I woke up the next morning to the soft sound of a light sleet falling against the window of my room. It was chilly, so I scooted in even closer to Liam and pulled the blanket up to my chin.
"Good morning," I yawned.
"Good morning," he replied, kissing me on the cheek, "Sleep well?"
"Yeah," I smiled, "I always do with you."
"You were snoring, I assumed you were sleeping pretty well," he grinned, sitting up against the wall.
"I was not," I laughed, sitting up next to him.
"You were," he grinned, pressing his forehead against mine.
"Your lips are so close to mine right now," I said softly.
"I noticed," he smiled.
"You haven't kissed me since Tuesday night," I said.
"Oh I know," he grinned, "I thought we were toning it down in front of your family."
"Well we aren't with my family now," I said.
"I noticed," he said right before his lips were finally all over mine again.
I thought maybe after the newness wore off after the first few times he kissed me that it wouldn't feel the same. But boy was I wrong, every time he kissed me I felt the same crazy heat, the spark anytime his lips touched mine. I had gotten way too used to being able to pull him in and kiss him whenever I wanted in the last few weeks.
"Damn I missed this," I breathed.
"It's only been two days," he laughed softly.
"Two days too many," I said as he kissed my cheek.
"Damn right," he grinned, his right hand tangled in my hair already as his left arm snaked around my waist.
"We need to stop," I breathed as his hand traveled from my waist and up my shirt, "The girls are downstairs and I really don't want to get caught," I laughed.
"They're probably asleep," he said into my ear, "And I know I can be quiet, it's you that can't keep it down."
"Oh really?" I laughed as his voice in my ear made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end and tingles run down my spine.
"Really," he smirked, "I say we find out."
"Sounds good," I grinned as he pulled me onto his lap.
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"I'm going to hell," I remarked as I laid there and stared at the ceiling, "I'm going to hell and there's nothing I can do about it."
"You're not going to hell," Liam laughed.
"I'm lying here naked with you in my room with my sisters downstairs, I'm going to hell," I laughed.
"Then I'm going too," he laughed, "Because I've twice as many stupid things as you have."
"That's probably true," I grinned, "But we should probably get dressed because Janie and Josie will be up any minute now and I do not want to have to explain what just went on," I laughed.
"Yeah I don't think your mom would be too happy with me after that," he laughed.
"I don't think so," I remarked, rolling my eyes as I sat up in bed and leaned over to grab my clothes off the floor.
"You any good at cooking?" he asked as I threw my hair on top of my head and he threw his shirt back on.
"Occasionally," I replied.
"You should make breakfast," he said.
"You think?" I laughed.
"I do," he grinned, grabbing my waist and pulling me in for a kiss.
"I'll think about it," I said as he pulled away.
"Do I need to persuade you?" he smirked.
"While I would love nothing more than for you to persuade me, again," I laughed as he kissed me again, "We need to stop and go downstairs because I hear the girls moving in their rooms."
"If you say so," he sighed, his hand still in mine as we walked downstairs.
"Janie! Josie! Want chocolate chip pancakes?" I yelled as we walked through the hallway.
"Yeah!" they exclaimed as I heard their little feet hit the floor and run to the door and into the hallway.
"Let's go get the stuff out then!" I laughed as they raced down the stairs.
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"Damn it," I hissed as I dropped the pan full of boiling pudding mix onto the kitchen floor.
I really didn't like cooking more than once in a day but Janie and Josie were pretty hard to say no to when they asked for something and they'd talked me into making them pudding to go with their lunch later in the afternoon. The kind I could just pulled out of the pantry, of course, wasn't good enough, so they talked me into making the kind that you cook and then put in the fridge. Like I said, they were hard to say no to.
"Burn yourself?" Liam asked, standing a few feet away with both our plates in his hands.
"Yeah," I said, cringing as I tried to wipe it off with a dish rag, only to have it make it worse.
"Let's run water on this," he said, stepping over the mess on the floor and taking my by the non-burned hand to the sink where he turned on the cold water.
"Are the girls still in the living room?" I asked, teeth clenched.
"Yeah, why?" he asked.
"Because this hurts like a motherfucker and I can't say that in front of them," I replied.
"You'll be fine," he laughed, turning the water off and grabbing a soft dish towel from the counter and patting my hand dry.
"Are you okay Livvy?" Josie asked as she walked into the kitchen.
"I got some hot stuff on my hand, I'll be fine," I smiled, "Stay out of the kitchen though please, it got on the floor and I haven't cleaned it up."
"Okay," she said, setting her plate on the table and scurrying back to wherever Janie had ended up.
"Looks like it's pretty red," Liam said, taking the towel away.
"Can you leave that on there? It hurts when the air gets to it," I cringed, reaching for the towel with my other hand.
"Alright, is there a first aid kit around here?" he asked.
"Under the bathroom sink," I replied.
"Let's go find it then," he remarked, still holding the damp towel on my hand as he led me to the bathroom.
"Middle of the cabinet," I remarked as he turned to the cabinet in the bathroom.
"Here we go," he said, grabbing the first aid kit, "Sit down and I'll put some burn stuff and a bandage on it."
"That hurts," I groaned as he gently rubbed the burn cream on my hand and wrist.
"I know," he laughed, grabbing the pieces of gauze from their packages, "You're going to have to unclench your fist for me to get this bandage around your whole hand."
"Sorry," I laughed as he unrolled a piece of cloth.
"Is that the whole burn?" he asked moments later after wrapping my hand up.
"Yeah," I said as he reached down and grabbed a piece of tape and taped up the cloth.
"I can put gauze over it and it won't rip," he remarked, rummaging through the box.
"Okay," I said as he grabbed the roll of gauze and carefully took my hand in his once again.
He was so careful, so focused as he sat there on his knees on the bathroom floor, making sure he was careful not to irritate my skin even more, his green eyes focused like I'd never seen them before.
"There you go," he smiled, patting my hand.
"Thanks," I smiled, putting my other hand over top of his.
"Is this going where I think it's going?" he smirked, leaning in toward me.
"Depends on how far you think this is going," I laughed, my forehead pressed against his.
"We're back kids!" Mom yelled as I heard the garage door open.
"Damn it," I laughed, letting go of his hand and getting up and walking into the kitchen.
"Momma, Livvy burned herself," Josie remarked as she came into the kitchen.
"What happened?" Mom asked as Liam and I walked into the kitchen.
"I was making pudding and it got all over my hand after I took it off the burner," I replied, "I'm fine, Liam put a bandage on it but the pudding is ruined."
"That's okay," Josie said, running over and hugging my legs, "We can have sandwiches and Little Debbie's."
"Sounds good," I laughed, picking her up and setting her on my hip, "But I think I'm going to need your help."
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A few hours later, the girls and Liam and I were on the floor coloring watching Disney movies, I was dreading having to make the announcement that we were going to have to leave to go back to Aladine fairly soon.
He was so good with the girls, so attentive and caring. I never thought he had a side as "soft" as he did but it made me love him even more than I was starting to think I did. If he hadn't told me a few days before that he was an only child I would've been convinced that he had younger siblings, or at least nieces or nephews. I only knew what he told me about his family, he didn't have much on social media and neither of his parents were on Facebook or anything. He had told me about them, I'd been in the car with him when he was on the phone with his mom a few times and she'd told him she wanted to meet me the next game they came to when he called her on the way to my parents' house a few days prior.
"You should color her hair pink," Josie said to Liam, handing him the coloring book and the pink crayon.
"You think?" he asked.
"Yeah," she replied.
"Okay," he said, taking the crayon from her tiny hands and coloring in the princess' hair, "Is that good?"
"Yeah," she smiled, taking the coloring book and crayon back.
"Hey Liam, it's three," I remarked, checking the time on my phone.
"Oh man," he said to Josie and Janie, "Livvy and I need to go."
"Why?" Josie asked, putting her book down.
"Yeah, I don't want you to go," Janie pouted, running over to Liam as she and Josie bombarded him.
"I feel so loved," I laughed.
"I have to go to practice," he said as they sat down on his lap, "And Livvy has practice after that."
"Will you come back?" Josie asked, her big brown eyes looking up at Liam.
"I can't," he sighed, "Livvy and I have to go back to school on Monday."
"That's dumb," Janie pouted.
"Girls remember Livvy has a game on her birthday so we're going to go see her on Friday," Mom remarked.
"Then it looks like you'll see us then," Liam smiled.
"Okay," Josie sighed.
"Can I go get my bag then so I can go?" he laughed.
"Fine," they sighed, getting off of his lap and going back to their coloring.
He followed me back upstairs and went into the guest room to make sure he had all his stuff packed away.
"Shit," I remarked as I packed the last of my stuff.
"What?" he asked, standing in the doorway.
"I didn't even think to wash the sheets," I groaned, "Damn it."
"Just change them and stash the other ones in the closet or something," he laughed.
"Help me out here," I hissed, yanking the sheet off of my bed and bunching them up in a ball.
"Where are clean ones?" he asked.
"Here," I said, stuffing the wadded up sheets in my closet and grabbing clean ones and tossing them to him.
"See, no big deal," he said, putting the sheets on for me.
"Unless my mom goes in the closet," I remarked.
"She won't," he laughed, "Are you ready to go?"
"Yeah," I replied, grabbing my bags.
"Oh no you don't," he laughed, taking them from my hands, "I've got it."
"You're such a polite asshole," I laughed as we walked out of my room.
"I try," he smirked.
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***