Chapter 2
LONDON
T he honk of a horn pierced the morning air and I sighed, knowing that meant Liam was here. “Gee, thanks, dude. You better hope my neighbors have forgiven me by the time we get back.”
As I muttered under my breath, I wrestled the last of my suitcases to the front door and yanked it open before he dared honk again. He and I were going to have a chat about the proper way to summon a lady from her home. At least send a darn text.
“Barbarian,” I murmured irritably, looking out onto my beautiful street and hoping the community would still let me live here after his rude intrusion of their peace.
Thankfully, no one had run out of their houses yet to cuss him out.
In fact, everything was peaceful and calm outside, no angry hordes with pitchforks gathering in the early morning sunlight.
It was shaping up to be another gorgeous, spring day in Houston and an unexpected pang shot through me when I realized I didn’t know when I would see this place again.
But then Liam slammed his truck’s door, the sound echoing down the street, and I scowled. “Total freaking barbarian. You’re so getting a piece of my mind for this.”
If I could, I’d have stormed out and torn him a new one, but I found myself faced with a conundrum. I’d wheeled so many suitcases to my door that I couldn’t get out of it. I’d left enough space for it to open—I wasn’t a complete idiot—but it seemed my logic had only gotten me so far.
“Dang, princess,” Liam drawled in that Texas twang of his. “Are you moving your whole damn castle?”
I shot him a narrow-eyed glare, doing my best not to notice how good he looked in his faded jeans and his fitted, black tee. He had sneakers on his feet today, which was a nice change from the cowboy boots he’d been wearing almost permanently since he’d moved to Houston with us.
Freshly showered, his hair was still damp and it looked completely black, those green-blue eyes vibrant and alive with excitement.
Between that and a jawline so perfectly sharp that it deserved a believe-it-or-not award, I had to remind myself to keep up my glare instead of accidentally checking him out.
“Your annoying-ass horn probably woke up all my neighbors, so thank you for ruining my social life and the reputation I’ve worked so hard to build on this street.”
Liam grabbed two of my many suitcases and hauled them to his truck, and I did my best not to notice the way the muscles in his arms bulged and rippled while he did it.
He pitched his voice high to sound like mine. “No, thank you , Liam for being such an incredible friend, picking me up, and moving me and my thousand bags four states away.”
I laughed. “I’ll thank you when we get there safe, buddy. You still have to get me and my thousand bags four states away. You haven’t moved me anywhere yet.”
He chuckled. “That’s not the worst point I’ve ever heard you make.”
“That’s because I’ve never made a bad point. They’re all good.” I winked and grabbed two more suitcases, almost falling over a duffel on the floor, but at least I could get to the door now.
Liam took the cases from me. I got a whiff of his scent as he took them and walked ahead of me back to his truck. I would never, ever admit this to him, but I really liked the way he smelled.
He was one of those guys who somehow always managed to smell good, a fresh, masculine spice that I knew was a combination of the shower gel and cologne he used.
I even knew what the scents were, considering that I knew which brand of both shower gel and cologne he preferred—and I’d Googled them.
Sandalwood, bergamot, and black pepper, with citrusy undertones thanks to his shampoo.
No, I’m not a stalker, thank you very much. I’m just perceptive and I spend at least eight hours a day with this guy. Mostly more.
“Alright, princess. Your castle is packed. Let’s hit the road.” He grinned at me over the top of the massive truck, then hopped in. I turned to take one last look at the place I’d called home for the last couple years.
My front yard was filled with flower beds and the lawn was a gorgeous, well-kept green.
I had about two dozen flowerpots on the porch as well, the air fragrant and floral as I breathed it in.
Bay windows framed the front door on either side and the stone detailing on the exterior walls made it look like something of a fairytale cottage to me.
A big one, but I’d chosen it for the feel it’d given me. My sister, Olivia’s, best friend, Lacey, lived on the street too and she was going to check in on the place for me while we were gone.
“Farewell, London World. I’ll see you soon.”
“London! Seriously, we need to hit the road,” Liam called from his truck and I groaned, spinning to give him another glare. I marched toward it and climbed in.
Another lazy, obnoxious smirk spread on his lips. “London World? Are you kidding me right now?”
I fought the urge to stick my tongue out at him. “It was my personal play on Disney World and no one was ever supposed to know about it, so just forget you ever heard that. Also, how the hell did you hear that?”
“Oh, I’m never forgetting that.” He laughed and put his car in gear, easing us away from my home. “You were speaking much louder than you realized, princess.”
“Knock it off with the princess thing, or I’m going to have to bury you somewhere in Louisiana.”
“That’s the next state over. Seems a bit soon to be burying me. I thought you had more grit than that.”
“Call me princess one more time and you’ll never even make it out of Texas.
” I smiled sweetly and pulled out my tablet, pulling up the vision boards I’d made for our new home.
“So, I know our place is furnished, but we’re going to be there a while, so I thought we can decorate a little to make it feel more homey. ”
Liam glanced at me, his fingers drumming out a beat on the steering wheel before he sighed. “Do I have any say in this?”
“Sure. That’s why I’m mentioning it to you. I’ve made a couple of vision boards for us to use as inspiration.”
“And so it begins,” he breathed loud enough for me to hear him before he cleared his throat and spoke up again. “Visions boards. Do we really need those for a house? Isn’t it more of a work thing?”
“Nope. People use them for décor all the time.” I waited until he slowed at a traffic light before I turned the screen toward him. “I called this one the Rose Garden . What do you think?”
He squinted at the tablet. “Is that a pink toaster ? Actually, scratch that. It is a pink toaster. I didn’t even know they came in that color, but I’m not living in a pink-infested home. Everything in that picture is pink. Why?”
“It’s super trendy right now.” I grinned and flipped my hair over my shoulder. “Happily, I had a feeling you might not care about trends, so I’ve got another option for you.”
“Let’s see it, but if it’s all purple, yellow, sage green, orange, red?—”
“Just look at the damn picture.” I held up the tablet and kept it there so he could send glances between stops. “What do you think? I figured that since we’re on the beach, we should use those vibes as inspiration.”
The vision board was all whites and navy blues, with some nautical and seaside patterns on the fabrics and very clean-cut lines for the kitchen and communal areas. Liam’s eyes scanned the board a few times, a sight I was pretty familiar with from him.
Already knowing that meant he approved, I felt a grin inching up on the corners of my lips. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. I love that. Let’s go with that one. Maybe you don’t have the worst taste in décor after all.”
Excitement fluttered through me. “Yay! Are we really doing this? We’re doing this, aren’t we? We’re moving to a different state together again.”
“We are.” A soft smile appeared on his lips as he slid his sunglasses out of the console and put them on. “It’s actually pretty cool, huh? That we’re getting to do this together.”
I dropped my own sunglasses from the top of my head onto my face as the sun finally broke free from the buildings surrounding us. “It’s really cool. My dad is trusting us to open up a whole new branch and we’re going to be doing it together .”
I hadn’t meant to get all giddy and squealy, but I suddenly wanted to do a little happy dance.
Deciding that one of the greatest things of doing this with him was that I didn’t have to hold back, I hit the power button on his radio and put on some music.
A great country song I’d learned to love while I’d been here was on and I whooped before I started dancing in my seat.
Liam laughed, but it wasn’t five seconds before he was singing and dancing right along with me. I smiled at him, wishing I could see his eyes when his head turned and he was looking in my direction.
At the end of the day, despite our bickering and how much we genuinely got on each other’s nerves sometimes, we really were best friends. We’d known each other practically all our lives and since we’d been the same age, he and I had naturally gravitated toward each other as kids.
Abigail and Olivia, my sisters, and Isabella, Liam’s sister, were a few years older than us. While they’d done boring older kid stuff, he and I had always had a blast together. Our bickering was just our way of bonding, really.
I prided myself on being exactly who I was at all times, but Liam was one of the few people I felt really understood me. He’d never been afraid of calling me out when he needed to and he went toe-to-toe with me when others would stand back.
Yet he could give me one look and tell when I needed him to step in on my behalf and he’d never made me feel like a damsel in distress for it. When we were alone together, I’d always felt safe and protected. Loved, even.
He was like a comfort blanket—if comfort blankets were seriously sexy, had those fuck-me lines between their hips, and playful, yet piercing gazes. So basically, he’s nothing like a comfort blanket at all. Especially because I can never pull him on top of me.
Either way, I adored spending time with the guy. We still always had a blast together and opening up this branch was going to be a challenge, but with him by my side, I knew we’d get it done. Not that I’d ever tell him any of that.
Instead, I deleted the pink vision board from my tablet and pulled up our to-do list. “Alright, so our schedule for the first two weeks is going to be a little crazy.”
“Hit me.” He turned down the volume until the music was more of a background hum, his fingers tightening on the steering wheel telling me that he was paying attention. “It’s good thinking to go over this now while we’re still excited and very much awake.”
“Is that a compliment, Mr. Jones?”
He scoffed, but there was a slight grin ghosting across his lips. “ Me compliment you ? Only out of pity.”
I laughed. “The only reason to pity me is because I’m stuck with you, bud.”
“Okay, but seriously. If I have to stop calling you princess , you have to stop calling me buddy and bud .”
“But that’s what you are, old buddy. Old pal? Is that better?”
“No.” His jaw ticked, but he blew out a breath and shrugged. “Fine. Just tell me why our first two weeks are going to be so hectic.”
“Well, we’re going to have to spend some time decorating the new offices. Dad secured the actual space for us, but it’s an empty shell at the moment. It’ll be up to us to make it look like a branch of Walker Marketing.”
Liam groaned. “We’re decorating our house and our offices? I think I should turn around and go drop myself back off at home. They picked the wrong guy for this job.”
“Sorry, dude. We’ve come too far for me to let you do that now.”
His jaw ticked again, but I had no idea why. I hadn’t called him buddy or bud that time. He didn’t say anything about it though, just nodding slowly before he glanced at me from behind those sunglasses. “Fine. What else?”
“We’ll need a team of at least ten people to get started,” I said. “Don’t forget, we have that big job fair to attend next week. Maybe we can find some recruits.”
“Wait, isn’t James going to that?” he asked. “Didn’t you tell me a couple weeks ago that?—”
I smacked his arm. “Hey! Don’t say the J word. He is dead to me.”
Liam chuckled, the sound throaty and low. “His name is now the J word ? Is he Voldemort?”
I smacked him again, a little harder this time. “Seriously, no J word. We can figure out that little issue later. For now, we just need to hit the ground running.”