BRIDGER (12 page)

“Well, have you?”

I eyed him, debating what would be the best way to play the situation.
 
“I have, actually.”

“Oh yeah?
 
Desmond is a looker.”

I laughed, falling into the banter he provided. “I wouldn’t touch Desmond with a ten foot pole.
 
He’s as crazy as they come from the looks of it.”

“Ah, so it’s Issac.
 
Should have known.”

“Nope,” I said, popping the ‘p’, which made Liam laugh.

“I really hope you aren’t crushing on your own cousin.
 
That’d be a little creepy.”

I put my hand over my face in mock shame. “You caught me.
 
Don’t tell anyone.”

His warm hands grasped mine and pulled me over to the couch. We fell onto the soft cushions together.
 
“You know that only leaves one person.”

“Maybe.
 
Maybe not.
 
I might have snuck out earlier.
 
Either way, Mary needs a picture of the cute guy.”

He pretended to pout.
 
“You better go find him then, I suppose.”

“I think he’s sitting right next to me.”

He smiled as I grabbed my laptop and sat back down beside him.
 
I opened up the camera and snapped a candid before he could prepare.
 
“Hey, that’s not fair!
 
Try again.”
 
He wrapped his arms around me, repositioning me on his lap and resting his chin on my shoulder.

I snapped a few, each one sillier than the one before it.
 
“Let’s do a serious one.”

Liam pushed the laptop lid down gently.
 
“I can do serious,” he said as he put his hand underneath my chin, our eyes now level with one another.
 
Eyes smoldering, he leaned in, preparing to do something I hadn’t planned on.
 
He stopped an inch away from my face, simply gazing at me. His breath played across my lips, causing my insides to burn with excitement.
 
This hadn’t been part of the itinerary to Ireland.
 
I felt my face heat up as he crossed lingering space between us. I pulled my face down at the last second.
 
His lips met with my forehead, which he kissed sweetly.

He was graceful in the denial, still smiling after being turned down.
 
“I’ll have to work for that, won’t I?”

I tried to hide the slight panic that had overwhelmed me by laughing. “You might.
 
Or maybe your mom just didn’t pay me enough to accept those kinds of advances.”

Liam acted as though he was pulling an invisible dagger out of his heart. “Ouch, you’re a cold one.”

He had such an easygoing nature.
 
It was wonderful. I curled up against his chest without even thinking about it.
 
“I try.”

“You know, you’re not as hard as you let on,” he murmured, wrapping his arms tightly around my waist as I got comfortable.
 
“I’d say you’re a closet softie.”

“Well, you’ll just have to wait and find out,” I said, leaning my head back against him.

He sighed, leaning back into the couch and settling in for the long haul.
 
“That sounds perfectly fine to me.”

TEN

A thrill of amazement stole its way through my body as I woke up the next morning and had a pair of arms wrapped around my waist.
 
My head had found its place in the crook of Liam’s arm somewhere in the middle of the night as we had talked ourselves to sleep.
 
That was a new experience for me.

We had fallen asleep on the couch together. I was curled against his chest, and he didn’t seem to mind.

Woah.

“Good morning,” he said simply.

I took a deep breath, attempting to slow my freight train of a heart.
 
The best chance to not blow this would be to keep my mouth shut as much as possible, so this was the plan of attack to try.
 
Keep it simple, Ash
, I coached myself,
no word vomit today.
“Good morning. I didn’t mean to use you as a pillow.”

Laughing, his response made me suck in a breath of horror. “No, I didn’t plan on you falling asleep and drooling on me, either.
 
You’re just too funny to wake up.”

Crap.
 
Even while sleeping I managed to look like a fool.
 
Looking at his shirt, there was no stain.
 
I looked back to him accusingly.

“Alright, so you’re just too cute to wake up.
 
Plus you looked like you needed the sleep pretty bad. You haven’t slept all that much since you got here,” Liam amended, resting his arm around my shoulder again.
 

“Wonder whose fault that is?” I said while curling back into the crook of his arm.
 
Might as well enjoy it while it lasted; the trip was only two weeks.

Tess walked into the living room.
 
She made a point of not looking our direction. She made her way to the fireplace to throw a log on what was now just smoldering ashes.
 
From the side, though, I could tell she was beyond thrilled.
 
Memaw was going to hear all about this.
 
Maybe she already had.
 
She finally faced us, struggling to keep nonchalance in her words.
 
“Late night?”

Liam laughed.
 
“Not really, Ashlyn passed out not long after you left and I felt bad waking her up.”
 
His content smile said it wasn’t just an act of kindness; he liked that I had fallen asleep on him.

Sticking my tongue out at him, I turned back to Tess to defend my honor.
 
“Don’t let him fool you, he told me all kinds of dirt on you and everyone else.”

We were laughing as Jesse, Desmond, and Issac came through the door.
 
Their expressions cut through our joking immediately.

“Ashlyn, where’s Jamie?” Jesse asked.

Thinking back, I realized I’d never seen Jamie come home last night.
 
Looking back at Liam, I hoped he’d seen her before he had fallen asleep.
 
His face was enough of a “no” that he didn’t need to say he hadn’t seen her, either.

I leapt up. “Oh, crap. Maybe she came in after we fell asleep.
 
We never locked the door.”

Jesse crossed the length of the room at a dead sprint. Grabbing Liam by the collar of his shirt and yanking him up, Jesse held him an inch off the floor and less than that from his face.
 
“Liam, what the hell were you doing last night?” Liam had begun to change colors.
 
It was from either the lack of blood to his head, the shock of being lifted off the ground, or maybe it was a mixture of both.

Tess was instantly towering over Jesse, who dropped Liam immediately, eyes on the floor.
 
“Jesse, Liam, a word, if you don't mind.” Looking toward me, she nodded in the direction of the bedrooms.
 
“Ashlyn, please go check that your friend got home all right.”

Desmond and Issac stood stock straight, saying nothing.
 
They were purposely not looking in my direction.
 
They weren't being a great deal of support to anyone at the moment. I ran down the hall, banging open doors to see if Jamie was home.
 
Reaching the end of the hall, the only room left was ours.

Empty.

Blanching, I spun to go back out to the living room when I heard a door open.

“Ash?
 
Did you finally decide to come hang out with me?”

Oh, thank God.
 
I didn’t ever think I’d be thrilled to hear Jamie’s sulking voice, but the time had come.
 
Turning back around, Jamie was standing in the bathroom doorway.
 
She was decked out in a thick, fuzzy robe she must have found in there.
 
Her hair rolled up in a towel on the top of her head, she tapped her foot irritably.
 
“You know, for complaining that I’m boy crazy, you sure did get on with one of them quick.
 
You have to play with them a little longer, you know, make them wonder if you’re interested in them.
 
You played all your cards last night,” she said, coaching me on the techniques of how to get a guy.

I was not in the mood to hear her pep talk about how to land Liam.
 
I was doing just fine on my own by the look of things, thank you very much. “Jamie, when did you get home last night?”

“I’m not sure.
 
After exploring the convenience mart, I went for a walk.
 
I wanted to see what kinds of things were around this little town. There's a pub that the locals go to.
 
I even played pool with this old bloke – that’s what they call men over here, by the way,” she said, apparently very proud of herself for learning the local lingo.

I wasn’t over being irritated, so knowing she had been out half the night talking to random men was only adding fuel to the fire.
 
Add on the fact that she was underage and roaming bars in foreign countries, and I could have smacked her upside her toweled head.
 
“Jamie, I’m going to walk away now.”

“That's not surprising. You haven’t talked to me since we got here.”

That stopped me short.
 
“Are you serious?
 
The minute we got here you ran to find a room and were on the computer for the rest of the night!
 
Then yesterday you sulked until you decided to go run off by yourself!
 
What do you want me to do, ignore the people we’re staying with and talk to Reese all night on the computer beside you?
 
Sorry, but Tess and the guys are great.
 
You were the one flirting non-stop with them when we first got here.”

Jamie turned red.
 
“No, I didn’t.
 
I only flirted with Michael. And at least you actually know Reese, instead of laying all over a guy you barely know.”

I threw my arms up in frustration.
 
The Reese and Liam jibe was out of line.
 
We weren’t going there right now. “Who the heck is Michael?”

“Funny you don’t even know your own cousin’s name, but you know Jesse’s posse pretty well,” she said, alluding to my unplanned sleeping arrangement once more.

“You know what, just stay in the room all day.
 
I don’t care if you don’t come out.”
 
I stomped out of the room, slamming the door on my way.

I’d never argued with Jamie before today.
 
She wasn’t the same person who had been my best friend for the past two years.
 
I thought we knew each other in and out, but at this point I wasn’t quite sure.

No one was in the living room when I got there, but it was easy to hear where they had gone.

Something thudded against the kitchen table that sounded like a fist. Jesse was half growling, half whispering his frustrations. “Liam, I don’t care if you were talking to the Queen herself last night, you can’t let down your guard like that!”

Liam argued back in the same hushed tone. “What was I supposed to do?
 
Weren't we supposed to be on guard and make sure she was safe?
 
I can’t help it if she decides to stay out all night, you’re the one who said to let her go.”

What?
 
They were talking about Jamie?
 
Was she in danger?
 
I took a few steps closer, stopping shortly before the doors to enter the kitchen.

Tess’s voice came out hard over both of the guys.
 
“It doesn’t matter what happened.
 
It’s over.
 
You both need to keep a better eye on her.”