“Hailey, you’re dating Oliver?” Liam doesn’t bother glancing at her.
Esme lets out a big sigh and hangs off her fiancé’s shoulder. “Oh, thank God, the obvious is out in the open. I was waiting for this.” We all turn our attention to her, and she is quick to sip her wine. “I mean, I totally didn’t know, and this is such a surprise,” she utters as she looks away and takes another sip.
“Obvious?” Hailey sounds puzzled.
Keats shrugs. “Well yeah, I mean the whole neighborhood is aware that Hailey suddenly power walks after parking her car, and then sometimes Oliver throws bones at the new neighbor’s dog so he can walk through their yard. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist.”
“You knew?” Hailey is still confused.
“Sure,” Esme answers as if it’s all nothing.
But Liam doesn’t seem to follow that sentiment.
“Liam, please don’t go brother bear on me. I’m old enough to make my own decisions,” Hailey implores.
He takes notice of her, only to slide his set eyes on me. It’s a few seconds of silence and then his demeanor melts and a smile begins to form.
What the hell? I was waiting for him to throw me off the boat.
“I knew it would happen eventually. Finally, you two.”
Hailey’s jaw drops, and I freeze for a moment.
“What do you mean?” I’m still weary.
He slaps a hand on my shoulder, his grin getting wider. “I was hoping this would happen. I mean, we all obviously knew it would eventually.”
“Wait, what?” Hailey is still suspicious of her brother. “You’re not mad?”
“Yeah, what she said,” I deadpan.
Liam chuckles and his grin stays pasted to his face. “Don’t get me wrong. Hailey, I’ve always had the rule that friends can’t go after you. Up until recently, I would have killed Oliver. But it’s Oliver. He’s a good guy. I haven’t been blind that you two havehad eyes for one another for a while. Maybe it was planning my wedding that softened my rules, but I kind of began to accept it. I just thought I shouldn’t push you two or raise that point in case it all went wrong. Didn’t want to rock the boat. You two kids needed to figure it out for yourselves.”
“What the fuck?” I swipe my hands through my hair. “Are you saying we didn’t need to hide behind your back?”
We made this whole situation harder than it needed to be. We’ve been worrying about nothing.
“No.” He shrugs. “The road trip probably made you two realize. I had no issue insisting she tag along.”
“Truthfully, we thought you would be pissed. But kudos to you for forcing them on a road trip,” Esme comments from the sidelines and lifts her glass in the air.
“I mean, my best friend and my little sister. It can’t be fucked up, but it’s pretty cool.”
“Again, what?” Hailey is still in awe.
Liam holds his hands up as if his sister might throw something at him, and quite frankly, I want to throw something myself.
“Chill. All is fine,” he repeats his sentiment. “I’m not that blind. At Sunday’s brunch at my wedding, you had the same look on your faces: guilty. Besides, just add the clues together then it isn’t rocket science. Road trip, the rehearsal dinner, and yeah, I fucking noticed the looks across the room.”
“Why didn’t you say anything? Let us know that it didn’t bother you?” she implores, because, like me, she’s a mix of annoyed and angry that he could have made one of our challenges disappear.
But I’m not sure it would have altered the fact I have a wife now; it just would have made it a hell of a lot easier to be out in the open.
Liam holds up his ring finger. “Oh, let me see. I was in the middle of my own fucking wedding weekend. A little occupied there, Sis.”
Fair enough.
She shoves her brother, now visibly annoyed. “You made us think that we could never happen, and this whole time it wasn’t a big deal!” she shrieks then jabs her finger at his shoulder.
