Chapter 2

I’d been awake anyway,but hearing the taxi pull up and the drunken giggles and not-really whispers in front of the house, I figured it was probably better to go out and help them get inside. I didn’t want the neighbours complaining about the racket they were making.

Seeing Annie in the flower bed giggling like a schoolgirl was not what I’d expected when I opened the door. Unheard, I approached the hapless pair and announced my presence. Annie’s face was a picture, and I was reminded of a time when, as a child, she’d been busted for doing something silly. That same look of impish ‘oopsy’ was on her face now.

The look on Liam’s face, though, was something else altogether. His eyes widened a little when he saw me, but I wasn’t entirely sure it was surprise. In fact, I would have said there was a look of lust behind those glassy, doe eyes. But that would have been ridiculous, so I didn’t allow myself a hint of that honesty.

Instead, I helped them inside and upstairs, told Liam he was welcome to stay, and left them to it.

I stoodin my kitchen thinking about what I wanted to do next. Coffee seemed stupid at this time of the morning, even if it was likely that I wasn’t going to sleep for a while.

Hearing Liam’s footsteps on the stairs snapped me out of my indecision, making me aware I’d been standing there thinking about things for longer than I realised. I did the only thing I could think of in the situation. I went straight for the cupboard of glasses, grabbed one, selected my bottle of special occasion scotch, and poured, pretending to be oblivious to Liam’s approach.

“Sorry about the flowers,” he said sounding sheepish.

I took a mouthful of the amber liquid and let the heat in my throat distract me from everything else as I turned to face him.

“Ah, don’t worry about. They’ll bounce back.” I took in every inch of his face in a way I never had before. I didn’t know how to explain it, or what had caused it, but there had been something of a definite glow-up in Liam over the last six months. Something had changed for him and in him, and whatever it was, it suited him.

Realising how much I’d been staring at him, and how much he had been returning my look snapped me back to the reality that I was standing in my kitchen with my child’s best friend. Instinctively, I lifted the glass to my mouth again and took another swig.

“Can I have a glass?” Liam asked, not taking his eyes off me as I downed a third mouthful.

I turned away from him with a ‘Sure,” welcoming the interruption to whatever the hell was going on. I grabbed a second glass from the cupboard, poured two fingers worth for Liam, and topped up my own.

“Good night?” I asked as I held my arm out to hand him the glass of scotch.

“Not too bad.” He shrugged as he reached for the glass, his fingers grazing over mine. A spark shot up my arm where his skin made contact with my flesh, and his eyes darted to my face.

It took everything in me to ignore it. Smiling, I pulled my hand away in a controlled manner. “Annie texted that you’d met some friends on the way home,” I said, trying to keep things light.

Liam knocked back half his scotch and nodded. “Yeah, we did. Do you remember that kid in our year who spent the last year of primary school pulling Annie’s hair? It was him and a few of his mates from the local technical college.”

“Declan O’Neill, wasn’t it?” I asked, remembering how much stress that little shit had caused Annie when they were ten and eleven, only to have him go to being one of their friends by the time they were leaving for university.

Liam smirked. “Yeah, that’s the one. I always thought it was weird that he went from being her torturer to a friend by the time we were in our late teens.”

“We do funny things when we like someone like that.” I grinned, knocking back the last of my scotch. When I glanced at Liam’s face, I realised my mistake and at how loaded a statement it was.

I cleared my throat and looked away from him. He knocked back the last of his scotch and approached me. I was frozen to the spot. His hand reached out and passed me as he set his glass on the counter behind me. It was a move that put him close to me, and part of me wondered if he had orchestrated it that way.

My heart started to thump harder in my chest. I held my breath and waited.

“Thanks for the drink. I should head to bed now,” Liam said softly as he paused right in front of me.

I swallowed hard and nodded. “Goodnight.”

He turned without another word and started to walk back to the bottom of the stairs.

“Sweet dreams, Liam,” I said softly as he started up the stairs.

“You too, Rich.” He smiled back before disappearing.

I waited a moment, poured myself another scotch, and knocked it back in one before going up to bed myself.