Page 19 of Chasing After Forever

“Did you know he’s a tech guy? He developed a dating app—how cool is that? Maybe we should go on it.” Everly goggled at Liam, jutting her chest out, daring him to stop her from downloading his dating app.

What was it about this guy that had every female in town acting like starstruck high schoolers? First Steph, then Annabelle, now my own sister. Sure, he was good-looking. Tall, dark, handsome, with that square jawline. And he had a dimple. Good, strong McCauliffe genes. But so what? There were other cute guys in the world.

And yeah, he was really freaking nice, too, going out of his way to help me with my car this morning. But there were other nice people, right? Everyone around me seemed to think Liam should be the next Bachelor or something, acting as if he’d be handing out roses later.

Well, not me. I was not going to fall for this guy.

“Thanks for the suggestion on the open-faced turkey sandwich this afternoon.” The low timbre of Liam’s voice shot a totally unnecessary thrill through my body, heat rushing over me. I glanced up at him and our eyes locked. My mind went blank and my voice momentarily escaped me.

“Mm-hmm,” I finally managed to murmur.

“You had lunch together?” Everly looked first to me, then to Liam, one eyebrow raised.

“No,” I said at the same time Liam answered, “Sort of.”

He chuckled and that warmth climbed higher, my face now flaming.

“I was working at the diner,” I explained. I busied myself with the fresh bottle of wine, cutting through the silver foil.

“Oh, right. That makes sense. The turkey sandwich is great there, isn’t it?” Everly bobbed her head, beaming her thousand-watt smile at Liam. I watched, waiting for him to flirt with her just like everyone else.

He nodded politely in Everly’s direction, but never broke eye contact with me. Honest to goodness, I felt like the only woman in the room at that moment. Hell, the onlypersonin the room, just me and Liam in our own alternate universe, even though we were surrounded by people and drinks and music. A shiver ran down my spine, chill bumps rising on my arms.

“Mace? Can I get that refill?” Everly tapped me on the shoulder, rousing me from my momentary Liam coma.

“Uh, yeah. Just a sec.” I broke our connection, fumbling in my apron for a corkscrew.

Get it together, Macy. You don’t want to get involved,a tiny voice in my head whispered.

Trouble was—I kinda, sorta, maybe did.

5

LIAM

All I could think about the rest of the day was Macy. Which was insane, considering I barely knew her.

But I definitely wanted to, judging by the visceral reaction I had every time I ran into her. She had a certain something about her and I needed to see her again.

After I closed the store for the night and checked in on Pops, I took a quick shower. Throwing on a white button down and jeans, I locked up the apartment and walked over to the Rowdy. The lot was even more crowded than last night, music cranked up twice as loud, the walls vibrating with every beat. I eased my way through the groups of people crowded around high tops, watching the big screen TVs, and cut across the dance floor towards the bar. I spotted Macy chatting with a customer, then she disappeared. Heading towards the center of the bar, I squeezed my way in between a petite brunette and a burly dude wearing a leather vest. He grunted in my direction, not altogether friendly, so I scooted a tad bit closer to the brunette.

“Oh sorry,” I said, my arm bumping against hers.

“No problem.” She smiled at me, reaffirming my decision to move closer to her versus Motorcycle Mike. “I’m Everly.”

“Liam. Nice to meet you.”

“You new in town?”

“Am I that out of place here?” I asked, raking a hand through my short hair.

Everly threw her head back, laughing, the tinkly sound floating above the noise from the crowd. Motorcycle Mike shot me a dirty look; guess he’d been about to make a move on her.

“No, that’s not what I meant,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s just—I would remember seeing you around.”

“Oh,” I said, the tips of my ears burning.

“Peachtree Grove is really small. And someone like you would be hard to forget.” She winked at me and I wasn’t sure what to say.

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