Page 41 of Until We're More
“I recall making you get a dude’s number and him taking you out last night. And for all of an hour or so, you had flowers, too.”
“That was a one-time deal—after you scared him away to another section of the bookstore, no less—and he still asked a ton of questions about you. I could tell he’s intimidated.”
Liam leaned back on his palms, tipping his face to the sun. “Just goes to show you picked the perfect coach for intimidation lessons.”
“Oh, I’m aware. But do I ever get in the way? Of you dating?”
The line of his jaw tensed, but he didn’t seem angry. More like…regretful? Or perhaps resigned—I wasn’t sure. “I don’t have time for dating. We already talked about this, remember?”
“Right, but…has any girl ever…?” Naturally I rethought this line of questioning halfway through. As curious as I was, would the answer make it better or worse? In theory, it wouldn’t matter either way. I’d decided it was for the best if we didn’t mess with the dynamic of our friendship, and he was evidently super set on not dating at all, which ruled us out as an option on two levels. I swiped a hand through the air. “Never mind.”
“You mean has our relationship ever gotten in the way of me and another girl?” he asked, turning to fully face me.
I slowly nodded as my heart pounded faster.
“Sure,” he said. “One night I answered your call while I was talking to this chick at the bar, and she was pissed when she heard a female voice on the other end.” An odd sense of pride twisted through me, despite it hardly counting as a win. “And remember Lauren, my high school girlfriend? We had more than one fight about it.”
“You did?” I asked, and he nodded. “Not sure why, but it’s kind of nice to be viewed as competition.”
“That’s the thing, Chels. It’s never a competition when it comes to you. You win.”
My heart swelled and swelled, until it pushed against the bounds of my rib cage. This would be the moment in the romance novel where the hero would kiss me—or, you know, the love interest.
Instead, Liam pushed to his feet and slapped his hands together to rid them of sand. “I’ve gotta go to the gym. Shane and I are working with Finn on his striking so he’ll be ready for next week’s fight. You can come with us, or you can sit and enjoy the sunshine.”
Much longer in the sun and I’d burn, fifty SPF no match for skin I liked to refer to asporcelain, since it sounded much nicer thanexcessively pale. Part of me craved the buzz of the gym, where I could read to the background noises of gloves hitting bags and feet hitting mats. But that wouldn’t help douse the desire currently coursing through my veins. My attraction to my best friend refused to go away, regardless of the risks and all the proof he only wanted friendship and nothing more. “I…I think I’ll stay for a little while longer and then head home.”
The keys jingled together as Liam dug them out of his pocket and handed them over. “If you need me to pick up anything on my way home, shoot me a text.”
“Thanks.” I flashed a smile at him. “I think I’m set, though.”
“Wine?”
“Well, if you’re going to offer wine…”
Liam did the slow-walk-backward thing, his eyes on me, his footsteps sure even though he didn’t bother checking to see if anything or anyone was around him. His slanted grin made it clear he was showing off, easily executing the maneuver I’d pointed out when we were watching TV the other night. Didn’t he realize that moves like that made it impossible not to swoon? “I’ll text you when I’m on my way home.”
Perfect. That way I could put up my defenses before the wine took them away.
Chapter Eighteen
Chelsea
It’d been one of those weeks where I blinked and it was Thursday, which would be a relief if it didn’t mean that another week with Liam was almost up. He’d been crazy busy with training and extra classes since he’d taken over most of Finn’s. In addition to having a meeting with Brooklyn and Carlos to set up some last-minute advertising for Finn’s fight this weekend, I’d fit in another self-defense class, which had brought me up close and personal with Liam yet again. And again. In spite of the fact that my attraction refused to die, I was handling it better.
In the shower or under my covers mostly, but it at least helped take the edge off. Although the scenarios that played through my head during were probably contrary to my objective, considering they involved Liam ripping open the shower curtain and joining me or opening my bedroom door and tearing off my clothes. One night I imagined him on the other side of the wall, touching himself while he thought of me.
Today I needed to take off a different type of edge while also keeping it. Not sure how that worked, but hopefully today was the day I figured it out.
I’m smart. I have good ideas. I can be assertive.
The drawer on my desk caught, and I jerked it harder, nearly pulling it off the tracks. I grabbed my dwindling stash of Hershey’s kisses and popped one of the chocolate pieces that Liam had bought under false PMS pretenses in my mouth.
My phone chimed, and I hesitated over whether to check it. Kevin had been texting me nonstop, and I was struggling with indecision. There was a very big possibility that the reason I’d never feltthe thingwith anyone else involved the level of intimacy I shared with Liam.Of courseI couldn’t feel as deep emotions for a guy I hardly knew. Even with my college boyfriend I’d kept up a wall, not wanting to let him in all the way, mostly because he came from money and I was embarrassed of my home life. Eventually he’d pried out more about my background and the way I grew up, and while he’d claimed he didn’t care, visits with my parents were beyond uncomfortable.
And then I’d noticed he never fully pulled me into his circle of friends or his life in general, and when the semester ended and he went home for the summer, he didn’t bother trying to keep things going. Or picking them up when he returned the next semester.
But I was doing my best not to let my past get in the way of my future, so I was pushing myself to be more open with Kevin. Thanks to his constant texts and having dinner with him last night, I was getting to know him better, yet during the date, I still just felt anxious to go back home.
