19. Liam

Liam

Chapter nineteen

It hadn’t even been a week since dealing with whatever the attempt at an interrogation had been at the Brannon household before we were facing the next group of nosy bitches who wanted answers. In other words, my friends.

I went to game nights at Kelsey, Ruby, and Marco’s place pretty regularly, but Maeve had been extra insistent I attend this one with my new boyfriend. She hadn’t gotten to see us together, since my ass had been overnighting at Ollie’s house most of the week, which I had the feeling would be a trend more and more while we were together. Not only because Ollie was needy as hell but also because he brought out the same in me. But with him, that didn’t scare me.

“What are we going to play tonight?” Ollie asked, slinging an arm around my shoulders as we approached the front door.

“Aren’t you worried about coming out to my friends?” I asked. How had he been so chill throughout most of this? The only bit of tension I’d seen from him was when he needed to tell his family everything, but even that had been a blip. However, I shouldn’t have been surprised. That had always been Ollie. If a curveball came his way, he’d just flow with it and find the silver lining—the opposite of my grumpy ass.

It was one of the things I loved most about him.

“Why?” Ollie shrugged. “They already know we’re together now, and most of them are queer.”

“Fine, be rational.” I twisted the doorknob and entered. I’d never come here with a boyfriend before, but there was a weird mixture of comfort with the new since I had dragged Ollie along in the past. Except now he was all mine.

That reality had barely settled in, despite the amount of time we spent together, how often we fucked, and waking up in his bed with his body wrapped around me every morning. I’d been dreaming of this for so long that I felt like I was still walking through one.

We wandered into the hallway, loud voices making it clear everyone had gathered around the gaming table in their living room like always. My skin prickled in anticipation. Not like I hadn’t let my friends in, but this part of me had always been shielded from the world at large. Now I was exposed wherever we went because I melted over almost everything Ollie did or said. Unless it was fucking ridiculous because I still rolled my eyes as much as I always did. To be fair, all the Brannons were ridiculous.

The moment we stepped into view, Maeve’s eyes met mine from her spot at the end of the table. “Look who’s showed up,” Maeve said loudly and bolted from her seat.

I braced myself for the whirlwind.

She slammed into both of us, a feat for such a small human, and threw her arms around us. “I’m so happy for both of you.”

My throat thickened at the seriousness from my ever-snarky best friend. “Thank you,” I said, my words coming out a little shaky.

When she pulled away, her bright eyes glistened a little. “Come on, fuckfaces, we’ve been waiting for you to bust out Blood Rage.”

And that was the Maeve I’d expected. I sucked in a breath to push back my annoying emotions and walked up to the others. Word had spread that Ollie and I were coming tonight together, so everyone had turned out for game night, which was a rarity. By this time, Sammy, aka the toddler of perpetual chaos, was down for the evening, which left the adults free to game.

Cole and Lex were hanging out with Kelsey and Ruby on the couches while Marco, Theo, and Rhys all waited at the table, the game set out already.

“Before they get dragged into intense gaming mode, I want the official introduction,” Ruby said. She sat up from her comfortable spot with her head on Kelsey’s lap where her girlfriend had been playing with her dark, wavy hair.

“Fine,” I said, gesturing to Ollie. “Look, this is a guy you’ve clearly never met before in your life—since he hasn’t been over here a million times before.”

Ollie slid behind me and wrapped his arms around me as if he tried to engulf my body in a single move. I leaned back against his chest. “Hey, I finally got my head out of my ass and realized Liam’s the love of my life, and we’re going to spend every day together swooning and staring into each other’s eyes—”

I clapped my hand over his mouth, stopping him from embarrassing me further. I might love the man to pieces, but right now he was being a pain in my ass. “We’re boyfriends. Introductions complete.”

“I don’t know,” Lex said, his grin widening. “I want to hear more of what Ollie was saying.”

“No, you don’t. You just want to watch me suffer.”

“Of course he does. He’s a sadist,” Theo called out from over at the table.

“Sounds familiar,” Marco said, casting a glance at Ruby. Kelsey snickered, only to squeak a moment later when Ruby pinched her thigh.

These people. Warmth flooded my chest, even as I attempted to keep myself from not being a total sap while having Ollie’s arms wrapped around me. He felt so warm, so comfortable, like a favorite hoodie in the fall, and I wanted to bask in this bliss we’d found. The casual affection he doled upon me in heaps made me say “fuck it” to my normal ways because he was too sweet to resist. Nothing like my surly ass.

“Does anyone need to grill me or anything? Threaten me?” Ollie asked, all earnest and shit.

I shook my head, the corner of my lips quirking in a grin.

“Nah, Liam’s capable of fending for himself,” Rhys said.

“Grill you about what? We know you,” Theo said. The gleam in his gaze conveyed how happy he was for me. Theo and Maeve were the two who had been aware of my crush the longest, even though I’d never told anyone I’d been pining for my best friend for over a decade.

“Congratulations, guys,” Cole said. “I’m really happy for you both.”

“Thanks,” Ollie said, pressing a kiss against the side of my head, all the affection like a sugar overload.

“If we’re going to dawdle before the game, I’m grabbing a beer.” Maeve walked toward the kitchen. She snagged my gaze and tilted her head.

“I’ll come with,” I said, slipping from Ollie’s grasp. I gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. “Can you grab us seats?”

“Absolutely, baby,” he replied, and a chorus of coos sounded from around the room. I flipped my middle finger at them. Maeve had orchestrated my escape, and I wouldn’t waste the chance to sneak out of the limelight for a few moments.

When I stepped into the kitchen, I sucked in a sigh of relief. Being the center of attention might not faze Ollie, but that was because he’d grown up in chaos. Around the Brannons, I could watch the antics from the sidelines and chime in occasionally, which was more my speed. This, on the other hand, was him spending more time with my best friends, which meant all that focus turned my way.

“I’m shocked you emerged from the love nest,” Maeve said as she grabbed two beers from the fridge and set them on the counter. “Let me guess. You two have been going hot and heavy from the second you popped that top?”

“Ha, funny,” I said, my tone dry as usual. Though she wasn’t wrong, and my cheeks warmed a little at all the filthy things we’d been up to. The amount of time I spent with Ollie’s cock in my mouth or ass was nothing short of blissful and fulfilled fantasies I hadn’t dared entertain in the past.

“This is serious, though.” She lowered her voice. “Right? Like moving-in serious?”

“We haven’t talked about it yet.”

“But we both know that’s where it’s going.” She gave me a cavalier grin that wobbled. I closed the distance between us and crushed her in a hug. Maeve’s pointy little chin burrowed into my shoulder as she tried to squeeze the life out of me. Apart from Ollie, she was my best damn friend, and we’d lived together for so long now. I’d been avoiding change for a long time, just stuck in a holding pattern.

Existing at a job when I knew I could do better, sticking with one-night stands instead of trying for anything real, pining after my best friend who’d been married at the time.

Except the moment Ollie and I got together, change filtered in—not in an aggressive way like a tidal wave but more like the tide itself, lapping up to the shore. It infiltrated—first with my relationship with Ollie until it affected the rest of my life as well. Ollie loved having me in his house, and he made that abundantly clear. And he’d also started helping me with the paperwork to get my business going so I could quit my toxic job.

However, I wouldn’t have reached any of these turning points without the people in this house—especially Maeve.

“Hey,” I said, realizing what needed to be said. We finally pulled apart so I could look her in the eye. “Even if I move in with Ollie, I’m not abandoning our friendship. You’re too damn important to me.”

She fiddled with the top of her beer bottle. “Well, I guess someone is going to need to force you out of the love nest to socialize so you don’t become feral.”

A laugh burst from my chest, even as my heart squeezed tight. Moving out into Ollie’s place was my future. I knew that, just like I’d always known I would open my own practice, no matter how much I resisted. Change had been my nemesis for a long, long while, but until recently, I hadn’t understood that embracing it was the best way through life.

The sole way to claim what incredible moments you possibly could.

“I’ll go feral if I don’t have you dragging me out to coffee shops or game nights, so please don’t stop.”

Her bright eyes got a wicked gleam I had the feeling I’d regret. “Excellent. I’m going to remind you of this moment anytime you complain about going out. ‘Oh, Maeve, but being around people is the worst.’ ‘Oh, Maeve, I want to hide away and become a cave troll.’”

Her high-pitched whining sounded nothing like me, and I flicked her in the arm. A laugh exploded out of her, and she slid the other beer bottle my way. She nabbed an opener from the trio’s display of barware on the far wall of the kitchen and opened both of ours.

She lifted her bottle, and we clinked.

“To you and Ollie. I’m happy you finally got your guy. Now let’s get this game night started.”

“I see how it is,” I said as I followed her into the living room. “You just want me around to make sure we’ve got a good headcount for board games.”

“Duh,” she shot back, eyes twinkling. “Who else am I going to get to play Gloomhaven with me?”

“Definitely not me,” Rhys called out. “I don’t have the attention span for that game.”

“Few do,” Lex said.

Ollie already sat at the table, an open seat next to him saved for me. It was a sight I’d seen in the past a million times, yet now that we were together, it hit differently. His gorgeous brown eyes crinkled with a smile just for me, and warmth flooded through my whole body. I memorized every little detail from his broad shoulders straining the fabric of his Brannon Contractors work tee to the trimmed beard I liked to run my fingers through while he thrust into me. The tattoos I’d traced with my tongue, the thick thighs I’d seen flex—hell, everything about him drove me wild.

And he was all mine.

I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to get over that fact. I wasn’t sure I wanted to.

I slid into the spot beside him, and he pressed a sweet kiss to the side of my neck, the kind that made me shiver. I was aware our friends were watching, but I didn’t care about guarding myself anymore. I was so incandescently happy, more than I thought I could feel.

As our fingers laced underneath the table, our love out in the open for everyone to see, I knew I’d spend the rest of my life loving this man.

Some part of me had understood for a long time—he’d always been the one.