Page 44 of Lovestruck at Sundown
“It was lovely to meet you, Naomi,” I said with a smile. “I’ll let you two do your thing. I’ll be next door with Nina if you need anything.”
“It was nice to meet you, Billie,” she smiled back.
“Where do you think you’re going?” William shouted from the kitchen. “You’re trying the strawberry shortcake! I made an individual portion just for you!”
“No way.” I grabbed Nina’s arm and fled his apartment. No strawberries for me this early in the morning, thank you very much. I wanted to have something good and savory for breakfast. Not strawberry shortcake. “He’s on a mission to get me to like strawberries.”
“You are such an alien.” She laughed as I pushed my door open. “Who doesn’t like strawberries?”
My phone was ringing in my bedroom when I shut the door. I rushed to see who it was, but I was too late.
“It was Liam!” I shouted at Nina, who was washing her hands in the guest bathroom. “And you also have a few missed calls from him!”
Sitting on my bedroom sofa, I called Liam back, and he picked up on the first ring.
“Hey, Red.”
“Hey, how did it go with Belén last night?”
Liam cleared his throat but remained silent. I could hear what I assumed was the Porsche’s engine roaring in the background on the other side of the call. William went ballistic when I told him they’d taken his car. And on top of that, Tobias didn’t replace the strawberries as promised, so Cooper took William to get some—because he wanted to choose them himself—when Ninaand I left for our run.
“Did you guys spend the night over there?” I asked, trying to get him to start talking. That’s when Nina joined me in my bedroom. She unplugged her phone from the electrical outlet next to my nightstand and sat beside me.
“We did.” He sighed. “We’re driving back from Montclair.”
“Liam, what’s wrong?”
He was breathing heavily, sniffing. Nina widened her eyes at me with apparent distress.
“What’s happening?” Nina mouthed, and I shrugged.
“It’s over, Red. Belén and I … we’re done.” He cleared his throat again. “Is Nina with you? I’ve been trying to reach her too.” His voice sounded sad, angry, and heavily disappointed.
“Oh, Liam. I’m so sorry.” I met Nina’s gaze, and I could tell she was a second away from ripping the phone out of my hands. “She’s sitting next to me. We just came back from Central Park, but we both left our phones behind.”
“Can you put the call on speaker?” he asked.
“Of course.” I quickly tapped the icon. “You’re on speaker now.”
“Hey, Liam.” Nina smiled as if trying to cheer him up from a distance. “What happened?”
“It’s her coach,” he said drily. “She says she’s confused and confessed to kissing him last night when she came back drunk from the party. I fucking knew something was going on between them.”
“I’m so sorry,” she muttered. “So, are you guys …?”
“Not together anymore. Yeah.”
“It’s probably for the best,” I added. “You don’t deserve to be with someone who doesn’t know what she wants, Liam.” I felt like a hypocrite saying that because, for months, I was torn between two men. Two wonderful men. But I never kissedWilliam when I was dating Nathan. No lines were crossed. And as Liam’s friend, I couldn’t help but want to protect his heart.
“Fuck, I know, but …” He paused to let out a heavy breath through his mouth. “I love her.”
“I know,” Nina said in a steady tone. “Maybe you guys can come back from this one. You’ve had issues in the past, and you always figure it out.”
“No. I’m done. For good.” Liam sniffed again, but his voice was graver, resolute. “Anywho, I wanted to give you the news myself before Tobias went spoiling it for me.” He chuckled, but it sounded painful and heartbreaking.
“We’ll talk later,” I said. “It’s going to be okay. You know you can talk to us about this all you want.”
“Thank you, darling.” He sounded more like himself now, although I knew he was probably making an effort to do so. “I’ll catch you girls later.”
