Sadly, Matthew has decided to return to America and not stay in England as I’d hoped. However, we did get to drink together, eat tapas, crepes, and hang out at hipster coffee shops while working for hours on the blog in the same place.
Beautiful Redemption Chapter 7:
Liis is really pleased with the Sawyer’s unpacking skills, so she decides to start dating him to add another road-blocker between her romance with Thomas.
Oh, I’m just fucking with you! So far he is not really this book’s resident Blando. But I bet you didn’t even pause to question that what I said was a lie.
Sawyer is still passed out on the couch after a night of wine and unpacking, and Liis muses that he didn’t even hit on her once.
Even drunk, he’d kept his promise not to make a pass at me, and he’d earned an infinite amount of respect by the time I left him on the couch for my room.
Despite the ridiculousness of this statement, it would be nice if this was the start of a real and more interesting friendship than McGuire’s standard trope of GIRL POWAH TOUGH-TALKIN’ LADY PALS!!! I think Abby had a male friend for like one chapter of Beautiful Disaster and then we never heard about him again.
However, given Thomas shows up just in time to see Sawyer and to freak out, I think Sawyer is just a jealousy-inducing plot-device.
“You finished all that unpacking by yourself?”
My hesitation to answer prompted him to touch his hand to the door and slowly push it open.
His anger was instant. “What the fuck is he doing here?”
I returned the door to its former position. “He’s sleeping on the couch, Thomas. Jesus, do the math.”
He leaned in and whispered, “I’ve been on that couch before, too.”
Everyone who sleeps on that couch has also had sex with Liis! It’s cannon now!
Liis rightfully tries to shut the door on this awful Maddox bro, but Thomas doesn’t let her because he needs to angrily remind Liis that she’s supposed to let him know any time Sawyer “bothers” her. Which I guess means any time Sawyer tries to interact with her whenever Thomas isn’t present to manage the situation. And by ‘manage the situation’, I of course mean ‘to yell at Sawyer to go away and never talk to Liis who is technically his manager.’
Liis points out that they had a nice time together. Thomas mansplains that this is not cool:
His eyes flickered, and his brows pulled inward. He took a step toward me and kept his voice low as he said, “If you’re worried about how you’re perceived, you shouldn’t have let Sawyer spend the night.”
Go home, Thomas.
Thomas wants to know if Sawyer tried to convince Liis that Abby would be a better asset than Travis. This leads to ~mysterious mysteries~.
“Your brother won’t allow it. Besides, I don’t think she can be trusted. According to the file, she has helped her father numerous times despite their volatile relationship. She won’t turn him in, except maybe for Travis. We’d have to arrest him first though. Then, maybe she’d play.”
Thomas sighed, and I inwardly cursed myself for thinking aloud.
“You would have to arrest him,” Thomas said.
“What do you mean?”
Thomas nearly whispered, “It would blow my cover.”
“You’re not undercover. What the hell are you talking about?”
Thomas shifted his weight. “It’s hard to explain, and I won’t while I’m in the hall and while Sawyer is pretending to be asleep on your couch.”
I guess Beautiful Oblivion left everyone guessing why Thomas couldn’t tell his family he was in the FBI, and now we’re going to continue to drag out this secret until the bitter, unsatisfying end.
Sawyer wakes up and compliments Liis’ couch, so naturally Thomas tells him to get out.
“You can’t kick him out of my condo,” I said.
“Get the fuck out!” Thomas yelled, the veins in his throat bulging.
He’s a Maddox, he can do whatever he wants when his throat bulges that way. Yummy!
Liis accuses Thomas of “liking” her and “trying too hard” while kindly offering him crackers for breakfast. Ah, young love. As usual, the conversation doesn’t flow at all and is partially about why they can’t/won’t be together and then partially about how Thomas won’t tell his family that he’s in the FBI and then somehow about Camille?
“Thomas sat on the couch, looking distraught. “They don’t get it, Liis, and you definitely don’t get it.”
My tough shell melted at the sight of his tough shell melting. “I might if you explain it to me.”
He shook his head, rubbing his face with his hand. “She knew this would happen. That’s why she made him promise.”
“Who’s she? Camille?”
Thomas looked up at me, completely pulled out of his line of thought. “What the hell made you think of her?”
I’m with Thomas here, just because he referred to someone vaguely as ‘she’ doesn’t automatically mean it’s Camille. Also, I think Val is the only one who has mentioned Camille to Liis, so this is really fucking weird. Except Thomas barely addresses it! He just lets Liis be like, “Oh, we have to trust each other to work together.” And he’s like, “Cool.”
Then they conclude they’re going to bring down the bad guys! What the fuck are these people talking about anymore! I hope they mean Camille and Trent, I hate those assholes.
But then it’s really about mothers who die of cancer.
“Thomas stood and began to pace. “Bringing them in means nailing them, and the easiest way to do that is to use my little brother.”
“So, do it.”
“You know it’s not that easy. You can’t be that naive,” Thomas snapped.
“You know what has to be done. I’m not sure why you’re making it so hard.”
Thomas thought about that for a moment and then sat next to me again. He covered his mouth and nose with his hands, and then he closed his eyes.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked.
“No,” he said, his voice muffled.
I sighed. “Do you really not want to talk about it? Or is this where I demand that you do?”
He let his hands fall to his lap, and he sat back. “She had cancer.”
“Camille?”
“My mother.”
WHY DOES SHE ALWAYS THINK IT’S CAMILLE? OTHER WOMEN EXIST!
Thomas talks about how incredible and beautiful his mother was even as she was dying, and how on her death bed she told him to take care of his brothers. And now he has to make Travis be part of the FBI! Also, their mother asked their father to quit his job as a detective and find a less dangerous job. So of course Thomas shouldn’t have joined the FBI! How could his family forgive him!
“I touched his knee. “You’re good at being a federal agent, Thomas.”
He sighed. “They won’t see it that way. I spent the rest of my childhood trying to be a grown-up. I lost a lot of sleep trying to think of something else to be. I couldn’t let my dad break his promise to her. He loved her too much. I couldn’t do that to him.”
He loved ‘her’ too much? Who? Camille? BE CLEARER, THOMAS.
Liis is really moved by Thomas story and is like, “Omg it’s so awful because he has a job he’s not supposed to have! His life is so hard! Maddox bro pain!”
Thomas feels complicated things about recruiting Travis and about how Travis’ connection to Benny basically got Thomas his promotion. Being a good Maddox bro bro to your other Maddox bro is the hardest thing a Maddox bro can ever do.
His pain makes Liis want him so much, and she struggles to resist. Liis tells him he’s good.
“I’m no fucking saint. If I told you the story about Camille, you wouldn’t be looking at me like that.”
“You mentioned that she’s Trent’s girlfriend. I can guess.”
He shook his head. “It’s worse than you think.”
??? Was it? I mean, we read that book. I feel like Thomas was the wronged party?
Thomas heads off, and Liis tells us how now she is part of his inner-circle.
Val had said before that Thomas had a loyal circle and to be careful what I said. Now, I was part of that circle, and I was curious if it was because he needed to use my talents like he did Sawyer’s or if it was just that he needed me.
That was easy. They had like one chapter where it wasn’t easy, so I guess this was character development or something.