Page 24
Again, he didn’t respond. Instead, he stepped off to the side, allowing her passage to the door.
Heavens to Betsy. Had they actually agreed on something? Unable to hide her half-smile, she shuffled past him, retrieving her purse on the way out. “Perfect. I’ll see you later, then.”
Without awaiting a response, she closed the door behind her with a satisfied sigh. Well. That had been a surprising and welcome turn of events.
Drawing in a deep breath of the frigid, morning air, she walked down the front step of the house, making it nearly to the archway before the door opened behind her.
She glanced back, frowning in confusion as Liam stepped outside, locking the door behind him, then turning to face her with an innocent expression.
“What are you doing?” she asked, stopping just short of the small gate.
He shrugged, pulling in his lips. “Just felt like doing a touch of sightseeing today, that’s all.”
She should’ve known she couldn’t get rid of him so easily. “So your plan is to trail me all day long, is that it?”
“Well, I did promise my mum and cousin that—”
“Yeah, I’m well aware of what you promised them, thank you.”
She looked away but not before she thought she saw a hint of amusement shining in his eyes. Traveling together really would be a disaster. But then, surely for the sake of his mother, they could learn to tolerate each other.
Closing her eyes, she shook her head and finally responded. “Fine, you can come with me.” She opened her eyes, looking at him with a narrowed gaze. “But we have to stick to my schedule.”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
She ignored his words clearly meant to annoy her. “And I…” She paused, looking around before continuing in a lower voice. “I don’t want to hear a single mention about me being in your bed.”
He hadn’t brought it up before, but she would gladly steer clear of that whole conversation.
His eyes slightly narrowed—or were they squinting with mirth?—before he nodded again. “Yes, ma’am,” he repeated.
“And,” she said, holding up a finger, the cold air instantly swarming and snapping at her skin, “neither of us are allowed to speak to each other at all unless it’s to say something nice.”
“Yes, ma’am—”
“And that includes, ‘yes, ma’am.’ Deal?”
“Yes, m—” He stopped himself, ending with a silent nod.
She sized him up for a moment, wondering if he would actually go along with her rules before realizing it didn’t matter. He would be a jerk, or he wouldn’t. It was as simple as that.
With a stifled sigh, she walked under the archway and through the gate, stepping out onto the sidewalk as she pulled on her white gloves.
He closed the gate behind them and moved beside her. “Would you like me to show you the way?”
“That’s alright,” she responded, taking a left from Tasha’s house. “I got it.”
She had made extensive plans before, saving all of the directions and maps on her phone, not wanting to be at the liberty of Melody’s terrible sense of direction. More than that now, though, she just wanted to prove to Liam that she was more than capable of traveling around a city by herself.
He followed her a step behind, so she shifted slightly to the right to put more distance between them.
She was fairly certain they were headed in the direction they needed to be going, but after a few paces, she pulled out her phone just to be sure. Unfortunately, after a few moments of waiting for the map to update, she was shown that she was, in fact, going in the opposite direction of the station they needed to get to.
Her mind raced with how she could play this off coolly. Maybe Liam was no longer familiar with the area, having lived away from home for so long? Or maybe she could just take a quick jaunt around the block without him noticing?
“You do realize you’re going the wrong way, right?”
Freaking—
