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I pressed my teeth to my lip to hold back a smile. You know what? I was pretty certain it was worth the risk of another heartbreak to give it one more shot.
“You’re telling me that you and Liam are working on this project together, and it’s going well?” Rachel asked, her eyes wide.
I laughed, because honestly, I couldn’t blame her shock. I raised both hands. “I swear. For the last week it’s been, I don’t know.” I paused, searching for the right word. “Different.”
Layla sipped her iced coffee through a straw and picked at the apple cider donut sitting in front of her. “You don’t think it’s because you guys are, like…”
“Because you’re in love,” Calla burst out obnoxiously.
Layla and Rachel both giggled, their eyes lit with mirth.
“Don’t get any ideas.” I shot visual daggers at each one of them. “All this means is that we aren’t fighting constantly.”
“I smell second-chance.”
My stomach knotted at those words. “You’re smelling delusion.”
Calla sighed, and her shoulders slumped. “Is it so wrong of me to wish that one of my best friends could officially be my sister again?”
No, it wasn’t. Secretly, I missed the days when I was technically a member of the Wells family. But that didn’t mean anything romantic between Liam and me was even remotely possible. We were merely becoming friendly co-parents instead of trying to bite each other’s heads off.
Layla smiled over at Luke, who was talking to a customer at the bar, and gave him a pinkie wave. “I just want you to be happy, Marigold.”
“I am. I have been, honestly.”
Because as much as I didn’t want to consider the reasons behind it, I really had been happier the last couple of weeks. I’d caught myself smiling more with customers, being more patient with the boys roughhousing around me while I cooked dinner. But I’d attributed it to all the painting I’d done recently. Bringing up old seasons is all.
It was true, though. Shocking as it was, Liam and I had been getting along perfectly. It had been almost a week since our last Wednesday meeting, and we hadn’t argued once.
Honestly, it was a little eerie, and I found myself waiting for the other shoe to drop. More than once, I’d considered starting an argument over nothing just to make sure he hadn’t had a stroke or something.
But no, Liam had been wonderful. He was still flirty, of course. During the boys’ soccer game over the weekend, he’d texted to tell me that I looked nice in light blue. I blushed but didn’t respond.
The boys had picked up on the change as well.
A few days ago, Dallas was asking about whether Liam and I were almost done with the project. When I told him we were about halfway finished, he and Miles exchanged looks and ran outside. I wasn’t 100 percent sure what that was about, but they had stopped asking me questions about Liam and our past relationship, so it felt like a win.
“That’s good. I really thought you and Liam would’ve killed each other by now,” Rachel pointed out.
I nodded and huffed a laugh. “I thought so too. Instead, I think it’s helped us figure out how to be friends. Or at least work our way to friendship.”
“Friends,” Calla scoffed. “Whatever you say. I caught you checking out his butt during dinner last night.”
My lungs seized and my eyes practically bugged out, so I lowered my head and let my hair fall like a curtain around my face, praying she hadn’t seen my reaction.
I hadn’t thought anyone was looking. Admittedly, the closer I was to Liam, the more time we spent together, the harder it was to deny how attractive the man was. How he had aged like fine wine. If I could go back and tell my seventeen-year-old self that she’d one day be married to that, the girl I used to be would have fainted on the spot. It didn’t help that since the weather was getting warmer, Liam had begun showing up to our meetings and dinner wearing those cursed compression shirts and gym shorts. Like he was doing it on purpose just to torment me.
“I did not.” I forced a laugh but kept my attention averted.
“You know what’s funny to me?” Layla asked, finally tearing her gaze off Luke. “We used to see Liam maybe once every couple of weeks, and only when Mama B threatened him or if he needed someone to watch the boys.”
I tilted my head, my heart rate picking up a little. “So?”
“So,” Rachel finished Layla’s point, “he went from burying himself in work and never coming up for air to…what? All of a sudden taking two days off a week and coincidentally becoming available in the early afternoons too?”
I hadn’t considered that, but she was right. When we were first assigned this project, Liam swore he couldn’t leave work. But now he was available any time I asked, it seemed.
And, apparently, walking into Romfuzzled at four o’clock on a Tuesday looking like he’d just left the gym.
