“Liam?” Seth looked over his shoulder, and Liam’s desire must have been stamped all over his face, because Seth straightened up and stared at him.
“Sorry. You just have a really nice…er, I went tongue-tied there for a second.”
And there went his plan not to make Seth uncomfortable. But they’d had sex. A lot of fantastic sex, so it was hard to dismiss it.
Luckily, Seth grinned and winked. “Tell me where you want the table.”
“Put it about two feet that way.” He pointed.
Seth moved the table, then stood watching him. “I know it’s weird that we’re having to work together after that night. It’s not easy for me either.”
It was hard to work so close to Seth and not touch him. He wanted to run his hands over that fine body so much, the images were on a constant film reel in the back of his mind.
Another customer came into the store, and Liam was soon busy helping the boy pick out a corsage. The whole time, his skin tingled under the weight of Seth’s quiet stare.Chapter SixClearly, he’d been lying to himself when he thought getting out of the flower shop would make being around Liam easier. They were crammed in his Nissan sedan, which had never felt small until now. But now more than six feet of Liam Larsen was shoehorned into the passenger seat, and the distance between the driver and passenger was far narrower than it had ever been before.
It would be so damn easy to just drop his hand on that thick thigh.
But he wasn’t thinking about that.
The same way he wasn’t thinking about how Liam’s broad shoulders stretched the cotton shirt he was wearing. Or that the little green apron he’d tied on as he set to repotting plants made his waist seem adorably narrow while the strings kept bouncing on his perfect ass.
He wasn’t thinking about how he’d found himself staring at Liam’s large hands as they carefully cradled the delicate plants, moving them from small pots to larger ones as if he were handling a newborn. A couple of times he’d even caught Liam whispering encouraging words to the little blooms as he got them settled in the rich dirt.
But if Seth wasn’t thinking about Liam’s great body or his enormous, caring heart, then he was thinking about his face. And that only made Seth’s blood boil.
Who the fuck would dare put their hands on this man?
When he’d stepped into Rowe’s office, the shock of seeing Liam evaporated a second after he registered the injuries to his face. If Rowe hadn’t spoken up so quickly, he would have been grabbing Liam, demanding to know who the fuck hurt him.
And yeah, that flash of temper didn’t make sense for a detached, hookup kind of guy. He wasn’t supposed to be close to losing his shit over Liam’s injuries. He wasn’t supposed to care that Liam was worried about his friend or that he was so worried over his brand-new shop.
This was threatening to get complicated.
He had goals. A plan. And Liam, he was a great guy, but Seth wasn’t interested in dating or relationships.
He was helping out a friend. No, he was helping out the brother of a friend.
At Liam’s direction, he parked his car in an open spot marked with the same number as Gerald’s apartment. He glanced around, taking in the buildings in the fading sunlight. It looked like a nice complex, with neatly manicured shrubs and recently cut grass. There were plenty of streetlights in the parking areas and more lights at the building entrances, giving a sense of security.
“Has Gerald lived here long?” Seth asked. He turned off the engine and unbuckled his seat belt.
“No, he moved to Cincinnati at roughly the same time as I did. A few months ago.”
“From Michigan?”
“Yes.” Liam frowned at him, his hand on the door handle. “Anything wrong?”
“Just double-checking to make sure we’re not being watched,” Seth murmured, his eyes on the rearview mirror.
Another car had followed them into the lot and parked not far away. But the tension that had tightened his muscles drained away when he saw a young woman get out of the car, carrying a gym bag and a yoga mat in one hand and a bag of fast food takeout in the other.
He flashed Liam a reassuring grin. “We’re good, I think. Let’s go check out his apartment.”
Liam followed him out of the car and up to the third floor. Seth could hear him jingling keys in his hand, possibly sorting through them for Gerald’s. It was good luck that Gerald had given him a copy for emergencies.
Ignoring the rapid beating of his heart, he allowed Liam to unlock the door, and then he made the man step away so he could enter first. He nearly swore out loud when the door opened directly into a destroyed living room. The couch had been flipped onto its side, and the stuffing was ripped out of the cushions. White fluff and yellow foam littered the open area like confetti. Broken glass winked in the overhead light from the shattered coffee table. The flat-screen TV was pulled off the wall and lay at an odd angle on the floor.