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“Don’t call me that,” Victoria said. “I’m not your aunt; I was never going to be your aunt.”
Well, there went that new understanding, quashed before Liam could even fully slot it into his memory.
“Auntie suits you better, though,” Avril pressed. “You have more of those vibes than you do big sister vibes.”
Exasperation radiated off Victoria’s body like chilly vapors surrounding a frozen drink. “Avril.” The ice cracked.
“Fine, fineee,” she said, throwing her hands up in surrender. “Professor Moreno, thank you for attending our little get-together. We’ll be on our best behavior all night, just how you like it.”
Victoria briefly shut her eyes, and Liam suspected it was a common occurrence whenever the two… whatever they were… interacted. “Hello, Liam,” she said after reopening her eyes. “It is nice to see you.”
Likewise, he suspected she didn’t feel that way at all, but he plastered on a quick smile all the same. “You too. Sorry if my being here is a surprise. I didn’t know who all was going to be here either.”
“It is all right,” Victoria said, briefly affixing her cool stare onto Avril, who seemed to have built up a resistance to the beautiful women’s silent frustration, for she didn’t quell before it. “I know who’s to blame.”
“Blame? This is a party, not an intervention. Surprise guests are practically expected for a good party.”
“Are there more?” Victoria said, crossing her arms beneath her breasts. Liam quickly stifled his desire to let his eyes linger.
“No, you’re the last one,” Avril said defeatedly. “It’s just the five of us, and Anna and Tess will show up in a bit.” She sighed loudly. “You were supposed to be my trump card, damnit. Like that one time with Casey.”
Victoria’s mouth, somehow, found an even flatter line to form. “I don’t appreciate being dragged into your childish ploys, Avril, and you know that.”
“Oh, come on,” Avril said, waving a hand through the air. Liam would have been too afraid of frostbite to do such a thing himself. “It was just going to be a little bit of harmless mischief. You waltz in all sexy and serious as usual, and Liam gets to feel what it’s like to have his jaw on the floor—that’s all. I had assumed you hadn’t met yet, so I was going to make introductions after that.”
Doing as best to stay out of as much of the conversation as he could, Liam couldn’t help but imagine that she would have gotten the response she was after out of him if this had been his first time meeting her. At the very least, she’d picked the right two words to describe Victoria.
The tall brunette was dressed similarly to the last time he’d laid eyes on her. Coat already removed before she’d entered the room, the fabric of her sweater strained against her voluptuous breasts, which even outmatched Avril’s in size and defiance of gravity. Her jeans still fit snugly around her long legs, though she wore black thigh-high boots this time. With their added height, she was nearly as tall as he was.
She was the kind of woman every man fantasized about spotting alone at a bar but whose palpably frosty demeanor kept all but the bravest—or most foolish—at a distance. She was so outlandishly beautiful that it was practically all he could think about when he looked at her, yet he’d have rather gone up to a tiger for a hug than her.
“What is the actual time when everyone else will be here, Avril?” Victoria asked, giving no regard to what she’d just said.
“Four-thirty, but you really don’t have to go anywhere—”
“I’ll run a few errands and then be back at that time.” Without a single moment’s delay, Victoria spun on her heels and left the apartment.
“Well, that went very differently than I was expecting,” Avril announced with a chuckle, glancing at him. “Well, kind of. I knew this part would end up happening. A matter of when, not if.”
Liam gave himself a few seconds to collect his thoughts before saying anything. “Okay, so… can I get caught up to speed now? I feel like I’m missing a lot of context about a lot of things.Auntie?”
Grinning, the mischievous redhead twined two fingers together. “She and my older brother almost ended up tying the knot about seven or eight years ago. They were engaged and everything until Victoria wised up and broke things off. So, shewouldhave been my sister-in-law, but that’s a mouthful, don’t you think? I just stick with ‘Auntie;’ it works just as well at getting her worked up.”
There was a lot to parse in just a few sentences, but Liam felt like there was one notable word pairing he homed in on. “Wised up, meaning you’re happy she broke off an engagement with your brother?”
“Oh, God, yes. Casey’s such a dumbass that I spent most of my high school years wondering what she saw in him. Lucky for her, she eventually realized the one truth about them both.”
“Which is?” Liam asked, curiosity piqued.
“You’veapparentlymet Victoria, even though no one bothered to tell me that. It doesn’t take more than a minute or two to know what kind of person she is. Victoria never turned eighteen. Instead, she leap-frogged right on up to thirty. She’salwaysbeen like this. Meanwhile, my brother’s spent the past fifteen years pretending he’s still twenty.” Avril rapidly swished her hand through the air as if clearing out fumes. “Opposites attract stuff can only carry a relationship so far. There’s gotta be something to bond over, and those two had nothing going for them—and Victoria eventually realized it after the sheen of Knighthood wore off.”
Liam resisted an urge to roll his eyes at Avril’s wordplay. “So, are you two close? I know she and Tess are, and that they’re both professors together at Bellmore.” He wondered but didn’t ask if she’d taken any of Victoria’s classes.
“Areweclose?” Avril said, smirking briefly. “We’re the reason this group exists. Victoria and I have been tight-knit since we met. I’m not quite as lousy as my brother”—she grinned—“and we have enough shared interests that our age didn’t stop us from bonding. Tess and Anna enteredourgroup, not the other way around.”
“I see,” he responded, reshuffling his understanding of the friend group. “So, is it truly just the five of us, or is there another too-beautiful woman lurking in the kitchen you intend to hurl at me?”
Avril held her arms out and smirked. “What, is having four of the sexiest women alive all gathered around not enough for you? So damn greedy, Liam.”
