by India Lee
“Yes I did.”
“Lies.”
“Before I got in the shower.”
“I wasn’t awake when you got up to shower!” Amanda snorted. Liam laughed, his eyes crinkling.
“You were awake enough to kiss me back and say ‘thank you.’ And then pull me back into bed for an hour, which is why we’re running late.”
Amanda stared at him. “For what? And why would you let me pull you back into bed if we had to be somewhere?”
“You’re not easy to say no to when you’re all sleepy and cute and not conscious enough to be a pain in my ass.”
Amanda narrowed her eyes at him. “Charming. Care to tell me what we’re late for?”
“Our flight.”
“Our… flight?”
Liam answered with an upward nod as he returned to his feet, lifting the giant duffel onto his shoulder with a curl of the arm. Amanda patted the bottom of the bag to feel its weight. Her eyes fluttered wide. “Whoa, what the heck’s in there? And where are we going? I thought we were just going to have a relaxed day for my birthday. That’s all I asked for.”
“I remember what you asked for,” Liam said, reaching for his aviators on the dresser top and tucking them into the V-neck of his shirt. With his other hand, he whipped the sheets off of Amanda’s body, biting back a grin when she yelped. “Come on.” He held his hand out to her till she took it and slid out of bed, frowning at him in one of his buttery grey T-shirts and a pair of her own cotton shorts “You asked for the opposite of yesterday. I remember, Amanda,” he said as he pulled one of his perfectly worn-in hoodies out from the drawer, wrapping Amanda in its soft fabric. She continued to blink at him with confusion.
“A normal, low-key weekend with you where I could just wear a T-shirt and leggings and we could catch up on lost time and finally just…” She shrugged, feeling silly. “Just talk. And… actually get to know each other.” Amanda stomped her foot at the way Liam bit his smirk back. “Stop laughing. I know it sounds corny but that’s all I wanted.” She narrowed her eyes at his smug face. “Dick.”
“Nice,” he laughed, raising his eyebrows. “Keep it up with the name calling and you don’t get your gift.”
“I don’t want a gift. I want my weekend with you.”
She’d requested it while he was still in Jordan. She had mere days before work started and her birthday weekend had been her one hope of getting some good personal time with Liam before both their schedules got crazy again. While it felt ridiculous to lament the prospect of a surprise trip to perhaps some tropical island, Amanda had honestly just hoped for some relaxing on the couch followed by a home cooked dinner and a glass of wine over some good conversation — one through which she’d actually learn something new about him. That was truly all she wished for. No cake or candles necessary.
“So why are we being all mysterious and rushing to catch a plane?” Amanda asked, crossing her arms as she watched Liam ignore her to bend down and pull on his black sneakers. “Liam — ”
Still on his knee, Liam interrupted Amanda with a strong arm around her waist, drawing a sharp yelp from her as he easily threw her over his right shoulder. Standing straight again, he started out of the room, carrying Amanda with one arm and the duffel bag with the other.
“No more questions,” he said. She could hear him grinning. “Let’s just go.”
~
With her legs resting across Liam’s lap on the jet, Amanda peered over his shoulder and out the window. It was hard to make out from forty thousand feet, but below them was their destination: North Carolina — the state in which Logan and his family were stationed. Unfortunately, the trip wasn’t for the purposes of meeting him since he was still in the midst of a four month deployment.
“So… why North Carolina if Logan’s not there?” Amanda asked with a curious grin.
“You wanted calm and peaceful. North Carolina’s the most calm and peaceful place I know of.”
“But you grew up in…” Amanda trailed off, trying to remember Liam’s home state. She vaguely knew of it, though it may have been from reading about him a year ago rather than hearing it from his own lips. How well I know my own boyfriend, she mused.
Liam’s hand ran along Amanda’s bare leg. She was still wearing her pajama shorts, which covered less of her thighs than his zipped hoodie did. “I grew up in Vermont. The first fifteen years, at least,” he answered, prompting Amanda to pull back from her view of the window and give him a look.
“Did I know that about you?”
He shrugged, taking a swig of his beer. “Maybe not. We might not have ever talked about that.”
Amanda let her arms fall from around his neck as she squinted down the cabin of the cream colored jet. “I feel like I should know where you grew up,” she laughed incredulously. “And how you grew up. I don’t even know where you went to college.”
It was his turn to laugh. “I didn’t even finish high school.”
“What?” Amanda felt her eyebrows shoot up. Before even meeting him, she’d always felt that Liam walked around with such an intellectual air. Of course, back when she hated his guts, she’d called it his “cocky asshole vibe.” “That’s… a surprise. Really?”
Liam nodded. “Even though I promised Connor I’d go to USC with him. Pretty sure he always knew that was a lie though. I didn’t have his grades. Or attendance.”
“Now, see, I didn’t even know that you went to high school with Connor,” Amanda said with a frown. It made sense though. Liam held Connor in the same high regard that he did his brother, which said more than something. “You’ve known him for forever, then.”
“Thirteen years. We met in middle school. He kept me out of trouble.” Liam tilted his head and squinted. “Well. He tried.”
“So you were a bad kid,” Amanda giggled, imagining Liam in his teen years. She plucked the beer from his hand and took a swig. “I can’t say I’m surprised.”
His mouth curved up as he watched her drink. “I wasn’t that bad. I just cut a lot of class. And football practice.”
“How often did you do that?”
“As often as possible.”
Amanda draped her arms around his neck again, smiling when he unconsciously dipped his head to lightly kiss her forearm. “To do what?”
“Snowboard.”
“Ah.” Amanda nodded. She could practically see the slopes gleaming in Liam’s eyes as he grinned. “I imagine you charmed the hell out of your teachers and that’s how you managed to pass your classes despite being a little delinquent?”
“Bingo.”
“Of course. And what did your parents think of that?” Amanda asked, her sentence trailing off toward its end. Wait. Should I have asked that? She tried racking her brain for any memories of Liam mentioning his parents — to her or even interviewers in the past — but she couldn’t remember any and she had recently come to assume that if people seldom spoke of their parents, it was because of a reason either tragic or unfortunate. It was certainly the lesson she’d learned from Ian.
“My parents? You mean Logan.”
“I wasn’t aware that Logan gave birth to you.”
“He might as well have. He was the one who cleaned the house and cooked for me. And yelled at me to do my homework.” He laughed to himself. “And convinced my coach to kick me out of the starting lineup for all the practice I skipped. Said I shouldn’t get to play till I stopped snowboarding all the time and started acting like a part of the team.”
“Wow. How old was he then?”
“Seventeen.”
Amanda raised her eyebrows. “Hard-ass. I like it.”
“Yeah, but he still had these brotherly compulsions so he’d contradict himself and buy me new lenses for my goggles if he had extra cash. Or he’d take both our boards to get tuned and waxed.”
“Aw. You were totally rotten and he still wanted to make sure you were happy.”
Liam nodded. “He used to take my hand-me-down even though he was the old
er one, so I could have all the new clothes. He was such a weird kid.” He shook his head. Amanda smiled, spotting the sentimental look in his eye that he tried to mask with laughter. “He couldn’t ever buy anything and keep it for himself.”
Amanda raised her eyebrows, truly impressed. “He sounds like a good man.”
“Yeah. He’s been a good man since he was a kid.”
Amanda smiled as she studied the faint one on Liam’s lips. “So, do I at least get to meet Logan’s wife and kids?” She frowned when her question immediately prompted a slight but noticeable grimace from Liam.
“No, uh… Heidi’s in Vermont right now with the kids. They’ve been there since Logan left. She has a rough time when he’s gone so she goes to live with her sister.”
“Oh.” Amanda tried not to look too confused considering the distress she detected in Liam’s expression. But she couldn’t help wondering how that worked, especially for a family with young children. Clearing her throat, she tried to change the subject. “Would I have been the first girl to meet the family in years?” she asked teasingly.
Liam slipped his palms under her thighs, pulling her into a straddling position onto his lap. “You’d’ve been the first girl to meet the family ever.”
Amanda frowned. “What?”
“I can’t bring just anyone to meet Heidi or Logan,” Liam smiled. “That’s my equivalent of meeting the parents.”
“But… what about Angelica? She was your fiancée.”
“Logan was deployed the year we got engaged. Not that he and Heidi were ever fans of her, just from hearing stories.”
Amanda blinked with surprise. There was so much information for her to process. Already, she’d gotten her wish of learning something new about Liam and about five times over. Grew up in Vermont, snowboard enthusiast, didn’t graduate high school, raised by his brother who never liked or met Angelica Moss. Amanda blinked, suddenly realizing truly how much there was left to learn about him. “So… what were these stories about Angelica?” she dared to ask, realizing that she held the title of next longest-running relationship with Liam Brody after the one he had shared with his ex-fiancée. It was kind of a daunting title to hold considering how disastrously they had ended.
Liam smirked at her. “The kind that we don’t need to waste your birthday getting into.”
~
With a triumphant little curl of the lip, Amanda peered down at her phone. She had deleted every last email in her inbox. With all the proof of her lies erased from existence, she could simply cry Photoshop if her hacker were to try and publish any of her old messages. Right?
Right, Amanda nodded to herself as she gazed out the window at beautiful North Carolina. Her weekend was forecasted to be perfect and she wasn’t about to let anything ruin that. If trouble was brewing ahead, she’d rather think about it on Monday.
“Bellevue Heights. Population eleven thousand eight hundred fifty-three.” Amanda smiled as their Jeep passed the red and gold sign. “See, why isn’t Merit this charming?” she mumbled to herself as she gazed out at the quaint storefronts with hanging wooden signs and striped awnings. Instantly, the place gave off a sense of warmth and familiarity.
Turning to look at Liam, Amanda smiled. It was a treat in and of itself to watch him drive. Resting her elbow on the passenger side window, she studied him through her Ray Bans. He leaned back in the driver’s seat with his exceptionally gorgeous forearm draped over the steering wheel, his posture relaxed and his eyebrows slightly knit as the sunlight bounced off of his white T-shirt and aviators. Just watching him grip the underside of the wheel and make a turn was fascinating. He had seemed to her like such a city boy. Amanda wasn’t used to seeing him before a backdrop of green trees and wood gated farmland. But all it took was a few minutes of ogling to vividly imagine him driving a red pickup truck and chopping wood for a fire. Or something like that. Amanda bit her lips back, muffling her private little laugh.
“What?” Liam smiled, stirring from his dreamy state. He looked at her for as long as he could before returning his eyes to the road.
“Nothing. Just… taking it all in. That was such a short flight but it feels like we’re a whole world away from New York.”
“Good thing?”
“Great thing.” Amanda let go of a sigh. “I need to load up on calm before this week starts.”
Monday was the beginning of a whirlwind schedule again. Right before the double date at Lilac was her big interview with Fleur. Since Wendy was lobbying hard with the magazine to give her the cover, Amanda had agreed to somewhat of a makeover to up her chances. It seemed like the right thing to do considering how hard Wendy was fighting for her publicity, but the thought of handing all control of her appearance to the Fleur stylists was just a tiny bit daunting.
Then, of course, the following day was her first day of work for ZINC. And while she’d read the scripts and beat sheets and scores of other things that Tom Vogel had emailed her, Amanda could still confidently say that she had no idea what the hell she was doing. Despite a summer of press events and reading up on everything Leadoff, she couldn’t figure out what her purpose on the writing staff could possibly be. Tom had yet to tell her or assign her any responsibilities, nor had he contacted her much over the summer. Amanda could only assume that since she was already behind, her job with the Leadoff staff would be no easy task.
So quite desperately, she needed the weekend in Bellevue Heights.
Liam looked at her, seeming to read her mind. “You’re going to be fine, you know. There’s nothing to worry about.”
Amanda chewed her lip. “I know,” she somewhat lied. The weird emails, the hacker. They were technically things for her to worry about. But she didn’t want to. Not now, at least. She was finally with Liam after what felt like ages of waiting and she wasn’t about to let anything ruin their time. Besides, deleting her entire history of emails had to be a surefire way of protecting their secret. It wasn’t as if her hacker had contacted her again since she’d cleared out her inbox. That had to mean that he or she was done, bored or tired of the little prank.
“Alright. Here we are. Verbena Road.”
Amanda blinked up as Liam turned the Jeep into a massive, sprawling cul-de-sac lined with what looked like mini forests in front of each house. Despite the spaciousness of the street, there were only four homes, one of which caught Amanda’s eye immediately. It was perched at the very end of the road and looked as if it had been plucked from a painting. Behind its wooden gating were perfect rows of leafy trees, split perfectly down the middle by a brick-lined walkway. At the end of the walkway was a perfectly symmetrical Greek Revival house with grand white columns to line the porch. It sat in the middle of a massive pasture of grass so dewy and green that it appeared to be glowing or wearing a halo of sorts. The place felt like a total dreamland. All it seemed to be missing were Clydesdale horses galloping around with their manes blowing in the wind.
“This is where we’re spending the weekend?” Amanda breathed in awe, barely waiting for the car to park before jumping out and running down the brick path, the sound of Liam’s laugh fading as her sandaled feet carried her further away from him. The gust of wind she created blew her hair back. “This feels like a movie!” she exhaled. “I feel like I should be wearing a Victorian dress while churning butter or something.”
“If that’s how you want to spend your birthday.”
Amanda spun around, the excitement on her face prompting Liam to break into a grin. “Honestly, all I want for my birthday is to hang out in this gorgeous house, do nothing and have the most mundane weekend ever.”
He laughed. “Dream big.”
“I told you. I need to load up on calm before we go back to New York.”
“Fair enough.” Hoisting the heavy bag over his shoulder again, Liam wrapped his free arm around Amanda’s waist, giving her a quick kiss on the top of the head before ushering her toward the front of the house. Amanda closed her eyes for a split second, relishing t
he breeze as it blew through her hair. It was odd — she felt strangely at home on Verbena Road and she was fairly certain that she’d never been anywhere so instantly relaxing.
Savor every second of it here, Amanda told herself, taking in the sight of Liam retrieving a house key from his pocket and opening the front door. This is as peaceful as it gets.
~
“This is going suspiciously well.”
Amanda eyed the other shoppers while muffling her giggle with the sleeve of her hoodie — or rather, Liam’s amazingly soft hoodie that she had decided to claim as her own within the first few minutes of wearing. He didn’t seem to mind.
Paired with the hoodie were leggings that Liam had packed for her and one of his baseball caps, worn low over her eyes. It was their best attempt at a disguise and it was actually working. Thus far, not one person at Bellevue Heights’ new grocery store had looked at her. She couldn’t say the same for Liam though — nearly every female who passed him gave him the eye for as long as she could without feeling rude. But in his U.S Air Force apparel, they seemed to assume that he was one of the local servicemen in their small military town. Just an astonishingly tall and gorgeous one with a visibly perfect jawline under the blue hoodie he wore over his falcon logo baseball cap.
“Don’t jinx it,” Liam said under his breath, all the while piling about a half dozen cans of condensed soup into their basket.
“What’s up with the cream of mushroom?” Amanda asked curiously, reaching up to hook her arm around Liam’s. The moment she did, she felt her eyes fly to the image of their interlocked elbows as they strolled up aisle five of the store. It was a first. The elbows, the grocery shopping. A very mundane first, but still. It felt oddly wonderful. Glancing up, Amanda noticed the little curve at one end of Liam’s mouth as he too gazed down at their arms, a mixture of amusement and delight in his dark eyes. It took him a few seconds to tear his eyes away, though when he did, his giant smile remained.