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“I think it’ll work out,” he assured her.
“Then I will see you then, Liam,” she said, opening her door for him. “But, just as a reminder, you are welcome here anytime. I love having you around.”
“I love being around,” he said, wincing for a second time at his addled-sounding responses.
“One more for the road?” Tess said, causing him to furrow his brow.
“One… more?”
Smiling and rolling her eyes playfully, Tess embraced him. This time, with them both standing, Liam had nowhere to go as Tess pressed herself into him. Not that he would have traded this moment for the most luxurious trip imaginable. For him, this was as blissful as any beach.
“They’re here for you anytime, too,” Tess whispered. “Don’t be so shy about asking for them in the future, okay?”
Mashed against her sublime body, Liam barely had enough breath left in his lungs to eke out a promise that he wouldn’t be. He hoped he was being honest, that his courage wouldn’t evaporate the next time he saw her. Standing here, arms around one another, it was the first step he’d been after, and he hoped that it would never be taken back.
Chapter Sixteen
Plans
The next morning, Liam’s awakening involved groggy eyelids and far too many yawns. Sleep clung to him tightly, attempting to drag him back into its clutches. It nearly succeeded. Yet, as his eyelids drooped, a single realization proved enough to cast off any remnants of fatigue completely. It was Sunday.
Usually, that meant it was the perfect day to melt back into your sheets. Technically, he could have done so. He didn’t have anywhere to be for hours. Yet, even if it was still hours away, that reminder was more than enough to rouse him from his bed. He allowed himself one final yawn at his doorway, then left any remnants of tiredness behind.
After showering, dressing, and scarfing down breakfast, he considered visiting Tess. She’d saidanytime, and this happened to fall under that generous allotment. Chewing on his lip, he nearly started walking toward his front door.
You’ll see her again later,a voice in his head called out as his hand reached for his door handle.Don’t you want to impress her?
Grimacing, he knew he should prepare. Good as he’d said he was, especially since he’d blatantly bragged about his skill to all three women who would be attending, it’d be a sad thing if he disappointed later.
Ultimately, he left his front door shut. Instead, he returned to his room and dug through the mostly emptied duffel bag he’d brought back from college. What emerged was a well-kept deck of cards, which he carried with him to his kitchen table. Flipping the deck’s dark box open with his thumb, he deposited the stark black cards, whose values and imagery were represented in vivid gold, into one hand.
And then he began to practice. It’d been only a few weeks since he’d last played in a game with some buddies on campus, and the muscle memory came back to him before long. The steady staccato of cards shuffling was music to his ears, and he knew within twenty minutes that he didn’t need to fret. He could accomplish everything he wanted with his eyes shut.
After reaffirming his right to feel confident about how things would play out later, he let his confidence lead him back to his front door. Braving the cold, he thrust his head outside and peered at Tess’s house, where he received an immediate dose of disappointment upon finding that her car wasn’t in her driveway. Grimacing over potentially losing his chance to see her before the game night when he decided to practice, he meandered back to the kitchen just in time for something else to intrigue him.
His phone buzzed at its location on the table. Liam scooted it toward him with two fingers, then tapped it to see who had texted him.
I know it’s a little earlier than you were told to come, but you should come over around 3. Trust me.
Slivers of unease and excitement made a strange tonic, one which he drank plentily as he stared at Avril’s unexpected message. At least she was usingherphone to text him this time, he supposed.
What for?he sent back her way, needing to wait hardly any time before receiving her reply.
We both know I won’t spoil it. If you want to know, you have to come over. See you then.
Liam frowned at her message, fully aware that she expected he would cave in and do as he was told. His frown only deepened upon realizing that she was right to think as much. With Tess gone, there wasn’t anything here for him to do.
He spent the next hour and a half loitering, wondering, and grumbling under his breath each time he checked his phone for the time. Something about knowing you needed to leave at a specific time but having nothing to do before then strung out each minute into an eternity. It was one twenty-five, then it was one thirty-four, one forty-six, one fifty-three.
It. Was. Maddening.
Just a few minutes after two, he jumped up from his couch, quickly made and ate lunch, and then threw himself back into the cold. The day was heavily overcast, with the clouds bunching up with promises of the heavy snowfall meant to arrive later that night. He’d rechecked the forecast during his doldrums on the couch, and they should be safe. It wasn’t until nine or ten that the sky would belch white all over the city. Based on how much was supposed to come down, he wouldn’t be making any drives like this one for the next several days. Nor Tess.
Thoughts of trudging through the snow to spend time with her accelerated his heart rate and his footsteps as he reached his car. Letting it warm up while he stowed himself back inside his house, he was soon en route to Anna and Avril’s place. This time, he was at least armed with the knowledge that some sort of surprise was waiting for him there.
Thusly, finding Anna’s SUV missing in front of their apartment didn’t surprise him as it had last time. Hopping from one foot to the other in the biting cold while he waited for the phenomenally stunning redhead to answer her door, he counted the unpleasant seconds before he finally saw her jubilant yet triumphant smile. She could have the first, but Liam was confident he’d have the last.
“Come on in, handsome,” Avril said, beckoning him in. After shutting the door behind her, she grinned. “I knew you’d be along. And it’s not even three yet.”
