AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Liam video called me during his lunch break on Friday to give me an update on his date with Gwen the previous evening.
“You’re looking rough,” I told him as he waved to me.
“It was a late night,” he said, his voice a little hoarse.
“I’m guessing that’s because you had a good time?” I asked.
He smiled and gave me a thumbs up as he leaned against the brick wall of the coffee shop.
“Yeah, she’s so great, Layne.” He might be tired, but that didn’t stop him from gushing about Gwen’s many positive qualities and I could see he had it bad. Really bad. Liam hadn’t fallen hard for someone in a while and I was excited for him. It also took some of the worry off my shoulders that I carried for him. If Liam found someone to be with, someone to take care of and would take care of him? That was all I wanted. Once he was taken care of, then I could work on finding that for myself.
“She’s just so great, Layne.”
“You think I might get to meet her soon?” I asked.
“I don’t know, is that too much? I don’t want to freak her out.” He was too cute.
“I don’t think it’s too much. I mean, we don’t have to make it a big dinner thing, it could just be me stopping into the coffee shop if she’s there to say hi. I won’t interrogate her.”
Liam narrowed his eyes. “You could always just stalk her social media like a normal person.”
“What makes you think I haven’t?” Who was I, some kind of amateur? The minute I’d figured out who she was when she’d started liking his pages, I’d been looking through her feed. Just to make sure I didn’t see any red flags.
“You’re such a freak,” he said, shaking his head. “Listen, I gotta go. I’ll let you know about meeting Gwen.”
“Tell her that I’m nice!” I said and he ended the call. “Mean.”
“Who’s mean?” Riley said, popping out of the pool and reaching for a towel. Zoey joined her a few seconds later.
“My brother. He’s got a new girlfriend and I want to meet her.”
“We should get to meet her,” Riley said, sitting down on one of the chairs. Zoey flopped next to her on the same chair.
“If you act like you did with Honor the other night, then you’re never going to meet her,” I said, glaring at them.
They both just giggled. Completely unrepentant.
I didn’t know how the apology notes had gone over with Honor. She’d been really scarce, and I knew she was absolutely avoiding the twins. I guess their little stunt had worked.
An alarm went off on my phone and I realized it was time for me to start dinner.
“Okay my babies, shower time.” They didn’t want to go inside, but I shoved them through the door and pointed upstairs.
The second their door slammed, I heard the office door close and Honor appeared.
“They’re in the shower so you’re safe,” I said.
She rolled her eyes and went to get some water.
“I’m not scared of them,” she said.
“You should be. They have devious minds and there’s two of them,” I said.
“I’m not going to be bullied by children,” she said, filling her glass.
“Underestimate them at your own peril.” I pulled out the steak that had been thawing in the fridge. That was going on the stove and would be sliced up for sandwiches with arugula and garlic aioli and steak fries on the side.
Honor just sort of watched me, and after a few minutes I turned.
