Page 78 of Lonely Heart

“Well, I came over to see if Marco could lend me a hand, but if you’re here, maybe you can do it.”

“What’s going on?” Marco asked.

“I’ve got to hang a new piece of drywall two villas down.”

“Why?”

Liam audibly sighed to the point I could hear it all the way down in the bedroom. “Long story, but I wound up putting a hole in the wall, and it was just better to replace the whole piece of drywall instead of patching it up.” There was a brief silence before Liam continued. “What do you say about giving me a hand before you check out the villas? I want to get this done so we can stay on task.”

“Yeah. Sure, no problem. Alright, Marco, I guess we’re all getting back to work now,” Cooper said.

Marco huffed. “Your break is over, Coop. Sorry.” I didn’t think they could hear it, but I noticed the relief in Marco’s voice.

A moment later, I heard the door open and shut. And barely ten seconds passed before Marco entered the bedroom. I started breathing again, and I knew he could sense the fear I was feeling with just one look at me.

“We need to figure out how to break the news to him, Marco. He can’t find out like this.”

He nodded. “I know. This was too close for comfort.”

I moved toward him. “I’m sorry about this.”

Marco shook his head. “This isn’t something you need to apologize for.”

“But you took care of me, and now you’re all riled up with no release,” I explained.

He kissed my cheek and gave my ass a squeeze. “You’ll make it up to me, I’m sure.”

“I promise.”

“We’ll make a plan to talk about how we want to handle breaking this news to your family, too.”

“Okay.”

Marco kissed me again. Then he jerked his head to the front of the villa. “You should go before Cooper has the chance to come back here.”

I hated having to leave like this, but Marco was right. It was possible my brother—or both of them—could come back. This was not the way I wanted them to learn the truth. So, I said goodbye to Marco, made sure Cooper wasn’t outside, and took off back to the hotel.

21

MARCO

“Hey,man. Do you have a minute to talk?”

I was just about to leave for the day. And considering my plan was to head to Ivy’s home to pick her up and take her back to my place, I wasn’t keen on halting my exit.

But it was clear I wasn’t going to have a choice in the matter and was going to have to delay getting to Ivy’s, because Liam wanted to have a chat. “Sure. What’s going on?”

He looked off to the side, out the door of the villa, and sighed. I took in his stance and expression, and it became obvious he was struggling with something.

Liam wasn’t talkative by nature. Or, well, he hadn’t been very talkative for quite a few years now. He’d suffered a tremendous heartbreak, and the guy had never been the same since.

So, that he wanted to talk to me now and was struggling, I grew concerned that perhaps this had something to do with his former relationship. Cooper might have been my best friend, but I was still very close with the rest of his brothers, so it wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibilities that Liam would seek me out if he had something on his mind.

Finally, after far too many beats of silence, he said, “I put a hole in a wall.”

My brows drew together, my head jerking back at his admission. This was the second time in a matter of days that he’d done this. Maybe there really was something serious going on with him. “Again?”

“No, Marco. I’m talking about…” he trailed off, clearly frustrated.