Chapter 16 #3
“I fucking knew it.”
With a devious giggle, she shrugs beneath my arm. “Sometimes you need to be taken down a notch. This seemed like one of those times.”
“One last question, Liam,” Aunt Shirley calls from the other end of the table. The glee is palpable as she rubs her hands together. “And it’s the best question yet.”
Naturally this gets everyone’s attention. Of course they’d save the “best” for last.
I puff my chest out, full of confidence. “Hit me.”
Aunt Laura places her hands on the end of the table, looks at both Jordan and me, and offers a simple smile. “Are you falling in love with our Jordan?”
It takes every fucking ounce of control I have not to expel my breath in one loud exhale. It takes that same level of control to not squirm like a four-year-old who is about to pee his pants. Somehow I school every one of my facial muscles to remain as loose and confident as I was a moment ago.
On the inside, I feel none of it. On the inside, I have no idea how the fuck I’m supposed to answer that question without looking like a complete jackass.
If I say yes and then we fake break up, I’ve broken Jordan’s heart, and I’m an asshole to all of them.
If I say no, I’m definitely an asshole and Jordan has to pretend to be hurt.
This is a lose-lose situation. There are no good answers. I’ve been duped. They planned this from the beginning, and I’ll bet if Jordan and I had been doing better at competing they would have thrown this question at me a long time ago.
Fuck.
“Auntie, you can’t ask him that!” Jordan is quick to defend me.
Yet I find myself shaking my head, my arm sliding from her shoulders to move around her waist to pull her closer to me. “No, it’s okay, Jor. I’ll answer it.”
A hush falls over everyone, every sound in the entire place ceasing to exist. My heartbeat is roaring through my entire body. I can hear it, feel it, and hell, if my dry mouth is because of it, I suppose I can taste it too. This was a dumb fucking idea.
Here goes nothing.
“The first date I ever went on was with Jordan. I’ve never wanted to date or settle down, so this entire thing is brand new to me.
I’ve never known love to know if I was in or falling into it.
” Angling my body towards Jordan, I cup her chin between my fingers, gazing down at her.
“But I know that if there’s one person on this planet for me, it’s her.
If there’s one person that could convince me that love is worth it, it would be her. ”
She grabs onto my hips, her teeth catching her bottom lip.
“So while I don’t know that I’m in love with her, or even falling in love with her, I know the potential is there. I know I’d trust her with my deepest, darkest secrets. And I know that life would never be the same without her.”
Tilting my head down, I come close to pressing my lips to hers until I realize that we’re still in a room full of our friends—and Nate—who know this is all a sham. At the last second I swipe my lips along her cheek until I reach her ear.
“I’d kiss you right now if it wouldn’t completely give us away.”
“It’s better this way,” she whispers back.
It’s then that I realize her entire body is shaking. Wrapping my arms around her, I pull her in for a tight hug, the most I can offer her with everyone around, hoping to give her comfort for whatever she’s thinking or feeling in this moment.
“I’m calling it now,” Aunt Shirley says. Turning my head to look over at her, she’s got a lovesick expression on her face as she stares at the two of us. “They’ll be the next ones to get married.”
That sends everyone into uproarious laughter. Or at least one half of the crowd is laughing. The ones that know the truth. The entire older generation, however, is looking at us knowingly. It’s unsettling.
“Another round, Liam?” Aunt Laura asks.
“Hell no!” My answer is immediate. “One round with the two of you is all one man should ever have to face in his lifetime.”
That has everyone laughing. The aunts know how they are.
Jordan is still buried in my arms, and I give her a tight squeeze. “Why don’t you see if Hailey and Luke want to play Jenga? Bet Hailey our tab. I need a chance to win my money back.”
Jordan tilts her head up to me. “Where you going?”
“Hit the head.” I press a chaste kiss to the tip of her nose. “I’ll be right back.”
With a soft smile she nods her head. For a second I drink her in.
Her eyes have a slight glaze to them, her cheeks a rosy flush, but it’s the smile that really gets me.
I’ve never seen this smile. It’s dreamy, like she’s sitting on cloud nine, and doesn’t plan on coming down anytime soon.
It’s beyond beautiful. She’s ethereal to me.
I damn near don’t want to let her go. My chest constricts, and my stomach muscles tighten. It feels like that moment right before an orgasm, but also the moment right after, all rolled into one, except the feeling is tenfold. I don’t understand it, but I know that I like it.
And that scares the ever-loving fuck out of me.
I give her a quick kiss to the forehead and then release her, watching the dreamy look blink away from her eyes as I step away. Then before anyone can stop me, I’m striding through the casino to the nearest bathroom as quick as I can, wondering what the fuck that was.
“Liam!” A voice calls from behind me. “Wait!”
Part of me wants to break into a run to get away from whoever is following me, but the part of me that still has a thread of control stops to see who’s coming.
Quinn. Suddenly I’m glad I stopped. Talking to her will push any thoughts that were creeping into my head about Jordan and the feeling in my chest away.
“What’s up, Quinn the Queen?” I ask as she comes to a halt in front of me.
“How much of an idiot are you?”
Leave it to Quinn not to beat around the bush. It’s something I appreciate about her, but right now I’m not sure what she’s referring to. “What?”
“You’ve slept with her, haven’t you?” she asks, folding her arms across her chest.
The question has my eyes darting all around the casino floor to see if there are any ears that might pick up on this conversation. Namely Nate. I do it without thinking, which is my first mistake. I’ve given away the answer without a word.
“Oh fuck. You know, I knew you were an idiot, but I really didn’t think you had a death wish,” she says, smacking my arm. “Are you crazy? Nate is going to kill you.”
“You need to keep your mouth shut,” I hiss at her, still looking around.
“Oh, believe me, I will deny any knowledge of this. I am not going to be on the receiving end of that wrath.” Her shaggy black hair is flying through the air as she shakes her head back and forth.
“How long have—” She gasps, the lightbulb going on in her head.
“Oh my god, she’s the hellcat, isn’t she? ”
My jaw snaps shut, and I clench my teeth.
“Holy shit. Huh.” Quinn’s eyebrows raise, her mouth turning downwards in contemplation. “I never saw that one coming, but okay. Jordan’s a hellcat. Oh good lord, didn’t Nate come up with that?”
She reaches into her hair and shakes it out for a few seconds, trying to wrap her mind around all the connecting dots.
“Yeah, let’s maybe not mention that,” I say dryly. “Can I go take a leak now?”
“No!” she huffs, crossing her arms over her chest again. “Liam, what are you doing? Do you know the shit that’s going to happen when Nate finds out?”
“He isn’t going to find out,” I snap at her. “Because no one is going to tell him. Jordan and I agreed this ends when we get back to Santa Rosé.”
Quinn is standing close enough to me that when she bursts into laughter, I can feel the expulsion of air against my skin. The epitome of someone laughing in your face.
“You’re an even bigger idiot than I thought.
” Her head is shaking again, but the laughter is suddenly gone.
“When this blows up in your face, because it is going to blow up in your face, I will do my due diligence and be there for you because you’re one of my best friends.
But I will also be there to say I fucking told you so. ”
If this blows up in my face, which it won’t, I’d say those are fair terms. “Noted.”
“And you’re buying the rest of my drinks tonight for the stress you’ve now put me under,” she adds as she walks past me towards the bathroom.
Fuck. Now I really need to win against Luke.
I sigh. “Whatever you want. Just keep your mouth shut.”
That part is integral to keeping Nate in the dark where he needs to stay.
But honestly, it’s not him that I’m worrying about right now. It’s me and the fucking feeling in my chest.
It’ll be fine. You can fuck it out of yourself and right into Jordan later tonight.
Yeah. That’s what I need. To fuck her lights out. Fucking fixes everything.