Page 52 of The Perfect Deal

Did I love Liberty? Absolutely. Was I allowed to? Probably not. I’d have to figure this all out sooner rather than later if I wanted to keep my best friend and my best girl.

The next morning, everyone was dragging, especially Landon and Poppy. Most of us hadn’t gotten to bed before two or three, and even though I hadn’t drunk as much as other people, I woke up with my head throbbing. Popping some medicine, I thought back to how good Liberty had felt and didn’t mind the ache at all.

Some of the others had gotten up early enough to make a big breakfast of eggs, bacon, and sausage, which helped with the hangovers we were all feeling to one degree or another. I helped with the dishes, and then we all headed out to the beach to relax and take it easy.

Almost everyone found a spot in the shade beneath the palm trees with their feet in the surf on either a beach chair or a towel. A few of the girls braved the direct sun, lying out to tan. I saw them spraying sunscreen on one another, so at least they weren’t being completely crazy like some of the stories my mom used to tell about when she was our age. With her fair skin, Liberty wasn’t chancing it. Not only was she in the shade of a wide beach umbrella, but she was also wearing a floppy hat. I smiled at her but quickly looked away when Landon set his chair down next to me.

“How’s it going, man?” he asked, groaning a little as he lowered his large frame into the ground-level chair. “You hungover, too?”

“Not too bad,” I told him, grinning at the pained look on his face. Clearly, he was still hurting from all the alcohol he’d had the night before. “I guess you can’t say the same?”

“Bruh, that was rough,” he said, shaking his head slightly before grimacing and stopping. “It was worth it because we had such an awesome time, but I think I might be getting too old for this.”

“Well, that was kind of the point of this trip, wasn’t it? To get it all out of your system before you settle down?” I chuckled under my breath and took a sip of my water. It would only be water for me today, at least for a while.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Landon admitted. “Although I do expect to drink when we get to Bali. And I’m sure that Poppy and I will have some fun on our honeymoon. But this ‘drinking so much I feel like I’m going to puke’ business is for the birds.”

“At least you didn’t actually puke.” My eyes wandered over to Ethan. I’d heard someone talking this morning saying he was up all night worshiping the porcelain god. Served him right, asshole.

“True,” Landon said, acting like he didn’t realize anyone had been up blowing chunks. Maybe he didn’t know. I had no idea how close he and Ethan were these days, but he never talked about him. I was honestly surprised the kid was here. “So what about you?”

“Me?” I didn’t follow his question. “What about me?”

Shrugging, my best friend said, “Poppy invited some girls from college. Any of them catch your eye?”

I looked over to where Vanessa and the other two girls, whose names always escaped my mind, were lying in the sun. It didn’t take me long to formulate a response. “Not my type.”

Landon laughed. “Yeah, I figured. That’s too bad, though. I hope you meet a nice girl sometime soon so you can settle down. You deserve something like what Poppy and I have.”

He wasn’t looking at me, his head tipped back, his face tilted toward the sun, so I stole a quick glance at Liberty. Her eyes were clearly closed beneath her sunglasses as she relaxed in the rolling waves.

I wanted that, too. Something exactly like what Landon and Poppy had—my childhood crush transformed into the girl I’d get to spend the rest of my life with. But I couldn’t say that to Landon.

“That would be nice,” I muttered, thinking he’d let it go.

He didn’t. Instead, he leaned closer to me and said, “You know, Poppy has some ideas.”

I’d been mid-swallow when he made this revelation, so I almost choked on my own saliva. I managed to sputter a few times, cover it with a cough, and then ask, “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. Poppy seems to think you’d be a great match for my little sister.”

The statement hung in the air between us as I attempted to navigate a response. I couldn’t seem too shocked or surprised, so I just nodded slowly and said, “Okay.”

“I know it’s probably a little weird for you since Liberty’s always been a bit more like a sister than anything else to you. But Poppy keeps reminding me that you are the best guy I know, so if there’s chemistry there, why wouldn’t I want you with her? It does make sense. It’s just difficult for me to trust any of my friends with her after… you know.” His face wrinkled into a scowl as thoughts of Grady and how horrible he’d treated Liberty filled his mind.

I understood. I got the same bad taste in my mouth every time I thought of that asshole Grady. But it really wasn’t fair for Landon to lump me in the same boat as him. After all, Grady had never appreciated Liberty in the slightest. He’d always been after her just for her body, whereas I’d been in love with the girl for as long as I could remember.

And last night, I’d slipped up and told her just that.

“I’m just saying,” Landon continued, “if you’re open to it, maybe the two of you could start talking, see where things lead, you know? I really would be happy to have my sister dating a stand-up guy like you.”

“Okay,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant, like maybe it was something I could consider. “I’ll think it over.”

“But don’t think this means that it’s okay for you to touch her,” he continued. “If I were to find out you were acting like that dog Grady and sleeping with her, well, I’d probably have to stomp your face into the ground.”

My eyes threatened to bug right out of my head as his words registered. Now probably wouldn’t be the best time for me to tell him it was too late, that I’d already had sex with his little sister—twice.

“Uh, right,” I stammered. “No, of course not. I’m nothing like fucking Grady,” I promised him.

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