Relinquishing Liberty (7 page)

I did NOT feel comfortable in those clothes at all. Give me a pair of jeans with a tank top and hoodie, and I was set. Too bad that wasn’t going to fly with Maddie because she was determined to squeeze me into as little material as possible. I shimmied into the last dress after having tried them on for over an hour. Even if the dress looked hideous on me I was leaving the store with it. Anything to get me out that shopping nightmare!

I exited the fitting room, pulling the dress down as much as I could without much success. It was a skintight jungle-green dress with lacey straps and a completely exposed back.

“Ohmigod! You look so freakin’ hot girl! You have to get that one!”

I rolled my eyes. “Seriously, Maddie, I can’t even bend over in this. I don’t want everyone staring at my ass all night.”

“Are you kidding me? I’d kill for an ass like yours!” Maddie slapped my ass causing me to yelp. “You’re gorgeous, but sometimes guys need a little extra incentive to get their attention. You know, you’ve been here a week, and you haven’t met any guys other than my brother and his roommates. We need to change that…like now!”

“Actually I did meet this one guy…”

“What!? You met a guy and didn’t tell me!?” She pushed my shoulders so hard, I almost fell back into the fitting room. “Details
,
woman!”

“Well…I met him on the beach by accident last week. I went for a run and got distracted. Next thing I knew, I crashed straight into him. It was so embarrassing, Maddie. Seriously, I was mortified!”

“So let me get this
straight…you met this guy
last week
, and I’m just hearing about it now!? What the fuck, Liberty! Okay, I should have done this the first day you moved in, but I think it’s time we went over the roommate rules. Rule number one: when you meet a hot guy, you inform your roommate within five minutes of meeting said hottie!”

I had to cut Maddie off before she continued on with her ridiculous list of rules. “Maddie, there wasn’t much to tell you the first time I saw him.”

“First time!? Oh girl, this is just getting
worse by the second! Liberty
,
tell me everything or so help me—”

“Okay, okay!
We ran into each other one other time. I was a little embarrassed to see him again, and he was kind of a dick at first, but he apologized and turned out being pretty nice. He uh...gave me his number, too.” She shoved me again, that time knocking me flat on my ass. Damn, she was pretty strong for being such petite, little thing!

“SHUT UP! Did you call him?”

“No! I’m not really sure why he even gave me his number. It’s not like he asked me out.”

“Well, he clearly fell hard for you when you…fell into his lap.” She giggled, but I wasn’t finding any of this funny. “Otherwise he wouldn’t have given you his number. You should totally call him. Oh, I know…invite him to the party!”

“Are you sure? You don’t think it would be weird to invite a guy I barely know to my birthday party?”

“Liberty, you don’t know anyone who’s going anyway. One more person can’t hurt. Besides, I’m sure he’ll know other people there if he’s from around here, so it won’t be that weird.”

“Brett said he knows him, but he kind of warned me to stay away from him.”

“Well, there you go! Either way, he’ll want to go as long as you are there. And don’t worry about my brother. In case you haven’t noticed, he’s beyond over-protective.”
Oh I’ve noticed.

I really did want to get to know Shayne better, and not just because he was by far the sexiest man I’ve ever laid eyes on. I could sense there was something different about him. I felt it every time we touched and saw it when I gazed into his heavenly eyes. Maddie’s suggestion to invite him to the party was perfect. Being around him already made me a nervous wreck, but knowing there would be other people around took some of my anxiety away.

“Hurry up, we need to pick out shoes and get over to the salon!”
Great…I could already tell this was going to be painful.

Okay, so the makeover wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Maddie’s friend, Claire, was clearly a master of her craft. My hair looked awesome! She kept it long, but added some layers and highlights to my deep auburn hair. I was even impressed with the makeup she chose for me, matching it perfectly with my dress. She used an emerald green shadow but made it appear smoky, which really brought out my eyes. It was still a little bit more than I was used to, but for once I had to admit I looked pretty damn good.

When we got back to the apartment, I tried to muster up the courage to call Shayne. I must have dialed his number at least a dozen times and hung up every time before the first ring.
Okay. Here we go. Calling Shayne
. I still couldn’t do it! I finally made Maddie dial for me and not hand the phone back until it rang at least twice.

“Hello?” There was a long pause. I couldn’t speak without choking on my words. This was ridiculous. How was I ever going to get to know him if I couldn’t even talk to him on the phone?

“Hellooo? I can hear you breathing.” He chuckled softly.

“Hi, um, Shayne?”

“Yeah, who is this?”

“It’s, uh, Liberty. From the restaurant…and the beach.” There was another long pause before anyone spoke.

“Well, hey!” I could tell he was smiling through the phone. “I was wondering if you’d call. What’s up? How are you?”

“I’m good. Um…well…I was calling because…”
Oh just spit it out already, Liberty!
“I was wondering if you’d be interested in coming to a party at Brett’s apartment tonight…for my birthday?”

“Well, happy birthday, sweetheart! Yeah, I’ll be there. I’d love to see you. You said it’s at Brett’s?” There was tension in his voice at the mention of Brett’s name.

“Yeah, he offered to throw it at his place since my apartment isn’t very big and apparently he invited, and I quote, ‘everyone’.”

“Oh, so you don’t live with him?” It’s amazing how well I could read Shayne’s emotions through the phone. I swore if he were standing here right now, I would’ve seen his shoulders slump, releasing the tension he had unnecessarily built up. I was a little concerned about his jealousy of Brett, though.

“No, I live with his sister, Maddie.”

“Oh yeah, she’s a sweet girl. God, I haven’t seen her in years. I kind of lost touch with everyone from high school. Work pretty much consumes my life.”

“I can understand that. Well, Maddie and I have to go finish getting ready, so I guess I’ll see you there.”

“Yeah, see you tonight, sweetheart.” The phone clicked, and all of the air swooshed out of my lungs.

Oh God, I was freaking out. Before we left the apartment, Maddie forced me to throw back two shots of Jameson. She said it was to pre-game for the party, but I knew she was just trying to calm me down before I had a full-on panic attack.

When we got to Brett’s apartment, it was decorated like the freakin’ Fourth of July!
Did I walk in the wrong apartment?
I looked back at Maddie for confirmation, but she just urged me forward. Every inch of the living room and kitchen was drenched in red, white and blue. I was starting to think Brett and his roommates were just overly-patriotic. It wasn’t until I saw the inflatable Statue of Liberty propped up in the corner of the room that it all starting to make sense to me.
Ha ha, very funny guys!
At least it wasn’t a sex doll…at least I hoped it wasn’t.

I felt his arms circle around my waist from behind and warm, soft lips pressed against my cheek. I smiled.
He actually came
. I leaned back into his hard chest, but something about it didn’t feel right. Looking down at the arms around me, the tattoos I admired so much the other night had vanished. I immediately tensed up not knowing who the stranger was behind me. His breath brushed past my ear. “Happy birthday, darlin’.”

I must have jumped the entire distance of the living room when I realized who it was. “Geez, Liberty, are you always so jumpy?” He laughed and went to help Travis carry in the rest of the beer.

“Christ Almighty, you startled me, Brett! I thought you were someone else.”
More like I was hoping he was someone else.

He turned to look at me, and I could see the confusion and hurt in his eyes.
Dammit!
I was mentally face-palming myself for that. I never told him I invited Shayne, and I already knew he wouldn’t be too thrilled to find out.

“Who did you think it was?”

“Me, duh!” Travis whisked me off my feet and spun me around, before sneaking a green, foam Statue of Liberty crown on my head. Well, I just found out who was head of the decorating committee.

“There’s no way in hell you’re making me wear that!”

“Travis, come on! My girl just got her hair done!” Thank God, Maddie came to the rescue. She ripped the ridiculous crown off my head and shoved it against Travis’s chest.

“Well I think it looks great. You always look beautiful, Liberty.” Brett smiled down at me as he took a lock of my hair that had fallen out of place and brushed it behind my ear. Over the last week, Brett’s feelings for me had become much more apparent. He always found little ways to touch me and was constantly showering me with compliments. I wasn’t really sure how to handle it because honestly, I didn’t feel that way about him; not even close. I valued his friendship more than anything, and I didn’t want to hurt him. God, just thinking about fucking things up between us and not having him in my life brought a tightness to my chest that felt all too familiar. So instead I just brushed it off. I’d deal with it later.

When the party got under way and the drinks were flowing, I was feeling pretty damn good. Maddie introduced me to a group of her friends that mainly consisted of guys, but I couldn’t remember any of their names. I was more concerned with trying to find Shayne. I hadn’t seen him yet, and I was beginning to worry he might not come.

I felt a cool breeze hit my bare back as someone came through the door of the apartment. I spun around to see Shayne had finally arrived and not a moment too soon. I started to make my way over to him, but Brett reached him first.
Shit
. That was not good. Brett led him down the hallway away from the noise of the party. Yup. That was definitely not good. I just hoped Brett wouldn’t kick him out because it was my fault he was even here in the first place.

About 20 minutes went by before I saw Brett and Shayne reappear. Brett clearly looked agitated as he stormed away from Shayne and grabbed a beer out of Corey’s hand. I made a mental note to ask him what that was all about later. Once he was out of view, I pushed my way through the crowd of sweaty drunks to get to Shayne. He was leaning against the wall with his back to me but turned just as I approached him. One look at his breathtaking smile, and I felt like I was spinning. Then again, maybe it was the alcohol that was giving me the spins, but I’d rather give Shayne the credit.

“You made it!” I squealed and my voice inflected like a pre-pubescent boy.

“There’s the birthday girl!” He wrapped his arms around me, gently pulling me into him, and I buried my face in his chest. It felt good being so close to him, pressed against his firm chest, and God, did he smell good!

“I saw you talking to Brett. Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s perfect, Liberty. Don’t worry about it.” Somehow I doubted that, but I didn’t want to get into it now. I was just happy he was here.

“Do you mind if we go outside to talk? It’s kind of loud in here.” His hand reached out towards mine, and our fingers interlaced. Strangely, I loved the way his calloused fingers felt against mine. It made me wonder what he did to cause them to become so rough.

We sat on the steps outside of the apartment building, soaking in the cool night air. Shayne’s thigh brushed against my bare leg, sending chills throughout my whole body. He must’ve picked up on my shivering because the next thing I knew I was wrapped in a heavy leather jacket that was drenched in a scent that was all Shayne. I tugged at the hem of my dress, trying my best to cover myself up, but my efforts were wasted as Shayne took my hand.