Until There Was You(61)

Granted, he’d dropped her off twenty minutes ago, spoken to both Emily and Chris Carlisle at length, ensuring that both parents would be home all night. They seemed perfectly responsible, but still. He’d left his phone number (home and cell), and his address, just in case. Nicole had given him the Slitty Eyes of Death, followed by a hard elbow to the ribs, which still hurt a little, thanks to Cordelia Osterhagen trying to kill him.

And by the way, that whole hospital aftermath…that was oddly vague. The pain meds had knocked him flat, but there was something he should remember there. He and Cordelia had bickered at the hospital, he remembered that. She drove him home with the giant dog…but something else had been flitting at the edge of his brain for days now. Irritating.

Well, at any rate, Nicole had promised to text him at nine and eleven and call in the morning, then threatened suicide if he dared to call the Carlisles to check up on her. “Bye!” she said. “Have fun! Get out of the apartment, okay? You’re not dead yet.”

So here he was. In the apartment. Home alone, a widower picturing his child’s misdeeds…not so much fun. Work held no appeal; he’d just come from there to take Nicole to the party. No. He should get out of the house, be with other people. Life was changing, and Nic was right. He wasn’t dead. Not yet. He picked up the paper and got lucky.

A little while later, Liam pulled up in front of the adult education building. The ad had said walk-ins were welcome, so here he was. Granted, learning to design a website wasn’t high on Liam’s list of priorities, but he guessed the garage wouldn’t hurt by having an Internet presence. Besides, it sure as hell beat out singles cooking or, God forbid, ballroom dancing.

Speaking of, there were the dancers. And oh, crap, there was Taylor Bennington of the talented teeth. Her face lit up at the sight of him, and Liam gave a terse nod, then continued down the hallway.

The smell of garlic slowed him down. A chorus of laughter came from that room, and Liam glanced in. People were paired together, chopping and tasting, and the smell was fantastic.

Cordelia Osterhagen was in there, opening her mouth for a spoonful of whatever her partner—a man—was feeding her, and Liam had an abrupt flash of Cordelia over him, and he could practically feel her mouth on his, that lush, beautiful mouth—

“Hi there.”

Liam jumped. A man in his thirties stood in front of him. “I’m Jonathan White, your daughter’s home-ec teacher? We met the other night at Rosebud’s.”

Liam nodded, offering his hand. “Nice to see you again.” This guy was related to Cordelia somehow, he remembered.

“Nicole is such a great kid. I wish I had twenty of her. You hungry? Want to join us?”

“I’m starving, actually.”

“Come on,” the teacher said, smiling. “We eat at the end of the class. If Posey doesn’t cut off someone’s finger, that is.”

“I wish I could take credit for that,” Cordelia said, turning. “But it was just luck.” Her smile fell as she saw Liam, and her face flushed. “Oh. Hi.”

“Hey,” Liam said. Oh, yeah. There was something about that mouth, all right.

“Gang, this is Liam, the dad of one of my students. You don’t mind if he hangs out, do you? We always have too much food as it is.”

“Hi, Liam!” Kate Ellington called, and Liam gave her a smile. She was with an older man who couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her rack, not that Liam could blame him. It was nice there.

“Let’s put you with Ginny, shall we?” Jon said, leading Liam over to a woman in her fifties.

“Oh, wow, thank you, Jon, I owe you,” she blurted.

“Hi. Liam Murphy,” he said, shaking her hand.

“Wow,” she repeated. She wiped her hands on her T-shirt, which showed the werewolf kid from the vampire movies. Team Jacob, the shirt proclaimed. “I’m Ginny. Hi. Yeah. You are gorgeous.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said, grinning. They were next to Cordelia, who was studiously ignoring him, and her partner, a rather odd-looking man wearing a fur hat with earflaps.

“My ribs are doing just fine, thanks for asking,” Liam said to her.

“Of all the cooking classes in all the world, you had to walk into mine,” Cordelia muttered.

For the next half-hour, Liam flirted with Ginny, who was full of sighs and giggles. The class was actually kind of fun…they were making a Bolognese sauce, and the smell was thick and spicy. Liam was a pretty fair cook himself, but it was nice, being out with grownups. People joked and laughed and swapped insults. Everyone except Cordelia, Liam noticed, who seemed awfully quiet. When they all sat down to eat, pushing two tables together, Liam made sure he was across from her.

“I’d think you were already a pretty good cook,” he said, taking a bite of the pasta.

His foot touched hers accidentally, but she jumped as if he’d slugged her. “Excuse me?”

“Since your parents own a restaurant,” he said. Granted, people didn’t really go to Guten Tag for the food, but still.

“Um, right. I cook a little.” She didn’t look at him, and Liam smiled.

“She’s lying,” the teacher said, coming over and putting his arm around her. “She’s my sister-in-law, and even though I’ve been with her brother since the dawn of time, I can say that Posey here has never made me anything more than a Newman’s Own pizza.”