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“Well, I really like her. Not that it makes a difference.”
He turned to me after putting the iPad away. “It makes a difference.”
I tried not to read into that and bent to Finn. “What do you say? Should we celebrate with some squirt?”
He raised his arms, hopping up and down, but Liam offered another choice. “How ’bout we go for ice cream?”
That really got Finn going, and he took a few laps around the room. “Yeeeaaaahhhhhhh!”
The three of us piled into Liam’s car, and he insisted on blasting theHairspraysoundtrack so I could sing, which I found hopelessly endearing. By the time we arrived at the ice cream shop, I was out of breath from laughing and singing so much.
We ordered and sat at a booth in the back, with Finn next to his dad and me across from them.
“You two are twins,” I noted, tipping my chin at how they both had their hands curled around their bowls, heads tilted when they raised their spoons to their mouths, like they didn’t want to miss one drop. “Copy and paste. Too cute.”
“You hear that?” Liam elbowed Finn. “She thinks we’re cute.”
“Mostly just Finn,” I corrected, and Liam eyed me behind his glasses, a teasing lilt to his mouth.
It was funny how I was learning all of his habits. Like the way he crumpled up paper napkins and tossed them on the table when he finished eating. Or how he cracked his knuckles with his thumbs, like he did now.
“Thanks for treating me to ice cream,” I said, and he frowned.
“You really have to stop thanking me for things.”
“Why? I appreciate you.”
“Yeah, but it makes me feel like you think you owe me something. You don’t.”
I lifted a shoulder. He wasn’t wrong. “I owe you for giving me this job when I know you could have easily hired someone else.”
“Yeah, but someone else isn’t you.”
I pressed my cool hands to my hot cheeks and attempted to douse the butterflies in my belly. I know he didn’t mean anything by it. He was only being nice. Because that’s what Liam was, a nice guy.
A supportive guy.
A thoughtful and decent guy who would never cross any lines. Including the one that started with the little boy next to him.
“Addy!” Finn rotated his hands up and down, signing that he was all done.
“You’re all done,” I said and wiped at his mouth. “You gobbled that down quick. I can’t even finish mine.”
Liam pointed to my Oreo sundae. “You don’t want the rest?”
I shook my head. I was still too amped up from my good news and a little self-conscious about how I couldn’t seem to stop assigning meaning to Liam’s words and actions. I had to stop, or I’d be headed for heartbreak.
The ice cream I’d eaten sat in my stomach like a boulder, and I pushed what was left of it toward Liam. “You want it?”
He didn’t need to be asked twice and scooped up a bit to shove into his mouth. I definitely didn’t read into him using my spoon without a second thought.
He was merely hungry. The man was tall and lean, probably burned more calories than the average person using all of his brain power. Not to mention the boxing.
The boxing.
But, whatever. None of it mattered.
Not our easy friendship. Or that sometimes I caught him staring at me.
