Chapter 8
Liam
My doorbell rings. That’s Kendall.
Nerves crash through me. I glance at the takeout I ordered sitting on the kitchen island.
For a second, I doubt myself. Was it weird that I ordered food for tonight without telling her? Or asking what she was in the mood for?
I thought it would be nice to surprise her after she’s worked all day, but now I’m second-guessing myself. We used to do this in college when we would hang out. Whenever I’d come over to her place, she’d order takeout and we’d eat and hang out. I’d do the same when she’d come over to my place.
But maybe she’ll be upset that I’m reminding her of our college days? Especially since that’s when we fell out…even though I can’t think of why it happened in the first place…even though she’s still obviously bothered by whatever I did.
I think back to what she said at the engagement party.
You haven’t changed much since college, have you?
I’ve been racking my brain since then and I can’t figure out what she’s talking about. All I remember is her pulling back in our friendship halfway through junior year. That’s when she started to get distant, and we started fighting more and more.
I take a breath and silently tell myself to stop freaking out. I’m probably reading way too much into this.
I walk to the door and answer it. “Hey.”
I try not to stare at her standing there looking gorgeous. She’s wearing a simple blouse and skirt, and her long, dark hair is loose and falling around her shoulders. She looks fucking incredible. She always does.
Tonight she’s wearing those dark-rimmed glasses that drive me wild every time I see her in them.
She doesn’t wear them often. I’ve seen her in them maybe a couple dozen times since I’ve known her.
In college, she wore them whenever she started to get a headache from staring at her computer for too long.
She always looks like a sexy librarian when she wears them. I still remember the first time I saw her in them. I was stopping over at Aidan’s apartment while he was helping her study for some grad school entrance exam. I looked at her and I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head.
And that’s when I realized I had a thing for hot women who wear glasses.
I clear my throat and try not to stare at her like a creep. “Come on in,” I say as I step to the side.
She flashes an easy smile and my heart skids in my chest. I didn’t realize how much I missed getting a genuine smile from Kendall. It’s been years, not since college.
She smiled just like this at brunch the other day. I thought my heart was going to explode in my chest. It felt amazing to make her smile like that.
She walks in and kicks off her heels. “Oh wow,” she says as she gazes around the open-concept space of my townhouse. “You have a really nice place.”
“Thanks.”
“Did you decorate it yourself?”
I laugh. “Nope. I hired a professional. You should have seen how this place looked the first year I lived here.”
She looks at me, her smile sly. “I bet I can guess. Frat house chic, right?”
I grin at her. “Something like that.” I walk into the kitchen. “What can I get you to drink? I have sparkling water, organic juice, tea, coffee. I also have wine and beer if you want something a little harder.”
“Sparkling water would be great. Thank you.”
I grab her a chilled bottle from the fridge and hand it to her. She’s mid-sip when she sees the food on the counter. “You ordered food?”
“Yeah. I thought you might be hungry after work.”
She flashes another bright smile at me. My stomach does a backflip.
She sets her water on the counter, rips open one of the bags, and grabs one of the Chinese takeout boxes. When she opens it, she stills. For a second, she just stares blankly at the container of sesame beef.
That doubt from earlier turns into regret. Shit.
She looks up at me. “You ordered sesame beef for me?”
I rub the back of my neck. “Uh, yeah. I remember it was your favorite in college.”
The sweetest smile tugs at her lush lips. She closes her eyes and inhales before grabbing a pair of chopsticks and digging in.
Relief washes through me. She’s not mad. It’s all okay.
She’s two bites in when she looks at me and pauses. Her tan cheeks flush red. She flashes a shy smile.
“Sorry,” she says after swallowing. “This is pretty barbaric of me to stuff my face in front of you like this, isn’t it?”
I lean against the counter and chuckle. “Not at all. Have at it. You want a plate?”
She shakes her head as she grabs a container of fried rice and dumps it into the sesame beef. “This is my preferred way to eat Chinese takeout.”
“I remember. You always did eat takeout like a starved Viking,” I joke.
She smiles and reaches across the counter to shove me. I laugh. “I’m kidding. That’s how I eat too, remember? It’s nice to know I’m not the only one,” I say.
She’s quiet as she looks at me, like she’s about to stay something. But then she just looks back at her food and takes another bite.
I grab the container of shrimp lo mein and have a few bites. For a minute, we eat in silence together.
“This was really nice of you. Thank you,” she says softly as she looks at me.
“It’s no problem. How’s your aunt doing?”
“She’s good.”
“You two hitting up more trendy Nashville spots?”
Kendall chuckles. “Going to brunch took a lot out of her, so we’ve stayed at home the rest of this week.”
“Is she okay?”
Kendall nods as she pokes her chopsticks through her sesame beef. “Yeah, she just has to rest a lot whenever we do an outing like that. I take her out about once a week because she likes to check out new restaurants and shops, but she’s usually pretty exhausted and sore.”
“Oh. Sorry.” I instantly feel like a dumbass. What a stupid thing to say.
Kendall flashes a sad smile. “It’s okay. Not like it’s your fault she has MS.” She chuckles weakly at her joke. A second later, her smile turns brighter. “You really made her day. She keeps talking about how charming you were on Sunday.”
“I mean, can you blame her? I’m pretty damn charming.”
Kendall rolls her eyes as she laughs.
I clear my throat. “I know I mentioned it before, but that was messed up how the restaurant lost your reservation and tried to sit you at the bar. And how they didn’t do anything to try and make it right.”
The expression on Kendall’s beautiful face sobers. “It happens sometimes. We’re pretty used to it by now. Some places just don’t care to help disabled people.”
I make a disgusted noise as I tug a hand through my hair in frustration. “That’s really fucked up.”
“It’s the truth. My current landlord is the first one I’ve had who didn’t put up a fight when I asked him to make a couple of accommodations for my aunt so she could live with me.”
“You live together?”
She nods. “For the past three years, I’ve been her primary caretaker.”
I look at her, surprised. She’s never once mentioned being the caretaker for her aunt, or that she lives with her so she can take care of her.
“Kendall, that’s a big deal.”
“I know.” She grabs an eggroll and takes a bite.
“When I asked our landlord to help me install a ramp next to the porch steps of our duplex so my aunt could easily get in and out, he installed it himself the next day when I was at work. That was so nice of him. The landlord of the last place I lived didn’t even return my calls and emails when I asked him to install a support bar in the shower for her. ”
“No, that’s not what I…” I shake my head. “I mean, yeah, that’s awesome your current landlord is so great. Your previous landlord sounds like a dipshit. What I meant is that it’s a big deal that you’re taking care of your aunt.”
She stops chewing and looks at me, clearly surprised at what I said.
“What?” She sounds so shocked, so confused. Does she really not understand what a huge deal it is for her to do that?
“What you’re doing for your aunt is incredible.”
She blinks at me, like she still doesn’t understand.
So I lean closer and look her in the eyes. “You’re amazing, Kendall.”
For a second, she stares at me, like my words are finally sinking in.
“Do people not tell you that you’re incredible for what you do? They should.”
A soft smile pulls at her mouth. “It’s not that. My aunt tells me all the time how much she appreciates me. So does the rest of my family. It’s just…I’m not used to hearing people who aren’t my loved ones say that. I’m used to the opposite, actually.”
I frown. “Who the hell would make you feel bad about you taking care of your aunt?”
She sets aside the empty carton of sesame beef and takes a sip of water.
“My ex,” she says as she glances off to the side before turning back to me.
“He wanted to move in together. I did too. But when I told him that I wanted my aunt to live with us, he didn’t feel the same way. So he broke up with me.”
A stab of anger lands at the center of my gut. “He broke up with you over that?”
She shrugs. “I can kind of understand. It’s one thing to live with your partner. But to ask them to live with their family member too is a lot.”
“No, it’s not.”
She frowns at me like she’s genuinely surprised I feel this way.
“She’s your aunt, and you take care of her. You’re a package deal.”
She starts to lift into a small smile. “You really think that?”
“Yeah. Family comes first. Always.”
She bites her lip as she stares at me. Then she looks down as she brushes her hair over her shoulder.
“Gotta say, I didn’t expect cocky hockey star Liam Scott to be such a wholesome family man.”
I smile. “Family is the most important thing to me. It’s cool to know that it is for you too.”
Warmth flashes in Kendall’s beautiful brown eyes. “You’re honestly saying that if you had a girlfriend and she wanted to move in with you but also bring her deadbeat little brother, you’d be okay with that?”
“No way. That’s not the same situation. But if she was taking care of a family member, I’d be happy to have her move them in with us.”
Kendall raises an eyebrow like she’s skeptical. “Wouldn’t you be worried about privacy? Having your own space? Couples break up all the time because their families cross boundaries.”
I shrug. “I’d get a big enough place where we could all have our own space.”
Kendall grins. “I forgot. You can afford that with your hockey star salary. But what about, like, noises?”
“What do you mean?” I take a drink from my water glass.
Her cheeks flush. “You know…like, bedroom noises.” She lets out a flustered chuckle. “Wouldn’t that be kind of a mood killer knowing that people might hear you and your girlfriend having sex?”
I almost choke. Oh…I never thought about that.
A second later, an image pops in my head. Of me and Kendall…in bed.
She’s riding me. Her lush mouth is open as she moans and pants, getting louder by the second.
I reach up and cup my hand over her mouth. “You’re getting pretty loud there, firecracker. We need to be quiet, remember?”
That only turns her on more. Her eyes roll back as she moans louder into my hand, bouncing harder on my dick…
I shove the visual out of my mind. What the fuck?
Shame cooks me from the inside out. What the hell is wrong with my brain?
I drain the rest of the water in my glass and look her in the eye. I flash a smug smile, hoping she can’t tell that I was just entertaining an x-rated fantasy with her as the star.
“We’d figure out a way to make it work,” I say, then instantly regret it.
Well. That sounded suggestive as fuck.
I clear my throat. My imagination took this off the rails. Time to get back on track.
I check the time on my phone. “It’s getting late. We should probably get started planning the bachelor party, right?”