Love Is Always Write Volume 4

a taxman?"
    That's not the usual reaction he got when he told people about his job. People feared tax auditors more than death itself and that's what Kevin had been relying on.
    "Tax auditor," Kevin corrected, shifting his stance.
    Liam shrugged his buffed shoulders as he took a step back. "Charlie takes care of that stuff."
    Not very well …
    Kevin sighed and watched Liam dig the shovel into the broken cement, and haul the rubble to the side. Every muscle in his fit body rippled with the movement. Kevin swallowed hard. Would Liam respond to a little bribe? "Well, Liam, is there anything I could, you know, give you to delay this drilling for the rest of the day?"
    Liam's eyebrows rose and the most breathtaking smiled spread over his face, revealing those damned dimples again.
    "Taxman is bribing me?"
    Kevin's face flushed for a second and scratched the back of his neck. "Not bribing," – yes bribing – "I just really need a few more hours to finish the tax audit. Then I'll leave and you'll never see me again."
    Liam regarded Kevin in silence, eyes scanning up and down his body.
    That's it, big man … That's what I'm offering. A quick oral convincing so I can leave this God forsaken town and never return . Of course, by 'oral' he didn't mean talking. It had been a while since Kevin had been with someone anyway and his pants were getting kind of tight with the prospects. How far into the house would they need to go? The living room? There were clothes everywhere in the bedroom and the kitchen was full of empty cardboard boxes. He could scoot the books and bags of snacks off the sofa.
    "I'm sorry," said Liam with a laugh. "I just can't get over it. Taxman? Really? You always said you wanted to be a baker on a beach and go surfing in your spare time."
    He did use to say that …
    "Wait, I know you?"
    "You used to," said Liam, leaning on the shovel, still standing close enough that Kevin could smell the sweat of his body. It wasn't an unpleasant scent. In fact, it was very manly and very distracting.
    Kevin stared at the man in front of him for the longest time, searching his face for anything familiar. There was nothing. It had been twelve years since he'd left this dust hole for L.A. He definitely would have remembered someone like Liam.
    Scraping the shovel against the pavement, Liam looked away. "Liam Gray? You don't remember me at all, do you …" he said in a low voice.
    "I'm sorry," said Kevin, not only feeling embarrassed, but also genuinely annoyed that he couldn't remember.
    "Gray Groceries?" Liam asked. He looked back at Kevin, raising a thick, dark eyebrow. "Son of Hank Gray?"
    "Oh!" said Kevin with wide eyes, pointing an index finger. "Little Liam!"
    Little Liam – not so little now! That's what Dinah was talking about …
    Liam's eyes narrowed, but Kevin went on, excited to having finally placed him.
    "What happened to you? I mean, you were so short and scrawny. Did old-man Gray put you on steroids or something?"
    "Got a late growth spurt at fifteen," muttered Liam, looking down again.
    He could see it now. The same blue eyes, the high cheekbones, the color of his skin. Definitely Little Liam … only much bigger and manlier now. Roughly four years younger, so he would have been around fourteen when Kevin left.
    "You kept hanging around the store while I was working," said Kevin, smiling at the memory. Not only did Liam hang around, he used to watch Kevin all the time with those eyes that were – until now – too big for his face.
    "Yeah," said Liam with half a smile. "Dad made me stack the shelves to make myself useful."
    "You used to blow spitballs at me while I was working the register."
    Liam laughed, a deep rumble that made Kevin's heart race. The dimples made deep indents in Liam's cheeks. "Yeah, fun times."
    Kevin laughed with him, partly because Liam's laughter was infectious and partly because Kevin was glad to have found a bargaining ground. "Yeah … fun times. So, Liam, you'll delay this," – he gestured at the broken pavement and jackhammer – "for a few hours?"
    Liam stepped back, dug the shovel into the broken pavement and hoisted the rocks and dust to the side. "Nope."
    "Oh, come on! I'll do anything, please."
    Liam put the shovel against the fence and crossed his arms in front of his bare chest. "Kevin Lewis begging me . That's something I never expected."
    "Anything," Kevin pleaded, shifting the laptop under his other arm and switching the Styrofoam box between hands.
    Liam gazed