Five months after leaving Atlanta

“Mr. Packham?”

Liam cracked open his eyes and groaned as the bright morning sunlight hit his face. His hotel room’s biggest flaw was that the windows were too big, and they made post-pub mornings unpleasant.

To be fair, nearly all of his mornings were post-pub mornings these days.

“What?” he growled. “Didn’t I ask you to close the fucking blinds in here when I stay out late?”

His nervous brunette assistant peered at him, looking vaguely frightened.

“Not that I recall, sir.”

“Well, don’t you think you should learn to anticipate these things, Clara?” he said, pulling a pillow over his face in an attempt to ease the roaring ache in his head.

“My apologies, sir. It’s just… you go out every night. And… well, you’ve shouted me down for closing them, because that made you oversleep?”

“For chrissakes, why are you still here?” he snapped.

“You have eleven missed calls.”

“So?”

“Well, they’re all from one person.”

Liam sat up, scratching his head. “And?”

“Well, you said to always put your friend Jack through. He’s the one that’s been calling. For three days, sir.”

“For fuck’s sake, Clara!”

“It’s Cara.”

“Get me the bloody phone, or get a new job,” he hissed.

His assistant stiffened, then frowned.

“Fine. I quit!” she said, turning and stomping out of the room.

Liam didn’t miss the curses she mumbled on the way out, either. The fifth assistant he’d fired or lost in the five long months since he’d been back in London.

His lawyers were furious about it, as he now apparently had the kind of money that actually needed protecting from lawsuits.

“Fucking A,” he said, lurching to his feet.

He could smell the whiskey on his own breath, which did nothing to help his hangover. Truly, there was a strong possibility that he was still drunk.

He spent a couple of minutes looking around for his phone, then gave up and flopped onto the couch. Before he could even flip on the TV, someone pounded on the door of his hotel room.

“Yeah, yeah!” he shouted, shoving to his feet and stumbling over to open the door. Expecting it to be his assistant, he asked, “Forget something?”

Instead, it was Jack. Jack, from whom Liam hadn’t heard a single peep in months.

Tanned, fit, and looking unusually stylish, Jack took off his sunglasses… and he didn’t exactly look happy to see Liam.

“Jesus,” he said, looking Liam up and down. “You are a fucking mess.”

Liam glanced down at himself. Jack wasn’t wrong. Liam wore nothing but a pair of ratty boxers, and he could certainly use a shower.

“What are you doing here?” Liam asked.

“I came to see you, if you can imagine it,” Jack said. “Are you going let me in?”

“Yeah, course,” Liam said, stepping back.

Jack walked in and eyed the suite’s living room. Liam’s assistant had tidied a little, but there were still empty liquor bottles everywhere, and clothes on the floor.

“So, this is what you came to London to do?” Jack asked as Liam cleared him a spot in a chair opposite the couch.

“You’re awfully hostile, aren’t you?” Liam asked, slumping back onto the couch.

“Well, I’m not real happy with you. I wasn’t happy when I got on the plane to see you, and now you’ve blown me off for two days, so…”

“Oh… that’s why you were calling,” Liam said. “Right. I just found out about that.”

“Where’s your new assistant? Did you fuck her and dump her, too?”

Liam’s gaze snapped up to Jack’s.

“What are you talking about?” Liam asked slowly.

“I’m talking about you sleeping with my god damned sister, and then leaving her so you could come… live like this, apparently.”

Liam closed his eyes for a moment, willing himself not to lose his temper.

“I am far too hung over to listen to you spout nonsense,” he said after a moment. “Your sister and I were involved, yeah, but I didn’t break off with her.”

“No? That’s funny, because she seems to think you did. Moved across the country to get away from you, still so torn up about it that she won’t even say your fucking name.”

Liam opened his eyes, rubbing his hands over his face. “Well, she left me, actually. And she’s not the only one who’s torn up. Look around you, mate.”

“You’re blaming this mess on Audrey?” Jack asked, his voice dropping near to threatening.

“No. But… clearly, I’m not all right. I haven’t been all right since I walked into my empty fucking house in Atlanta. She left, not a word. Just a fucking thank-you note, one line,” Liam said, growing angry all over again. “I fucking fall in love with her, she leaves me with a note, one bloody sentence.”

Jack watched him for a long moment.

“You’ve got to get your shit together,” Jack. “I know it’s hard, I’ve spent the last few months crawling out of the same kind of hole. But…”

“Why should I?” Liam said, shaking his head. “What’s the point in it?”

“Audrey’s going to have a baby,” Jack said.

Liam’s heart stuttered, skipping a couple of beats.

“Come again?” he asked, his brows drawing together.

“She’s having your baby. She didn’t want me to tell you, but… I can’t let her do it alone. The baby needs a father, even if he’s a fucking asshole like you.”

Liam’s mouth opened and closed as he floundered like a fish out of water.

“I… are you sure?” Liam asked.

“She’s definitely pregnant, though she wanted long e-fucking-nough to tell me,” Jack said. “And if she says it’s yours, it’s fucking yours.”

Liam held up a hand. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m just… staggered, at the moment.”

Jack stood up and paced for a few seconds, looking tense. Liam’s thoughts were in tumult, spinning wildly out of control.

A baby. His baby.

And Audrey…

He could barely put the pieces together.

Liam scrubbed a hand over his face, then looked at Jack somberly.

“I love her,” he said. “If I had any idea…”

“I hope you’re a more tenacious father than you are a boyfriend,” Jack said, shaking his head. “Have you even tried to reach out to her?”

“I thought… I thought she made her feelings pretty clear.”

“Well, she thought the same. You two are a pair of fools,” Jack sighed. “She’s been moping since the day we left Atlanta, you know.”

“I didn’t. If I had any idea, I would have…” Liam paused, then held up a finger. “Hold on.”

He got up and went into the bedroom, opening the safe. He returned, tossing the ring box to Jack.

Jack opened it, his eyes going wide.

“Shit. How long have you had this?” Jack asked.

“Since I got the offer from London United. Before that, actually. I saw it, and I thought it reminded me of her. I couldn’t help myself.”

Jack sighed, closing the box over in his hand. Jack stared at him for a long beat, clearly trying to make some kind of decision.

“I want you to come to San Francisco,” Jack said after a minute’s silence. “But only if you’re going to get your fucking act together. Don’t show up and make things harder for her.”

“I would never,” Liam said.

“Bring this with you, too,” Jack said, tossing Liam the box. “You’d better make a real go of it. If you break her heart again, I’m gonna break your damned face.”

“I won’t, I swear it.”

Jack gave another quick shake of his head, like he couldn’t quite believe this was happening.

“You got a game this week?” he asked.

“No, we’re on Christmas holiday, just like the States.”

“How long you got?” Jack asked.

Liam scrunched up his face, trying to come up with a guess. “Couple weeks?”

“I leave at eight tonight,” Jack said.

“Right,” Liam said, taking a deep breath and releasing it. “Right.”

He stood and went into the bedroom, hunting for his suitcase.

“Liam, what the fuck are you doing?” Jack asked.

“Packing,” Liam said.

“I didn’t mean you had to fly out right now,” Jack said, crossing his arms.

Liam dropped his suitcase on his bed, then walked back into the living room.

“I’ve been a wreck since she left me, Jack. Look at me. I’m barely living. And now that she’s having my baby… there’s nothing in the fucking world that’s going to keep me from seeing her, in person. Your sister and I have a lot to talk through, mate.”

Jack seemed to consider that, then nodded his head. “Fine, then. I’m flying out at eight tonight. Is that enough time for you?”

“More than enough.”

Picking up a pen and paper from the table beside the couch, Jack consulted his phone and scrawled down the flight info.

“Jack, thank you,” Liam said, accepting the paper. “For coming here, for telling me all of this in person. You’re the best mate a man could ask for.”

“Don’t thank me. I’m not done being mad about you knocking up my damned sister,” Jack said, frowning. “I’m only doing this for her, and for the baby.”

The baby. The words echoed through Liam’s head, making him feel a thousand different emotions at once.

“I’ll be on the plane,” he said.

“Good. This is your last chance, so don’t screw it up. And learn to answer your own damned phone.”

With that, Jack stalked out of Liam’s hotel room. Liam sat for a few minutes, desperately trying to grasp the idea of fatherhood, to figure out how the hell he was going to face Audrey again.

He’d better come up with something good, because there was no way on earth that he could walk away from her twice.

No matter what happened next, Audrey was going to be his. His love, his wife.

Mother to his child.

Gripping the box in his hand, he stood.

Time to get yourself together, be the man that Audrey fell in love with, he thought.

No time like the present.