Page 14 of The Wedding Engagement

“Great minds,” Arran said softly.

Chancing a glance, she allowed herself a long moment to get lost in the golden tone of his eyes. “Yep. We’re dialed in to the same frequency.”

He held her gaze for a moment, smiling. Then he cleared his throat and eased away. “I’ll draw up an itinerary and email it to you.”

“Cool,” she replied, shifting in her seat and mourning the loss of his body heat. “Nico said we could borrow Alessia’s minivan. We’ll get all eight of us in there.”

“Eight?” he said, sipping his tea. “I thought there were nine of us.”

She shook her head. “Maya’s uni mate Kirsty can’t make it. She’s got a nasty fracture dislocation of her thumb.”

“Oof.” He winced. “How’d she do that?”

Liv tried to keep a straight face. Kirsty’s pain was no laughing matter. “Flushing the toilet.”

Arran nearly spat out his tea. “What?Are you joking?”

A chuckle escaped Liv’s lips. “Nope. She was pissed and went to press the button-flush mechanism with her thumb. But the drink must’ve affected her coordination because she hit it awkwardly.”

Clearly trying to hold in his laughter, Arran kept a straight face. “Wow. She must have hit that thing hard. She was trying to rage against the latrine.”

Another snort of laughter slipped out of her mouth. “Poor thing. Apparently, she appeared a little flushed afterward.”

His straight face slipped into a grin. “She needed a superhero to come to her rescue. Maybe Flush Gordon.”

At that point Liv let the giggles out, grabbing Arran’s shoulder as he dissolved into laughter with her. Friends who shared her love of silliness were her favorite people.

Eventually the laughter died down and she realized she was still gripping his biceps. The sensation of the hard plane of muscle beneath her fingers caused the blood to rush faster through her veins, so she hastily dropped her hand.

Just then, Arran’s phone began to ring.

He lifted it to answer. “Hey.” There was a pause as he listened to whoever was on the other end, and his smile morphed into a frown. “Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah, I suppose so. Okay, that’s fine. Drop him off on your way.”

Liv fingered her cup, watching him with a slightly anxious feeling. “Bye,” Arran said, hanging up. He leaned back, lifting his mug. “Jess needs me to have Jayce on Saturday. Something about a get-together at the boyfriend’s brother’s house.” His brow remained furrowed, not an expression he often sported.

“What about completing the portrait you’re working on?” Liv asked, her concern mounting.

He sighed, fiddling with his phone, whose lock screen displayed an adorable photo of him smiling with a grinning Jayce on his lap. “Maybe I can pull another all-nighter.”

Liv gave him a hard stare. “I’m coming over to sit for Jayce this Saturday.”

He opened his mouth to protest, but she lifted her hand, placing her index finger on his lips, then regretting it as a bolt of fire burst in her belly. “Shh. Fingers on lips,” she said, using her best teacher voice. He smiled under her touch, his stubble gently scratching her finger and making her skin tingle.

She dropped her hand. “It’s happening, Arran. So just go with it.”

He was silent for a moment, the muscles in his jaw working, and she knew she’d won. “I’ll pay you for it,” he said, his voice a little gruff.

She raised her eyebrows. “No, you will not. Friends don’t charge each other for favors.”

“Feels like you’re always the one doing me favors, not the other way around,” he said quietly.

She shrugged. “You can return the gesture one day. Maybe I’ll eventually have a kid for you to babysit.”

His brow briefly furrowed, but then relaxed when he smiled. “Of course.” He cleared his throat. “Is it definitely okay, with you becoming his teacher?”

She nodded. “It’s fine. The nursery school is small enough that we often get kids we know or are even related to in the classes.” It was apparent by the look on his face that she’d won him over. She lifted her mug to clink with his. “Do we have a deal?”

“Okay,” he replied, clinking back. “Deal. Thank you. But this weekend only.”

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