AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ambrose headed for the front door.
He could hear Neve yelling, but he couldn’t make out the words above the sound of the blood roaring in his skull.
“What’s happening?” Will asked, his brow creased in worry as he hurried past Ambrose towards the bathroom. He didn’t stop when Ambrose didn’t answer.
Ambrose had to leave. He had to get the hell out of here and never come back. All the stupid fantasies he’d built up over the last few days, the ones where the Connellys liked him, shattered around him now like glass. And they’d been so stupid, because this weekend was supposed to be about Ambrose showing them that he wasn’t good enough for Liam, not about…not about falling in love with all of them. With Liam, who was sweet and kind and awkward and everything Ambrose had ever wanted but been too afraid to acknowledge.
Well, he’d showed them, he guessed. He’d definitely showed them.
“Ambrose?” Liam asked from the living room. He was holding a battered Mouse Trap box. His face was a picture of confusion. “What’s going on?”
Ambrose ignored him and kept moving.
He pushed his way out the front door onto the porch and ran outside into the pouring rain.
Chapter Eighteen
Liam
Neve was yelling and Ambrose was hurrying away, and Liam, who had no idea what the hell was going on, was standing in the living room holding Mouse Trap like a fucking idiot.
Dad was the first one to head to the bathroom to see what was going on, but Mum bustled along after him quickly. So did Riley, wearing her swimmers and a towel around her waist. Even Grandad Billy, blinking like he’d just woken up from a nap, was in the middle of the crowd when Liam finally peered down the hallway towards the bathroom.
What the hell was going on? And why the hell had Ambrose bolted like his arse was on fire?
Orhan, holding Balian on his hip, moved past Liam towards the melee.
And at that moment Neve’s yelling, which had been a series of angry noises up until now, like a frustrated toddler throwing a tantrum, transformed into words. “I saw you, you liar! You fucking liar! You were kissing! You and Ambrose were kissing!”
Liam gasped in shock, and Mouse Trap dropped to the floor, pieces scattering everywhere. The yellow plastic cage had some bounce—it ended up over by the couch. The big pink ball rolled in a lazy ellipse around Liam’s feet.
“He came onto me!” Marcus said, his tone contrite and whiny.
Liam hurried out of the living room and down the hallway. He saw Marcus standing in the bathroom doorway, palms held out, and Neve and Bridget moving around him like vengeful Furies poised to attack at any moment.
Dad was standing a little way back, narrow-eyed and watchful, content to let Neve and Bridget deal with it, Liam knew, as long as it didn’t turn physical. Then all bets would be off. Will Connelly had never raised a hand in anger to his kids, and Liam had no doubt that if anyone else tried it, he’d rip their spines out with his bare hands. Which would be a mercy killing at that point—because Mum?—Mum would go nuclear.
“He came onto me,” Marcus repeated, his wary gaze taking in all the Connellys crowding the hallway. He took half a step back, as though realising for the first time that he was very much outnumbered, but at the same time he lifted his chin defiantly. “I mean, come on, you know I don’t swing that way, Neve.”
Liam’s stomach twisted. He remembered Ambrose saying that maybe he should crack onto Neve’s fiancé, but Liam had shot that down, hadn’t he? He’d thought he had, and Ambrose had seemed to understand that Liam didn’t want any of his family members hurt. And besides, weren’t they past that whole arsehole-for-hire thing? Hadn’t they gone from fake boyfriends to almost-real boyfriends? He’d thought Ambrose wanted it as much as he did—but he’d thought Jonah had felt the same as him once. He thought of Ambrose and the kisses, and more, that they’d shared. And maybe that made Liam a total fool—again—but he didn’t think he’d fallen into bed with a liar. Or fallen in love with one.
“You’re lying,” he said, and Marcus’s gaze fixed on him. “Ambrose wouldn’t do that.”
And he knew, just looking at Marcus, that it was true.
“Then where is he?” Marcus asked. “Why am I the one here explaining what happened, when he’s done a runner?”
“I don’t know,” Liam said. He shrugged and folded his arms across his chest. “Maybe I’ll go get him, and we can ask him, huh? Because I can’t wait to hear his side.”
Dad shot him a worried look. So did Mum. And Bridget and Orhan. Even Riley looked a little dubious. Wow. Ambrose really had sold the whole horrible boyfriend thing incredibly well, because while they weren’t on Marcus’s side, obviously, they also weren’t on Ambrose’s side, and there was a good chance that the entire family thought Liam was an idiot for believing Ambrose hadn’t done anything wrong. Only Grandad Billy was smiling, and when Liam’s gaze fell on him, he gave Liam a double thumbs-up, like Liam was six years old again and this was Saturday morning Auskick.
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Marcus said, “but last week I was at dinner with a client, and I saw Ambrose. I didn’t know who he was, but he was obviously on a date.”
Liam’s stomach clenched. “Yeah, I know. So what?”
He had the satisfaction of seeing Marcus’s shocked expression.
“What client were you having dinner with?” Neve asked suddenly. “A client like Jana? Or Vicki? Or is it someone new this time?” She punched him in the chest then, obviously not liking that it had absolutely zero effect, drew her arm back for another shot. “You promised you wouldn’t do it again, you lying piece of shit!”
