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“Liam Noah Taylor from Clinestown.” So she had remembered it from my license.
I couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation because she had an ear bud in her ear.
“I will,” she said before ending the call.
My guess was the person on the other end had warned her to be safe. “Are you good?” I asked.
She didn’t lift her head from the screen only shifted her eyes. “Just one more a second,” she said, tapping away.
I blew out a breath.
“My friend hasn’t heard of you. Your license could be a fake,” she said.
I chuckled darkly. Good deeds didn’t go unpunished. “You’re right,” I said, dripping with sarcasm. “I happened to know you were going to be here and the fact that we grew up as practically neighbors would be the sinister reason I would need to get you in my truck. And the actors I paid to pretend to be my brother and his pregnant wife, they are going to have a baby just to sell this whole scenario.”
She laughed and it lit the world. The overcast skies seemed to brighten by her smile. “Okay. I get it. But if you watched some of the shows I did, that isn’t a far-out thing.”
“Get in or don’t,” I said, inching the truck forward.
“Fine. I’m getting in.” She scurried around the front of the truck which was probably a good thing. I might have left. She was more trouble than it was worth.
I leaned over to open the passenger door and held out a hand. Heat flared between us when she took it. Our eyes connected and I was certain she felt it too. I helped her up as my truck was high off the ground. She put her bag on the seat between us before putting on her seatbelt. I looked away once she was in, not wanting to prolong the moment between us. The last time I’d felt this intense connection was with Carrie and look how that had turned out.
After she was buckled, I said, “I’ll need you to navigate as I’m new here too.”
“Sure thing. Where are we going?” she asked.
“Look up directions to the Eventi Hotel.”
“Fancy,” she said after fiddling with her phone.
Not too long after, a voice came on telling me to take a right.
We passed a number of hotels along the way and I tried not to think that my new relatives had wanted me as far from them as possible. Then, I remembered my passenger had said she hadn’t been able to find a hotel.
“Are you going to tell me your name?” I asked.
There was that damn sexy grin of hers. “Natalie. Natalie Peterson.”
“No shit. That’s my mother’s name.”
Two
Natalie
Talk about hottie. Was it bad that I’d sized him up? I blame the weather. I’d been standing outside the hospital too long I’d gotten chill drunk if there was such a thing. My brain had certainly frozen over.
I’d opened my mouth to warn him about the parking situation and couldn’t keep it shut. There was that cheeky grin of his with a dimple that had melted my panties if I was honest. Clearly all my synapses had misfired.
“Your mother’s name is Natalie Peterson?”
He chuckled. “No. But her first name is Natalie.”
“Weird.” Coincidence or fate, I didn’t know what was at play. However, I didn’t want to think about it. My luck with men was zero, so I was glad when he changed the subject.
“What school did you go to?” I whipped my head in his direction as if he’d heard my wayward thoughts. “In Hart’s Falls,” he added.
“Oh. Northside.”
“That makes sense,” he said, giving me a quick glance before his eyes found the road again.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“I just meant I didn’t recognize you. So we couldn’t have gone to the same county high school.”
I nodded because I’d almost jumped down his throat for feeling like he thought me lacking because of where I’d gone to school. Which was silly and a reflection of my lack of confidence in certain areas of my life.
What I did agree with him on was that I would have recognized him too, but I didn’t. He had an unforgettable face and a body that wasn’t slight, likely a football player at school.
We didn’t speak after that. I let the navigation do the talking until we arrived at the hotel. A valet greeted us immediately. Liam retrieved a bag from behind his seat and both of us declined the valet’s offer to take our bags as we only had one each. After Liam handed off the keys, I got out the truck and took it all in as we walked inside.
What are you doing? I asked myself as I lingered behind him. I don’t know this man.
Because I was a couple steps behind Liam, an available attendant waved me over.
