaster. She had just thrown her hair back and put on this old swimsuit. She was supposed to read for a bit and enjoy the day off school; she wasn’t supposed to run into the man who she should have married.
“Just tell me why you said no to me. Just …” He backed up. “Why?”
In that one word lay the crux of it all. Unfortunately, it was a crux that would rip her apart. She blinked against the tears forming in her eyes. “Listen,” she said. “I’m so happy for you.” The tightness in her chest subsided at the words. “I really am. I was so excited when you guys broke out, and when I saw the billboard of you guys coming to perform here … You have to know that I am so happy you got your dream, Liam.”
There was quiet between them for a few seconds. “Did you get your dream?”
“Not everyone gets the dream, Liam.” She needed to just run from this man, but it was difficult to resist him when his question was so sincere, so kind, so loving. “Please, let me go. I have to get to work, I need this job.”
“Wait. I don’t understand. What happened? I deserve an explanation.”
“What do you want me to say, Liam? What can I say that will make you feel better?”
Anger darkened his expression, and he clenched his hand into a fist. “I waited for you, wrote to you, Skyped with you for one year, Evie. I came with a ring and I wanted to make you my wife, and you said yes. Then you started crying and said no.” He cursed and ran a hand through his hair. “Why?”
“I guess ‘The First Look’ isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, is it?” She was quoting one of his most popular songs. A song that she knew was about her.
He wagged a finger at her. “Do you think you get to throw that song in my face?”
The desperation in his face made her heart wrench.
“Because I loved you. I loved you and you just—”
“I did love you,” she said, cutting him off. She had to give him that. She knew how he felt. Even though she’d been the one to say no, she had been shattered by it all, too.
He blew out a breath. “Okay, I don’t get it, but I’d like to. Could we go somewhere? Talk?”
“No,” she said quickly. “I can’t be late. I really need the money, and I’m trying to save and get into university, and I—”
“What are you going to the university for?”
She didn’t know why she felt so nervous. “Art.”
“Oh. I thought you would have already gone to school.”
She didn’t want to tell him how much her life had changed when she’d cut her father out of it. It was stupid, but a rush of emotion swept over her. “It took longer to get my dream than I would have thought.”
He nodded but seemed out of sorts.
She maneuvered around him. “Gotta go. And I’m sorry.” Her heart ached as she got in the car. “I really am.”
Chapter 5
Crikey. Wasn’t that what they said in Australia? Liam wasn’t sure, but as he stared at Evie taking off through the parking lot, the need for truth boiled inside of him, just like it had boiled all those years