This Time Around (5 page)

“Shit, I am getting way too old for this,” he laughs as he reaches me.

“Old, my arse. Dude, you are super fit for your age. Believe me, I hear it enough from my sister and all the giggly teenage girls in town.” I wink at him and he shivers.

“Please, do not bring up the girls from school,” he groans. “I actually had one girl ask me if she could help me watch the boys during the summer, just so she could spend more time with me. Freaked me the fuck out. I had to report it because she kept leaving notes on my desk,”

“And what about the other women in town? They are of age,” I wink again.

“Haha. Well they have very good taste, but your sister would have my balls if I even look at another woman, not that I would look, your sister is more than enough for me.” This time he winks at me and I fake gag. He hooks his arm around my shoulder and pulls me towards my parent’s front door.

“Where is my darling sister today?”

“At the salon, she wanted her hair done for the summer. You know how she gets.” I nod my head.

“Yep. Hey, I can’t stay long I need to get over to the garage and see Adrian before I pop over to the hospital and see what my new shifts are, plus I have a load of things to do today,” I explain.

“Cool. The Conster will be fine here. Me and the boys are staying for a few hours, so she will hang out with us.”

We walk through the house and into the kitchen where both my parents are sitting at the table. Dad has his paper in his hand, flicking through the pages. Mum is sitting opposite him wrapping little pieces of red and white checkered cloth on top of little jam jars and tying the rope to secure the cloth. Mum makes the best homemade jam in the world.

We stand there watching my parents talk about the kids, they haven’t noticed us yet. I smile, loving how much I want what my parents have. Matt clears his throat making my mum jump out of her skin. My dad, being the man that he is doesn’t even flinch.

“Morning. I’m pretty sure that you married my other daughter, boy. Why do you have your grubby hands all over my baby girl?” My dad asks Matt. He kisses the side of my head and walks over the fridge.

“Because I love her and we are going to run away together,” he says with dramatic effect. “I am surprised she has kept her hands off me for all these years and never revealing our sexy secret.” He winks at me and smirks behind his bottle of water. My mum giggles and I laugh out loud.

“Oh my God Matt, good one. Yeah, they would never believe such a tall tale.”

“Why not? I am sexy, I am wanted by hundreds of women,” he whines.

“Yep and teenage girls,” I say through my laughter, making Matt bend over and pretend to throw up in the kitchen sink. I walk over to my parents.

“Morning, Daddy,” I kiss his head and walk around to my mum. “Morning, Mum. Mmmm smells divine in here,” I say sniffing the air.

“Yummy, jam. I can’t stay I need to go over and see Adrian and then over to the hospital,” I explain. “I will text you when I am on my way home.” I kiss my parents and then Matt on the cheek before heading outside to say bye to the three kids. They all shout their goodbyes but do not stop their game. Climbing back into my car I turn the music back up and drive towards town to see my other best friend. The Score’s ‘Oh My Love’ plays through my car. I turn up the volume and sing along to the song and groove in my seat. I wave at people in town as I make my way to Brooks Auto repair and Custom.

It doesn’t take me long to arrive at my destination. I park my car to the side of the garage and climb out and make my way over to the four door repair garage. Three of the bays are repair and one bay is for the custom jobs.

Rock music is blasting from the speakers around the place, but it didn’t seem to bother the customers. I see no-one sitting in the office so I make a beeline for the car that has two familiar legs sticking out from it. I can tell that it is Adrian under the car because of the tattoo he has on his left calf. He had a pin-up girl tattooed there that looked just like Claire. Sweet if you ask me. I get closer and clear my throat.

“I am kinda busy right now, so you can go over to the office and speak to my wife, she can deal with anything you need,” he says from under the car, not even bothering to slide out to see who he is talking to.

I kick his foot this time and it startles him enough to slide out from under the car. His mouth opens to yell, but he snaps it shut when he sees that it is me. A big goofy smile spreads across his handsome greased face and he jumps to his feet, picking me up in a crushing bear hug. He spins me around making me squeal. I laugh out loud making Adrian laugh.

“God, I missed you, Jelly.” Adrian uses my nickname that he gave me years ago, after a night of way too many vodka shots my legs were like jelly walking home. He places me back on my feet but he doesn’t let me go. “Why the hell has it taken you three fucking days to come and see me?” He tries to keep the stern look on his face but he fails something awful.

“Sorry, Ade, I just needed to get Connie and myself back into a routine. I’m sorry I didn’t come by sooner.” I fake pout. “But I am here now and you, my little racer, have a lot of explaining to do.” I raise an eyebrow at him. He has the cheek to look nervous. I have only been away for four freaking weeks and he managed to take on a new partner. Obviously this has been in motion since before I left. I take a look around the garage to see if I can see the new partner that everyone is talking about, and drooling over if what Rachel says is true. I see that the restoration bays have two cars in them. I know that this is something that Adrian has always wanted to do, but he never got the right mechanics in to do a good enough job by his standards.

He holds his hands up in a surrender action but smiles at me. “I know, I know. You know I have wanted to add this to the garage, but no fucker was good enough. So when I got a call from an old friend from college, he told me about this guy who wanted a fresh start for him and his eight year old son. He has worked in his grandfather's garage for years, and when his grandfather passed away, he left it to him. But he didn’t want to stay in the city anymore, so I offered him half of this place after we talked for a few months. I looked into his work and background. This bloke has lived, Jells, he truly lived the rock star life,” he winks at me. Wow.

“Okay, fine, I guess after that speech I forgive you.” I smile at my best friend. “So where is this new partner of yours?” Right at that moment a car pulls into the garage. A shiver runs through me as I turn and see a red Audi A3 stopping a few feet from us. I can partially see the driver as the sun shines down in the windscreen, I just about make out his frame. The door opens and a muscular tattooed arm reaches the top of the door as the driver uses it for leverage to pull himself out of the car. My spine goes ramrod straight as the guy straightens and turns towards us. He is over six feet tall, with ink black hair with a small faux hair style. My heart starts to beat wildly in my chest. He is wearing a dark gray tank with dark blue jeans. The grease stains show that he obviously wears these to work more often than not. His biker boots sound heavy on the concrete as he walks around the car towards Adrian and me. His aviator glasses shade his eyes, but it is his smile that makes my breath catch.

Images flash through my head of
that
night.

The one night that has stayed with me for the last ten years.

The one night that has played over and over in my dreams.

I stumble back as he takes the last few steps towards us. Failing epically, both Adrian and he reach for me as I trip over my own feet. As I wait for my body to slam into the concrete beneath me but it never comes. I open my eyes at the sound of chuckles above me, and see my reflection in the sunglasses.

“Nice to see you too, Bambi,” he says, amusement lacing his voice.

“H-hi, Liam.”

My hands are braced on his biceps and good lord what biceps they are; hard but soft, and hot to the touch. Or is that because my hands are hot from the flash of embarrassment I am having right now?

Oh please, can the ground open up and swallow me?

Liam straightens his body, bringing mine closer to his. I can feel his hard abs through our clothes and pictures of our night together slip into the forefront of my mind again, and my body flashes red yet again. One of Liam’s hands leaves my body and he removes his sunglasses and places them on top of his head.

Why does he have to be so damned good looking?

God, why can’t I catch a break?

Liam hasn’t taken his eyes off of me, just like that night. His sexy smirk falls a little, as if he is feeling the connection flowing between us. I knew that I wasn’t imagining this feeling when it happened ten years ago. My heart skips a beat as his eyes regard me, taking me in. I can see his eyes flickering from my left eye to my right, trying to read me. I lick my dry lips and his eyes drop and follow the action. A low groan rumbles through his chest and I feel my core clench at the sound. Damn, the things he still does to my body even with the absence. A throat clears beside us, breaking the electric connection flowing through our bodies.

“Hello. Best friend and business partner standing here, not having a fucking clue what the hell is going on,” Adrian states. I giggle and blush even more, if that is possible. “You two want to tell me how the hell you know each other? Why the fuck do I need to find my wife after seeing that rather hot reunion you two just had?” He stands with his hands on his hips.

“Best friend? What?” Liam asks, swinging his gaze from mine to Adrian’s and back to me.

“Penny is my best friend, dude. I told you I had two best friends and they were women. Penny is one and Rachel is the other. Again, you want to tell me how you know Jelly?”

“Ade, please don’t be pissed,” I whine, like Connie when she wants something. “Liam is- is my- well,”

“Spit it out, Pen,” Adrian demands.

“Liam is my
roadie
.” I shrug and look around the garage, anywhere but the two men who are standing in front of me.

“Huh? Are you ... I mean are you sure?” What the hell?

“What do you mean am I sure? Of course I am, I do not go around and sleep with random men all the time, Adrian.” I look between the two men standing in front of me, feeling slightly humiliated. Liam cocks a perfect brow at me. “Oh shut it you. You were the exception.” I wave my hand up and down his body.

Liam chuckles but Adrian keeps shifting his eyes between Liam and me. I take the chance to look at Liam again and notice that he looks the same as he did ten years ago, but now with a little roughness to him. I see a new lightness on his face that wasn’t there all those years ago. Maybe something happened that made him leave his roadie days behind. I remember our night together, and how Liam looked so tired. The black circles under his eyes were evident. I can only imagine how tiring it would be to travel around the world with a rock band, loading and unloading all that equipment. All the partying they did. Not really knowing what to say to Liam and Adrian, I make my escape towards my car.

“Well, thanks for the catch up but I think I had better get going. You know things to do, people to see,” I say, walking towards my car at a fast pace, but a smooth voice stops me in my tracks.

“See you soon, Bambi.” Liam grins.

“We’ll see.”

“Oh yeah, we will see. You will be
seeing
plenty of me, babe.” He winks and walks into one of the garage ports. I am pretty sure that my jaw hits the floor.

How after all these years can he act so bloody calmly? He is acting like it was only yesterday that we had sex. I watch his arse as he walks away, and there is no way a man’s arse should look that good in a pair of Levi’s.

“So?” I swing my head back around to meet Adrian’s questioning gaze.

“So?” He repeats my word. I see going for the innocent factor isn’t going to work by the look on his face.

“You and Liam? Come on Jelly, I saw how you was after just one night with the guy. Are you going to be okay with him working and living here in BH?”

“It isn’t like I have a choice here, Ade. Like you said, Liam lives here now so I will just have to suck it up. I am sure there is someone in town that has caught his eye, so he will be too busy with her to bother me,” I say. But a knot forms in my stomach at the thought of someone I know touching Liam, seeing his body; tasting him. It’s stupid really for me to think the thoughts. There is no way that Liam hasn’t been with anyone in the last ten years.

Shaking the thoughts from my head I open my car door.

“From the eye fucking session you two just had, I am pretty sure that he has already caught the eye of someone in town. Pen, he hasn’t dated or touched anyone in town since he got here. He is here for a fresh start for him and his son.” The shock is evident on my face at the new information that Adrian has just let slip about Liam.

“Son?” I ask.

“Yeah. Liam has an eight year old son. His name is Knox. He is a good kid, my monsters like him. I think Connie has met him also.”