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He shook his head, mumbling something I didn’t catch.
“It’s not that cold out,” I told him, but he ignored me.
“Are you driving?” he asked.
“No, my friend’s picking me up.”
He stood, closing the distance between us. “Let me know if you need a ride home.”
“Why?” I asked with a laugh, absently placing my hand on his chest. “You aren’t going to wake up Finn to put him in the car.”
“I would if I had to.”
“You won’t,” I said, gently pushing back, but he didn’t budge. He merely stood there, barely a few inches of space between us, his eyes burning a trail across my face and my hand on his hard chest.
“Are you coming home tonight?” he asked, and I wasn’t sure if it was his soft voice, the wordhome, or that it was Liam questioning me, but whatever it was made my insides warm.
I normally would have balked at being so fussed over by anyone else, though I indulged in his overprotectiveness. Smiling, I moved my hand to squeeze his arm. “I’m coming home tonight.”
My cell phone vibrated with a text, and after seeing that my friend was outside, I backed away from him. “I gotta go.”
He followed me to the front door. “Have fun.”
“Don’t wait up,” I said, yet as I walked to the car, I glanced over my shoulder to find him watching me.
And I hoped he would wait up.
SEVEN
LIAM
“Don’t forget your turn signal,” I reminded Kennedy as she switched lanes.
She threw me a look of exasperation, and if I hadn’t spent this last week getting to know her, I would’ve thought she was actually angry. But I was starting to believe under all the hair and makeup, she was an angel in disguise. And too damn sweet for her own good.
I had yet to see her lose her patience. Even when Finn spilled juice all over the floor after she’d repeatedly told him to keep it on the table. Or with me, when I’d put her on the spot multiple times. Instead, she had smiled and stood up for herself, even if it came with an apology.
She apologized a lot. Too often.
Last night, as she’d told me about her diagnosis, I couldn’t help but think I had completely underestimated her. I had assumed she was immature and irresponsible, and it might have been true to avery smallextent, but she’d been living with a black cloud over her for the last decade. She lived with fear and uncertainty every day, yet she remained strong and confident. Or, she was faking it well enough to walk up to a stranger at a bar and convince him to offer her a job. To top it all off, she was sincere about her good attributes and unselfconscious about her faults. It was refreshing to deal with someone so honest.
Whatever had been plaguing her, either about her disease or things holding her back in the past, she was ready to move on from it.
And I was inexplicably proud.
“You’re worse than a driving instructor,” she said, playfully scolding me. “You’re here for moral support, not backseat driving.”
“Technically, it would be passenger-seat driving.”
She pressed her pink lips together, a valiant fight with her smile. Which she eventually lost. I was glad of it.
“Whatever you say, Professor,” she murmured, glancing to the rearview mirror. Finn was strapped in his car seat, fast asleep.
While he napped in the back, we’d driven aimlessly for the last hour and a half, so she could get comfortable behind the wheel again. She’d spent a good amount of that time cruising around different neighborhoods because she wasn’t willing to get on the highway, but I’d eventually talked her into it, encouraging her the whole way by saying, “Stay relaxed,” or “You’re doing so well,” and “That’s it.”
I hadn’t realized until Kennedy had flushed red and asked me, “Are you doing it on purpose?”
“What?”
