Page 88 of I Can't Even

Liam and I exchanged a look. He snatched the ladder and dropped it behind the thick hedge of rosemary bushes, then grabbed my hand and hauled me around the side of the house just before Paisley pushed open the door and stepped outside.

“Come on.” Liam pulled me around to my front yard and we dashed down the sidewalk then around to the far side of his house, where we stood in the shadows, gasping as we caught our breath.

“I need to know what’s happening,” I said once my head had stopped spinning.

He nodded. Together we slipped into his backyard and peeked over the wall that separated our yards just in time to see Em come out the sliding glass door of our house and greet our cousin.

Chapter Twenty-six

“Paisley, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were here, or I wouldn’t have taken such a long shower.” Em was wearing a fluffy bathrobe and had a towel wrapped around her hair. “Soph said you wanted to see me?”

“You.” Paisley pointed at her. “Were here?”

“Of course,” Em said. “I live here. Where else would I be?”

“You’re lying,” Paisley snapped. “You and your miserable sisters are liars and cheats, and I am going to prove it.” With that she stalked back into the house, slamming the door behind her.

Em shrugged and fell into a lounge chair, laughing in relief. I waved at her from the wall and then dropped down to Liam’s lawn. We exchanged smiles. “We did it.” I put my hand on my forehead. My adrenaline rush was abating, and I thought I might pass out.

“Need some coffee?” Liam asked.

“Oh god, yes, please,” I said.

I followed him into his house and sat at the counter while he fussed with the coffee pot. The kitchen was sparse, with the departure of his parents he’d clearly made it a guy’s kitchen with steel appliances and black dish towels. Who had black dish towels? He fussed with the coffee maker. Of course, it was some high-tech gadgetry that made super octane lattes and frothed the milk. I wasn’t complaining. I knew the man could make a cup of joe that would make the angels sing.

He looked so handsome in his unshaven, sloppily dressed, man-in-no-hurry attire that I felt the usual longing rise inside of me, and because it’s me, I couldn’t resist poking the bear.

“Isn’t your girlfriend going to be upset that you helped me out?” I rested my chin in my hand while I watched him steam the milk.

“She’s not my girlfriend.” Liam gave me one piercing glance over his shoulder and then went back to work.

“Please,” I said. “You’ve been shagging the squash tart for the past two days, how is she not your girlfriend?”

“There was no shagging,” he said.

I raised my hand in a stop gesture and stood up. Coffee or no, I did not want him to deny what my own eyes had seen. He was better than that and even if he was mad at me, I deserved the truth.

“I’m serious, Jules,” he said. “Nothing happened between me and Courtney. I took her home after the art festival but then she had an Uber bring her back that night, trying to win me over. It didn’t work. I was too upset about...things. She slept in the guest bedroom.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. I wanted to believe him so badly, but I just couldn’t get the sight of her hugging him out of my mind.

“Nice try,” I said. “But I saw her crawl all over you in her cute little robe.”

“Yeah, I let her do that,” Liam said. “It was dumb, and it caused more problems than it was worth. I only did it because I was still so pissed about you and Jessie.”

He sounded sincere. I wanted to believe him. I wanted to believe him so bad.

“All right, if you weren’t with her, where have you been the past few days?” I held my breath. Please do not say her place because I could not make myself believe that nothing had happened there.

“I went to down to San Diego to check on my coffee shop there and do some surf therapy in Pacific Beach.”

“Alone?”

“Yes, pitifully tragically alone.”

I opened my mouth to pepper him with more questions when his doorbell chimed. We looked at each other in alarm. Had Paisley heard us? Had she figured out I was here? Was she going to try and cause more trouble?

“Stay here.” Liam left me in the kitchen and went to answer the bell.

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