Chapter Three #3
“Hey,” Liam said, stopping her freefall.
He held out his hands, and let off a steadying breath, his eyes locked on hers.
“You don’t have to be nervous around me.
I’m not even supposed to be here with you.
” He looked around the bar. “I’m not supposed to be on this side of town, honestly.
There can’t be anything between us ever, you will probably never talk to me again after tonight, and so what I’m saying is, you are one hundred percent safe from saying something wrong.
It doesn’t matter what you say. I am a stranger tonight, and I will remain a stranger tomorrow. ”
She cleared her throat and settled her racing thoughts. “Jackson,” she answered again without the stutter.
He nodded thoughtfully.
Nory shrugged. “He’s been showing up where I am for about a year.
Lately it feels pushier though. It makes me uncomfortable sometimes.
Layla is asking her boss if I can break the lease without the penalty charges.
Hell, I would move apartments across the complex if they weren’t so much more expensive.
I think he watches where I’m going from his window, and I have to walk straight in front of it to get to my car, or return from work, or walk to this place.
Tonight, I asked Alese if we could walk the back way all the way around the complex, and he still showed up here. ”
“Hmm,” he said somberly. “Do you want me to fix it?”
There was a grit to his voice that gave her chills.
“Oh, I think I’m okay. He’s harmless really. He will find someone better, prettier, more friendly, and more outgoing to have a crush on soon, I’m sure of it.”
“Subject change again before I get pissed off at how you see yourself,” Liam said. “Where do you groom dogs?”
“Sunday through Thursdays you can find me at the Great Dogsby off Thirty-Fourth and Big Creek Terrace from eight to six. Seriously, if you have a dog, I can give you a discount.” She thought about it. “Wait, do werewolves have pet dogs? Or would that be too weird?”
“Do you love your job?” he asked ignoring her question.
Right. No more werewolf talk.
“I do. I understand animals more than humans. Every once in a while, we will get a mean son-of-a-gun dog just determined to make a grooming session impossible, but mostly I get to groom sweetie pie dogs, and even some cats. I groomed a guinea pig once. That wasn’t even that long ago.”
His smile was back, and for a moment, Nory was caught off guard by how easily she was conversing with him after he’d taken the pressure off.
She wasn’t allowed to be around him. Currently, they were breaking some kind of werewolf rules, and she really wouldn’t see him after tonight.
It was supposed to be a good thing, right?
Something about that thought carved out a hollow space in the pit of her stomach though.
“Is everyone ready?” some guy by the Jukebox slurred loudly to no one in particular.
Liam’s bright blue eyes glanced at him and then back to Nory. “If he starts playing some sappy slow songs, I’m going to judge you for telling me to come here.”
She heard the first few lines of the beat drop, and she laughed. It was the stupid song that was all over the radio right now. It was catchy.
“I have an admission,” she told him.
“Admit away.”
“I hyperfocus on one song at a time. I’ve probably listened to this song a hundred times in a row.”
A grin took his lips, and he rested his elbows on the bar top, and the back of his chair. “Prove it.”
Her cheeks were on fire as she mouthed the first couple of lines.
Others around her were picking up the lyrics too and singing.
Liam cupped a hand behind his ear. “Can’t hear you.”
“She talked the next couple of lines in her normal speaking voice.”
“Lame,” he said, encouraging her.
“You sing it then.”
“I can’t. I’ve never heard it.”
“Dear goodness, is that in the rules too? No listening to music?”
“No listening to bad music.”
She scoffed. “This is the jam.”
“The jam?” he asked, laughing.
She sang the chorus with the others in the bar who were also loudly singing and oh my goodness. She looked around, and everyone was just happy, and singing. Most didn’t even care that they were offkey.
Liam was looking around too with this absent little smile on his lips. She sang a little louder, feeling emboldened that no one could hear her over the others singing so loudly.
The second chorus hit, and the beat was harder in this one, building up the excited feeling in her middle. She closed her eyes and threw her head back and sang it with the others, and when she opened her eyes again, Liam’s smile had faded slightly, and he was just watching her lips.
Self-conscious, she took a sip of her drink and waited for the rest of the song to finish.
Liam parted his lips to say something, but he startled, and looked at his phone on the bar top, face up. The screen was glowing with a call, and whoever the caller was upset Liam. She could tell.
Maybe it was his date, lighting him up.
He put it face down, but now there was no smile on his handsome face at all.
“If you need to answer the call, you should,” she told him.
“Bad timing,” he murmured as trouble swirled in his eyes. They were lightening by the second, and he pulled his sunglasses over his face smoothly.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“You can’t ask me that,” he said sternly. He stood and pulled his wallet out and paid Hannah.
“You don’t have to pay for my stuff,” she said in a rush.
“I made thirty dollars in tips today. I’m basically rich.
” She’d tried to make it sound like a joke, but he seemed to be lost in thought.
He reached over in a rush and when he pulled up his phone, it was glowing again with a call. This time, she saw the name. Nate.
“I’ll call you back,” he gritted into the phone, then hung up.
Immediately the phone lit up with another call from Nate, and something terrifying happened. A growl shook the air around her. The rattle in Liam’s throat was so primal and made all of her instincts urge her to run.
Liam was dangerous.
He grabbed a cardboard drink coaster and the pen he’d signed Hannah’s tip with, and wrote down three numbers, but then froze.
“I can’t fucking do this,” he growled in a savage voice. He shoved the coaster away from him, looking confused.
He told Nory, “I had fun for a minute.” And then without another word, he strode toward the front door.
“Me too,” she murmured. “Bye.”
Feeling off-balance, she observed the other bar-goers for the next half an hour as she slowly ate her food, but it didn’t taste that good right now for some reason.
Everything sat in her stomach like a lump of cement, and she felt alone.
Alese waved to her from her group of guys, but Nory didn’t want to go over there.
Not after the confusing goodbye with Liam.
What was wrong with him? She had a feeling it had to do with his bad date.
Maybe he was headed to meet with her and redo their introduction.
That would make sense on why he stopped himself from writing his entire phone number on the coaster.
They weren’t allowed to hang out. He’d made that much clear, so okay. Like he had said, that was fun for a minute, but the minute was up.
She waved to Hannah and then gently gripped Alese’s elbow to get her attention.
“Where are you going?” Alese asked.
“I’m not feeling so great—”
“Ho, you are meeting up with McHotty Pants, aren’t you? I knew it!”
“Shh, what? No.”
“He left, and now you’re leaving. Dude, you don’t have to play coy with me. Just come back here after if you’re up for it. I can get the hint.”
“The hint…” Nory said, baffled.
“I was giving you space all night with the hot guy. And now you’re going to hook up with him.”
Nory narrowed her eyes as the guys around Alese chuckled. How many drinks had they bought her? “Are you drunk?”
“This is only my second drink,” Alese assured her, holding up her half-full margarita. “And I have my own tab. I am in complete control of this situation. Go have fun!”
“Uhh, okay,” she said, not feeling right about leaving her friend here.
She’d been planning on asking if they could leave in thirty minutes or something, but now that Alese was offering her a pass on the rest of the night, she was kind of excited about the thought of going home and dressing in her oversized pjs, and overthinking every word Liam had said to her in the sweet silence of her living room.
It was hard to think clearly in the loud bar.
“Text me if you need anything, I’ll come get you,” she told her.
“Okay, Mom,” Alese teased.
“I mean it,” Nory said, walking away. “I’ll be back in a while.”
“Let me talk to my boys, you’re being so lame, Mom,” Alese joked.
Nory snorted and made her way out of the bar with plans to return in an hour or two. Her extroverted friend would shut this place down, so she had time.
It wasn’t until she got outside that she felt a little uncertain about walking back by herself. Her apartment complex was right through a grocery store parking lot and across a small two-lane street, and well-lit, so she would be fine.
She was probably just jumpy after she heard Liam’s inner animal make that bone-chilling growl.
She was supposed to be afraid, right? So why then did she check Liam’s building on her way back to her apartment in hopes that he would be outside?
And why did her tits perk up when she glanced over at his truck, parked way down the row now.
He must’ve driven to the bar and couldn’t find a close parking spot when he’d returned.
He would learn though. It was his first day.
He could just walk over to Shipwrecks the next time he wanted to go on a date.