“Okay, I’ll admit that I was wrong,” Peyton said as she looked at Finn who sat beside her, staring at her like she hung the moon. “You can fall in love in a month.” Liam rolled his eyes and turned his back on the television screen. Finn and Peyton had gone back to Wake Up, Australia in the hopes of calming the media storm that had blown up around them after Finn’s grand and very public declaration of his feelings for her. Since that night, the press had been camped out on both Finn’s and Peyton’s doorsteps - which was a very bad thing for Liam. Love was the last thing on his mind. He was happy for Finn, but Liam had other more pressing matters on his mind. Namely, the super-secret project that he had been working on and the added pressure of the press’s attention was not at all what he needed if he wanted to continue going undetected at his current place of employment. And if he wanted to find out the truth, then he needed desperately to stay under the radar. Going unde
Mia flopped down on Peyton’s couch…well, it was her couch now, she supposed. Peyton had moved out and moved in with Finn and they were happily shacked up together in a huge apartment in a converted wool store, the same wool store where the other guys from The Playbook had apartments. Mia had jumped at the chance to move out of the tiny room she’d rented from a little old lady who’d disapproved of nearly everything Mia did. It hadn’t mattered that the room was above the garage, or that Mia was twenty-four and an adult, Mrs. Reynolds felt it was her prerogative to snoop in Mia’s private quarters as often as she could. That resulted in Mia’s favorite sexy lingerie mysteriously going missing only later to be found in the garbage can. She would have moved out sooner except she couldn’t afford to, not with her uni fees and the paltry part-time job she had at Forever Young. But all that had changed. Now she was almost a university graduate with just one more subject to complete to prove
Mia wiped away the tears that had snuck out of her eyes from the force of the uppercut she gave herself and looked down at the blood on her hand. Her nose was bleeding. Fabulous. That was just perfect. More annoyed now than embarrassed, Mia got to her feet. She turned around and got back in the lift. She rode it in silence back to her apartment and went straight to the bathroom where she washed her face, removed the mascara-soaked tears from her cheeks, and gave herself a critical look in the mirror. She was going to have a black eye tomorrow. Of course, she was. Shit like this always happened to her. Mumbling about the unfairness of her life, Mia stripped out of her blood-spotted t-shirt and pulled on a well-worn Kensington Cougars AFL supporters t-shirt. She eyed her trackie dacks but turned from temptation. She might feel a little miserable now after her embarrassing spill, but she wouldn’t give in to the seductive call of comfortable fleece and a stretchy waistband. She
“What the fuck, Mia?” Ant said, followed by an oof sound as their mother backhanded him in the gut. “What was that for Ma?” he asked looking at Maria. “Language,” she replied. “It might be fine for you to speak like that on the job site but I will not have that language used under my roof.” Ant rolled his eyes. “What’s the problem?” Luca asked, squeezing into the kitchen beside Ant. “Mia’s got a job at a men’s magazine,” Ant said, his eyebrows pulling down in a frown. Luca looked at her critically. “I don’t think she has the rack for that,” he said. Mia shot him the finger and stuck her tongue out. “Is this true, Mia?” Frank asked, frowning as he lowered his newspaper. “It’s not that kind of men’s magazine,” she said. “I already told you all about it last week. Doesn’t anyone listen to me?” “What’s Minnie Mouse squeaking about now?” Frankie asked pushing past his brothers. Ant and Luca were not ones to let a chance for a bit of argie-bargie go unanswered. They pushed
Mia couldn’t deny that for all his faults, Darius was hot. AFL players, in her humble opinion, had the best bodies of all the football codes. They were tall and lean and muscular without looking like the trolls that rugby union and league players looked like. And athletic. They were definitely athletic. They could leap and kick and run and looked really pretty while doing all those things. And Darius was one of the best. His stats had him at just a hair under six foot five and he had all that lean muscle going on, filling out his sleeveless jersey and short shorts nicely. Not to mention the tattoos and the piercing blue eyes and that smile that could make a girl’s panties melt right off her body at fifty paces. The dirty blonde hair shaved into a really bad faux-hawk that was almost a mullet lost him points, though. “You want to be like those women?” Maria asked, pulling Mia from her x-rated thoughts. “Huh?” “These girls,” Maria explained, waving her knitting around. “On the tel
Liam sipped his wine and watched his brother and his mother as they talked. He didn’t know Jonathon very well, they hadn’t grown up together, and this dinner was supposed to be a chance for them to start forging a friendship…or that’s what Liam hoped to achieve. Unfortunately, their mother, Loretta, had pretty much dominated Jonathon’s attention. Not that Liam regretted giving his mother time with the son she’d had to leave behind, but he did feel a little…left out. It was understandable that Loretta was taking every opportunity she could to get to know Jonathon again, but, without trying to be petty, this was Liam’s time with Jonathon. Loretta’s sudden appearance on Liam’s doorstep earlier that evening had meant inviting her to join them was unavoidable…not that he wanted to keep Jonathon and Loretta apart, he just wanted some time with his brother. Was that too much to ask? Liam had grown up without knowing he even had a brother. It was just him and his mum. She’d never really
He shook his head and smiled. “No, for men.” She nodded. “Are you trying to improve your female readership?” “It’s not necessarily the aim, but we would never turn away new subscribers,” he replied trying to smile convincingly. “So, what? You’re going to take some guy off the street and turn him from a fashion don’t to a fashion do?” “That’s about it,” he replied. “Not just clothes, though. We want to go into hair and skin care, general health, and exercise. A complete makeover.” “I like it,” she said with a wide smile. He really did like Emma…not like that. Liam genuinely thought she was a nice person and Jonathon was a lucky guy. He knew he was partly responsible for them hooking up. “How is everything?” the owner of the restaurant asked with an anxious glance at Jonathon. “Everything is great,” Liam replied, but Julio wasn’t looking for his approval. He wanted Jonathon to give him the validation. Jonathon was a big powerful billionaire,
The elevator opened on Liam’s floor and he got out waving at Finn and Peyton. He trudged to his door and got his keys out. As soon as he slid the key into the lock, the door to the other apartment on the floor opened. Liam turned to see Parker leaning against the door jamb, his arms crossed over his chest. “You’re home early,” Parker said. “Where’s Loretta?” “She’s staying with Jonathon,” Liam replied, not able to hide his sarcasm and jealousy from his best friend. “I thought she was staying here.” “Yeah, well she’s not,” Liam said, swinging his door open. “If you want to gossip like an old lady, I’m going to need a drink.” Liam stormed through his door and across his open-plan apartment until he reached the bar. He heard the door close behind him and Parker’s measured steps followed him. Liam poured two glasses of scotch and handed one to his friend. “Dinner didn’t go well?” Parker asked with a raised eyebrow. “It was fine,” Liam replied with a huff