Page 81 of A Lesson for Laurel

He shook his head. “One day Nicole said that she’d never been set up before but asked if I had any single friends. That anyone I took into my life closely had to have the same core values as me.”

“That’s right,” Nicole said. “That is what is important. He said he wasn’t into setting anyone up.”

“Then how did this happen?” she asked, waving her hands back and forth between the married couple.

“Liam came to stay with me one weekend. He was on the way and texting me at work.”

“Easton and I were in a meeting and his phone was blowing up. I asked if it was a woman,” Nicole said.

“I laughed and said damn close.”

“You’re a dick,” Liam said. “You never told me that. Neither of you did.”

“Well,” he said. “Now you know. I figured what the hell and told her about you and we were going out. I picked a bar right then, texted it to Liam and told Nicole if she wanted to be set up, she could show up out of the blue and act surprised to see me after she scoped you out from a distance.”

“You two suck,” Liam said.

“You didn’t know that either?” Laurel asked.

“I didn’t tell Liam. I thought Nicole would have.”

“He knows now,” Nicole said, rubbing her hand on Liam’s arm. “We started to talk and hit it off right away.”

“If Liam knew it beforehand he would have asked me all sorts of questions about Nicole and been a bigger pain in my ass. This was more spontaneous on his part. He’s used to talking a lot.”

“Which I like,” Nicole said. “I don’t like being with a guy who doesn’t say much and keeps me guessing. There is no guessing with Liam.”

“I’m in the middle. I like some surprise,” she said. “But the important things are good to know.”

“Like if your significant other has active dating apps?” he asked.

“Oh, trust me,” she said. “I know even to ask that now.”

“Did she ask you?” Liam asked.

“She didn’t have to. In one of our many conversations I said dating apps were for losers, and I didn’t have the time or energy to guess if information or pictures were false.”

“I agreed with him,” she said.

“And I don’t need another woman now that I’ve got Laurel. She knows that. I’ve as much as said those words too.”

“Awwww,” Nicole said. “This is another side of Easton I never knew. And trust me when I tell you I know more about him than from a work perspective. Not only through Liam and being around him, but I’m sure he told you that we spent a lot of time with him and Rachelle doing things.”

He didn’t want his ex brought up but knew it would happen.

“He did tell me that,” she said.

“We aren’t friends anymore. She wanted to be, but I said nope. I won Easton in the split. That was never up for debate.”

“Won me?” he asked.

“Should I say we got custody of you like a child in a divorce?” Liam said. “But you know as well as I do, that was going to happen.”

He shook his head. At least Laurel found the whole thing funny.

And hours later when they were back at his place, she said, “I love your friends.”

“They liked you a lot too.”

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