Page 10 of The P*ssy Next Door

Before he got past the little hallway between the two rooms, George whispered to Liam, just loud enough to hear. “Did you ask her?”

“No.” Liam whispered back. “And I told you, I'm not going to. She's got a whole-ass life and I love that for her. I'm not interfering with that.”

“But you have a whole-ass life too, Li.” George's whisper got a bit gruffier and cracked a little. “When we didn't think you would. It doesn't hurt to ask, does it? Maybe she wants a new adventure.”

I glanced at Xan and pointed to my chest, mouthing the word “me?”

He mouthed back, “duh.”

I strained to listen to more of their conversation, but they moved away and I didn't catch anything else. “What was that all about? Liam already asked me if I wanted to stay a little longer, but I really have to get back to work.”

“I'm not supposed to interfere.” Xan shrugged.

“Tell me, or I'll sit on you when you least expect it.” He had a good ten inches on me, but I had a good hundred pounds on him.

“You're going to make them more mad at me than they already are.”

“Wait, why are they mad at you? You're the golden child, the one who will bring fame and football upon us all.”

He ignored my jab and went and actually answered my real question. Dammit. “They want to go on a cruise.”

“Okay.” And what? That was no biggie. Did they want to do one in Asia, like out of Singapore, and come visit? I probably couldn't take a whole lot more time off, but I had enough free time during the weekdays to show them around. When I was working evenings and weekends, they could surely entertain themselves. “They should.”

“They can't.” The way he said it made it sound like a prompt I'd give to one of my students to get them to fill in the blanks and figure out the answer to the problem.

“Why? I though Liam had a clean bill of health.” They'd said he was well. He had to be better. “He really is okay, right?”

It was a good thing I was the teacher and Xan wasn't because he sucked at the whole helping me figure out what was going on thing. “They don't want to do a three-day Caribbean cruise or some shit. When Li wasn't doing great, George bought them tickets for an around-the-world cruise so they'd have something to look forward to, something to live for.”

Whoa. “That's badass. So, why can't they?”I was done guessing and made a motion for him to continue.

“Liam won't close Cool Beans to do it.”

“Oh.” The coffee shop meant everything to the two of them. Not because it was their income. George had a gazillion dollars from an inheritance and some smart investing, and then there was that app he designed and sold to some big online betting conglomerate. They were rolling in it. The coffee shop was more of a hobby.

But it was the place they'd met. And then George had bought it for Liam as a wedding present. The coffee shop was a symbol of their love, and so, yeah, they'd never close it. Not even to go on an around-the-world cruise to celebrate life in a bangarang way.

“Yeah, oh.”

Oh. Oh shit. They wanted to ask me to run it for them, didn't they? Come back to Denver. Live here. Be stuck here.

“Uh, I gotta go.” I turned from the kitchen and bolted right upstairs to hide far, far away from family obligations.

Seven raced up the stairs ahead of me and made it to my room before I did. When I flopped down on the bed and covered my eyes with my arms, he crawled onto my chest and made himself into a purring loaf of bread.

George and Liam had granted me my freedom from life in Denver under the disappointed eyes of my parents and brother. They knew how much that meant to me. No way they'd force me to come back.

I laid there for a long time, my mind just racing around and around like the Indy 500 worrying about when and how they might ask, and what I'd say, and if I should say yes, or no, or what alternatives there could possibly be. I might have sunk into the pits of despair all night letting Seven snuggle me into sleep if my phone didn't buzz.

I'm on my way. Can't wait to see where you picked.

Shit. The date.

I definitely needed to get out of this house for a little while. Immediately if not sooner. I sent a quick reply message to Hayes.

Stay where you are. I'll meet you at your house.

He replied with the big eyes scared emoji and I laughed. I imagined he was now running around his house picking up beer cans, throwing out pizza boxes, hiding the porn mags, and spraying air freshener everywhere.