Page 1 of Fall for You (Flirting with Forever 4)

Chapter 1

Quinn

I break off a piece of Mom’s decadent chocolate cupcake and shove it into my mouth as my friends look at me with wide, assessing eyes. Do they realize? Have they figured it out? I finish chewing, eyeing each of my friends, trying to determine whether they think I’ve gone completely off the deep end. I’m being secretive, which isn’t completely abnormal for me, but it is when it comes to our little tribe of friends. The looks on their faces range from surprise to amusement to cautious interest. I lick a bit of frosting from my lip.

“Okay, fine. I went back that night to see Liam. Piper’s forgotten gloves and hat were just a convenient excuse.” Oh my God, please don’t let them ask more questions than that. I’m not used to the focus being totally on me.

No. Such. Luck. I can already see I’m in for a veritable interrogation from these ladies.

“And … you like him, Q?” Sophia pauses, bottle of water midway to her lips, and studies the emotions as they roll across the features of my face, plain as day. She’s my closest friend in the group, and we also happen to work side by side in the science department every day. I fully expect her to be able to read me like a damn road map.

“I do. He’s really nice.”

Hadleigh makes a pfft sound, tossing aside my choice of descriptors. “Nice sounds boring. I did not get a boring vibe from him.” She wiggles her eyebrows. “More like a sexy panther on the prowl, just waiting to be unleashed by the right woman.” She makes a little roar sound complete with bared claws.

I give a little giggle-snort and shake my head at her in amused disbelief. She’s so infamous within our group for her bawdy comments and sexual innuendo, we now know something is very wrong if she isn’t right on us with them. Seems like Hadleigh’s doing just fine tonight. All must be well with her and Sawyer, even though he’s just wrapped up his student teaching with her and they aren’t seeing each other as much.

“He’s single?” Zoey sucks in air through her teeth and toys with her necklace. “Sorry, I always feel like such a bucket of cold water, but better to ask now than later, right?”

I glance over with a frown at her words. “Oh. Um, I would think so.” I grimace, realizing she’s put her guidance counselor hat on for this particular discussion. Then I roll my eyes at myself, also aware that I don’t want anyone to tell me that what I’m doing is wrong when every moment has felt so damn right. If nothing else, at least I know myself.

“He’s got to be mid-thirties, wouldn’t you say?” Madison taps her finger to her lip, thinking. “I mean, he owns the cider mill, right? He’s not just a manager or something like that, like Shawn is for his bar?” Her boyfriend runs one of our favorite places to hang out, especially now that they’ve started doing karaoke on Friday nights.

Sophia nods her head as she sits up straighter in her seat. “I’m positive. It’s his business. When Heath and I first met him at the grand opening, he introduced himself as the owner.” She hesitates for a second, her brows pinching together. “I agree, though. Mid-thirties. And cute as hell.”

Piper’s brows raise. “Kind of makes you wonder why no one has snapped him up yet.” At my startled look, she holds up a hand. “Maybe he’s just been too busy with his career. What did you say he did before the cider mill? Must have been something pretty lucrative. That, or his family has a lot of money. One or the other.”

My throat goes dry. With every word dropped from Piper’s lips, I realize I know next to nothing about Liam. To be fair, I hadn’t shown up at the mill that night to get to know him. I’d been drawn back by the look in his eyes. Sounds silly, but it’s true. In my head, I’d imagined him eating me right up. It’d felt like he’d been talking to everyone at our table, but at the same time to me and me alone. It’d given me the sense that we had some sort of chemistry. That something in him called out to the same something in me.

And Lord help me, that very first night I met him, I’d flirted like my friends have never seen me do before. Yeah. The laugh was on me there. Never say never because I totally had gone all in with it. Me, Quinn—ever responsible, inherent caretaker, faithful steward of our friendship circle who always puts everyone else first—would never in a million years have thought I’d get up the nerve to initiate, and then dominate, the conversation with him. Lucky me, the whole group had noticed. And I’d plainly admitted to them once he’d walked away to attend to other customers that I’d be interested in having him give me a hand with parts that have gone untended in a very long time. So, yeah. Never say never.

I didn’t mention to anyone but Piper that I’d gone back there—and I’d only shared that with her because I had actually picked up her left-behind gloves and hat and needed to return them to her.

Time for a distraction. “So, what was with this blue alien romance?” I pick up my iPad Mini and begin to scroll through the book to look at the About the Author section. “Who thinks this stuff up? I’m curious to know more about what kind of person writ

es this stuff.”

Hadleigh gives a loud cackle. “Girl, even a blue alien with two dicks isn’t enough to sidetrack me from your real-life drama. You’re not fooling us for one second.” She sends me a sly wink as the rest of the table bursts out laughing. It takes us a few moments to calm ourselves, and as we do, I make a valiant attempt to figure out just what to say about the whole Liam situation. I really don’t know what we are doing, so how can I begin to explain it to anyone else?

“Okay, okay, is everyone calm now? Can we go back to the Liam discussion?” Zoey sets her cupcake down and wipes her fingers on her napkin. “I’m confused. You went back to get the hat and gloves. And? What happened?”

My gaze follows my mom, Meg, as she goes back into the kitchen area of the bakery. I wouldn’t care if she were listening, but … I don’t want to get her hopes up. She’s been fussing at me lately for the lack of dates on my social calendar. The harping has gotten worse as each of my friends found a special someone, one after the other. I’ll admit, watching Sophia and Heath, then Madison and Shawn, Hadleigh and Sawyer, and now Piper and Damon, all pair off has done a number on my ego. I guess the most terrifying part is that I feel excited about Liam, but I can’t tell if he’s the one or just a bit of fun. I don’t often open up about this kind of personal stuff—the relationship stuff—since it usually blows up in my face. I can’t tell them things may have gotten more than a little heated between Liam and me. I mean, I barely know the guy. Who does stuff like this? Oh, right. That’d be me. A warm blush creeps across my cheeks.

Once I’m sure Mom’s out of earshot, I take a deep breath. What would they think of me if they knew what I’ve been up to? Maybe that you’re attracted to him? Duh, Quinn.

And then there’s the fact that I just saw him again last night … I don’t have a good explanation for why I’d shown up at the cider mill again. There was no emergency hat and gloves rescue. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him, and before I knew it, I was pulling up in his parking lot, ten minutes to closing time.

“I like him, I just don’t know if it’s going anywhere.” I shrug. “If something more happens than that, I’ll share.”

Sophia’s giving me that look that says I know damn well you’re not telling us everything before giving me a short nod. Changing topics, she asks, “So, is everyone ready for parent-teacher conferences on Tuesday?”

Ugh. Well, it’s a good deflection, anyway, as everyone takes a second to groan aloud. I send her a weak smile, and she just raises one brow a fraction of an inch at me to let me know she’s onto me.

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