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Not long after, he consumed three oversized pancakes, each as wide as his head and excessively submerged in syrup. After cleaning up Tess’s kitchen, he once more looked longingly in the direction of her stairs. He received neither sight nor sound of the house’s owner making her way downstairs, which allowed the burr of impatience in his heel to persist unabated. Maybe some TV would soothe it for a while.
After all, couches were his lucky place.
His luck held, though not in the way he’d initially hoped. Slumped against one arm of the couch, elbow propping up his head while he absentmindedly flicked through channels on Tess’s TV, a short-lived but familiar noise snapped him back to attention.
It wasn’t the sound of feet coming down the nearby stairs. It wasn’t a voice calling out to him. Instead, it was a vibration in his pocket.
Avril?he immediately wondered, straightening as he dug into his pocket.
Dashed hopes awaited him. Instead of the sultry, troublemaking roommate to the woman he was pretending to be interested in, it washisroommate. Given that he and Grant had become good friends during his first semester at Perrymont, he tried not to be too disappointed. For the next twenty minutes, they tossed a handful of messages back and forth.
Living in the same city where Perrymont was located, he learned that Grant had escaped the full brunt of the blizzard’s fury. Obviously, Liam hadn’t been so lucky, driving home just in time for the biggest winter storm in years to barrel into his home. Of course, without the blizzard, he might not have experienced any of the wonderous events of the past two days.
That blizzard was the first domino to fall, and he thanked Mother Nature wholeheartedly for it.
But he sure as hell couldn’t share that with Grant. Another guy might have been willing to do so: to boast about his newfound relationships with Avril and Tess. A college senior and a professor—both as ravishingly beautiful as any supermodel on the planet. Who wouldn’t want to brag a little about that? Certainly, he’d experienced pride’s intoxicating caress because of what he’d done with both women.
But it would be a massive betrayal for him to share anything with anyone, especially to Tess. As they’d already discussed, their relationship, which remained moderately undefined due to numerous factors, had several tricky components that they needed to stay aware of. The difference in their ages, their previous relationship, her career as a professor. Even if he attended a different college than the one she taught at, he could tell it neared a line she was wary of crossing.
Blessedly, the conversations they’d so far shared about their unorthodox relationship seemed to have soothed most of her worries. For now, at least. But he was determined to ensure that this remained the case.
With that goal in mind, Liam spoke not a word about the unfairly beguiling professor whose house he currently warmed himself within. As far as Grant knew, he was hanging out in his house while snowed-in, not drumming his fingers on next-door neighbor’s couch while hoping to hear footsteps heading down the stairs at any second. That was how it was today; that was how it would be going forward.
Eventually, their chat reached its natural conclusion. Liam put his phone on the couch rather than back in his pocket. He resumed half-heartedly watching a baseball panel discuss the significant offseason changes that had occurred at the Winter Meetings, baseball’s busiest offseason week, almost three weeks ago.
The next pivot in his attention occurred just five minutes later. He didn’t hear any footsteps, but he heard something that certainly preceded them—running water. It zoomed in a dull rush through the pipes above his head, instantly elevating his heart rate.
Tess was awake.
After five minutes, the sound of rushing water still hadn’t abated, so he figured she must be taking a shower. Naturally, that introduced a new desire he was forced to wrestle with.
Should he be thinking about going up and joining her? Just the idea of seeing her dripping wet in her shower was enough to parch his throat. Thoughts of what might occur after that left his pulse pounding so feverishly that he could barely hear himself think.
He knew that decisive action wasn’t exactly his strong suit. Indecisiveness had plagued him for years, and it didn’t show him any mercy now. Even as desire urged him to march upstairs and test his luck, prickling worries that it might be an unwelcome overstep kept him sitting where he did. What if she saw his intrusion as too forward? What if she just wanted some peace and quiet before her day began?
Liam slapped a hand over his eyes, groaning audibly at his self-inflicted hesitance. He was being a worrywart and an idiot. It was Tess who’d admonished him recently for his tendency to undersell himself, to lack confidence. Just twenty-four hours ago, a rare but effective streak of bold decisions had allowed him to reap the rewards. And he wanted to be that person, not the person who sat on a couch while an opportunity most men would die for slipped through his fingertips.
Remember the goal you set for yourself,Liam reminded himself.Where you want to be when you go to sleep tonight.
With that, he propelled himself to his feet, heart pounding anxiously. Although he’d galvanized himself into action, he felt no less uneasy about rolling the dice like this. He had too many years of playing it safe behind him for him to simply hurl off his indecisiveness like a tattered shirt to be replaced by one that imbued him with endless confidence. It’d just have to be something he took apart thread by thread, until it allowed him to be the person he wanted to be.
The person who spent every day with Tess Williams.
He took his first step toward the hallway, toward the stairs, toward Tess’s bedroom, and toward the bathroom connected to it. Nothing would deter him.
Except, apparently, for the dull vibration of his phone where it sat on the couch, which dragged his attention toward it for the second time that morning. If it’d been from Grant, he would have ignored it and kept walking away. If it’d been from any other friends, he’d still have ignored it. Family, too. He’d have ignored just about anyone he knew among the eight billion people who called planet Earth home.
Unfortunately for him, and in what might be the only time in his life he wasn’t pleased to see her name appear on his screen, the message wasn’t from Grant, wasn’t from one of his parents, and wasn’t from one of the eight billion people on Earth that he would have effortlessly ignored.
It was from one of the two or three names that existed outside of that category.
Avril Knight’s name sat on his screen. And that was enough to deny him a chance to shower with Tess that morning.
Chapter Two
Chosen One
Later in the day, Liam fully realized the irony of her texting him at the precise moment she did. How it caused the woman who was most responsible for his success with Tess to effectively cock block him in this instance. Because of everything he owed her, he didn’t begrudge her for it later. The contents of their following conversation also helped somewhat.
