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Liam’s smile flattens comically, leveling me with a too serious glare that I can’t help but laugh at.
I take the bags out of his hands and carry them into the kitchen where Ada is pulling on the hem of her shirt to try to make it longer.
Thankfully, Liam isn’t the sort of person to actually get angry or hold any type of grudge. He’s already looking at Ada with a glint of mischief. I can tell that he wants to tease her, but doesn’t know if she would receive it well. He and I went through a similar phase after Patrick accepted me into their ranks. Liam and I fought many times until I realized that his particular brand of hazing is all in jest.
“Liam, this is Ada,” I say, gesturing to Ada. “Ada, this is my cousin, Liam.”
Liam gives Ada a charming smile. I’ve seen women swoon over him for a lot less. I didn’t think that Ada would, but my ego is pleased that she doesn’t seem affected by his charms.
“Pleasure to meet you, Ada,” Liam says as he holds out a hand.
Ada accepts, still holding down her shirt with the other hand. She gives him a polite but guarded nod as he kisses the back of her hand in greeting. He invites himself to sit, hopping up onto the counter of the island and grabbing a pastry. I wonder if he would hop right back down off of that counter if he knew what I was doing on it just a few minutes ago.
I give him a warning look to stop him from saying anything stupid. But Liam being Liam, he pretends that he doesn’t see me.
“So, Ada,” Liam starts, giving Ada a very thorough look over. “How are you finding your little vacation? It must be a nice, quiet change from the glitz and glamor of the runway life.”
“Vacation?” Ada says, narrowing her eyes at Liam’s poor attempt at small talk. She surrenders the pretense of modesty and crosses her arms across her chest. She doesn’t remark beyond that one accusatory word meant for me before settling into a steely silence.
“No?” Liam smirked. “Like there’s anywhere else you would rather be.”
He lets his eyes rake over her long legs, and I have to staunch the urge to remove those eyes from his very head.
She shifts her weight over onto one foot, chewing on the inside of her cheek.
“Well, if you don’t talk to me, then how am I ever supposed to get to know you better?” Laim teases. “What topics would help loosen your tongue? Or, do you just need Kieran to do that?”
I punch him for that one. Square in the shoulder, hard enough to hurt. Liam rubs it, chuckling.
“I deserved that.” Liam’s grin only seems to widen. “Don’t wanna talk about your career? What about designers? We could talk about your experience… you could give me the phone numbers of your fellow models. All of the above?”
Ada slides into a seat and crosses her legs. “Why would I tell you anything when you’re clearly in on all of this?”
“Because I brought you such pretty presents?” Liam tries to joke with her, but she’s having none of it.
“Are you saying that I am the kind of girl that can be bought, Liam?”
Her tone could have withered flowers on the spot.
“What? No!” Liam whistles low. “Wow, tough crowd. What sort of things would you rather talk about?”
Ada clearly doesn’t want to continue any conversation with him at all.
I know that he’s trying to break the ice but it’s not going to get him anywhere. If there is anything that I have learned about Ada it’s that she’s more than a little stubborn.
I can tell that this conversation’s about to take a turn for the worst. I step forward, ready to pull Liam into another room so that the pair of them don’t start to actually argue or something worse.
I know that Liam’s trying to find common ground with her. But to Ada, since we’re family, we are both enemies to her brother. She has no reason to trust him. She doesn’t even technically have a reason to trust me, but I know that our situation is slightly different.
Likewise, Liam has no idea that the way Ada is speaking to him is likely because of his relation to me. Her veneer or politeness is only going to last so long.
Liam slaps his thighs and then stands up abruptly. “Anyway, I have the information on Rizzo’s location, so we ought to get going.”
I freeze. Ada’s eyes widen in surprise.
“Rizzo? What Rizzo? Who are you going to go see?” Ada stands, staring at the two of us.
Liam clearly didn’t know that I wasn’t planning on saying anything to her about it.
