I'm Not Charlotte Lucas(28)

“What are you getting yourself into here?” he asked, his curious eyes watching me.

“Hopefully something better than last time,” I said, hoping I sounded cheeky. Really, I was certain I sounded pathetic. Shaking my head, I leaned it against the back of Liam’s sofa. My head tapped against his arm, and I quickly sat upright. I didn’t realize he had strung it over the back of the couch.

“He’s really not that bad,” I explained, smoothing out my loose waves and looking anywhere but his face. I had felt so comfortable a moment ago, but now every nerve in my body was on high alert.

Off-limits, I reminded myself. Liam was off-limits.

“Then why did you break up with him the first time?”

“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours,” I countered.

“Easy,” he said, relaxing into the couch more. Why was it so easy for him to be comfortable when I felt nothing but electricity buzzing between us? That thick, heavy feeling the air got with static electricity right before you got a shock. I felt that between Liam and me, and I just wanted to reach for him, to close the distance and get the shock so the thick air would dissipate.

“You are concentrating awfully hard right now,” he said, his voice hoarse and his eyes trained on me.

“I’m just waiting eagerly for you to tell me why you and the hottest woman in America broke up.”

He shook his head. “She is beautiful,” he agreed, “but that’s not why I ended things.”

“Obviously.” I was right. He broke up with Naomi.

He shot me a look like he was the teacher and I the misbehaving student. “We didn’t want the same things.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, come on. Is that what you told the press? I bet that was carefully crafted by Ms. Price’s publicist as the perfect answer to avoid bad publicity.”

“There is no such thing as bad publicity.”

“Not true,” I said. “And you are covertly avoiding answering me so I’m going to go ahead and take that as an answer.”

“It wasn’t carefully crafted,” he said, chuckling. “It’s the truth. Naomi is on a whole different plane than me. Her focus is on bigger things. I’m a simple man.”

“Well, as much as I only believe half of that, I’ll let it slide.”

“How magnanimous of you.”

“I try.” My phone buzzed, and I flipped it over, leveling Liam with a look. He told me his; I now had to reveal mine. “I wasn’t kidding earlier. Andy and I just didn’t have great timing. It felt like we were always in two different places in our relationship. One of us wanted more, and the other didn’t prioritize enough. It wasn’t like he cheated on me or anything major. We just didn’t work out.”

“But that will be different this time,” Liam said, nodding sagely.

I shrugged. “It could be different. I won’t know unless I try.” I glanced down at the phone, and it was a text from Andy.

Andy: Grabbing a table. Can’t wait to see your beautiful face.

“And now you’re late,” Liam said.

I moved my phone away so he wouldn’t keep looking at it. Well, shoot. I hadn’t intended on talking for so long. How had fifteen—no, twenty-five minutes—gone so quickly? I stood abruptly, gathering my sterile Ziploc bag.

“Thanks,” I said, but I didn’t really know what I was thanking him for. Liam followed me to the door and leaned against the door jam, crossing his arms over his broad chest. I tore my gaze away from the muscles outlined and shaded on his arms and chest and forced it to remain on his face.

Front Porch Barbie was one lucky lady.

“Don’t have too much fun tonight,” he said.

I couldn’t tell if he was being serious or sarcastic. So I turned and got in my car and drove away. I watched light spill from the open door onto Liam’s porch until my car turned out of sight. But I couldn’t get the thought from my mind: why did he watch me drive away?





Chapter Twelve


“I’m so sorry I’m late. I lost my phone and had to go pick it up, and it was just a messy day.”

Andy stood up when I approached the table, rattling off my lame excuse. He leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek before helping me sit down, and I sighed. This was why I liked him. He was such a gentleman. This was not going to be like all those chick flicks where one perfect man was interested in me and I dated another guy who never measured up.

First off, Liam seemed perfect, but he certainly wasn’t interested in me, and he had flaws somewhere. He had to. And second, Andy didn’t have to measure up to him. But if I was doing any sort of covert measuring, Andy held up his side very well.

“How have you been?” I asked, pushing my menu to the side. I ordered the same fettuccine alfredo with a Caesar salad each time I came here, and I wasn’t about to change that now. They always chopped fresh tomatoes on top of the pasta that were cool and so perfect. My mouth was now watering just thinking about the cheesy goodness coming my way.

“I got a new dental assistant,” he said, sipping from his glass. “Now I manage a team of hormonal young women who gossip more than work. But it all gets done.” He shot me his perfect smile, and I nodded.

He always seemed to be getting new dental assistants. It begged the question, why were they constantly needing to be replaced? But no. I was not going to head into the date with predetermined negativity. This was supposed to be me giving us a solid chance. “That’s great.”