Free Off the Hook by Laura Drewry Page A

eyes, blinking at him expectantly, made him laugh again, this time with a curse thrown Finn’s way.
    “I really am sorry,” he said, letting the laugh die on his tongue. “Playing ball is who I am, it’s what I do, and I needed to give everything I had to that. Hell, I still do. So it didn’t matter what you or anyone else wanted; I couldn’t change who I was, no matter what. I still think I did the right thing focusing on my career, but I should’ve had the balls to talk to you before taking off. You deserved at least that.”
    “At least.” She snorted, but instead of it being filled with animosity, as he expected, there was a quiet softness to it. “Thank you. I’ve waited a long time for you to say that, but I guess if we’re going to be honest with each other, then the truth is, you probably did me a favor.”
    Liam’s ears perked up. “How’s that?”
    “I didn’t actually realize it until last night when I was lying in bed.” She fired the nail gun into the next shingle, then straightened. “You, my friend, were my last big mistake. Before you, I’d been living my whole life jumping from one bad decision to another, and when I woke up that morning and realized you’d gone, I had no idea what I was going to do. I mean, I’d done some stupid things before that, and I’ve done a few since, but that—that was something else.”

    “Wasn’t all your fault,” he said, offering her a small, wry grin. “I might have had something to do with the stupidity that time.”
    “Yeah, but you had something to go back to after you left Vegas. I didn’t even have a job, remember?”
    Yeah, he remembered. “What did you do?”
    “I did what I had to.” She said it so matter-of-factly, but watching her blink fast like that, Liam knew it couldn’t have been easy. “Found a couple jobs, got my GED, then begged and pleaded my way into an entry-level position with the Foster Group. Worked during the day and took classes at night until I earned an arts degree in hotel management, which might just come in handy here.”
    “You’ve been busy,” he said, knowing he sounded stupid. “That’s great, Kate. Really.”
    “Thanks. And if you hadn’t gutted me the way you did, none of that would have happened.”
    “Uh…” Liam laughed hesitantly. “You’re welcome?”
    Something in Liam’s gut warmed. He might not have known everything about her back in Vegas, but he’d figured out pretty quickly that it wasn’t a lack of smarts that made her quit school; it was a lack of confidence. She seemed to have found some now, which she proved when she shot him a playful wink.

    “And one day soon,” she said, “that degree you helped me get is going to be hanging on the wall in the Buoys office, and the only way you’re going to get out on one of my boats is if you pay me for it. And you, my dear ex-husband, are going to pay dearly.”
    “Oh, really?” he choked. “That’s how it’s going to be?”
    “Yup, that’s how it’s going to be.” She was still smiling, but there was a whole lot of her newfound confidence behind it. “So put your back into it, Sporto, because I want this place in tip-top shape when I take over.”
    For a few seconds, Liam stood there grinning at her, enjoying the way her cheeks pinked up like that when she smiled at him. That was exactly how she’d smiled at him in Vegas—a little teasing, a little shy, and a whole lot sexy.
    It was impossible for him to look at anything else when she smiled like that. It was—
    “Hey!” Finn bellowed. “We’re burning daylight here, so would you just kiss and make up already so you can get back to work?”
    Fighting a laugh, Liam didn’t even turn to look at Finn; he kept his gaze fixed on Kate as he shook his head slowly and lifted his middle finger high in the air for both Finn and Jessie to see.

Chapter 4
In baseball, I was always in control of everything until I let the ball go.
—Curt Schilling
    Kate had to give Liam