Rox pulled her bike up in front of the house at the end of the long driveway. She’d pull it into the garage later. Popping her helmet onto the seat, she beamed as she unlocked the front door. She’d been able to ride her bike, which Liam had been against for weeks. She felt good knowing he was finally backing off protective mode, which was starting to feel like smothering mode.

Liam sat on the couch in the living room with his back to her. She came up behind him, wrapping her arms around him and giving him a kiss on the cheek. Gripping her shoulders, he pulled her down onto his lap over the back of the low couch.

“What was that for?” she said, laughing and looking at him upside down from his lap. She couldn’t quite place the look he was giving her. Running her hands along his stubble, she caressed his cheek and held his gaze.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen at the meeting with your brother?” He shook his head.

“I was just looking forward to seeing you, that’s all.” Aww, this man made her heart melt.

“It’s not too often I take off for dinner, so you’re very lucky. What should we do with all this free time?” she said, trying to pull him out of whatever weird mood he seemed to be in.

“Are you okay? How did the meeting go?”

“Why do you want to know?” What the hell kind of question was that?

“You mentioned being nervous about it and now you’re acting all weird.” Shifting from lying across his lap to sitting next to him, she turned to give him her full attention. “What’s going on? Did something bad happen?”

“No, it went fine. They accepted the terms of the agreement. Everyone gets to keep their job for at least a year, severance for anyone they let go after that, and they bought us out at the price we asked.”

“Liam, that’s great!” She threw her arms around him, but his still hung limp at his sides. “Are you worried about letting the company go?”

“It’s not that. It was time to move on and start something new.”

“Exactly, and you’ve been doing a really great job at the bar lately. No more getting locked in the walk-in, missed keg deliveries or anything like that. Things are going really well.”

“Yeah.”

“Are you okay?” She placed her hand on his forehead and he did feel a little clammy. “I’m going to see if there’s anything in the kitchen to make chicken soup. You seem like you could use it.”

“How was your day? Did you do anything special?” What was up with him? He was starting to freak her out.

“No,” she said, hopping up from the couch and heading into the kitchen.

“Nothing out of the ordinary happened?”

“Nope, did morning prep, lunch service went smoothly, helped get things ready for dinner and then came home.”

“Nothing else?” What was he getting at? Why would he think that anything different happened today?

“No, what are you talking about? What else could have happened?” She opened the fridge and started to pull out ingredients for the soup. Success! A roasted chicken from two nights ago. Pulling the covered glass pan out of the fridge, she kicked it closed.

“What about the pregnancy tests?” She dropped the glass pan, shattering it on the floor as she stood frozen in the middle of the kitchen.

“The what?” she asked, her voice shaky. How did he know? Shock turned to anger as her hands started to tremble and she closed them into fists.

“The pregnancy tests?”

“How do you know that I might have bought pregnancy tests today, Liam?” she said, her voice barely more than a growl. He, at least, had the good sense to look ashamed.

“I…I hired a security guard to follow you,” he blurted out.

“You what?!” All this time. All this time she thought he was honoring her wishes, but he’d gone behind her back. The paranoia of someone following her suddenly made sense. He’d turned her into an anxious mess by not listening to her.

“After the box from Jon showed up, I was worried about you, so I hired someone to look out for you when I couldn’t be there.”

“You had me followed,” she said, seething.

“I had security looking after you in case something happened and Jon tried to pull anything,” he reasoned, but she could feel her head swimming and pulse pounding as she fought the urge to slam his head into the wall.

“You had me followed.” She repeated, getting closer and closer to him, until she was standing, toe-to-toe with him. “You turned me into a paranoid mess for a week because I swore someone was following me!” His head whipped to the side before she even realized she’d slapped him across the face.

“You wouldn’t listen to reason. Teaching you a few boxing moves was not going to be enough. I had to do more to protect you and make sure you would be safe, even if I wasn’t around.” He rubbed his cheek.

“You don’t get to tell me if I’m safe or not! No one can know if they are safe or not! But I can sure as hell tell if I’m with a controlling asshole who had me followed and then starts asking about private purchases I made.”

“So, you admit that you bought pregnancy tests.”

“What if I did?!” How could he have done this?

“If you did, then I want to know what the results were.”

“Fuck you, Liam,” she said, pushing past him. He grabbed her arm and whipped her around.

“I need you to tell me what happened with the tests.”

“Why? Who knows if it’s even yours? I mean, you’ve only been having me followed for a week. What if I’ve been out fucking guys all over town? Maybe I was buying them for a friend. Maybe I have been with so many men, I can’t even remember whose it might be,” she said, seething.

“Rox, just tell me,” he shouted. She ripped her arm out of his.

“No! You don’t get to know. Why don’t you have your security guard go search through the dumpster looking for it? Or better yet, why don’t you have him hold me down and get me to piss on a stick in front of him to prove whether I’m pregnant or not?”

“I’m not going through this again, Rox.”

“You’re accusing me of trying to screw you over?”

“I just want to know the truth!”

“I wasn’t even going to tell you. If you hadn’t had your little super spy following my every move, you wouldn’t even know I bought those tests. I’m not trying to screw you over, but you sure were quick to jump to that conclusion.”

“I’m not jumping to any conclusions. I just want you to tell me.”

“You’re not jumping to any conclusions? What was that crap about not going through this again? You think I’m going to try to squeeze some kind of settlement out of you, pretend to be pregnant? Well, fuck you very much, I’m out of here.” She stormed away from the kitchen and into the bedroom. She grabbed a bag from the closet and started to throw her stuff in there.

He thought she was trying to screw him over. After everything they had shared and been through, and he didn’t even have the slightest bit of faith that she wasn’t a gold-digging piece of crap. Well screw him! Screw him for not trusting her and having her followed. Her mind looped back around to that one. Had she missed signals? Jon would follow her all the time. Every stop for coffee or trip to a store was questioned. Every interaction was tracked, receipts, charges, anything she did was under the microscope. Had she fallen into that trap again? Her biggest fear was repeating her past mistakes and not even realizing she was doing it. Is that what this was? She was so deep, she couldn’t even tell. She was happier than hell she wasn't pregnant. The thought of being forever tied to Liam turned her stomach right now.