Page 102 of The Wedding Engagement

Liv let out a laugh and caught the ladies at the next table giving her an amused look. She curtailed the laugh and smiled back at them.

Elise was glancing nervously around the tearoom, so Liv touched her hand. “Sorry for being loud,” she told her, aware that her friend always worried what other people thought.

She smiled. “Oh no, that’s okay. I just wanted to check none of my patients were in here.” Her smile broadened. “Just in case they go around spreading the rumor that Dr. Kowalski runs sex-therapy sessions at the local tearoom.”

Liv laughed, and Maya joined in.

Maya’s features settled into a more serious expression. “Shall we ask Sam what he thinks you should do?”

Liv pushed her glasses up her nose. “You can tell him what’s happened. I’d probably prefer it came from you. It’ll be a bit weird if I tell him myself. But as for advice…I don’t know. I need to mull stuff over. Give Arran time.”

Maya nodded. “Whatever you think is best.”

One of the older ladies from the neighboring table got out of her chair to approach them, and for a moment Liv panicked that they were no longer amused at the raucous laughter. Elise appeared concerned too.

The lady leaned between Elise and Liv, to address the three of them. “Sorry about this, but see my friend Agnes over there?” She gestured to her companion, who gave them an enthusiastic wave, which they returned. “Well. She’s a bit of a brazen one. She tuned her hearing aid in to your conversation and wants to give you some advice, but she’s got a bad hip so I’ve been sent over as messenger.”

At that point the lady had to stop talking because Liv burst out laughing, Maya and Elise joining in. Liv pushed her finger under her glasses to wipe her eyes. “That is awesome. Not the bad hip, but the hearing aid thing. I love Agnes already. My middle name is Agnes too, by the way.”

“Is it?” Agnes asked loudly from her table, clearly still tuned in to their conversation. She gave Liv a wave. “All the best people are called Agnes!”

Liv managed a nod and a thumbs-up through her laughter.

“Anyhow,” Agnes’s companion continued. “My name’s Nancy, by the way. She told me what you were discussing, and webothsay—go for it. Tell the laddie how you feel.” Nancy leaned in to stage-whisper. “And have plenty of fun along the way.” She gave them an exaggerated wink, which set the laughter off again, as Nancy left to rejoin the audacious eavesdropper Agnes.

Maya lifted a napkin to wipe her eyes as she gave them a wave.“They’re awesome.” She pointed. “Yes, you, Agnes. I know you’re still listening.”

Agnes gave them a big smile.

Elise chuckled. “You should definitely keep Agnes and Nancy’s advice in mind, while you’re mulling over what to do.”

“Absolutely,” replied Liv, shaking her head as she drank her tea. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

Chapter

Twenty-Five

There must be a Germanword for it. For when something you’ve longed for and built up in your mind eventually happens, and it’seven betterthan your wildest dreams. Because that was what being with Liv had been like.

Arran was struggling to concentrate on his painting. Refining Liv’s features on canvas was a poor second to stroking her face and kissing her actual lips. It’d only been a few nights since he’d seen her, but the time was passing agonizingly slowly.

They’d formulated a plan to meet at the weekend, among the explicit messages they’d been sending each other. But even the weekend seemed too far away. A number of times he’d picked up his phone with half a mind to ask her if he could come over, there and then, but he’d thought better of it. If she wanted that, then surely she’d ask. He needed to give her space. Let her see that this was going somewhere and she didn’t need to be scared of it.

Is it really her who’s scared? Or is it me?He was fearful of losing her, that was for sure. Now it was Friday night and only two more days until he’d see her. She had a breakfast with her family the next morning. In the afternoon, he was picking up Jayce from Jess andthey were going to his parents’ to stay over, so he and Liv had opted to meet on Sunday evening. Now he wished he’d asked his parents if they could postpone.

Arran had called Sam pretty soon after Liv had left the weekend before, feeling that it’d be best to keep him in the loop after Sam had kind of engineered the whole portrait thing to Arran’s advantage. It hadn’t been as cringe to fess up what’d happened as he’d thought, though he hadn’t gone into any detail whatsoever because that would’ve been weird.

He’d also stopped short of telling Sam he was in love with Liv, because it just didn’t feel right to say it to someone else before he’d told her. Partly for romantic reasons, but he was aware pride was also involved. If it transpired that Liv didn’t feel the same, then he’d rather no one else know. That way he could hide his humiliation a hell of a lot more easily than he had a year ago, when the whole town had known about him getting dumped a few weeks prior to his wedding. He shuddered thinking about it.

Sam had been supportive, tried to get him to speak to Liv about however he felt and what he wanted. But Arran had shut him down—he didn’t want to disclose anything to Sam regarding what Liv had confided; she needed to tell her brother under her own steam. Sam, always the thoughtful, understanding guy, hadn’t pushed it. The sound of the doorbell cut into his ruminations, and it occurred to him that it could be Liv. He jumped to his feet and left the studio. Maybe that work thing she had on tonight had been canceled.

His heart full of hope, he opened the door. Then his spirits crashed down around his ears when it revealed Jess standing there.

Jess raised her eyebrows and he realized that he was frowning at her and not saying anything.

“Sorry,” he said. “You took me by surprise.”

She swayed a little in the doorway. “Can I come in?”

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