Chapter 4
LONDON
“ I feel like we should record this.” I pulled my phone out of my purse and switched it to video, bringing it up in front of us as Liam and I each pushed a cart into the first aisle.
“Liam and London’s Miami Adventure. Day one.
We’ve just found the closest Target to our house and we’re about to embark on our first ever joint grocery shopping experience. ”
“Do we really have to film this?” he complained jokingly. “Things happen even if they’re not on video, London.”
“Do they really, though? This feels like a tree falling in a forest argument to me.” I glanced at him, unreasonably excited for this, even if it was just grocery shopping. “Another argument, and we actually do need to have this one, is which brand of laundry detergent to get?”
“That’s easy.” He frowned. “The cheapest one.”
“The cheapest…” I blinked hard and looked right into the camera, my head slowly shaking as I tried to imagine rolling with his plan. “Uh, no. There was a right answer, and that wasn’t it.”
“Well, if you’re paying, then get whatever you use. I’m not fussy, but when we get to the condiments aisle, be ready to throw down. Camera or no, I will fight you over ketchup.”
My nose wrinkled. “Really? Ketchup?”
“I take my condiments seriously.” He smirked into my camera and I sighed.
In the end, I won on laundry detergent, fabric softener, and toilet paper, and he got to choose the condiments.
Most of the other shoppers must’ve thought we were crazy for all the laughing and bickering over everything from cheese to frozen fish, but I was having too much fun to care.
Being out here with him alone was weirdly exhilarating and I was leaning into it.
After we’d picked up everything we needed, we drove back home and dropped it off. Then we took a slow drive and kept our eyes peeled for a restaurant to grab dinner. Just a few blocks away from our new place, strings of lights wrapped around palm trees caught my eye and I pointed the place out.
“Wait, I think that might be something.” I leaned forward and sure enough, the sideways surfboard mounted outside said, The Fin and Flounder – Seafood Cafe.
“Winner, winner.” Liam grinned and pulled into the sandy parking area. He climbed out of the truck and I followed half a step behind.
We were greeted by a pretty woman around our own age, who batted her lashes at Liam as soon as her eyes met his. My gut twitched, but I ignored it and smiled at her. “We’d like a table for two, please. Outside if possible.”
“Of course.” She led us through an interior dining area with fish nets strung from the ceilings. It was cozy but with a trendy vibe to it. She took us out onto a deck that was right on the beach.
After waving us to a table and dropping off our menus, she disappeared. I looked at Liam across the table, his features bathed in the warm glow of the twinkle lights all around us.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked. “Do I have broccoli in my teeth?”
“It’s because you’re sitting right across from me. Where else do you want me to look?”
“I don’t know. The ocean? The grand spectacle of Mother Nature?”
“I plan on enjoying that view as much as I can. But right now it’s too light here and too dark by the water. I’ll be able to see it better from my own bed with the lights off in my room.”
The waitress came back, her eyes bouncing between the two of us. “I hope you don’t mind me saying so, but you’re a really cute couple. Are you ready to order?”
“Oh no, we’re not together,” I said, reacting on instinct after of all the years we’d had to tell people that. “We’re just friends. I’ll have a sparkling water though, please.”
The girl looked at him, her gorgeous green eyes sweeping across his face and her long lashes batting again. “Lucky me, then. I was hoping that maybe you were single.”
Liam was a smooth charmer, his voice always turning to liquid honey when he was speaking to a potential conquest. “I’d love to grab a drink soon, but for now, I’ll just have a diet coke with lime.”
A slow smile spread on her red-painted lips and she nodded. “Sure thing, honey. Coming right up.”
Without another glance at me, she took off, her trim hips swinging from one side to the other as she walked away. I pretended to gag once she was gone. “Why are they always coming onto you?”
He laughed. “I can’t help it that I’m good looking. The ladies love me.”
I smirked at him in response. “The only girl who loves you is your mom, honey .”
“No fair. My sister loves me too.”
I chuckled. “That’s a fair point. She might just. Sometimes, at least.”
As I winked at him, I picked up the menu and pretended to be studying it, but I really didn’t like that the girl had flirted with him. Anyone with eyes could see how handsome he was, but he also had an incredible personality and he deserved the world.
Regardless of how many times I’d denied that we were together and that there wasn’t anything going on between us, I had thought about it on occasion. Once or twice, I might’ve wished that it could be me, that I could be the girl who could give him everything he deserved, but it couldn’t be me.
I wasn’t her.
If we tried to be together and it didn’t work out, even if it wasn’t because he’d played me, it could still ruin everything. I wasn’t willing to risk our friendship for that, but I was still protective of him.
After we’d ordered a seafood platter that we’d decided to share, Liam and I both settled in and my mind started drifting to what was next.
“We’ll have to visit our offices tomorrow.
I’d like to get there quite early. We have very limited time to get set up before the hiring convention and we’ll need a place for our new hires to start working immediately. ”
“True, but we also have Jerry and Lorelei moving out here in a few weeks,” he reminded me. “I still can’t believe how well that turned out.”
“I know, right? I keep forgetting that they’re coming, but I think it’s just because I’m afraid they’re going to change their minds and not come out here after all.”
“Nah, they will.” He shot me a reassuring grin. “Jerry has always been a man of his word.”
A man of his word who was one of Liam’s three best friends from childhood, and when we’d moved to Houston and I’d met his now fiancée, she and I had instantly hit it off.
Which was how it’d happened that my best friend was engaged to his best friend.
Well, she’d been dating him already by the time I’d met either of them, but yep.
As if our lives hadn’t been meshed together enough as it was, our support systems and go-tos for conversation would be marrying each other real soon.
When Jerry had found out that we’d be coming to Miami, he and Lorelei had been thrilled.
He was in the resort business and it turned out he was coming out here to expand.
Lorelei would be coming with him, and I was really looking forward to having her here.
God knows I’m going to need my girl if I’m going to survive living with Liam.
“I’m excited for them to arrive,” he said with a lopsided grin. “Now, if only I could find a way to move Zach and Bryce out here too, the whole gang would be back together again.”
I chuckled. “I really am excited for Jerry and Lorelei, but let’s not invite the boys just yet. I don’t know that I could stand living with all of you, and I know that those two wouldn’t live anywhere else.”
“Why would they want to?” He widened those pretty hazel eyes at me. “I’m a delight to live with, London. A delight.”
“You are, huh?” I folded my arms on the table and held his gaze. “I don’t know about that. At least we won’t be sharing a bathroom, so I don’t need to worry about which way round you put your toilet paper, but let’s talk dishes.”
“Easy. We have a dishwasher. And her name is London.”
I scoffed. “You better knock off that sexist crap.”
He laughed and held up his hands. “You know I’m joking. And we do have an actual machine to wash dishes.”
“Sure, but do you rinse before you load?”
A deep furrow appeared between his dark eyebrows. “Why on earth would anybody do that? You scrape ‘em clean and load ‘em in. The machine rinses them for you.”
I chuckled. “Once again, that’s the wrong answer.”
He shook his head. “You are impossible.”
“Because I know how to load a dishwasher? Do you hear yourself?”
As we bantered back and forth, it occurred to me yet again how at ease I felt with the guy. I could say what I was thinking—for the most part—even if it was nitpicking about dishwasher etiquette. Combative as it might be, conversation flowed easily between us.
During our dinner, there was never a silent or awkward moment.
Admittedly, we had almost shouted at each other over if pots went in the upper dishwasher or the lower level.
He said it blocked the spray if they were on the bottom.
I said his nanny must have dropped him on his head as a baby.
He threatened to drive back to Houston that night, but the threat was long forgotten by the time we shared dessert.
One slice of chocolate cake with two forks.
It was decadent and indulgent, the perfect start to our Miami adventure.
He let me eat most of it because, deep down, he cared about me.
Sometimes I wondered what it would be like to share more than cake with him.
Would he also enjoy the view from my bath? Could we enjoy it together?
When we got back home, I retreated to my bedroom, exhausted, but excited about this journey we were embarking on together. I could hardly wait to see our offices and start working. This was really going to be awesome.
The longer we were here together, the more reality was sinking in that he and I were really going to get to do this. We were going to get to decorate an entire office, hire the employees, bring in clients, the whole shebang.
As I shut the door behind me, music went on in Liam’s room, and at first, I smiled. He was listening to a punk song I remembered being big back when we were in high school, and hearing it brought back so many memories of the summer of that year that we’d spent together at the lake.
But then I realized that the volume wasn’t going down. I’d thought when he’d switched it on that was simply the volume the speaker had been at and that he’d turn it down soon, but he didn’t. It was loud. Way too loud.
Groaning, I decided I’d make some house rules after our meeting tomorrow. I knew I had to get him to listen to reason about this. I had to, for the sake of my sanity. I didn’t know how he’d lived with Zach and Bryce, but he needed to realize he wasn’t living with them anymore.
After grabbing a shower to the tune of a few more punk songs that slowly faded into rock, I changed into my pajamas to Led Zeppelin and brushed my teeth to Drake. This is ridiculous. At least pick a genre.
The music was good, but there was no way I was going to be able to fall asleep to it. As I climbed into my bed, I grabbed my phone and called my sisters, getting them on a three-way video call. I focused on Olivia first.
“I know you’re doing awesome, and Texas is awesome, and the ranch is awesome, but how’s the baby?”
She laughed. “You’re not wrong about everything being awesome, but Charlie and I are doing pretty good too.”
I smiled, genuine warmth growing in my chest as I thought of my sister, her cowboy husband, and the picture-perfect country life they were living while managing the Houston branch of Walker Marketing together.
On the flip side of that coin was Abigail, who was running our New York branch all by herself now.
“How are you? How’s the city? How’s Simon?”
She’d gotten engaged to her high school sweetheart last year, and while I was slowly forgiving him for breaking her heart the day after their graduation and then taking ten freaking years to apologize, I held grudges.
I was so happy that she was so happy, but part of me was still pissed at Simon and everyone knew it.
She sent me a patient smile. “He’s great. We’re great. I promise. Everything is great.”
Relief spiraled through me. I knew how much he loved her and how much he always had, but I would never stop checking up on that dude after what he’d done. “Everything is great, huh? I’m going to need a little more detail than that. From both of you.”
My sisters laughed and filled me in on what was new with them, then Olivia smirked at the camera. “So, how long are you and Liam living together?”
“Are you doing anything else together yet?” Abi asked, as if a romantic relationship between us was a foregone conclusion.
“There are still other men on earth, dear sisters of mine. Even if there weren’t, I’m still not sure I’d save the human race with him, but we will be living together for the next few months regardless.”
“What happens after that?” Abi asked, bringing her phone a little closer to her face. “Dad didn’t give me a lot of the details.”
“Because we’re actually still not crystal clear on everything,” I explained.
“We don’t know yet whether I’ll stay on once everything is up and running or whether I’ll bring in a manager to head it up for us.
We’re staying at one of Dad’s homes since we don’t know exactly how long it’s going to be yet.
You should see this place, though. It’s insane.
I can’t believe we never knew he had it. ”
“Mom and Dad have so many houses we don’t know about, but real estate is always a smart investment.” Olivia chuckled. “Well, I’m sure Liam is going to love living with you.”
“We know you secretly will too,” Abi tacked on. “He’s such a cutie and he thinks you hung the moon. Trust me, you would repopulate the earth with him.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, he’d better think that about me.”
Deciding not to respond to her comment about repopulating the earth, I redirected the conversation to them, their branches, and the men in their lives. Because the absolute truth was that Liam wouldn’t have to be the last guy on earth for me to want to save the human race with him.
All he had to do was prove that we wouldn’t ruin absolutely everything if I did.