Chasing Shadows (First Wives Book 3) Read online

  “Look who I found,” Lori said.

  Reed kissed Avery’s cheek. “I haven’t seen you here in a while.”

  “That’s because you two never come up for air,” Avery teased.

  “This is Liam . . . Avery’s friend.” Yeah, Lori wanted more details.

  The men shook hands.

  “Have I ever met one of your friends?” he asked.

  Avery glared. “Smooth, Reed . . . really smooth.”

  Lori nudged her husband’s arm. “Stop teasing.” She turned her focus on Liam. “Avery keeps her private life private.”

  Avery tried not to flinch when Liam placed a hand over hers. “I’ve figured that out recently.”

  “How did you two meet?” Reed asked.

  Avery said “The gym” at the same time Liam said “A bar.”

  Lori’s lawyer radar spiked. Avery saw it in her eyes. “Those two things are worlds apart.”

  She caught Liam’s hand and squeezed.

  “The first time I saw you was at Pug’s. I approached you at the gym.”

  “I knew it. That was you at Pug’s. How did you figure out where I worked out?” She’d been asking herself that question for over a week.

  “That wasn’t hard. Leslie had a gym bag.”

  “Who’s Leslie?” Lori asked.

  Avery didn’t look away from Liam. “A friend. So your job at the gym wasn’t on accident?”

  “I might have approached Brenda about a side job so I could meet you.”

  Avery’s jaw dropped.

  “Who’s Brenda?” Reed asked.

  “The owner of the gym,” Avery and Liam said at the same time. “How did you know I was there on Tuesday and Friday nights?” She wasn’t sure if his actions were exciting or scary.

  “Appointment book. Brenda’s office is always open.”

  “Wait, wait, wait.” Lori placed a hand between the two of theirs. “You see Avery in a bar. You search out the location of her gym, follow her to it, get a job there, and now you’re both here having drinks?”

  Liam offered a brief, unapologetic nod.

  Lori grabbed Avery’s hand. “How well do you know this guy?”

  Avery liked the gleam in Liam’s eyes. “He’s safe.”

  “What he just described is a little too close to stalking for my taste.”

  Reed placed a hand on Lori’s shoulder. “Simmer down, Counselor. If Liam had an ulterior motive, he wouldn’t have told us all that.”

  “I wanted to meet you,” Liam said.

  “Yeah, well, you’ve met her.” Lori wasn’t happy.

  Nikki showed up with Avery’s and Liam’s drinks.

  “My usual, Nikki,” Lori told her.

  “Hon, our reservations are in thirty minutes. Maybe we should go.”

  Lori looked at Reed like he was crazy. “We aren’t leaving him with her. He could be a sociopath.”

  Liam smiled, his eyes crinkling with amusement. “I’m not.”

  “That’s what they all say.”

  Avery put a free hand in the air. “Chill, Lori.”

  Avery realized that her other hand had somehow ended up back in Liam’s. His thumb stroked the underside of her wrist in a strangely calming way.

  “Do you want a drink, Reed?” Nikki was still standing there, watching the four of them.

  “No, thank you. We’re leaving.”

  Lori pushed back her chair. “We’re going to talk about this later,” she warned Avery. “And you . . . just so you know, I’m an attorney, and my big, burly husband here is in private security. He has even bigger friends.”

  Liam reached into his back pocket and removed his wallet. From it, he pulled out what looked like a business card. “I have nothing to hide.”

  Lori glanced at it briefly before Reed snatched it from her fingertips. “C’mon. Let’s leave them to their date.”

  Liam stood again and shook Reed’s hand before he ushered Lori out of the bar.

  “That was intense.”

  “My friends are protective.”

  “Understatement.”

  “You really went through all that just to meet me?”

  Liam picked up his drink for the first time. “Worked, didn’t it?”

  Avery let loose his hand and lifted her glass to his. “Yes, it did.”

  Avery had moved a little farther away after her friends left. But her rapt attention told him she was interested.

  “So you don’t introduce your dates to your friends?” Liam picked a few things out of their conversation with Lori and Reed.

  “My dates, as you call them, aren’t usually around long enough to meet the important people in my life.”

  He’d ordered a steak and she’d ordered fish. He cut into his dinner while he spoke. “Should I be flattered?”

  She paused, her fork halfway to her mouth. “We were ambushed tonight. It isn’t like I brought you to a plus-one event.”

  “A plus-one what?”

  “You know, an invitation that leaves it open for you to add a person . . . plus-one.”

  “Do you ever take someone to a plus-one?”

  She considered him for a second. “If you want to know about my dating life, just ask.”

  He started to do just that before she cut him off.

  “And don’t judge when I deliver answers you might not want to hear.”

  He set his knife down. “Now I’m really curious.”

  She chewed her food and didn’t add anything.

  “Okay, Avery . . . tell me about your dating life.”

  She sipped her drink and said, “I don’t.”

  “Date?”

  “Yeah, I don’t date.”

  “You don’t seem like the hermit type.”

  She placed a hand on the table. “Dating is holding hands and long walks on the beach, fancy dinners and midnight phone calls that may or may not include dirty pictures. Dating is attempting to go somewhere.” She lifted her fork and dug back in. “I don’t do that. I meet guys, flirt, have a good time, and move on.”

  He wasn’t expecting that. “Sounds like a man.”

  She shook her head. “No. Men don’t admit that they are players to the women they hook up with. Me? I’m honest about it. Makes it a whole lot easier to avoid that plus-one thing.”

  “And if the guy wants more?”

  Avery smirked. “I haven’t met him.”

  Liam was silent until she looked up.

  “Yes, you have.”

  Chapter Nine

  Her skin itched, like it was a suit she wasn’t used to wearing or it was made of wool and she was poolside in Palm Springs.

  Liam had taken the power away with one sentence and one look. And when she couldn’t come up with anything to force the ball back into her court, he started a conversation about his work. He was a contractor. Legit, with a crew of twenty guys he kept employed most of the time. While he spelled out a day at work, Avery gave up eating her dinner and proceeded to order a third cocktail. She was more than a little tipsy, which became evident when it was time to leave the bar. “I’ll pay.” She reached for the bill.

  Liam managed to grab it before she could. “Not in this lifetime.”

  “Oh, please. You’re not one of those guys.”

  “What kind of guy is that?”

  “The kind that think a woman isn’t capable of paying a bill.”

  “If you live in this neighborhood, I’m pretty sure you can pay the bill. But you’re not buying my meals.”

  She reached for it again. “Then we split.”

  “Avery, stop. I got it. Let me be the guy my mother raised.”

  She wondered what kind of mother that was.

  “The stubborn one?”

  “Him, too,” he said, laughing. He handed his credit card to Nikki, who processed it quickly.

  Liam hoisted his gym bag and hers over his shoulder once they were outside.

  She chilled instantly and wobbled on her high heels.

  He used his free
arm to steady her and didn’t let go.

  “We’re not holding hands,” she told him.

  “No. I’m holding your elbow. Which way?”

  She pointed at her building.

  They crossed the street and walked up one block.

  The doorman opened the door before Liam could do it for them.

  “Good evening, Ms. Grant.”

  “Hi, James. This is my friend Liam.”

  “Of course, Ms. Grant.”

  Avery pulled on Liam’s arm until they were in the elevator.

  He was strangely quiet for the first time all night.

  Outside her door, she opened her purse and removed her keys and cell phone to disarm the alarm system.

  Liam stopped her before she could squeeze the key into the hole.

  “Avery.”

  She turned and found him staring. His eyes were hungry and his body close.

  “I’m not going in. I wanted to make sure you made it home safely.”

  She knew that was coming. This would be the time she’d normally show the guy exactly what he would be missing if he didn’t walk through her door.

  But she was out of practice and she’d have to see Liam again. If he turned her down, the humiliation wouldn’t be something she’d want to revisit every time they sparred in krav.

  Avery responded with the only weapon she had. “I don’t think I asked you in.”

  There it was . . . Liam’s smirk. The smile in his eyes, the tiny lift of his lips.

  He placed their gym bags on the floor and brought his hand up to her chin. “I do, however, think that our first date deserves an exclamation point.”

  “It wasn’t a date.”

  “We did have dinner.” He traced the back of his hand down her arm.

  “But no long walks on the beach . . . or hand-holding.”

  “There was a little hand-holding.”

  Yeah, there had been.

  He gently tugged her phone out of her hand.

  “What are you doing?”

  A smile was his answer. He pressed in a few numbers, and she heard his phone buzz in his pocket. “In case you want to send a flirty text after midnight.”

  “We’re not dating.”

  He placed her phone back in her hand.

  “You don’t want to date me, Liam. I’m a bad bet.”

  He took a step closer. Lifted both hands to her face and touched her neck with the backs of his fingertips.

  She shivered from head to toe.

  “I’m not a gambler.”

  Her mouth went dry, her breath caught in her chest.

  “Your mother will hate me.”

  Her lips parted while she watched him move closer.

  “Avery?”

  It was getting really hot in the hallway.

  “Yes?”

  “Stop talking.”

  His soft lips took hers in the slowest, most exquisite kiss she’d ever had the pleasure of swallowing. There was nothing rushed in Liam’s body. Avery felt the door at her back when Liam leaned her into it. His hands on her face moved her where he wanted to deepen this meeting of lips.

  Her eyes fluttered closed, and she opened her lips to his, tempting him with the tip of her tongue. He gave in for a few swipes against hers and then held back and continued to kiss her slowly. By the time he pulled away, Avery had clenched his shirt in her hands, and her cell phone and keys had found their way to the floor. She was heated, charged . . . and more than ready to see what else Liam could do with his lips.

  “I’m going now,” he whispered.

  She was pretty sure her face told him he didn’t have to.

  When his hands left her, she cooled instantly.

  He bent down and gathered her keys and her phone. He turned the key in the lock and opened her door.

  “Good night, Avery.”

  She watched as he retreated down the hallway and disappeared into the elevator.

  “Good night,” she said to the empty corridor.

  “Someone is awfully happy out here.”

  Michelle walked out the back door and onto his deck. Liam turned around and lowered the volume on his speaker. He put aside the drill and dusted off his hands.

  “I’m always happy when I’m working with my hands.” He didn’t do it often enough once he earned his contractor’s license and started employing other people.

  “Yeah, but you were singing and dancing.”

  He looked at the sky. “The sun is shining, the music is loud. Good day to break out in song. Life is a musical.”

  They shared a memory of something their mother always said when they were growing up.

  Michelle shook her head. “Uh-huh . . . okay, give it up. Who is she?”

  “She who?” Whiskey barked at his feet as if adding her two cents.

  “The she who put that grin on your face. The house isn’t that big. I heard you come home late last night.”

  “It wasn’t after midnight.”

  “But still late for you. Nice diversion. Does she have a name?”

  Liam picked up the two-by-four he’d predrilled holes into for his screws. “She does, and I’ll tell it to you when I’m ready.”

  “I knew it.” She giggled like a schoolgirl. “Are we going to meet her?”

  “It’s new. I don’t know.” Yes. He wanted to say yes. Introducing Avery to his sister he could deal with, but not Cassandra. She wouldn’t understand if it didn’t work out.

  “You should bring her to Sunday dinner.”

  “Michelle!” Her name was a warning.

  His sister turned back around to go inside. “You’re still okay with watching Cassie tonight?”

  Two Saturdays a month, he watched his niece so Michelle could do an all-nighter on the crisis hotline.

  “Of course. We have a date planned.”

  “Please don’t stuff her with sugar. She was a pill the last time.”

  He saluted his sister and revved his drill bit.

  “Liam!”

  “Don’t worry, sis. I got it figured out.”

  “That hot fudge sundae is bigger than you.”

  Liam sat across from his niece in the restaurant portion of the arcade, where they’d finished their cheeseburgers and fries . . . or at least he had polished off the fast food–type meal while Cassandra saved room for desert.

  Whipped cream and fudge were stuck to the corners of her mouth.

  “Your mom’s going to kill me.”

  His niece giggled.

  The kid had him wrapped around her little finger. He didn’t know how to say no to her.

  “We won’t tell her,” Cassandra pretended to whisper.

  Liam reached over, dipped his clean napkin in her water, and wiped fudge off her pink shirt. “I think she’ll figure it out.”

  He cut her off halfway through the sundae with the lure of games and miniature golf.

  Liam found himself receiving the attention of several women in the arcade who were entertaining their children. He was used to the attention whenever he was out with Cassandra alone. When he was with Michelle, he knew people assumed he and Michelle were a thing. Once he got over the yuck factor, he realized it was an easy assumption. But when alone, he was the poor single dad, or maybe the weekend dad . . . the results were the same. Women emerged, flirted.

  Assumed.

  Like the brunette smiling at him from across the room.

  Nope, nope, nope . . . he was into blondes these days.

  Liam leaned against the wall next to a row of Skee-Ball stations and tried not to make eye contact. Only the woman had caught his scent and was working her way to his side.

  It was his shot with the ball, so he turned his back on her just as she approached. He purposely tossed the ball to the side and scored low.

  “No, Uncle Liam. Throw it in the middle,” Cassandra instructed.

  “Do you need some help with that?”

  It was the brunette, and she was standing right behind him.

  Ca
ssandra, not catching on to a female on the prowl, shook her head and invited conversation. “He’s bad at this game.”

  Liam saw the woman’s eyes light up. “I can show you a few pointers.”

  “I’m sure you could, but I’m here with my niece tonight.”

  She smiled at Cassandra for all of one second. “That’s sweet. Maybe another time.”

  Her voice was hopeful, her eyelids fluttered.

  Liam didn’t add to the conversation with the stranger. Instead he focused on Cassandra. “Show me how you do it again.”

  The woman walked away and Liam sighed in relief.

  At eight o’clock sharp, his phone rang. He answered without looking at the number. “Hello, Michelle. Before you start . . . yes, we’re still out, but I’ll have Cassandra home by nine . . . maybe nine thirty.” His sister always gave him the same rundown every time he had his niece.

  “Liam?”

  Not Michelle.

  The arcade made it difficult to hear.

  “Who is this?”

  “It’s not Michelle. And who is Cassandra? Or do you have a harem you want to add me to?”

  Liam closed his eyes. “Avery.”

  “Glad you could get the name right.”

  Liam felt panic crawl up his spine. “It’s not what you think—”

  “It’s okay. I get it. One kiss and an exchange of phone numbers . . . I don’t need to know who Michelle or Cassandra is. Obviously I’ve called at a bad time.”

  She was going to hang up . . . he felt it. “Avery!”

  Yup, the line went dead.

  Cassandra tugged on his pants and looked up at him. “Who is Avery?”

  Chapter Ten

  Avery tapped her phone against her chest as the conversation from the previous night ran through her head. Liam had made it sound like he wanted to start something. Something that included predetermined dates and maybe the occasional plus-one event.

  For one night and most of the day, Avery actually considered it. It wasn’t like she was doing anything else with her love life. Liam seemed harmless enough, even for the size of the man.

  And damn, the man could kiss. She didn’t think her brain cells started circulating until after he was on the freeway headed home.

  Even though her curiosity was piqued and her hormones were leveling up a notch, or ten, she’d picked up the phone tonight not to flirt . . . but to see if Liam could meet her at the Brentwood house and offer some advice. The flirting could continue while on the clock, so to speak.