Intended Series Collection: Books 1-6, Abigail Grant [best thriller books to read txt] 📗

The boys each just nod at the other. “Liam is from Southern California. I know you have been almost everywhere, Max, so maybe you guys have been in the same place at the same time before!” She is trying way too hard.

Max shrugs and shows a small smile. “Yeah, I've been to Cali a few times.”

Everyone is quiet for a moment, making this awkward introduction even more so.

Max speaks again, breaking the silence. “Let’s head inside and check this place out. It sounds like people are having fun in there.” He grabs Kassy’s hand and pulls her along as she giggles with excitement.

Liam and I fall in step behind them and I bump his shoulder with mine. “You ready to have some fun, pretty boy?” I tease.

He stares at the back of Kassy’s head and shrugs his shoulders. “It’s not exactly the night I was expecting but I guess I’m ready to give it a go.”

“Woah. Calm down, man. I can’t handle all of that unbridled enthusiasm!” I say with a poke to his ribs.

He swats my hand away and finally gives me a real smile. “Okay, okay! Let’s go have some fun, Miss Sarcasm!”

As soon as we pay and enter the dark club, he spins me onto the dance floor as I giggle like a little girl. “May I have this dance, ma'am?” He bellows at me with a hand stretched out.

“Yes, you may, sir.” I give him a princess curtsy.

We dance around one another to the way too loud techno music like a couple of lunatics, twirling and dipping as if we are in some ballroom, instead of surrounded by gyrating clubbers. It is so easy to have fun with Liam, with his infectious boyish grin and easy silliness.

After we are sweaty and tired from almost a half-hour of dancing, I notice Liam’s grinning lips droop when he sees something behind my shoulder. I spin around to see Kassy and Max dancing intimately close to one another. I turn back around and feel my heartbreak a little at the look Liam has on his face as he watches them.

I tug on his arm to make him look back at me. “Hey, your dance partner is starting to feel neglected over here, pretty boy.”

He sighs. “I’m sorry, El. They are just a little distracting, you know?” he continues to dance along with me, a little slower now as the music slows down to a relaxing rhythm.

I study our whole environment and the hustle and bustle of happy faces around us. The ceilings are high with cross beams reaching from one end to the other. The bar takes up an entire wall on one side and serves anything from water to hard liquor if you are of age, which my little Mickey Mouse stamp shows that I am clearly not. Something in the back of my mind itches like a lost memory trying to come out.

“I mean, she doesn’t even know that guy and he has his hands all over her. It’s inappropriate and gross.” Liam’s complaining breaks through my perusal of the club. A full pout is very evident on his face.

I stand on my tippy toes in front of him and block his view of Kassy. “Max is not her forever love, Liam. We are freshmen in college, and he is a fun guy. I know my best friend better than she knows herself sometimes and you are way more her type than that hulk over there. You are awesome and she knows it as well as I do, so please stop stressing.”

He studies me for a long moment, contemplating what I said and then, in the blink of an eye, his lips are pressed hard against mine. I’m so shocked that it takes me a second to realize what just happened. The second passes quickly before I press my hands against Liam’s chest and fall back on my heels, breaking the intimate contact.

His eyes widen and he looks ashamed of himself as he rubs his hands over his smooth face. “I am so sorry, El! I, I don’t know what I was thinking... if I was even thinking…”

I cut him off, agitated. “You were thinking you could erase your feelings for Kassy with the closest distraction, but that’s not me, Liam. I love you like a brother and that can never, ever, happen again.” I say with as much emphasis on the ever as possible.

He holds his hands up in surrender. “I one hundred percent agree! I don't see you in that way at all, like seriously no way at all! I’ve clearly lost my mind to jealousy and stupidity.”

I throw my hands on my hips in mock hurt. “Well, thanks a lot. I didn't realize I was so repugnant!”

His eyes widen even more than before. “No, no, no! That's not what I meant, you're gorgeous and I'm stupid and a jerk and the worst…”

I laugh loudly, causing him to stop his adorable rambling. “Okay, okay. I was just teasing. I'm not mad, Liam. I understand why you did it and am actually glad that you see me as just a friend. You're not a jerk, you're simply crazy about my best friend and she is blind because she doesn't see it. You need to tell her, or she'll never know.”

He visibly relaxes. “You're right. Can we please agree that this never happened and forget about it forever?”

I smile. “Absolutely, pretty boy.” I tease, hoping to bring our friendship back to where it was five minutes ago.

He sighs with relief. “Great, now let’s go get a drink.”

We saunter over to the bar where Kassy and Max are now standing, and I get us two waters. I watch a group of twenty-something college guys attempt to lift one of their own above their heads and I smile over my water bottle when two of the men topple over. I hear Max say something to Kassy about the group that