Page 81 of Veiled in Brick

“Ninety days?”

“Claire.”

“Okay, okay,” she acquiesced. “Ninety days, you got it.”

“Speakin’ of notice, again, a little heads up would’ve been appreciated with Jay,” I chastised her. “I said I couldn’t see him anymore like…days ago, Claire. Days. It feels weird—”

“Oh, please,” she replied in a hushed tone, “Weird is that Luke and I barely got any sleep from hearing you and Liam all. Fucking. Night. You’re lucky Jay isn’t sleeping on Luke’s couch and that he has an entire hallway for a buffer; he would’ve gotten a front row ticket to the goddamn show otherwise.”

The odd guilt at being in James’ presence dwindled away at the mention of the show. My mind snapped away from the topic at hand, replaying the events from the night over for me. I smiled wide as I entered a hedonistic haze.

I cooed, “I liked that show.”

“Zoey.” I bobbled my eyebrows at her, and her gaze shot skyward. Claire pressed lightly, “So—how is living with a boy?”

I groaned, “Gross, Claire.”

“What?” She laughed. “It’s what you’re doing.”

“Don’t say it like that,” I complained.

“Like what?”

“Like…Liam’s a boy that I up and decided that I needed to shack up with,” I griped.

“Is Liam not a boy?” she asked. “Man. Whatever verbiage you’d like.”

I felt my nose scrunch up in distaste. “No. He’s…not a boy. Man. I mean, he is, he’s just…Liam. I dunno. I’m crashing on his couch for a while until this gets all sorted out, it’s not—”

Claire chortled loudly enough for Liam to curiously crank his head back to us. His steps never stopped, his dark eyes locking with mine for a brief moment in a similar fashion to how Luke had done previously with Claire. Unaware of his name on our lips for he was too far away to hear it, he smiled at me softly and carried on a quiet conversation with Luke.

“You are not still sleeping on his couch,” Claire ventured with a wide-toothed grin. I replied with nothing but a side-eye, and she laughed.

I reminded her with a scolding voice, “I don’t sleep with men, Claire.”

“Oh, is Liam men now?” she asked me with an all-too-knowing smile. “Thought he was just Liam?”

I sighed, my car and the men beside it within single-digit steps, and I muttered, “Yeah, he is.”

Our drive passed slowly.

Luke and Claire sat together in the back seat, at times speaking to each other so softly that I couldn’t make out their words. Whatever they spoke of, it looked to be of a loving sentiment with gentle smiles and nods of understanding that were followed by a canoodling that made me loudly gag at them from the driver’s seat. They ignored me, of course.

Liam relaxed in the passenger seat as I drove, chuckling at my remarks about Luke and Claire’s oh-so-adoring behavior as he rested a hand behind his head and closed his eyes. I watched him every so often, oddly entranced by his carefree expression. His plush lips were pulled up into a soft smile, his head tilted toward the sun that shined through the window. It glinted off of his blonde hair and heated his face to the point of raising a slight blush to his cheeks.

I was pleased that the drive was long enough that he could escape the stressful hell that we had recently been placed in. I knew that upon our arrival to his hometown, Liam’s mood was bound to shift dramatically as he was taking it upon himself to confront Carter, and I smiled as I observed his easygoing nature, shifting my focus back to the road as we drove down the highway.

My phone rang from the cup holder between Liam and me, and I reached for it. The caller ID showed unknown, but I answered it anyway, quietly speaking a greeting into the speaker.

“Hello?”

“It’s about time we spoke again…where, oh where did you run off to?”

The man’s voice was lilting and chipper, but it held an undertone of darkness beneath it that made me shift in my seat uncomfortably.

“I’m sorry?” I returned.

“Are you being coy with me?” he asked. “That’s not like you.”

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