Page 1 of Holiday Home 3
Chapter One
Calamity
When Liam Carr considered the things that might ruin his day in an instant, he figured that his list was probably pretty typical for his age. A broken-down car, an unexpected death in the family, oversleeping on the morning of an exam. Altogether everyday things that a college freshman would stress over. Comparatively, receiving a passionate kiss from one of the most wildly attractive women on the planet should have never made it onto the same list. It wouldn’t have even been considered as an applicant to the damn list.
Avril Knight forced him to reconsider his stance on that.
As her lips fled from his, a devilish smile framed her full lips. Her auburn tresses bounced as she dropped from her toes to her heels. Her hair matched the color of the scarf around her neck, which hid the evidence that they’d done far more than just kiss a few days ago. But that had been in his house, and they’d been alone.
Her verdant eyes gleamed lustrously as she broke eye contact with him, all so she could take in the other incredulous expressions around her. She absorbed the shock of her professor and her best friend as though it was a veritable fuel source to her. Maybe it was.
“Dibs,” she said, face remaining one of maverick amusement.
It didn’t spread.
“What the hell, Avril?!” the younger of the two astonished women in the room exclaimed. It was the first time he’d ever heard her approach anything close to a swear.
“What?” Avril said, holding out her hands as though perplexed by her best friend’s outcry.
“You know what!” Anna hissed, her usual calm, polite bearing having shattered like porcelain, replaced by jagged shards of vexation. Her face burned vermillion as she blustered at her best friend and roommate. “What is wrong with you?!”
“What’s wrong with me?” the voluptuous redhead asked, tilting one head to the side. “What’s wrong with you? Why are you getting so upset all of a sudden?”
For three hundred and sixty-four out of the three hundred and sixty-five days in a year, Anna was as composed and unwavering as a professional orchestra. There might be a mishap here or there, an unexpected mistake or two throughout the year-long performance, but for the most part, the orchestra kept on playing without faltering.
Today was that three hundredth and sixty-fifth day. Where the conductor slipped off his podium and slammed into the violin section. Where instruments, chairs, and bodies collided and caused a cacophonous calamity. The whole performance ground to a halt.
“Uh, Anna? Earth to Anna?” Avril waved a hand in front of her stunned roommate, whose uniquely minty green eyesseemed to have voided themselves of any awareness of external stimuli.
For about three seconds.
And then the conductor stood up, smoothed their tuxedo, took a moment to collect themselves, and then promptly erupted with the force of a molten explosion toward the source of their fall.
“You know exactly what I mean, Avril! Why did you justkissLiam?! What is the matter with you?!”
For how incandescent Anna burned, Avril remained impressively impassive. To said kissed individual, who wasn’t even in the direct line of fire, which he glumly realized probably wouldn’t last, he felt like his eyebrows might have caught ablaze had Anna thrust the same level of molten rage toward him.
Yet, the sultry but troublesome—more than troublesome in this volatile situation that she’d thrust them all into—redhead’s eyebrows didn’t so much as smolder. She seemed as comfortable as could be in the face of the wrath pointed at her. As far as he could deduce, she was enjoying Anna’s reaction.
“I kissed him because I wanted to,” she matter-of-factly stated, as though she were explaining why she’d put on a pair of fuzzy gloves while standing in the cold. “I really don’t get why you’re blowing up on me like this. Youjustsaid that you two had only been pretending to be interested in each other this whole time. So, I want him. So, I kissed him to let him know that. It’s not that complex.”
It was like watching a steam-powered engine shudder and fall apart. The pent-up pressure caused the whole machine to palpitate wildly; the blaring peal of alarm deafened the room; bolts and bits erupted like missiles off the engine as the pressure sought some avenue of release. Complete and utter meltdown was the only option.
So, naturally, Avril decided to expedite the process.
“Ohhh,” Avril said, dropping a newly formed fist onto her other hand’s palm. “I get it. You’re worried about how Tess might react.”
Liam’s jaw nearly collided with the floor. Blessedly, so did Anna’s. It was enough of a distraction to allow him to remain unnoticed by the owner of the house they all currently stood in.
Tess Williams saw the abject horror caused by Avril’s claim in Anna’s expression, and she focused on it, which kept her from noticing his. And as she stared at Anna, her discerning eyes delved into that unusual response. After all, why would either of them need to worry about howshemight respond to Avril kissing him? And why would Anna’s face flash with such alarm at such a mention?
“Would you care to explain why my name has just come up in this?” the lovely brunette professor, who also happened to be the woman he’d secretly loved for years, asked.
Avril threw her hands behind her head, then shrugged. “I mean, why wouldn’t it? You’re interested in Liam, too, aren’t you?”
What the hell are you doing?!Liam thought, gawking at Avril as she raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
This was the second time that Anna’s response saved him from notice. Before Tess could spot the petrified alarm etched on his face, Anna hissed at her best friend. Or was itformerbest friend, by now?