Page 125 of Filthy Liar

“Hey, I bet you didn’t have your brain screwed on at seventeen either,” she teased, and I winced.

“No, not really. I was mostly daydreaming about Zavier, to be honest.”

That made her laugh, and she put her jacket back on. “I knew you two would hit it off once you admitted your feelings.”

“The feelings weren’t the issue, it was the guard dogs,” I deadpanned as we moved into the kitchen.

“Alex? We’re heading out. Lock up when you leave,” she called out, not bothering to go into the living room as she walked back along the hallway to the internal garage door.

She grabbed some keys out of a coded box on the wall, my eyes going wide. There were so damn many. It shouldn’t have been a surprise since there were millions of dollars worth of cars in here, but still.

She tossed me a set, making me frown. “I’m driving?”

“I’m dropping Jensen’s Camaro off at the mechanics, so you’ll have to drive mine and follow me or we won’t have a car,” she replied as she put the garage door up and headed towards the Camaro.

“I have to drive by myself? Rory, this car?—”

“You drove it fine last time. I won’t race off on you, promise.”

She climbed into the black Camaro and shut the door, leaving me to scramble towards her red Maserati. I started it and let it warm up since it appeared she was doing the same with Jensen’s car, and once she started backing out, I followed.

Anxiety built in my chest at knowing I was driving more money than I’d ever seen in my entire life, but I was glad that Rory stuck to her word and cruised without taking off ahead.

I tried to relax into my seat, cracking the window a fraction to let the air flow in, and relief filled me when Rory turned into the mechanics and I pulled up out front, waiting for her to join me.

It took her five minutes, and I went to climb out when she started walking towards me, but she shook her head and walked around the car.

I guessed I was driving again.

It wasn’t so bad when I had her in the car with me, and I let her guide me to where Lexi’s new shop was.

There were a lot of shops along here, and the trees and benches along the sidewalk gave it a cute vibe. It looked like a nice place to sit and drink coffee on a sunny day.

Rory pushed the glass door open with a grin, inspecting the room as we stepped inside. “Looks great, Lex.”

Lexi’s head popped up from behind a counter, her blonde hair in a braid down her back, and her face almost free of makeup as she organized things.

“It’s getting there. The renovations are done, it’s mostly just setting things up now. Hey, Raven.”

“Hey,” I said awkwardly, glancing around too. The walls were covered in art, the sleek, black furniture all shiny and new. I could still smell the light scent of paint and sawdust, but I kind of liked it.

“C’mon, check out the stations,” Lexi beamed, ushering us further into the shop where four leather chairs and counters were spaced out in their own sections.

“You found other artists? Or are you just getting ahead of yourself?” Rory joked, and Lexi rolled her eyes.

“I have another artist starting on opening day, and I have a possible apprentice joining soon too. Considering bringing one more qualified artist in too.”

“Can you juggle all of this with Tempest coming home next week?”

“It’s why I haven’t set an opening date just yet. I want to be home a lot for the first few weeks. We’re going to have some girl time.”

“Won’t they want to dive straight into getting their own house again?” I asked carefully, unsure if they even remembered that I was here listening to their conversation.

Lexi sighed, shrugging slightly. “It’s possible, but for now, they’ve both agreed to live at home separately to adjust. Tempest still has a lot of co-dependency issues, so we’re continuing to help her with that when she gets here. They can still see each other and sometimes stay over, but they’re both on individual journeys and have different healing to tackle.”

“You’ll be receiving an apology from Ry at some point,” Rory told me, making me frown.

“Why?”

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