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In short order, Victoria found a reason to sigh.
“It’s like a disease. She just can’t help herself.”
Stowing his smile away, lest it provoke Victoria’s ire, he couldn’t disagree.
After their licentious conduct last night, he and Avril had placed each recipient’s gifts into their own quadrant in his living room. Meanwhile, his small pile of presents, reduced to just three after he’d removed Avril’s gifts and because he’d gently placed Tess’s candles inside of a single shoebox before wrapping it, sat within the room like a tiny island next to three vibrantly colored glaciers.
Walking toward that smallest pile, Victoria picked up one of them—and by no accident. After all, at the location where the names of the gift giver and the recipient went, his name was etched in the former’s slot.
Without saying anything, even without raising an eyebrow, she merely looked over her shoulder at him.
His immediate response, much like a child caught in their parent’s study when they knew they weren’t supposed to go in there, was to shrug. “I didn’t want to leave anyone out. It would have felt weird to get everyonebutyou a gift.”
Withholding any outward judgment of his statement, Victoria’s sharp, icy eyes shifted toward Tess and Anna’s individual presents. “Everyone else but gets one, but Avril gets two from you?”
“Sort of. I bought her two relatively inexpensive things and put them together in one gift, and the small one will make sense once it’s opened.”
Victoria placed his gift for her back among the pile. “I don’t see Avril’s gifts foryouanywhere. Did she take them home with her?”
He shook his head. “No, she didn’t get me anything yesterday. She told me that she was making me my gift, even.”
“I would be wary of that.”
“Believe me, I know.”
“Hopefully, it won’t bring with it much collateral damage,” Victoria said, almost certainly referring to Anna—and echoing a thought that he’d already had.
“Hopefully, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did, somehow.” He shrugged again. “Maybe she’s learned a lesson after what happened a few days ago.”
“With Anna’s uncharacteristically foolish decision to flee her apartment in a blizzard, you mean.”
So, she’d heard about that, too. This, he realized, was something he should assume going forward. Although he hadn’t had many interactions with Victoria, she was close to the other three women. It should come as no surprise that she was kept abreast of these types of things.
“Yeah, that.” Liam stepped up beside her and hoisted several of the presents in the nearest of the three bigger piles—hers, in fact. “I think it’ll all be okay. She might love pushing people’s buttons, but I don’t think she’d ever do anything meanspirited to Anna.”
Victoria joined him, and together, they hefted roughly half her pile. “That is very true. They are incredibly close.”
“As close as the two of you are?”
The question, which squirmed through the bars, found his caution napping. It couldn’t be recalled, not after he’d blurted it out like that. He could only wait for Victoria’s response and hope she didn’t take offense to his prying.
Appearing unruffled by his sudden delve into her and Avril’s relationship, Victoria, gift-laden, began heading for his door. Liam hurried after her, shifting the gifts in his arms enough to free up a hand and open it for them.
“There are similarities and differences, as there are in all relationships,” Victoria finally said midway through their return to Tess’s house. “In disposition, Anna and I have several similarities. And Avril loves to constantly test the waters, even with those she’s close to.Especiallywith those she is close to, I should say.”
Relieved that she hadn’t seen him as prying, Liam nodded. “I definitely saw it a little like opposites attract when I met them both.”
“It’s not quite the same between us, however,” Victoria said, apparently willing to indulge his curiosity with more than a surface-level response. “Avril and I met when I was in grad school, and she was just about to begin middle school.” Now, she paused, turning her naturally sharp attention toward him. “How aware of our history has Avril made you? And don’t pretend that she didn’t gossip after I departed the other day. I’m sure you had questions, and that she had answers.”
They reached Tess’s front door, where they delayed continuing their conversation as they deposited their first load of gifts near Tess’s Christmas tree. Its owner came out of the kitchen to check up on them, and they spent a minute warming up. Soon after, they returned to his home for the next round of presents.
“I know about you and her brother,” Liam explained during the second trip. “And I know that Avril thinks you made the right call when you ended things. Other than that, I don’t have all that many specifics.”
“And are you seeking the specifics now?” she bluntly asked when they reached his doorway.
“I don’t want to pry if it’s a sensitive subject or anything,” he hastily said, which did little to alleviate the calm focus of the beautiful professor walking beside him. “But… yes. I am curious about it, at least.”
“All right.” They entered his living room and collected the rest of her presents. “How did Avril describe my relationship with Casey—her brother?”
