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Two days later, Liam decided to take a trip and fill one aspect of his pantry that he knew was intentionally missing from the house: junk food. Well, “morning” was a bit of a stretch. It was nearly noon when he pulled out of his driveway, braving the cold that had kept his grass a frosty pale blue ever since he’d made it home. After grabbing a few sweets from the candy aisle of the nearby grocery store, he’d waited in line behind a few other foolhardy souls. Naturally, his mind drifted during it. Time that would usually have gone toward aimless scrolling on his phone instead went to how things had gone these past two days.
If there was one good thing that had come of it, it was that he now possessed Tess’s phone number. They’d traded it yesterday when she’d come knocking on his door, suggesting that Anna might inquire about his number from her in the coming days. So, he’d tamped down his joy about trading contact information with Tess, knowing he didn’t have a good excuse touseher number.
After checking out, he scurried back to the warmth of his car, which had already started freezing over just ten minutes since he’d parked it outside the grocery store. Again, he didn’t check his phone, relying on his radio for music for the first time in months.
Because of that, he didn’tfind the text an unknown number had sent him until he reached his home.
After hauling in his sweets and setting them on his kitchen counter, he finally idly pulled out his phone to check for any messages from parents or friends. He first looked upon a picture of a snowy mountain slope from his mother with a statement that it was their next skiing goal, but also a surprise message that he’d received around the time he’d gotten to the grocery store. It read:
Hello, this is Anna. I hope it’s all right, but I got your phone number from Professor Williams. If you are interested, would you like to go ice skating with me today?
Prosaic formality aside, it was succinct and direct. And it caused Liam to immediately wonder if Tess had any involvement in this unexpected invitation. He really hoped not. Based on what he remembered, she’d made plans to go with a friend already. The last thing Liam wanted to end up as was the kid brought along because his mom had asked the other kid’s mom to include him.
Typing out a reply, he said,Hey, I am free, so long as you’re sure I won’t be intruding. You’re going with your friend, right?
About five minutes later, after he’d put away the last of his groceries, his phone dinged in his pocket.
She actually informed me that she couldn’t come a little while ago. It would be no bother in the slightest. I would be delighted if you could come.
He still felt the ghost of Tess hovering over each character in the message. However, it was just a hunch. It could be that she earnestly wanted to invite him along, though it might just be that she didn’t want to skate alone. He supposed he could ask.
Well, he couldn’t askher. “Hey, did Tess put you up to this?” wasn’t going to be his following response. But he could delay his response long enough to suffer the wintry cold and knock on his next-door neighbor’s door.
“No, I hadn’t talked to her about you yet,” Tess promised. Liam immediately identified the thrilled gleam in her eye as he revealed that Anna had contacted him. “I received her request a little while ago and provided your number—that’s all. I had meant to come and ask you if it was all right, but you weren’t home at the time.”
“I see,” Liam said. Apparently, a lot could happen when you went grocery shopping. A rich heiress could ask the sexy next-door neighbor you secretly desired for your phone number.
“This is excellent,” Tess said, beaming at him. “She adores ice skating, so for her to invite you is a clear sign that she’s interested in getting to know you better. You must have made a very good impression on her. I knew you were the right choice.”
“I guess so,” Liam said, uncertain as to what he’d done to deserve such high esteem. If anything, largely due to his mixed feelings about the plan he’d agreed to, he thought he’d barely madeanyimpression last night. While he was hardly a walking Casanova, he wasn’t usuallythatstiff and uninteresting.
“Do you plan to go?”
That question shunted him out of his thoughts with the force of a shove. Hastily, without thinking, Liam nodded.
“Wonderful!” Tess radiated exuberance.
Once again, Liam was reminded of how much Tess seemed to care about Anna. For her to be so involved in her personal life like this proved it. Either that or shereallydespised Trent Alden. He supposed it could be both.
He also knew he really didn’t want to be doing this. That thought permeated through him like a pungent, foul odor. It was almost staggering that Tess couldn’t sense it herself. He wantedher. Beautiful as Anna was, wonderful as he was sure she was, he didn’t want to remove the chance—infinitesimally small as it might be—that Tess might start to see him as a man.
But how the hell did he back out now? Inwardly grimacing at his meekness, the very thing that had gotten him into this garbled mess of a situation yesterday, he knew he couldn’t back out now. Not with Tess smiling so brilliantly, ebullient as he could ever remember seeing her before.
“Do you have any advice?” he decided to ask, giving him a chance to prolong his time with Tess just a bit longer. “I’ve never really gone on a date with someone so… proper.”
Tess smiled. “I know that she can seem a bit closed off with how well-mannered she is, but it just takes her a little while to open up fully to new people. It’s clear she wants to get to know you better, so just be yourself. It clearly worked out yesterday.”
I guess, Liam thought, still feeling like something was off. But if it wasn’t Tess, whom he believed when she told him that she hadn’t pushed Anna into contacting him, then what could it be? No satisfactory answer answered him, leaving him groping about in the dark.
However, his searching fingertipsdidbrush up against an attractive idea. Uncovering it, bringing it into the light, and refusing to feel guilty for wielding it, he offered a proposition to Tess.
“Should I text you afterward?” he asked. “I can let you know how things go.”
Tess could haveeasilycalled him on the fact that they, living beside one another as they did, could always just take the twenty steps needed to reach the other’s door for such conversations. It was the gaping hole in his scheme, and his heart raced fretfully as it waited for her to shut him down with that exact reminder. Or, worse, for her to peer through it and finally realize, eyes widening with shock and revulsion, his taboo desires for her.
“That’s a fine idea,” she instead said. “You’re welcome to text me anytime.”
And that was that. Something he’d dreamed about accomplishing for years, over and done without a hint of issue. All it had taken was a simple request backed up by a meager excuse.
