by Piper Rayne
I align my ball and watch the tip of my stick leave a blue circle on the cue ball. It slowly comes back but doesn’t come as close as Liam’s.
“I guess that means I win,” he whispers in my ear.
“Not yet.” I narrow my eyes and walk around to the other side of the table.
“I have this guy in Sunrise Bay. He’s a fisherman and he’s super nice and—”
Denver finally pays his date—or hook-up or whatever she is—some attention. “Juno!”
“What?” Juno looks over all doe-eyed like.
Colton laughs from behind her.
Denver’s gaze shifts to Colton and back to Juno. “She’s here with me.”
“She said she didn’t come here with you.”
Denver blows out a breath and shakes his head as if he can’t believe her. “I just bought her a drink.”
Juno stands, holds up her hands, and goes back to her table with Colton. “Okay, sorry,” she says to Denver then turns to the woman. “Call me tomorrow.”
The woman looks as if she’s trying to figure out Juno’s words.
I bite my lip to stop from laughing.
“Thank you,” Denver says, sidling up next to the woman and blocking Juno from talking to her anymore.
Juno’s and my eyes catch, and we both smile because we know she’s just a hookup. That’s what Denver and Liam and our other brother Rome (before he became a father) are known for.
The crash of balls pulls my gaze to the table where Liam’s setting up his next shot.
I forgot. It wasn’t just my brothers my dad taught in our basement… Liam was always there too.
Four
Liam
“You sure you want another game?” I ask Savannah. She’s plastered from the shots she’s taken.
“Yep, because my dad might’ve taught you, but he taught me too.” She loses her balance and her finger jabs me in the shoulder instead of the chest.
A small part of me likes her like this. Not the drunk and incoherent part, but the part where she’s not worried about Bailey Timber or one of her eight siblings or Grandma Dori or any of the million things that seem to be running through her brain at any given moment. She’s in the moment and just wants to beat me and yeah, I do love when I’m the center of her attention.
Darlene or Marlene or maybe it’s Carly, sidles up next to me every time Savannah gets too close. I’d like to ditch her, but I’m an asshole who’s trying to get Savannah jealous. Make her believe she’s missing out.
“Come on. Let’s go back to your place.” The girl’s fingers dig into the waistband of my jeans in the back.
“Oh, you want to go to Liam’s?” Savannah says, and I grab her arm to keep her steady before her shot ends up on the felt of the pool table.
Darlene or Marlene—hell, let’s go with Bar Chick at this point—shoots me a questioning look. “What is it with the two of you?”
Savannah waggles her eyebrows at me, turns around, and downs the shot, holding onto the table as if it’s a railing above a cliff, keeping her from falling into the crashing waves below.
“She’s my buddy’s sister.”
Savannah whips back around, another strand of blonde hair falling loose from her ponytail. “Is that all?”
The conversation between Juno, Colton, Denver, and his hookup halts, and an awkward silence paints the room.
“Isn’t it?” I ask Savannah, baiting her to answer the question herself.
“Yes.” She smiles sweetly at Bar Chick. “He’s all yours.”
Bar Chick comes closer and my body stiffens, heat brewing in my veins.
“So another game?” Sav sets her empty shot glass on the table and slides her hands down the pool stick.
Bar Chick tried to turn me on with that move two games ago. Savannah’s getting the reaction out of my dick that Bar Chick wanted. Apparently dating another chick isn’t the way to work Savannah out of my system. Maybe Rhys’s Plan B is the way to go, but I definitely won’t be sleeping with her tonight. Not in her condition.
“I’m tired,” Denver whines, his hand venturing up the woman’s thigh.
“Yeah, we’re out,” Juno says, standing.
Colton pulls out his wallet and heads over to the bar to pay Nate for their drinks. Remind me again why those two aren’t a couple.
“What? I’m finally out and ready for some fun.” Savannah does a little twirl before hanging on to the table and clutching her stomach. “Whoa…”
“Come on, Sav, I’ll get you home.” Juno comes to her side. Her gaze lands on me and there’s accusation there.
What the hell? I was over here minding my own business before they joined us.
“This isn’t my fault,” I say.
Juno nods and inhales a deep breath.
“Liam can see me home,” Savannah says, her gaze skirting over my body.
Huh, alcohol really does make you truthful. I’ve said a helluva lot of lies while I’ve been drunk, but from the smoldering look Savannah’s shooting me, I have to believe it’s a truth serum for her.
“Sav, he has Marlene to see home,” Juno whispers but not so quietly that I can’t hear.
Savannah’s head turns to who I now know is Marlene. Thank you, Juno. “Oh.”
Marlene places her pool stick on the table and wraps both hands around my waist. She’s so tiny, not like Savannah. “Come on.”
I scour Savannah’s face for any sign not to take this invitation. But she smiles and entwines her arm through her sister’s. “I’ll spend the night at your place so Liam can have alone time with Marlene.” She spits the word ‘Marlene’ as if it has a foul taste.
I don’t even blink. We both know I want to put her over my shoulder and carry her out of here to my bed again. Instead she’s going to play like the idea of me with someone else doesn’t even register on her scale of things to be annoyed about. Anyone who knows the woman knows that she can find a way to be annoyed about anything.
“Thanks. I appreciate it.” I dislodge Marlene from me but take her hand. “Better luck next time,” I whisper in Savannah’s ear before I walk out of Lucky’s with Marlene at my side.
“Finally. Is she, like, an ex or something? Because she totally wanted you. I mean, have some respect, I saw you first.” Marlene gets me against the brick wall, her hand already over the bulge in my pants.
But that bulge isn’t because of or for her.
I put my hand over hers to stop her. I’m not going to lead this girl on, no matter what I’ll let Savannah believe. “No. She saw me first.”
Truth is, I saw her first—so many years ago.
Lucky’s Tavern’s door opens, and Savannah stumbles out between Juno and Colton. Juno barely has a handle on her sister. Colton’s doing all the heavy lifting. Savannah glances over and catches us, her eyes falling to where my hand is over Marlene’s—which is over my junk. Fuck.
“I’m gonna be sick.” She bends over the tree at the edge of the sidewalk and throws up.
Colton’s eyes shut and his head falls back.
Denver comes out right after. “Party foul, Sav!” He laughs, just as drunk as his sister, but I’m not worried about Denver. He can handle himself. He smirks at me, thinking I’m about to get busy with Marlene. “Don’t mind us.”
“You okay, Sav?” Juno asks.
Lucky’s door opens, and Nate comes out with a bottle of water for her because she’s probably the entertainment for the rest of Lucky’s Tavern’s patrons right now. Pictures are probably being snapped and she’ll likely be on Buzz Wheel before the night ends.
“Denver, get Marlene an Uber.” I give Marlene a smile that I hope communicates regret and push away from the wall.
I swoop Savannah up in my arms. Her head falls over my bent elbow while her arms hang loosely at her sides.
“She can come to my place. No need to upend your night.” Juno follows me to my car.
Since we won all the games, I only had one beer tonight, so I’m fine to drive. “No, I
got her. Just make sure Denver doesn’t come back to my house with those two.” I nod behind me.
Colton opens the passenger door, and I lay Savannah in the front seat. She mumbles something as I strap her seatbelt into place.
“Just don’t throw up again,” I say.
“Thanks, Nate.” Juno holds the water bottle out for me.
I take it before rounding my car and sliding in. One last glance at Savannah in my passenger seat, and I turn the key in the ignition and get her away from this situation which could damage her reputation. After all, it’s what she lives for in Lake Starlight.
Five
Savannah
My head pounds as I roll over, finding myself wrapped in navy sheets. I glance over, expecting to see my alarm clock, but there’s no clock. Just a drawing of an intricate Celtic image.
Liam’s masculine smell surrounds me, and I search the room for him but come up empty. It doesn’t even look as though he slept in the bed with me last night.
I sit up and hold my head. “What happened last night?”
I try to answer for myself, but I can’t recall anything after the second game of pool.
Shifting my legs over the side of the bed, I stand, and the cool breeze from the fan spurs me to see what I’m wearing. I’m in my bra and panties—not even my good ones. Just a plain cotton bra with a pink bow in between, like it’s a trainer and I’m eleven. My panties cover my entire lower abdomen. Fantastic. I grab the sheet to cover myself.
The door downstairs opens and closes, alerting me that I need to get my ass moving. With Liam’s sheet wrapped around me, I tiptoe down the hall to my room in what feels a lot like the walk of shame—just without the prior benefits.
Once I throw on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, I return his sheet to his room, still finding it vacant. After making the bed, I search the entire house for him. He’s nowhere to be found. Then my eye catches the green barn outside, the door slightly ajar.
He’s always so secretive about what he does in there.
I walk out of the house, trying to ignore my pounding head, and up the brick path, but as I’m about to open the barn door, Liam steps out and shuts the door. Sometimes I think he’s got superpowers. Either that, or a video monitoring system.
“Morning,” he says. “Did you get the aspirin and water on the kitchen counter?”
I shake my head. “What happened?” My voice sounds rougher than normal.
He heads down the path toward the house, so I follow. He’s still wearing the jeans and T-shirt he had on last night, except they’re more wrinkled now.
“You got drunk.”
“And how did I end up in your bed?” I ask with no shortage of attitude.
He stops at the door to the kitchen and turns around, almost making me run right into him. “You put yourself there.”
“I did?” My eyes dip down to look at the perfectly lined bricks that Liam most likely laid himself. “I don’t remember that.”
“Probably because if you were sober, the last place you would’ve put yourself is in my bed.” He stuffs his hands into his pockets.
I want to ask if he joined me. How I ended up half naked. But it’s too embarrassing. I’d rather fly blind than get the answers from him.
“Thank you. I apologize if I inconvenienced you last night.” I slide by him, having to step on the grass to dodge the chance of my body touching his.
He grabs my arm lightly, stopping me. I shift my weight, trying to slide out of his grasp, but he won’t let go, so I stop, staring into his blue eyes.
“I slept on the couch.” He moves a few inches closer. “You stripped yourself down.” Closer still. “And you never inconvenience me.”
“But you were with that girl. What happened?”
He winces, but his smirk is on full display shortly after. “We just used the couch instead.”
My body goes cold and all my muscles seize. “Oh.”
“Jesus, do you really think I’d do that?” He releases my arm and walks back to the barn.
“It isn’t that out of the realm of possibility,” I holler at his retreating back.
He stops, his head hanging low. I watch his back rise and fall as it often does when he’s exasperated with me. “I didn’t want her. The woman I want in my bed was already in it.” He doesn’t turn around to face me.
“Liam?” What’s he going to do? Give some declaration as to why we should sleep together? “You should have gone home with her.”
My heart rate picks up speed with each degree he turns until he’s facing me. “Is that what you want?”
“I don’t see how it can be any other way.”
His tongue skates over his bottom lip. “You can honestly stand there and deny that you want me to pick you up and carry you into my room?”
I step forward, wanting to touch him, but I stop myself. Liam is the type of guy who if I give him an inch, he’ll go the mile to win me over. He loves a challenge, and that’s all I am to him. The first woman who hasn’t stripped down and laid herself willingly on his bed. Well, shit, I have done that, he just had the decency not to take advantage of me.
“Why didn’t you do that last night if you think that’s what I want?”
“You were drunk.” He pierces me with a stare that makes me feel as though he can see deep inside me, to all the uncertainty and insecurities lurking there.
“You’ve taken drunk girls to bed before. Why not me?”
His eyes narrow and he shakes his head as though I’m not speaking English. “You passed out. Even when you stripped yourself down, you weren’t in any frame of mind to take to bed.”
“Thanks, I suppose.”
He blows out a breath and his demeanor does a one-eighty, his usual smirk shining brightly. “You’re welcome, I guess.” I roll my eyes, and he crosses his arms. “It was nice to see you let yourself go.”
“Wish I could remember what it felt like, but the night’s a blur.” A nervous giggle slips out of me.
“Maybe you should let that side of you out of your cage more often.”
“If only.” Even I can hear the wistful note in my voice.
His eyebrows raise in question.
“What do you want from me, Liam?”
“What do you think I want from you, Savannah?”
“I think you want me to be the naïve girl from before my parents’ accident. But I’m the one who runs Bailey Timber now. I’m the matriarch of the Bailey family—after Dori, of course. There are expectations. I can’t just hop on the back of a motorcycle and party every night.”
He soaks in what I said before he speaks. “You have no idea what I want from you. And I saw that girl last night.”
I throw my hands in the air. “Because I was drunk! But that’s an exception for me.”
“If you keep telling yourself that, you’ll believe it.”
“Stop it.” I jab a finger in his direction. “This is who I am now.”
“Fine. I didn’t ask you to change everything about yourself.”
He doesn’t see what I do when I look in the mirror. He searches for traces of that girl who flirted with him when she shouldn’t have. The one who drew his attention because she was the older sister of his best friends. The one shiny red apple in a pile of bruised and rotten ones. That’s what he’s attracted to, not the version who’s thinking spreadsheets and quarterly reports and what I need to do to make sure all my younger siblings are okay.
“Let’s agree to disagree. I’ll check with my contractor today so that I can get out of your way. When there’s more space, this whole thing”—I wiggle a finger between us—“will go away.”
He slow claps, and I narrow my eyes. “Bravo, Sav, you always have a game plan.”
“Stop it!”
He laughs and shakes his head. “Go. I’m sure someone needs you somewhere.”
He disappears into the barn, leaving me shaken.
That evening, I’m at Northern Lights Retirement Residence for my week
ly knitting class. Originally, I thought knitting would be fun. Keep me from obsessing over my to-do list and only think about the stitching. But I think I’m too neurotic to enjoy the art, and my instructor, Ethel, agrees.
“You’re not doing it right.” Ethel leans over my shoulder, taking the knitting needles and showing me for the millionth time how to get the stitch looser. “Better.”
Grandma Dori rolls her eyes. She’s on her phone with her feet on the coffee table. “Buzz Wheel said you threw up on a tree last night. I don’t think I need to tell you that’s not how a Bailey should act.” She doesn’t make eye contact with me.
“Agreed, but let’s remember all the stupid shit Rome and Denver have pulled.”
“They get the pass. They’re boys, and they don’t run Bailey Timber.” She sets her phone down. She’s not a knitter, so she grabs her pack of cards and shuffles.
“So I’m just supposed to always be on?” Damn it, I dropped a stitch and now I have to go back and fix it.
“I didn’t say that, but in my experience, when someone gets so drunk they’re throwing up, they have issues they’re not dealing with.” She cocks her gray eyebrow my way. I should suggest she get them waxed or threaded, but I don’t because I’m a polite granddaughter.
“I don’t have any issues,” I mumble.
“How’s living with Liam going?”
“Fine. My contractor said that it’ll be another month. I think I’m going to move in with Juno. It’s fire season, so Kingston’s not around much. I can move into his room.”
She shakes her head. “That won’t do.”
“Savannah, I know you’re a little high-strung, but loosen up. Your stitches are going to be too tight.” Ethel hits the tops of my hands because I’m holding the needles so tightly my hands hurt.
“You don’t have to hit me,” I say, but Ethel presses her hearing aid.
“There she goes again, answering the phone.” Grandma Dori shakes her head. “It’s so rude.”
“And you’re one for manners?”
