Chapter 69
LIAM
We arrived home to a quiet, empty house and London slid her hand into mine, turning to smile up at me as I dumped our stuff at the door. “Home, sweet home. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say bittersweet home. It’s kind of weird now without Lori and Jerry here, isn’t it?”
I jerked my chin in a nod, but then I used my grip on her hand to twirl her in a circle before bringing her back to me. “Weird and weirdly quiet, but still good. I like it when it’s just us.”
She looped an arm around my neck, that soft smile still on her lips. “True. I like it too.”
As I stared down into those vibrant blue eyes, I started lowering my head, but she suddenly chuckled and let go of me, sashaying backward toward the kitchen. “Uh-uh. If we start with that, we’ll just end up in bed and we’ll never get anything done.”
I groaned, but she wasn’t wrong. As she disappeared into the kitchen, I went to grab the luggage I’d dropped at the door and took it upstairs, dumping my dirty clothes in the laundry and thanking my lucky stars that I didn’t have to unpack the way London did.
Thirty seconds and I was basically done. It was a cloudy day outside, the wind picking up. The horizon was fuzzier than I was used to. I looked out my wall-sized windows, idly fantasizing about spending the afternoon in bed with London while a storm raged and rain spattered against the glass.
I could totally get behind that. Although it wasn’t raining yet, I headed across the hall to the stairs and took them two at a time, keen to get her take on that idea. Unfortunately, she seemed to have other plans.
Waiting for me on the kitchen counter was a latte from our very own machine, and she pushed it toward me when I walked in. Still wearing the knee-length yoga pants and navy blue, oversized shirt with the sleeves cut off that she had on for the trip home, I recognized the look on her face instantly.
“You want to get straight to work, don’t you?” I picked up my latte and finally understood it as the bribe it was meant to be. “Okay, well, this smells delicious, so lay it on me. What’s on your mind?”
“We have so much prep to do if we want to hit the ground running at work this week. I think it’s important that we’re ready to harness all that creative energy the team came home with.
I felt inspired myself after my dad’s appearance and I could see the others felt the same.
We need to be ready to make the most of all that. ”
“I hate to say this, but I agree.” I sat my ass down across the counter from her, not at all surprised when she pulled a spiral notebook and a pen out of one of the drawers.
“Did you plan this or have you had it there all along? I knew you’d have some stashed all over in case an idea struck you unexpectedly, but I’m curious about that one. ”
She smiled, those blue eyes bright, happy, and alive with whatever was running through her mind.
“It’s been there all along. Okay, so I was thinking, we have the summer gala at that resort at the end of the week.
The company has only just signed on with us, but we know what they want.
I’d like to get started on their account so we can have some ideas ready for them before the gala. ”
I looked back at her, her excitement about this contagious.
I felt it spike my own pulse. “I could get behind that. We’ve also got to finalize some things for the Carringtons and the ice cream factory, though.
Not to mention all the other clients we’ve taken on.
If we do this, it can’t be at the expense of anyone else. ”
“It won’t be. I have the perfect pitch for their resorts. Just bear with me, okay? I’m about to blow your mind.”
She already did that pretty much whenever we worked together, but she did it again as she painted a verbal picture for me of what she had in mind. Her hands and her face spoke too, everything about her so animated and gorgeous that I legitimately just propped my chin in my palm and watched her.
Laughing as she noticed it, she simply winked instead of poking fun at me. Then she continued her pitch. The rest of our work week went by just like that, in a blur of draft pitches, creative energy, and a whole hell of a lot of enthusiasm.
The retreat worked like a charm for our team, and people who had left Miami as friendly strangers had come back as friends working toward becoming a family. It was a real experience to watch the bonds snapping into place, seeing day-to-day as people learned how best to work with the other.
Before I even knew what was happening, it was the night of the summer gala. Tomorrow morning, London and I would be leaving for Jerry and Lorelei’s bachelor and bachelorette trip, and my bag was lying open on my bed.
I’d haphazardly started packing until I’d realized how late it’d gotten and I made a beeline for my closet, racing to it and grabbing my nicest suit and tie.
London had been getting ready for at least two hours, insisting that there was a minimum amount of time for a lady to spend on preparing herself for such an exclusive event.
The dress code was black and white and ultra fancy.
Which was why I’d left her to do her thing without giving her too much flack about it.
After racing through a quick shower and shaving, I put on my pitch black, tailored suit, slipped into a brand new, crisp white shirt that London had insisted I needed, and slid a pair of matte silver cuff-links—also courtesy of her—through the sleeves.
I had no clue why I’d needed new stuff when my old stuff was just fine, but she’d dragged me shopping after work one night and since we were back to sharing my truck and driving together, I’d known it was better to just relent and get it over with.
We’d emerged with shopping bags full of stuff I honestly hadn’t known we’d needed but were apparently vital.
Welcome to the world of having a not-quite-girlfriend, I guess. Either way, as I stepped in front of my full-length mirror, I reckoned I looked pretty dang snazzy. I grabbed a comb and slicked my hair to the side as a final touch. Then I smacked on some aftershave and called it a day.
Glancing at my watch, I double-timed it downstairs and grinned when I realized it had taken me less than thirty minutes to get from wearing running shorts to looking like this. Not too bad. God really knew what he was doing when he decided to make me a man.
I would have been shit at figuring out how to take as much time as the Londons of the world to get ready.
On the other hand, when her door finally opened and she appeared at the top of the stairs, my jaw dropped open, and for a minute that seemed to stretch into eternity, I was too stunned to speak.
Holy fuck. She’s beautiful.
In a sleeveless, shimmering white dress that brushed against the tops of her feet as she walked, she literally took my breath away. And that’s without even mentioning how much that looks like a wedding dress.
It was fitted to every curve, flaring out softly once it reached mid-thigh. Her hair hung in spiral curls over one shoulder, her makeup dark and dramatic. I swallowed hard, trying my best to not think about how much I wanted her to be walking toward me in a wedding dress someday.
It kind of felt like that was what was happening, and my heart started beating so fast it would’ve fallen off its rails if it had any. Those deep red painted lips inched into a smirk as she descended the stairs as slowly and elegantly as royalty.
“If your jaw drops any further, it might lock,” she teased. “I am not going to this event with a wide-mouthed weirdo.”
I pretended it had locked and spoke like an idiot through it. “You wook wawesome.”
London’s head tilted back as she laughed. “You’re an idiot, but thank you.” She paused with one hand on the banister, gaze raking over me before she gave an approving nod. “You don’t look half bad yourself, sir. How’s the packing coming for your trip?”
I shrugged. “Almost done. You?”
“I wish I was almost done, but I’ll be ready when it’s time to leave.” She smiled and batted her long, mascaraed lashes at me, her skin glowing with a light touch of something that shimmered when she moved.
I offered her my arm and felt a legitimate tingle of some kind racing across my skin when her fingers wrapped around it. Warm and soft, she held on to me. When we arrived at the venue, she reattached to me and that protective beast inside me roared with joy.
“You look so smug right now,” she murmured as we made our way into the lobby of the beachfront resort where the gala was being held.
The lights were turned down low. Waiters in suits circled guests who were dressed to the nines. I snagged two flutes of champagne from a tray when a waiter approached us. Then I handed one over and smirked at her.
“You’re on my arm. What’s not to be smug about?”
She chuckled, her cheeks flushing ever so slightly. “Your tongue is dangerous. Do you know that?”
I winked. “Don’t pretend you don’t love it.”
She sighed and shook her head at me, fighting a smile as she ducked her head. We spotted our client and made a beeline for her.
She offered us a big grin and elegantly squeezed each of our fingers. “Thank you for being here tonight. I’ll introduce you to all our key people when I’m done making my rounds. In the meantime, please enjoy the gala.”
“Thank you for inviting us,” London said before taking my arm once more when the woman was distracted by another group of people coming to greet her.
We found our seats in the large, beach-facing ballroom, never leaving the other’s side. I really loved having her on my arm, especially when it also served the purpose of keeping away all the men whose heads she turned.
After dinner, the dance floor was opened on the deck outside under the stars. We watched couples sweep across it for a moment. Then I stood and extended my hand toward her. “Let’s go, Walker. The least we can do is help get this party started.”
“I’d say it’s already started.” She placed her palm in mine and let me pull her up. “I’m willing to go show them how it’s done, though.”
I chuckled and inclined my chin, unable to remember the last time London and I had danced together to the slow, romantic kind of songs they were playing tonight. She fit perfectly against me when I spun her in, her body molding to my own.
With her head on my chest and my cheek pressed to her hair, I closed my eyes for a moment, finally feeling like I’d won the fight. It was a pretty dang good feeling too and I grinned. My eyes reopened when a faster, more upbeat song came on.
When we weren’t on the dance floor, we were networking, meeting our contact in the company as well as many other potential clients. We handed out business cards and chatted to more people than I could keep track of, and then it was time to head home.
“My feet are killing me,” London complained as she collapsed into the passenger seat of my truck and immediately pulled an ankle over her knee to undo the straps on her heels. “In my next life, I want to be a man. Even your dress shoes are comfortable.”
“Not as comfortable as no shoes.” I grinned. “You should’ve just kicked those off hours ago.”
“In the middle of a fancy gala?” She scoffed down a laugh. “Yeah. I wish.”
Letting out a soft moan once both her shoes were off, she massaged her feet all the way home and carried the heels into the house with her instead of putting them back on.
Once we’d both shed our gala attire and had gotten more comfortable, I strode into London’s bedroom carrying a pair of pineapple swim trunks.
Holding them by the waistband, I showed them off and laughed at the expression on her face when she spun away from her suitcase open on her bed and saw the trunks. “Let me guess, you don’t like them?”
She gave me a cocky smile. “Oh, I love them. They’re going to make you look ridiculous and there’s nothing I love more than laughing at you.”
“You won’t be laughing when you see how good I look in them,” I shot back as my gaze drifted to a pile of clothing on her bed.
Among the many pieces of fabric, I spotted her red bikini and my mouth dried up. “Oh, yeah. That’s for sure coming along.” I grabbed it out of the pile and balled it into my fist. “I’ll throw it in my suitcase for you.”
“Oh, so are you going to wear it?”
I tossed her a look over my shoulder as I headed for the door. “Is that a real question? Absolutely.”
As I strode out of her bedroom with the bikini still in my hand, the sound of her laughter followed me, bringing a smile to my lips that even I could tell was goofy. The things this girl did to me were inside, but honestly? I was loving every last minute of it.