Page 81 of Pleasure Island

I barely noticed the interaction.

No, I only had eyes for Liam, who, at the mention of his name, had come closer. “I’m not hungry, Jake. But you two go on.”

Great. That was just great.

“Mila!” my grandmother called out from behind me. “I see you’ve met our soon to be newlyweds!”

I bit back a grimace as I heard Millie drawing closer. I eyed the path, tried to figure out how to politely make my getaway.

Liam had moved closer to me as if he was sensing my thoughts.

Millie joined us on the path, beaming at me and I focused on her. “Yes, I was just telling…” What was her name? It came to me in a blink. The blond had called her Michelle. “I was just telling Michelle where they could find some food up at the lodge.”

“I’m heading that way myself,” Millie announced. “I’ll walk the two of you there. We can chat about the wedding.”

I took a half-step toward them. Millie gave me a telling look, then glanced at Liam.

Her message was clear.

That didn’t mean I planned ondoingwhatever she wanted.

Liam and I were done.

He’d made that pretty clear by his silence over the past three weeks.

As Millie turned to lead the engaged couple off, I darted a look at Liam.

He had that intent look on his face.

Huffing out a breath, I turned on my heel and headed in the opposite direction of the lodge. My personal bungalow was in this direction although I wasn’t consciously heading there.

I just needed to move.

To walk.

To dosomething.

Liam fell into step next to me. “Can we talk?”

I wanted to tell himno.

But I gave a stiff shrug.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” he said softly.

“Same goes.” I didn’t look at him.

“I…well, it’s a weekday. I figured you’d be in the city, working,” he said. He sounded as stiff and as awkward as I felt.

I remained quiet, but Liam didn’t seem too interested in doing that for once. He kept talking.

“Jake…the guy you just met…he’s my cousin.”

I processed this and figured out just why Millie had agreed to help this rush-along wedding. Liam had asked her.

I didn’t say anything though, just kept on walking.

He lapsed into silence.

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