A gasp sounded behind us, and we both jumped. Bree—once again proving her superior mental fortitude—clicked off the clippers.
“Heavens,”an angel’s voice breathed at the same time as a much deeper, more stoic one grumbled, “I can’t pretend to be shocked.”
I resisted the urge to turn toward the angel and kept my eyes on the hair that had fallen to the ground as Liem addressed Bree. “Princess, I thought we were in agreement that our personal grooming devices were to be used for good and not evil?”
I bristled at the nickname, but at least he hadn’t called her “best friend.”
She squeezed my shoulder as she answered, her voice solemn. “I know we did. But just like he did for me in high school, I am supporting Cody in his post-breakup ritual of choice.”
And that was when I let my gaze wander to Liem, my breath catching when I found him looking directly at me. There was so much compassion swimming in his dark-brown eyes that my throat tightened, officially ending my ability to breathe.
“I’m sorry, Dezi,” he said seriously.
My gaze traveled over him even as I lost oxygen. No matter how kind his eyes were, the rest of Liem was….
He was something else entirely.
The person I’d gotten to know as “LL” over a semester of instant messaging continued to be a patient teacher after that morning on the pier. I’d sought him out many times under the semi-loose pretense of seeking help on assignments, and he quickly became someone I considered a friend.
And I assumed that Liem would be the same.
Except he almost… wasn’t. Because Liem Lott in person? He was like a bad-boy jump scare. If LL’s voice had put me at ease, then Liem Lott’s appearance did the opposite. Ink-black hair that was half shaved to the scalp on one side, the other half long and—I assumed—silky, now ending past his collarbone. Delicate line tattoos were etched across the fingers of one hand, and moreblack lines and small bursts of color were scattered up his arm. My gaze trailed up his arms and over to the curve of his shoulder, all the way to….
“You got a new piercing?” I asked without thought, riveted by the way the bar through his eyebrow lifted as he smiled. I shut my mouth, mortified to have discovered it had hung open for everyone to see, and discreetly inhaled through my nose.
“Ah, yes,” he said, his smile so warm, I could almost feel the pulse of his aura soothing me. “A few. You could say they were one of my post-breakup rituals.” His shoulders undulated back and forth slowly as he spoke, as if his body preferred to move with the Gulf breeze rather than against it.
But then I heard it. “Breakup?” I asked, my voice higher than usual and my focus rapt on him, barely noticing Bree as she left my back and made her way to Vinh.
My throat was tight again, but in a different way. I’d heard enough from Bree while I was gone to deduce that he hadn’t been dating anyone.
Liem kept his attention on me, his dark eyes keen. “Yes. With a few places.” He raised his eyebrow, the metal bar catching in the morning light. “All contained inside a certain casino and resort.”
The easing inside me was so abrupt that I shifted my weight in my seat. I had lost my mind while I was gone and, ironically, hadn’t been able to find solid ground since returning to land. Maybe it was that I just didn’t want more surprises after an extended absence. That made sense. And Liem suddenly being tied to another person who I’d inevitably be forced to tolerate would be exactly that. A surprise. An unsettling and unwelcome one.
Bree laughed as she pulled back from hugging Vinh. “I told you that you can still go to Fortuna. I won’t hold it against you.”
Liem nodded and smiled fondly at her. “I know.”
“You can wear your Fortuna merch too,” she added. “I really do miss your visor and clogs.”
Liem hummed, clasping his hands behind his back as he subtly shifted on his feet and made no reply.
I moved my gaze over to Vinh just as he reached down and took Bree’s hand, seeming content to wordlessly watch her exchange with his brother.
Bree narrowed her eyes on Liem. “You’ve already given them away, haven’t you?”
“Yes,” he admitted immediately, his guilelessness so at odds with the mischief that was always brewing beneath the surface. “To the enchanting Ms. Bettina.”
“Oh! The one who used to run the dance studio downtown?”
“The same,” Liem confirmed. “She was planning to wear them to the parade.”
The Mississippi humidity turned from thick to suffocating without warning. I could do nothing but watch as the three of them carried on the conversation that I couldn’t begin to contribute to, full of elements I didn’t understand. Regret filled me to overflowing at every subtle inside joke and shared look of understanding that I had no part in.
They’d created a family here while I was…. I didn’t even know what I’d been doing. Letting people down, mostly. But I’d been gone. I’d chosen to be gone. Standing up suddenly, I mumbled something that didn’t even sound like words to my own ears and went back inside the cottage, hating myself for it the entire way.
Besides the physical brawl I’d gotten into with AJ at the casino last year after finding out the bullshit that he did to Bree, I really wasn’t prone to outward displays of dramatic bitch.
