Page 92 of Because of Liam

“Well . . .” It’s the third time she says “well” in as many minutes. I’m starting to fear the word.

“It is not like he’s a random man. It’s Liam. Your boyfriend. And it’s not permanent. Just until he finds a place of his own to rent.”

I get up and start moving about the room. I can’t just sit there and calmly speak while my insides are twisting around like trapped tornado with nowhere to go.

“Not permanent? A place of his own?” My hands move around like they’re having seizures. “You do know this is a college town, right? And that every rental place in a ten-mile radius is either already taken, too expensive, or it sucks. Liam won’t find a place close enough to Riggins. Not any time soon. Not until the semester ends and some people graduate and move away.”

She opens her mouth.

“Do not say ‘well’ again, or so help me God . . .” I don’t finish. Whatever I was going to say would not have been good and I don’t want to put a damper on Skye’s joy right now.

My head drops to my chest and I run my fingers through my hair. It’s so long now. I haven’t cut it in months. My insides churn at the idea of Liam moving in with me. The part of me that’s scared about it is pissed at the part of me that’s all too happy about the idea of having Liam at my fingertips all the time. Ugh. My hands drop and I sit back on the sofa, facing Skye. Her face is a juxtaposition of emotions. Eagerness, worry, happiness. I heave a heavy breath.

“Okay, I guess it’s okay if he takes your room and stays here for a while. But I’m not doing his laundry or picking up after him.”

She lunges at me, both of us falling back on the sofa.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you. And you don’t have to worry about Liam. He’s a neat freak. Logan said he was not like this before going into the marines, but he came back a clean freak and he’s always putting stuff away and cleaning things up. You are in luck. It will probably be him doing your laundry and picking up after your sloppy ass.”

“Doing my laundry is a plus. And my ass is not sloppy. I have it on good authority that my ass is fantastic. You could bounce a quarter off it.”

Skye giggles.

“I want to bounce something off that ass for sure.”

Skye and I both jump and turn to see Liam standing just inside the door. Yeah. Of course, he had to come in just in time to hear me talking about my quarter-bouncing ass.

And he already has a box in his hand. So much for waiting until tomorrow to move in with me.

If the lust-hungry look on his face is any indication of his thoughts on this idea, I’d have to say Liam is just as happy to be moving in as Skye is to be moving out.

I’m screwed.

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