“O-okay,” I find myself agreeing.
The smile he gives me in return causes butterflies to erupt in my stomach.
“Excellent. I’ll be right back.”
He saunters off.
Five minutes pass.
Then ten minutes.
Fifteen.
Twenty.
A half hour later, he still hasn’t returned, Jayden and Lisa are still on the dance floor and I’m calling a cab trying to convince myself Liam not showing back up was for the best. My brain tells me that’s the logical answer. Too bad my heart didn’t get the memo.
Chapter 4
LIAM
When you meet her, you’ll know.
Those are the words I’ve heard my father say countless times when talking about my mom. Those are words I’ve heard my best friend Simon say when discussing his wife Arielle.
According to my dad all it took was one meeting with my mother for him to recognize that she was the woman that he’d spend the rest of his life with. Almost the same exact thing happened to Simon. Arielle walked into the bar looking for a job a few years ago and from the moment he looked at her you would have thought he’d gotten hit upside the head with a two by four. Even my brother-in-law has a similar story when he talks about my sister, and the same goes for my oldest brother Gavin when he talks about his wife Natalie.
My father has always told me the men in our family fall hard. I never believed him.
When you meet her, you’ll know.
I thought they were all insane. Four sappy as fuck guys who just fell in love fast.
I mean, how could you possibly know after one meeting, one conversation with a woman that you’d want to spend the rest of your life with her?
Hell, when I first met Victoria, I thought she was beautiful, sweet and intelligent. But then again, she is a supermodel so being beautiful is part of the job. Turns out the sweet part was just an act. I still pursued her. We dated and got engaged. And then I found out what kind of person she really was, and we broke up.
I figured love wasn’t in the cards for me and honestly, I could live with that. Besides, I’ve been married to my job for as long as I can remember and I’m perfectly okay with that. Or rather I was perfectly okay with that.
When you meet her, you’ll know.
I never understood that concept. Until last night.
All it took was one look at Ava. One minute I’m standing there talking to Levi, I happen to look up and the next moment I’m staring into a pair of big amber eyes from across the bar. Long curly dark hair framed an oval face. Her skin the richest shade of mocha was dotted with the cutest fucking freckles I’ve ever seen. Long lashes, long legs, curves for days. And when she smiled at me, that dimple in her left cheek nearly brought me to my fucking knees.
It felt like I got hit by a mack truck then backed up over again. One look and I knew instinctually I had to talk to her and when I finally got my opportunity too, I knew I was screwed.
And now I’ve found myself becoming a member of the sappy as fuck crew.
“Fuck,” I mutter shoving a hand through my hair as I spin around in my chair. Away from the mountain of paperwork on my desk. Wasn’t like I was really getting anything done anyway.
Tempest, our Chicago based restaurant gives me the best view of the city. Skyscrapers, store fronts and restaurants litter the busy street. I can even see Navy Pier from a distance.
It’s one of the reasons I was so glad my dad picked this location. While it isn’t at the heart of downtown, it’s close enough to get the view and the customers whether they be locals or visitors from out of town.
While people watching, I see a flash of a woman walking down the street with long, curly hair. Ava. Shooting up from my desk I go over to the window to try to get a better look, only to see that it’s not her.
Just the thought of her name has my heartbeat picking up and my palms getting a little sweaty.
“What the fuck is wrong with me?” I mutter out loud.
“I ask myself that question on a daily basis.” I don’t even have to turn around to know who just walked into my office.
So, I don’t.
I just throw up my middle finger in response.
A husky laugh is the response.
“What crawled up your ass this morning?”
Finally turning tearing my gaze away from the window, I turn to see my brother Levi, plop down in the chair across from my desk. Gavin and his wife Natalie are right behind him. They’re six of us total. Five boys, one girl. We’re all similar in build. While Gavin and I shared out mother’s dirty blond hair color. Levi got our fathers black hair that he keeps shorter on the sides and longer on the top. Levi and I share out fathers’ green eyes, while Gavin’s eyes are hazel. Grace on the other hand, is damn near the spitting image of our mother.
Our whole family is extremely close, we’ve leaned on each other a lot over the years. Being in the public eye, my father always taught us to stick together, no matter what the media may print about us. We’ve taken that into adult hood. I love my family, even if they do drive me fucking crazy a lot of the time. Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I sit back down in my chair.
“Nothing. What are you still doing here? I thought you had an early flight to catch for your next
