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Sending ripples of delight through him as her smile broadened, she pointed toward her living room. “We can throw something on and chat some more. I promise we won’t be interrupted like last time.”
Already drunk on Tess Williams, he nodded and followed along. Once comfortable on her couch, Liam’s mind immediately sprinted toward a memory of his last such encounter with a beautiful woman. Before his face turned as auburn as that woman’s hair, he beat the memory back down.
“How did things go with the ice skating?” Tess asked, pulling a leg up onto the couch. He tried to avoid getting lost in the prominent musculature framed by her tight-fitting jeans. Whoever had put her on this fashion kick of leggings and jeans deserved his thanks.
“It went pretty well,” he said. “I think we’ll go again.”
Tess’s cheer continued to expand. “That’s wonderful news.” She paused. “Did you end up meeting her roommate, Avril?”
“Yeah, it ended up just being the two of us for a little while at their apartment. She’s… not the kind of person I expected to be Anna’s roommate.” In no uncertain terms did Liam intend to spill anything else about what had gone down between them, not even that it was Avril who’d texted them yesterday morning.
“Believe me, it remains an astounding fact how they’ve remained so close for so long. Not to disparage Avril, of course. She’s… unique but not a bad person. She just has her own way of doing things, and she’s used to getting her way, for better or worse.”
“Don’t worry, it was all good, but you’re definitely right about her.”More than you know.
“Those two are close as sisters. They’re a study in magnetism, certainly.”
“I got the same sense,” he admitted. “But everything ended up working out, and I’m going over there again tomorrow night.”
“For cards, right?”
Surprise shoulder-checked him, and Tess smiled. She patted her hip, where he saw the pronounced outline of her phone.
“I got an invite a little earlier today, but don’t tell Avril I told you that. She wanted it to be some sort of surprise, but I think you deserve to know in advance. She also claimed that you’re supposedly some sort of card phenom. Is she telling the truth?”
Face heating up under Tess’s pleasant scrutiny, he rubbed at his arm. “I wouldn’t make it big in Vegas or anything, but I’m pretty good.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing how good,” Tess said warmly. “I’m not much of a card expert myself, but I get the feeling that Avril thinks she’ll be the best player there tomorrow.”
He could tell she was hoping to goad him into proclaiming how wrong she would be, so he decided to play along.
“She tried to set things up so we’d be betting something, but Anna shut her down. She’s pretty lucky for that, honestly.”
The exact type of smile he was hoping to see fanned itself over Tess’s exquisite features. “I don’t think I could approve of any real gambling, but my professional opinion is that she could stand for a bit of humbling.”
“Should one of her professors really be saying something like that?” he joked.
“It’sbecauseI’m one of her professors that I’m saying exactly that. I have nothing but fondness for her, but Avril Knight is the type of woman who knows that everyone around her moves to the beat of her drum. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her not get her way. With all her blessings, it’s not surprising. Anna’s the only person who ever calls Avril out for her misbehavior, but even she usually ends up letting her have her way.”
“That’s kind of how it ended up yesterday,” Liam admitted, the only other person than the mastermind herself aware of theotherway in which she’d had her way. “I promise not to go easy on her tomorrow.”
“Or me,” Tess said. “Hit me with your best too.”
Liam nodded and promised her he would. A short while later, Tess sent out the call for their ensuing pizza. While they waited, they chatted more about his time at Perrymont and threw on the TV. Liam basked in the time alone with Tess, especially now that he was aware that no beautiful but irate friend of hers would interrupt their time together tonight.
After she collected their pizza at the door, Liam began to stand up and move to the dinner table, only for Tess to still him with a wave of her hand.
“Stay right there,” she said with a smile. “It’s pizza and movies, not pizzathenmovies.”
Disappearing into the kitchen briefly, she reappeared with a few hand towels and two plates. One of the former ended up on his lap, another on hers, and one went under the warm cardboard box that she placed on the middle cushion. Once they’d each loaded their plates with melted cheese, pizza sauce, and the steam wafting off the slices, Tess threw on a recently released comedy that ended up relegated to background noise as their conversation reignited.
“Please feel free to drop by whenever you’d like,” Tess said, dabbing at a splotch of pizza grease on the corner of her mouth with her hand towel. “You’re welcome here any time. I’ve always enjoyed your company.”
Liam’s heart skipped a beat, and he quickly responded with a nod. “Thanks, Tess. I really enjoy yours.”
Her smile tugged at his heartstrings. “I really lucked out by moving in next door to you and your family. I’m glad we didn’t end up being those next-door neighbors who don’t even know the other’s name.”
“I can’t think of anything worse than if that’d been the case,” he replied, indulging heartily in the pleasant mood that mixed with the pizza in their hands and the laughter onscreen. “A fate worse than death.”
