I don’t know when it had happened, but he’d shifted from a support role in my life to the leading man and I wasn’t sure what to think of it.
“I thought he was going to propose—”
“What?!” They screeched simultaneously.
“Whoa, wait a second,” Ember said, holding up a hand. “Rewind and start at the very beginning.”
By the time I finished relaying what happened, we were on our second round of drinks. “And then, um, Liam got him to leave me alone and brought me back to Nassau so we could visit his parents for the weekend.”
Layla leaned back in her seat and drank deeply from her glass. She gestured in my direction. “There’s something you’re not telling us. Did you want to say yes to his proposal?”
My head shot straight up. “No! Of course not.”
“Then why are you on your fifth napkin?” Ember asked.
Shocked, I glanced down at my lap and found a veritable mountain of shredded paper. I forced myself to knot my hands on the table. “Look, it’s not a big deal.”
“I call bullshit,” Layla said primly.
Ember nodded emphatically. “So do I. Spill.”
“Well, Liam came up when Andrew was saying all these awful things,” I had to take another long draw from my glass of sangria to keep from choking up. “Anyway, Liam was working that night and he must have heard or seen Andrew come up to me. The next thing I know, he’s kissing me and then Andrew left.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Ember said. “Liam. Liam kissed you?”
“Wow,” Layla added, adjusting her glasses. “I definitely didn’t see that coming.”
“You and me both.”
“Then Lay, you may need to get your glasses checked because you’re blind. They’re perfect for each other.”
I carefully gathered up the mess of napkins and rolling them in another to keep from spilling everywhere. “It doesn’t matter. He just did it to get Andrew to go away. It didn’t mean anything.”
“Honey, a man doesn’t kiss you and then take you on a weekend getaway if he doesn’t want it to end up with more kissing,” Ember said. She’d been in a relationship since high school, not a serial dater like I was or a dater-avoider like Layla, so we mostly deferred to her when it came to the opposite sex.
But she was wrong about this. “Not Liam. He didn’t try anything else afterwards and we talked about it.”
Layla jabbed her finger in my direction. “You’re in complete denial, but we’ll circle around to that.” Her face fell and I reached for her hand on the table.
“What’s wrong? Here I am blathering on and I haven’t even asked how you guys have been.”
“My mother. Well she called to tell me the other day if I insist on keeping my major in art that I can forget any financial assistance for senior year and not to even think about asking her for help with graduate school.”
Layla’s mom was a straight bitch. She was a living testament to why I never bothered looking for my own. Whereas mine abandoned me, hers never lets up. My phone rings, but I don’t recognize the number, so I send it to voicemail and shift my attention back to Layla.
“Now you’re the one who needs to listen. You don’t need to live your life according to what she wants. She doesn’t get a do-over. You deserve to be happy,” I told her.
Layla took a deep drink from her wine and signaled for another. “I hear what you’re saying, but that’s a whole lot easier to say than to do.”
“One step at a time, sweetheart. You have to cut those strings at some point,” Ember said.
“And just when are you going to realize when you don’t have to take care of your sisters and that it’s your parent’s job?” I asked Ember.
“Not up for discussion,” Ember said. “Besides, my twin terrors are a hell of a lot less of a pain in the ass than Layla’s mother and Liam put together.”
I giggled and slurped down the rest of my third sangria. “Look who can dish it, but can’t take it.”
Layla was giggling, too, her cheeks flushed. “I think we’ve opened enough wounds for one Girl’s Night.”
“Yeah, but I always feel so much better after,” Ember lifted her glass in a toast.
Layla and I touched ours to hers. “I’d say we should do it more often, but you two ladies drink too much,” Layla said, then polished off her wine.
I did the same with my own. “Way too much,” I said with faux graveness.
We were still laughing as we stepped out into the chilly night air. Their Uber was waiting by the entrance and I gave them a hug and helped them into the back seat.
“Text me when you get home, okay?” I said as I waited for them to buckle up.
“Yes, mom,” they both said.
“You too,” Ember added sternly, ever the mother hen.
“I will,” I promised. I waved at their smiling faces in the back window as the Uber pulled away.
I may have had to concentrate extra hard on my way to the bench at the front of the restaurant. Remembering I promised to text Liam when I was done, I pulled out my phone and fumbled with the lock screen.
ME: I’m reaaaadddyy.
It only took a few seconds for Liam to respond.
LIAM: Omw
I wanted to think it was the sangria, but the delicious anxiety I felt had nothing to do with having too much to drink. It was Liam. All Liam. The cool breeze laden with the scent of grease from a burger joint nearby did little to combat the flush in my cheeks. I had to get a grip on myself before I did something stupid.
Like kiss him this time.
Talking myself out of my nerves wasn’t helping, so I decided I needed to walk it off. As soon as I stood up, the blood seemed to drain from my head and I swooned, reaching out a hand to grip the back of the bench before I stumbled and fall face-first into the concrete.
But I didn’t.
A hand gripped my arm, and I looked up to find Liam standing in front of me. I blinked a couple times to clear the blurriness from my vision. “Careful there, Charlotte,” he said with a mile-wide grin. “Wouldn’t want you to hurt your pretty face.”
My belly flipped and I barely resisted the urge to lean into his grip. I managed to roll my eyes instead, which was a bad idea as it caused me to wobble in my heels. Then I narrowed them, because even with the three-inch assist, Liam was still ridiculously tall. “Don’t call me Charlotte,” I told the two of him. “You got here fast. You better not have been speeding.”
“And you’ve been spending too much time with Ember, clearly. I didn’t speed. I’d just gotten your text as I was leaving the library.”
Because I wanted to step into his arms, I took one back. I controlled my wobbling by sheer will. “Let’s just get out of here,” I said, but it sounded a little desperate to my ringing ears.
“Done,” he replied, and wrapped an arm around me to help me to his truck. When I stumbled, he pressed me more securely to his side. “Have a little too much to drink there, shortstack?”
“Just a couple glasses of wine. Don’t judge.”
He opened the door for me and kept me steady with one wide palm as I clambered up. “No judgement,” he said, but I could clearly hear the smile in his voice. Instead of pissing me off, though, it made me want to laugh.
“You’re such a good friend, Liam,” I said as he buckled himself in. My eyelids were heavy and now that the rush of adrenaline was gone, I could feel myself starting to crash. Surrounded by the comforting scent of him, knowing I had nothing to worry about as long as he was there, I turned sideways in the seat and leaned over so I could lay my forehead against his shoulder.
He reached over and rested his palm on my thigh like I knew he would. “Any time.”
I only meant to close my eyes for a second, but I must have dozed off, because when I opened them again, I found myself in Liam’s arms. Blinking rapidly, I looked around and discovered we were in my apartment complex’s elevator. Too emotionally and physically exhausted to move, I let my head drop b
ack against his chest.
“Y’know, Charlie, after more than a decade of knowing you, I should have known that a couple glasses of wine knocks you out.”
I smiled against the material of his shirt and marveled how that it was even possible after the past few days. “I just want to take a shower, change into a pair of yoga pants and a T-shirt and eat a gallon of ice cream.” I yawned and then tapped him on the shoulder. “You can put me down now.”
He set me gingerly on my feet, his hands on my arms to steady me.
“I’m fine, I promise.”
“You sure?” he asked as the elevator dinged.
“I promise. I don’t think it can get any worse,” I said with a laugh.
And then we stepped out into the hall and found nearly a dozen men in uniforms going in and out of the yawning door to my apartment.
Chapter Nine
Liam
The easy, relaxed mood Charlie had been in since I’d picked her up from the restaurant disintegrated at the sight before us. Her shoulders tensed and her breathing grew shallow and sharp. My own gaze narrowed and I kept myself in check so I didn’t go charging over demanding to know what the hell was going on. There’d been a ton of trucks in the parking lot and a whole mess of people congregated on the first floor, but I’d been too focused on Charlie to give any thought to why they were there.
Big mistake.
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” she asked and I kept my hand on her arm in case her knees gave out from under her again. Mostly it was for my own benefit. I needed to know she was okay.
“Yeah, what the fuck?” was all I could manage through gritted teeth.
Charlie inhaled and exhaled slowly, then she straightened her spine and marched across the hall to the disaster zone that was her apartment. She only wobbled a little on her heels until she came to a stop beside two middle-aged men in coveralls. After tapping one of them on the arm, she squared her shoulders.
“Excuse me. This is my apartment. What’s going on?” she asked.
The two men turned to her and immediately their eyes went to the slight V of her neckline. I gritted my teeth and stepped up behind her. Catching my eye, they straightened their gazes, both turning red.
“Ma’am, your apartment flooded. We didn’t find out until this evening because the space below yours is empty. The building manager had an emergency at another complex, so he’ll be by in the morning to talk about your options. Until then, your apartment will be inaccessible.”
She swayed in front of me, so I placed my hands on her shoulders. “F-flooded you said? But that’s impossible. I haven’t been here since Friday and there wasn’t anything leaking at the time.”
I thought back to Friday when Andrew had asked for her key to get his stuff from her place. Had he done this? Was he that spiteful? Then it hit me. If I hadn’t given Andrew the key, she wouldn’t be essentially homeless right now. This was entirely my fault.
“How long will it take to repair the damage?” I asked. I had to fix my mistake.
One of the guys, whose name tag read Mac, lifted a shoulder. “Four to six weeks depending on the severity. Once we clear it up a little bit, you can go in and assess your damages and gather any items you’d like.” He pulled a business card from his breast pocket. “If you’ll call the landlord’s office tomorrow, they’ll be available to go over your options.”
“Options,” she repeated.
“Hey, Mac!” came a shout from inside her apartment.
“Excuse me,” Mac said, and disappeared inside.
Charlie turned, her eyes unfocused and her face devoid of expression. “Well, shit,” she said after a minute of silence.
“Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out. But we should talk about this somewhere else.”
“Somewhere else. I have nowhere to go.” She barked out a laugh. “Have you looked inside there? It’s a disaster zone, Liam.”
“It’s just stuff. It can be replaced.” I guided her by the shoulders out of the melee while I figured out how to tell her what had happened. I’d tried to protect her and I’d wound up causing her even more damage.
For a few minutes we just watched the parade of repairmen go in and out. Each time they stomped over the sodden carpet, Charlie winced. As the minutes passed, her shoulders grew tighter and tighter until they were somewhere up around her ears.
“Why don’t you stay at my place?” I said. I didn’t know I was going to offer until the words spilled from my mouth. The more I thought about it, the more the idea made sense. It wasn’t going to be forever. We were best friends, for fuck’s sake. Of course she could bunk with me. It was my fault she was without a place. It was my responsibility to make it right.
“What?” She blinked owlishly up at me, like she was waking from a dream. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“Why don’t you stay at my place until they’ve got yours sorted?”
She blinked again, her mouth hanging slightly open. Then she shook her head and said, “No, I couldn’t do that to you. You love your house. We just talked about how you didn’t’ want to settle down and all that.”
I shrugged, feeling awkward as hell. “It’s not that big of a deal, and it’s not like I’m asking you to marry me. It would just be for a couple weeks.”
“I can’t move in with you!” I wasn’t sure her eyes could get any bigger.
I shot a pointed glance at the ruins of her apartment. “Well you sure as hell can’t live here.”
A variety of emotions crossed her face, starting with irritation and ending with resignation. “Just for tonight,” she said after a while. “Just until I can talk to the super and figure out what my options are.”
Our building manager had never been what you’d call responsible, so I didn’t have any high hopes about her “options”, but she’d already had enough shit dumped on her in the past couple of days, so I agreed. I waited outside her front door while they let her run in and grab a few things that weren’t completely soaked. I would have offered to help her, but she had the wrinkle between her brows that meant she was looking to fight with someone.
As soon as she came out with a couple garbage bags full of her stuff, I took them from her hands and said, “C’mon, I know you’re hungry. Let’s heat up a pizza and I’ll get you some medicine for the headache you’ve got.”
She squinted at me. “How did you know I have a headache?”
After reaching the elevator, I turned to her and pressed the crease between her brow. “This right here.”
She only sighed, and I figured I wouldn’t push her for the rest of the night. She had enough to deal with. We loaded her things into my truck and she was silent for the short drive over to my squat little duplex. The paint on the clapboard siding needed refinishing. The door was a little cock-eyed and the landscaping was practically non-existent, but it was dry and it was as clean as a bachelor pad could get, which was a hell of a lot better than her place. And it’d save her more money than if she got a hotel.
I set her bags down underneath the kitchen bar as she kicked out of her shoes. While she threw herself on the couch with a grown, I grabbed a frozen pizza from the freezer, unwrapped it and set it on a cookie sheet while the oven preheated. I shook a couple Tylenol into my hand and brought them over to her, along with a glass of water.
“Take these.”
She did as I’d instructed and gulped down the whole glass of water. “Thank you,” she said on a heavy exhale. “I guess I’ll know better than to think things couldn’t get worse in the future.”
I chugged my own glass of water, hoping the knot in my throat would dissolve. “I’m sorry, sweetheart, but we’ll get it taken care of.”
“I know. I just I hate it when things are out of my control.” She frowned, and I couldn’t help but laugh. “What?” she asked indignantly.
“You’re gonna go through your whole life frustrated if you think you can control everything. If my family had taught me anything, it’s that y
ou have to learn to roll with the punches. Cliché, but it hasn’t done me wrong yet.”
She shook her head, then winced and slumped down against the couch. “I’d rather know what’s happening. Have a plan. That way if something does go wrong, I’ll know what to do.”
“So, you’re saying you should have planned to lose your apartment?” Maybe I was wrong about understanding this woman in particular. I scratched my head.
Tears thickened her voice and it froze me to the spot. Those tears were because of me. I’d done this to her as surely as fuck-stain. How I’d ever though I had a right to ask her for more was beyond me. “I should have had renter’s insurance at least so that would have covered any possessions that are damaged so I could replace them. I should have had someone come over to check on the apartment while I was gone. If I hadn’t been so distracted by what happened with Andrew, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”
Guilt drew my eyes to the countertops. I could barely look at her. “Clearly you’re still intoxicated because that’s the biggest load of crap I’ve ever heard, and sometimes you can really be full of it.”
“I don’t want to argue with you tonight, Liam,” she said with a sigh.
“I’m not arguing.” I glanced over as the oven chimed and got up to put the pizza inside. “All I’m saying is you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. You can’t control everything.”
“I can try.”
With the pizza in the oven, there was nothing else I could do to distract myself from telling her the truth. I braced my hands on the island and forced my gaze to her. God, she was gorgeous. Even sprawled across my couch, her face splotchy with the remnants of tears and her makeup faded, she was gorgeous. “Look, this wasn’t your fault. If it was anyone’s, it was mine.”
She threw a hand over her eyes. “No, it wasn’t. If anything, you’re the only thing holding me together.”
I flinched. “He flooded your apartment because of me.”
“What?” she asked as she straightened, her red-rimmed eyes coming to me. “What are you talking about?”
Friend Zone Series Box Set Page 6