Page 17 of Lexi Lets Go

"When I first met you at the diner, I thought you were a fan, but I'm beginning to think that might not be the case."

"I recognized you in the diner. Like clearly you were a celebrity, and you looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place you. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. I like that. No wonder when I mentioned some of my more popular songs last night you looked at me like I was crazy," he said with a soft smile.

"Ohhh. That makes more sense, I thought you were having a stroke or were just so out of touch with the common man you forgot how to converse with us lowly peasants," she said with a laugh.

He couldn't help it, he laughed. He laughed out loud, and it felt good. No one besides his family and close friends had given him shit like that in so long. It was refreshing to be around.

"I like your honesty. You'd be surprised how many people around me tell me only what I want to hear. It’s like they're scared of me."

"You're not so scary," she said with a smile. Though they'd had a number of interactions before, this was the first time he saw her genuine smile. Not her professional smile, but a smile that actually matched the way she felt on the inside and it was everything. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to do so much more, but he needed to take care of this NDA and whatever was going on with Jacinda before he could even think about acting on that. Okay, well he would think about acting on it, because how could he not. Bad idea? … quite possibly, but he was caring less and less.

"Thank you, I don't think I'm all that scary either," he said with a smile. "Now I had planned on hiking to the falls, but I think that has to wait. I’m going to go talk with Jacinda. Would you mind giving me the list that she gave you? I'm interested to see what my demands are, since I'm not even sure myself."

He stood and helped her up by the hand he was still holding.

"I can't believe you knew nothing about the list," she said with disbelief. "I wondered why you seemed like two different people, the person I had that moment with on the porch swing and His Royal Highness of the Ridiculous List." She chuckled to herself.

The next moment her eyes flew to his and she snatched back her hand. Liam could see a flush moving up her chest to her cheeks. Was she blushing?

"What's up?" He asked her clearly amused by her sudden bashfulness. He liked that she spoke her mind, but he did like this too.

"What? Oh, it's nothing. I mean, I didn't mean to insinuate we had a moment on the swing. It was just two people talking, one of us normally and the other one cryptically in his own song titles," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

He laughed at her again. "Oh, there was definitely a moment. And after I take care of all of this, maybe I can take you out for dinner and we can create another moment just as nice as that one."

She stopped in her tracks. "Are you serious?"

"I am, unless you’re going to reject me... in that case, it was just a joke."

"You're asking me out?" her brow was drawn, and she was studying him.

"I am. I have an online concert to do tonight for the fans that had the venue rescheduled, but after that, if you're free?"

"You, Liam James, are asking me out?" She asked incredulously as she gestured to her body, as if he wasn't aware he was asking her out. He was aware, he was very aware.

He gave her a slow smile and cocked his eyebrow and nodded. "I sure as fuck am. And you haven't answered me yet. Don't leave me hanging."

"Yeah, I guess I could do that." She bit her bottom lip and looked up at him through her lashes. Liam fought hard against all his baser instincts screaming at him to pull her to him and claim her mouth. Although if he was being honest, there was a part of him that was scared, because if she felt as good as he thought she would, he would never want to let go.

"Good. Now can you please show me this list?"

"Of course, follow me," she said, her professional voice setting back in. He was interested in knowing all her voices.

He followed her back up to the inn and into her office. As they walked by the front desk clerk, he smiled at her and she froze, dropping her stapler. It clattered to the floor with a loud clunk. "Oh goodness," she squeaked as she disappeared behind the desk to retrieve the stapler.

He followed Lexi into her office. It was a small space with blue walls with some certifications hung up. Nothing to give him any hint into who she was as a person, and he was hungry for any morsel that would help to give insight into the woman sitting at the desk before him. The half-full coffee mug on her desk read ‘cup of ambition.’ He liked a good Dolly Parton reference, but he wanted more.

A-ha! A framed picture on the desk. Surely, she wouldn't mind if he picked it up and snuck a look at what was so important it was the only picture on her desk. But when he looked at it, he wished he hadn’t. It was Lexi with this tall, boy next door type, with a smile that let you know that he was an amazing person. No morally gray choices there. Nope, just golden retriever energy all the way. Of course, that is the kind of guy who she was with. The thought made him recoil with anger, he wasn't sure why, but it was sure there. Jealousy. Fucking jealousy.

He looked back down at her. She was sitting there holding a manilla envelope smiling at him. "That's my brother," she said.

"I'm sorry?" He wasn't following her, his brain had been pinging from the photo to the NDA in her hands and the assistant he needed to talk to, none of them felt very good. But then it hit him what she had said.

"The photo, that's me and my brother."

"Oh good. No reason to be jealous then," he said with a smile.

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