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“Have fun.”
I snickered. “I will.”
We held each other for a little while longer, and when we finally let go, he tenderly swiped his thumb over my bottom lip. He bent as if to kiss me, but my cell phone buzzed. “They’re here.”
In the living room, I layered on my vest, knit hat, scarf, and purse, then caught how his mouth curved. “What?”
“Nothing.” He grinned, positively boyish. “You’re cute is all. Come on, I’ll carry this out for you.”
Outside, he met Dean at the trunk of his car with a handshake then loaded my suitcase in before exchanging a few pleasant words with my sister.
“Have a safe flight,” he said with a raised hand to all of us, and I twisted around in the back seat, watching Liam’s form fade in the distance as we drove away from the curb.
It wasn’t until we were halfway to the Philadelphia airport that I realized Liam and I never did have that talk.
NINETEEN
LIAM
Thanksgiving at Dylan’s was a less-than-traditional dinner with burgers and grilled vegetables instead of turkey and mashed potatoes, but I wasn’t complaining. Finn had already finished his cheeseburger, which meant he picked off the cheese to eat and tore up the bun into tiny pieces, only munching on about half. Now, he watched some YouTube video on the iPad that was probably going to rot his brain, but at least Dylan and I got to eat in peace.
“You have the kids tomorrow?” I asked after swallowing a bite of my burger, and he nodded.
Dylan and his ex-wife, Paige, shared custody of Scarlett and Tucker. While it was a good arrangement, I knew Dylan felt bad about being alone, without his kids or Genevieve. He could be a surly asshole, but he was one of my best friends.
“Thanks for having us over,” I said around a sip of beer, and he lifted a shoulder, mumbling around food in his mouth.
“No problem.”
“You—” My cell phone buzzed next to my plate, interrupting me, and I wasted no time flipping it over to find a text from Kennedy. It was a picture of her with her mom, both of them wearing some ridiculous party glasses with turkeys on them.
“You ever hear it’s rude to answer your phone at the dinner table?” Dylan said, checking his own cell phone, and I leaned back in my chair, typing out a reply, only to receive another photo. This one was of Kennedy and her mother, still in their glasses, but with Taylor and Dean behind them, in matching turkey hats. Dean was grinning. Taylor was sneering.
I chuckled, assuming that had to be all Kennedy’s doing.
“Sorry,” I mumbled absently, texting that I hoped she was having a good time.
“Is that the nanny?”
“Yes, it’sKennedy,” I corrected, even though he called herthe nannyjust to get under my skin.
“You two seemed pretty cozy at Halloween.”
I stayed silent, not wanting to give myself away, but he ticked his head to the side, studying me. After a while, his brows shot up. “Did you fu—” He stopped himself, glancing to Finn, before continuing more carefully, “Did you…do something with her?”
I scratched at my stubble. “We might have, uh, crossed a line.”
“What kind of line?” he asked with a knowing, amused glint in his eyes.
I cleared my throat and scratched at the paper napkin next to my plate, not looking forward to getting ragged on again. Like I’d been when I’d confessed I ran to my room to masturbate after seeing Kennedy naked.
“A physical line,” I hedged, and this prick laughed.
“I knew it. I knew you wouldn’t be able to stay away.”
I rubbed at my forehead. The last thing I wanted to do was agree with him. “It… Yeah.” I sighed. “I couldn’t stay away. Even though I should’ve. I mean… She’s my kid’s nanny. She’s twelve years younger than me. I’m not?—”
“Hey, man.” He waved his beer bottle at me like he was swatting at a bug. “None of that stuff matters. If you have feelings for each other, none of those details matter.”
