7. Liam
CHAPTER 7
liam
The end of the week came hard and fast, and I was feeling worked up enough that I either needed a hard workout that included pummeling one of my dipshit brothers in the ring, or a stiff drink. Choosing the latter, I roll my truck up to the only bar in Aspen Ridge—The Night Owl—and order a beer to unwind for a beat.
The Night Owl has a rustic vibe while also being surprisingly edgy. The ceiling is supported by thick wooden beams and open pipework, giving the space that industrial yet modern vibe. It’s the bar itself that steals the show, though. Crafted from live-edge black walnut, a silky black epoxy river run detail flows through the center. Each of the tables around the open dance floor match. Leather barstools are scattered about, and the craftsman in me appreciates the aesthetic of the place. It fits in seamlessly with the town.
Taking a deep pull of my beer, which always gets me funny looks since I’m one of the lead master distillers at work, I do my best to chill out. I haven’t been able to shake thoughts of Hannah out of my head, the events of the week on a steady replay the entire day as I tried to focus on my tasks at the distillery. Being a master distiller takes focus and clarity, neither of which I have at the moment. I had to pass tasks to Graham on more than one occasion, and I’m grateful for my right-hand man. Technically we share the same title, and while he’d never say differently, I look up to him since he and my grandfather taught me everything I know.
Graham has been working for the distillery since I was in grade school, and even though he’s fifteen years older than me, we’ve got a great relationship. He’s a single dad and while I’m not one, I’ve leaned on him more than once as I was there to help support Hannah with a baby neither of us knew how to take care of. It helped that he’s known Hannah most of her life since he’s best friends with her dad.
Her words echo again and again, making my heart rate pick up, the beer doing nothing to settle my thoughts and nerves. “Yes, bear, I’ll marry you.” Fuck if I don’t want to hear those words from her lips with deep meaning behind them. The other morning, I thought for sure she was going to go back on it all, but what I didn’t expect was for her to be so compliant. Melting right in front of me. She’s not as unaffected by me as I thought she was. I just need to show her that I’m more than her best friend, that I can be everything she wants and needs. Because, let’s face it, come hell or high water, once I make Hannah mine, fake arrangement or not, I’m not giving her up.
I pull out my phone to text my brother, in need of some backup to get some time in with Hannah outside of Bean Haven and her apartment. I know only one brother who can handle it right now, and my sister would see right through the bullshit and call me out.
Me: Grandpa caught me drinking his whiskey again.
Carter: Fuck asshole. You couldn’t send it to the group chat? Where are you?
Me: The Night Owl
Carter: Okay. I get why you texted me. Our brothers aren’t any fun anymore
Well, shit. I’m about to piss on his good day.
Me: You gonna come or what?
Carter: Yeah, be there in 5, I’m close
Pocketing my phone, I order Carter a drink and sit at the bar to wait for him. I’m torn between telling him the truth or just going for it and keeping everyone in the dark. I know Dallas will put it together since he knows the pressure Hannah’s parents are putting on her, but I can’t take the chance of word getting out. Carter is a gamble. Dallas is a sure thing.
By the time he walks in, I’ve got my game face on. Really not hard to do when I’ve wanted Hannah for as long as I have and had to keep it to myself. There won’t be anything fake about this arrangement.
“Hey, man, where’s the fire?” Carter greets me as he loosens the tie around his neck.
“Take a seat, little brother.”
He picks up the whiskey on the rocks I ordered him and does a scan of the room. My hand comes quick and hard to the backside of his head, causing his teeth to clang against the glass and slosh alcohol across the bar top.
“Eyes over here, fucker. We’re not here to pick up pussy.”
“Asshole. That’s what you think. Get on with it, what’s the emergency?”
“I’m in love with Hannah.”
He finishes dabbing up the spilled alcohol and takes another sip, his expression unchanged before facing me, the picture of composure. What the fuck?
“Okay? You think everyone in AR hasn’t known that? Surprised Han doesn’t know that. And don’t abuse the code phrase, asshole. What if I was doing something important?”
“Were you?”
He shoves his middle finger in my face like a prepubescent boy, and I smack it away.
“We’re dating. And I want to take her out this weekend, just the two of us, but we don’t have a sitter.”
Hannah’s sisters, Harlow and Hailey, would be a sure thing to help out but they won’t be back in Aspen Ridge this weekend.
“You’re shitting me right now. No. Ask Mom.”
“I’m not ready to tell Mom we’re dating. We’ve been keeping it to ourselves for as long as possible,” I lie. “I just want to take her to the drive-in. Charlie will be sleeping for like ninety percent of the time we’re gone.”
“Who the fuck wants to go to the drive-in in the middle of winter? What about Ivy?”
“Dude. No. You. I used the code phrase. It’s important.”
He drops his head back and groans up at the ceiling, and I know I’ve got him.
“You’ll owe me.”
“Big time. Cash in whenever you want.”
As I leave my brother to corrupt whatever innocent women may be left in Aspen Ridge, I pull out my phone to text Hannah.
Me: I’m on my way over.
The walk up Main Street is a cold one. It’s been a harsh winter this year, and my breath turns to mist as I exhale into my fists to warm them up. Snow crunches under my boots in a thick layer that has built up over the last few weeks; people are getting lazier and lazier about shoveling as the season wanes.
The town is already still as I continue up the cobblestone sidewalk toward Bean Haven, the kind of stillness that only a small mountain town can bring. The smell of fresh pine mixed with the smokiness from woodstoves burning is strong as I take a deep breath, the air sharp as it fills my lungs. I love this town. The seasons. The elements. The people. I especially love the distillery and being able to create a product that people can enjoy. The only thing I’m missing in life is a family of my own. A family with Hannah and Charlie.
I make the trek up the back stairs of Hannah’s apartment, stomping my boots until the snow shakes free. Opening her door, I toe them off and drop the boots outside before walking into the warmth of the little place, excitement over seeing her heating up my veins faster than the house can.
I find Hannah lying on her side on the couch, stretched out like a cat sunbathing in a window. Her tiny sleep shorts leave little covered, the thin, delicate vines of her floral tattoo peeking out the bottom of the hem as I take a moment to peruse her fine body. A crop top reveals a strip of bare skin on her midriff, and knee-high chunky wool socks cover toes that she keeps painted black. Her eyes are closed, and she looks so goddamn peaceful like this.
Gently picking up her legs, I take a seat at the end of the couch, resting them back on my lap and rubbing her feet to rouse her. She comes to slowly, her eyes heavily lidded and slightly groggy as if she’s been sleeping for a while.
“Hi, beauty.”
“Hi. What are you doing here?”
“Wanted to hang with my favorite girls. You two aren’t up for partying?”
She playfully snaps her leg out to smack me in the chest, my instincts kicking in and grabbing her foot in my hand.
“The other night nearly killed me, you jackass. I’m not young anymore.”
I gently press my thumb into the center of her sock-covered foot and slide it up and down, earning me the sweetest sigh from her in response. Fuck, I love touching her.
See me, baby. See me as more than just your best friend.
“Got us a sitter for next Friday night. You up for going to the drive-in with me?”
“Depends. What’s playing?”
“Does it matter? It’s a date, Hannah. It could be Mrs. Doubtfire and you’d go because that’s the rules.”
I continue to rub her foot, squeezing and making circles in the center, watching the expression on her face as she fights with the blissed-out feeling I’m pulling from her.
“You’re such an idiot,” she laughs. “For real. What’s playing? Or I’m just gonna look it up on my phone.”
“Holy shit, God forbid you’re surprised,” I jest as I give her foot a hard squeeze, switching to the other one, wishing like hell we were skin-to-skin instead. “A double feature, obviously. The Nun and Annabelle: Creation. ”
She jumps in excitement, nearly heel-striking me in the balls. “Fuck, Han! Watch it!”
“Oh, don’t be such a baby, your package isn’t that big, I barely grazed it! ”
“Fuck, that sass,” I grind out with my teeth clenched. “One of these days I’m gonna spank it outta you.”
I can’t help but smile as she rolls her eyes in a dramatic display, forcing herself to shiver like she could ever truly be scared of me.
“Yes, obviously we’re going to the drive-in. I love that they’ll still play them through the winter. I’m so glad they’re showing those movies in order. How people don’t realize they should be watched in chronological order instead of by release date is so annoying!”
Here we go . . .
Hannah spends the next ten minutes venting about the whole picture people are missing when they watch franchises in order of release date instead of chronologically. She’s passionate about four things: her daughter, baking, hockey, and horror movies.
After she’s settled down, I decide I need to hit her with the heavy questions, needing to check in on her headspace and where she’s at after the atomic-sized bomb I dropped on her.
“How are you handling everything? Have you had time to digest it all?”
She answers right away, which doesn’t surprise me. Hannah typically says exactly what she’s thinking or feeling. You get what you see with her, something I love. I hate having to fucking guess how someone is feeling or what they’re thinking.
“I haven’t had time to digest it, no. I battled a hangover—thanks for that by the way—and then went into mama-mode, and café owner. He really has a pregnant girlfriend?”
“Yeah, beauty. She’s far enough along for me to notice right away, too.”
“What a piece of shit. Actually, no, he’s less than a piece of shit. Ugh. I hate him, bear. How did you not knock his teeth out?”
I laugh because I don’t know how I didn’t.
“Your guess is as good as mine. Fuck, I wanted to. I saw red, but also, I saw you and Charlie. I just went into protection mode. If I curb-stomped his ass, it would have made things a whole helluva lot worse.”
She shakes her head in agreement, seemingly lost in thought as she takes it in.
“Why have you always hated him?”
Shit.
Owen and I finish lacing up our skates, ready to hit the ice, feeling good about tonight’s game against Forks. Playing hockey feels good, and since I’m the only one of my siblings who took it up, it gives me some much-needed separation from being lumped in as one of them. Especially when our dad already makes us box together at the gym.
“Hell yeah, I hit that. Not that great of a lay, but she’s hot enough, I’d fuck her again.”
“Who’d you hit, Jenkins? Your hand again? You’re gonna burn a hole through that damn thing if you’re not careful,” my friend Owen says to the arrogant asshole who just entered the locker room with his posse of braindead fuckwits.
“Fuck you, Hopkins. Don’t be jealous,” Levi spits in our direction. He’s such a sleazeball and has always annoyed the shit out of me with how he conducts himself on and off the ice.
“He hooked up with Hannah Haven last night. Took her virginity in the back of his car.”
My blood boils as my posture goes rigid, balling my hands into fists, unable to control my reaction .
“That true?” I grind out, standing up to my full height. My teeth clenched so hard I’m surprised I’m not breaking them.
“What, Hayes? You pissed I got to her first? Surprised you didn’t get to pop her little cherry? She bled all over my dick so good.”
My body reacts before my brain consciously catches up with what’s happening. My fist connects with Levi’s nose, a deafening crack as it breaks, blood immediately pooling. I don’t stop my swings as he stumbles back. I guess those years of training in boxing paid off. Feels good to actually pummel something not in a ring or wearing a helmet on the ice.
Levi is slow to respond, his right arm swinging out to take a shot at my face but I easily dodge the hit, connecting another one to his ribs. Yelling ensues behind us.
“Don’t fucking talk about her like that! I don’t want to hear her name outta your fuckin’ mouth you piece of shit!”
His reply comes out nasally and diluted but his words are like ice over my body.
“I’ll fuck her until I’m done with her, maybe I’ll even pass her around to my boys.”
I get one last hit to the side of his face before he stumbles back into our teammates, eyes rolling to the back of his head.
“Fuck you, Jenkins!” I spit, as Owen and one of our coaches stop me from going after him again.
“We’ve just got some shitty-ass history, Han.”
Her face falls as she looks at me, and I know she’s not going to let this go until I come clean.
“It has to do with me, doesn’t it?”
“You don’t wanna do this. You’ve got enough on your plate. ”
“For fuck’s sake, bear, when did you start treating me like I’m made of glass?”
“He was bragging about taking your virginity in the back of his car before one of our hockey games senior year. I lost it.”
“Holy shit, that’s how his face got so busted up?” she says with a laugh, which surprises the hell out of me.
“It’s not funny. I got a five-game suspension for that, Hannah. My senior year of hockey.”
“Yeah, but I know you and it was worth it, wasn’t it?”
I smile wildly at her because she’s right.
“Disappointed I didn’t get to break more than just his nose.”
“Yeah, but that fucker is still crooked, so he’s got to live with that forever, thanks to you.”
I join her in a laugh this time.
“Thanks for always having my back, bear. Even now, you’re coming in like a knight on his white horse.”
“I think there’s a good chance I’m over the weight limit for a horse, but the idea is cute. I’ve always got you. You and me.”
“You and me.”