Page 22

22

Alana

M aybe it was because going around in circles and trying not to disrupt the flow of skaters wasn’t very conducive to fangirling, but once we were on solid ground again, people would not leave Liam alone.

It was slow at first, like they were scared to approach, but then one brave teenager came up to him, told him he loved him, and the floodgates opened.

Men that were around our dads’ age came over and clapped him on the shoulder like they were proud parents and said variations of how he was the best thing to come out of Westchester. Teenagers who were at our old high school kept calling him a legend and letting him know that Coach Fitzpatrick was always saying how proud he was that he managed to produce both Liam Mulligan and Teddy Carter. I didn’t doubt that my dad was proud of them, but he was not the sort of person to keep bringing up his success stories. He’d had a lot over the course of his career, so I wondered who the bragging was really coming from.

As the dads and teenage boys gave way to a bunch of women, I stopped hanging around in the background like I was Liam’s shadow, took his skates bag, and wandered over to a food truck that served nothing but fries. Several concoctions caught my eye but, in the end, I went with fries covered in rosemary salt and doubled the portion just in case Liam managed to extract himself from the crowd before I’d eaten them all.

I was almost halfway through eating when I felt someone hanging out behind me. I think he was trying to sneak up on me, but it felt like the atoms in the air around me had changed, and the little ball of anxiety that had settled in my chest when the crowds started gathering eased, which could only mean that Liam was behind me.

“You done being the best thing since sliced bread?” I asked. The woman sitting next to me looked over at me with a look of fear in her eyes, like I’d started talking to myself after being silent for the last fifteen minutes. I ignored her.

“What do you think was the best thing before sliced bread?” Liam responded. The woman visibly sank in relief before perking up a little. I tried to keep ignoring her.

“Getting through the First World War.”

“Wait, do you know when sliced bread became a thing?” There was no free space at the table I was sitting on, so Liam squatted down next to me.

“1928,” I replied, swiping to the next page of the book I was reading on my phone, only to discover that it was the beginning of the next chapter. I locked my phone and looked at him. Only instead of looking at his face like I intended, I found my eyes were drawn to the way his thighs bulged in his jeans while he was in that position. I blinked slowly to try and erase the X-rated images that had taken residence in my brain and managed to look at his face. His cheeks were pink from the cold and the dusting of stubble on his face made him annoyingly more attractive. His eyes looked more grey than green, a colour I had never seen before.

“Huh, then yeah, you’re probably right. Any of these fries for me?” I slid the box over to him and looked back down at the table, my brain still trying to figure out why his eyes looked grey.

“Help yourself.”

“Thanks,” he shoved a handful of fries into his mouth. “Yes, by the way. I’ve finished being the best thing since sliced bread. Although I very much don’t think I am that, before you try to give me hell for saying such a thing.”

“Me? Give you hell for saying you’re awesome. That could never be me.”

“I don’t know, Gunner, I think you’re pretty great,” said the woman sitting next to me. I turned my head to look at her and saw that she had a very flirty face on, one finger twisting a strand of hair.

Liam swallowed.

“Yeah, thanks. I was only ever as good as the team around me, and I played with some great teams.”

Well, that answer sounded scripted.

“You and Teddy proved to be a lethal combination on the ice,” she said.

“We grew up together. I knew how to read that man on the ice, and he could do the same. It came in handy. We were a good team.”

“Were you only a great team on the ice?” Her words were dripping with innuendo, and I struggled to not burst into laughter. I had no real frame of reference, but something told me neither Liam nor Teddy was the kind to share off the ice.

“Teddy was a great wingman. Wouldn’t be with my girlfriend without him.”

“Oh, I didn’t realise. I’m sorry,” she said to me.

I shook my head. “No worries. You’re not the first to flirt with my boyfriend in front of me, I doubt you’ll be the last.” I had a lot of conflicting feelings about that truth. I was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, I was a jealous person.

At least I was when it came to a certain retired hockey player. Kai used to say it was cool how chill I was when other women flirted with him, but the truth was, I hadn’t really cared. He’d never given me any reason to think he would take anything beyond just flirting.

Liam didn’t give me a reason to think that either, but something inside me still wanted to mark him as mine , mine, mine whenever someone so much as batted an eyelash in his direction. It was confusing and new. I didn’t know what to do with it.

“I can imagine,” she said, nudging me in the side like we now shared an inside joke.

“Len, you can’t sustain yourself on fries alone, so what do you say we go get more food? I’m all yours for the rest of the day,” Liam said, bringing my attention back to him.

I ignored the muttered “I wish he could be mine for the rest of the day” from the woman next to me and looked around at the other food trucks stationed around the rink.

“What are your thoughts on burgers?” I asked.

“They are probably what sliced bread was invented for,” he replied as he held out his hand, fingertips lightly dusted in rosemary salt.

As Liam started looking for a place to sit, a family cleared their table so quickly it was almost farcical. He thanked the dad of the family, who looked the most starstruck of them all, as we sat in their vacated seats and put our burgers on the table.

“How exactly is one supposed to approach eating such a thing?” I asked as I sat next to him, and he pushed one of the burgers over to me. It was stacked. There were too many layers to count, and sauce and cheese were dripping down the sides. The stick holding it together in the middle was there symbolically, as I didn’t think it was making anything more structurally sound at all.

“I think you just get involved,” Liam replied before he crammed as much of the burger into his mouth as possible. Barbecue sauce dripped out the sides and smeared along his chin as he bit down. I never thought I would feel envious of a condiment because it got to be in such proximity to his mouth, but I also didn’t think chopping was sexy and he’d managed to achieve that. Who knew what else he was going to make attractive to me?

I picked up my own burger and followed suit, embracing the mess that ensued the moment I applied even a tiny amount of pressure to the top bun.

“Shit, this is so good,” I said, throwing out any kind of etiquette and talking with my mouth full.

“Right? It’s maybe the best burger I have ever eaten.” Liam was studying his burger, looking for the best place to sink his teeth in next. He hadn’t cleaned the sauce off his chin yet, so I reached over and swiped it off with one of my fingers. His stubble made it just a little harder to wipe off cleanly, but I managed it. As my finger left his face, his tongue darted out like it was trying to finish the job. It left his bottom lip looking wet and I had the urge to lean over and learn what it would feel like between my lips.

I’d never thought about kissing so much in my life.

In a bid to stop thinking about that, I licked the sauce off my finger. Liam watched the movement, and I realised why I had never seen his eyes look grey before. I’d never seen him turned on before. Or I’d never paid enough attention to him before to notice if he had ever been turned on in my presence. But as my finger left my mouth, I watched his green eyes darken to grey and it made my skin feel hot under his gaze.

I cleared my throat in a bid to try to clear some of the sexual tension that had blanketed us in the last minute. It seemed to knock the lust out of Liam’s eyes a little.

“Thanks. Is it all gone?” he asked. His voice sounded different. Huskier.

“Until you take your next bite, yeah.”

Liam laughed.

“How about after we eat these, we go for a walk? It will be dark soon and you can see the lights in all their glory. If you’re a good girl, I might even buy you a hot chocolate.” He winked and took another bite, getting more sauce on his chin .

Ordinarily, I would give him shit for saying the words ‘good girl’ in relation to me, but today, the words made me very aware of the steady pulse of desire thrumming against the seam of my leggings.

I took another bite of my burger to try and distract myself from it.