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“Quite warm,” Anna answered. Still, her fingers remained coaxed with paranoia that he and Tess were lying to her.
“I’m not lying, Anna,” he said. “I’m actually really glad things have worked out how they have today. Without a doubt, I’ll remember today as a special one.”
Her soft eyes, catching the light reflecting off the snow in an almost fairytale-esque manner, turned fully toward him. They betrayed a fretfulness that truly intrigued him, and at the same time, which he wanted to rid her of fully.
“What can I do to prove I mean what I’m saying?” he asked. “You know, other than completing the igloo with you, which I’m already going to do.”
Silence. Not enough that he worried about Tess’s eventual return cutting their conversation short, so he didn’t prevent it from sticking around for a little while. Seeing Anna’s mind at work behind her eyes and her eternally alluring lips, which she’d pulled slightly to one side, also kept him from disputing it.
“You don’t have to do anything,” she eventually said with a sigh, which almost sounded defeatist and caused him to interject, though she continued and put that specific worry to bed. “I’m sorry, I’m just used to interactions where people are always being at least a little ungenuine. I shouldn’t treat you like that’s the case, especially because of what you’re doing for me.”
“It’s totally okay. I get why you might end up second-guessing what people say to you. People probably usually want something from you, so they’ll say what they think what you want to hear.”
Anna nodded, leaving her eyes staring at the snow in front of her feet. “Outside of my family, it’s really only been Avril who doesn’t care if what she says isn’t what I want to hear. Even if she frustrates me sometimes, I still treasure her because of that.”
“So, if I want to make you trust me more, should I start throwing snowballs at you when you’re not looking or locking you out of the house when you try and come in?”
“She’s notthatjuvenile.” A smile glimmered on Anna’s enticing lips. “Okay, well, maybe she is. She’s done both those things before. But one Avril is enough for my appetite.”
“So, I just need to carve out my niche then, huh?”
Anna turned her gaze back upon him. “You’re already sort of doing that. I’ve never had a fake boyfriend before.”
“Don’t tell Tess that. When she asked about us, I said we were still in the talking phase.”
“Is that why you two were gone for so long earlier?” Anna sighed. “I wish they’d all be a little less dogged about my relationship status.”
“They just care about you,” he said, repeating what he’d told her in the parking lot after ice skating together. “Honestly, if you talked to them like you did me the other day, they might realize you don’t need their help.”
Anna shook her head. “Not Avril. She’s certain I’m still as timid as I was when I was a child. I don’t know how I’m going to get her to understand that I’m as much of an adult now as she is.More,in certain ways.”
Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Tess had found and completed filling two separate gardening cans, one of which she now set down so she could begin opening the sliding door and rejoin them in the snow.
“When we end up chatting about you, it’s pretty much always about the physical stuff.”
Anna’s face flashed crimson. “I imagine it is. Her… familiarity with physical intimacy is certainly something she likes to bring up.”
You have no idea,Liam thought, nudging Anna to draw her attention to Tess. They dropped their conversation as the home’s owner tramped through the snow with the two heavy gardening cans.
“Thank you, Tess,” Anna said, taking one. “We want to let the water stream down the pile of snow slowly, and then we can give it an hour or so to harden everything.”
Liam watched the women do just that for the next few minutes, and then they fled indoors. Coats, boots, and gloves stripped off by the door, Liam happily agreed to stay around with the two beautiful women while they waited the hour Anna had suggested.
Unsurprisingly, the matter of cards and his revealed skills with them came up.
So, he nabbed a deck from Tess’s kitchen drawer, sat down on the couch, let the two beautiful women sit on either side of him, and used her coffee table as a showing ground for some of the techniques he’d showed off last night—and a couple of new ones. His attentive watchers were all smiles throughout, especially Anna, which relieved him. Her mood continued to climb throughout their time indoors, and it thrilled him to see her slowly relaxing around him. Maybe she was right, and he wouldn’t need to peg her with a snowball… or ten.
“So, you reallyhaven’tever used this like Avril would?” Anna eventually asked.
“Like, to fleece some people?” Liam noticed Tess’s attention had perked itself up at Anna’s question. “I mean, other than to show off like I did for you all last night, no, not really. Now, I’ve never gotten involved in a game with any meaningful stakes, but I like to think I’d still play regularly if I did. I am good at cards, even without this stuff. My uncle didn’t just teach me how to mess with a deck. He taught me card counting, tactics, all that stuff.”
“Isn’t card counting considered cheating?”
“Nope, it’s fair game. Casinos might eventually kick you out, but that’s not because you’re cheating by counting cards. They just want to be making money, not losing it.”
“So, who do you think was the best player among us, based on what you saw last night?” Tess asked.
“Sorry to say it, but it’s neither of you two,” Liam said, chuckling and leaving the cards on the coffee table as he leaned back and folded his arms thoughtfully. “Avril’s definitely the most experienced, but long-term, I think I’d pick Victoria if all four of you decided you wanted to become card-playing savants. It’s hard to beat a poker face like hers.”
