P.S. You're Intolerable (The Harder They Fall, #3)

by Julia Wolf

Of course that was his first thought. Money was all Liam talked about these days. He had valid reasons for being distracted by it, sure—the house renovations being the biggest drain at the moment—but I was tired of the topic. I was just plain tired. At nine weeks pregnant, it was to be expected, but sometimes, exhaustion hit me like a sledgehammer out of the blue, and with it came extreme grumpiness. I had to be careful not to take it out on Liam. It wasn’t his fault the one time we slept together resulted in the little life growing inside me. Okay, it was half his fault. To say this baby had been unexpected would have been the understatement of the century. I was only twenty-five, far from settled, and Liam and I were friends and travel buddies—nothing more. Not exactly the stable environment a child deserved. But he was all in on the co-parenting thing. And his excitement to be a dad had convinced me I wanted this baby too.

I walked into the home I hadn’t wanted and kicked myself for the thousandth time for allowing Liam to talk me into buying it. At the time, we’d been riding a high from building houses for impoverished communities in Costa Rica, and a project of our own had sounded like the right move. Liam had made it sound like the right move. The plan had been to buy the house with mostly cash—mine—take out a short-term loan—in my name—remodel it ourselves, and flip it for a big profit. I got pregnant the night we got the keys. And nothing had been going in the right direction since.

I rarely saw Elliot after our first morning in his house, but he left me notes every morning along with a prepared breakfast. To be honest, I was somewhat relieved he wasn’t around much. I had no idea how to react to the little ways he was taking care of me because, to him, that was probably what they were—small, insignificant. But to a girl like me, who’d been kicked out of her house and family when I was barely more than an adult, it was massive.

The rest of the day, my stomach was sour with worry. I knew this wall of his. He could put it up and take it down at will. I’d been on the inside of it the past few weeks, and now, being on the outside…it was a harsh slap in the face. I had to remember this. Just because we were growing comfortable with each other didn’t mean he wouldn’t turn tail when I made a misstep. And I would. Because I was me, and that was what I did.