“I’m sure you want to cuddle me, Peaches, but I’m going to need you to stay upright and keep your eyes open, okay?”
“Okay, sunshine, I’ll try,” I say sleepily, leaning back into his warm orbit.
“Oh, this is bad.” A deep mirthless chuckle shakes his chest, vibrating against my own. “Seriously. Keep them open for me.”
Nodding, I pry my heavy lids open.
“Thank you.” He exhales and raises his pointer finger to my face. “I need you to follow this, okay?”
“What are you checking for?” I ask, attempting to follow the track of his finger.
“At this point, it’s more a confirmation than anything. You’re obviously concussed.”
I scoff at the complete self-possession in his voice—like nails on a chalkboard after all these years. “Glad you haven’t lost that unfounded confidence of yours.”
“You just retched into a trashcan.”
“That happens with great frequency, actually. I’m going to need more proof for a substantiated claim.”
“Well, I didn’t want to use this against you so soon, but youdidjust call me sunshine.” The ghost of a smile tugs on the worried lines of his mouth, pulling away.
Did I say that out loud? “Oh. Yup. Knocked senselessly, I agree.”
“Glad we’re on the same page for once.” His grin spreads wider across his face, and the dimples of doom blackhole their way onto his cheeks.
“Hi.” I blink.
“Hey, Peaches.”
“You’re in Paris.”
“I am.” He breathes out.
“And you work with Eli?”
“I do.” He stands and wipes his hands on his pants.
“For . . .?”
Liam threads his hand through his dark golden-brown hair, rendering his neat coif completely undone. “Right, so he really hasn’t told you anything?”
I shake my head. No, but I understand why.
“The creamery, actually. Dad bought a French cheese company to enter the international market, and Eli and I are handling the merger.”
Kelly’s Creamery—the family business, the job that kept his mom and dad working late and left Liam over at our house for family dinners.
“But you loathed that place entirely.”
“It grew on me.” He shrugs. His stare sits on me for a half second longer than is necessary, and I shift in my seat under the intensity of it all. “So where’s the nearest hospital?” He pulls his focus away and scans the area, bouncing on his toes. “Or do we take you somewhere else? Do they have urgent cares?”
Is he kidding me? I’m fine. I’m not wasting one of my decent days at the hospital. “Yeah, I’m not going to the hospital.”
“Evie—”
The loud blare of a disgruntled driver’s horn interrupts us. Liam jumps. I don’t budge. Car horns are white noise for me—another soothing sound of the city to add to the ambient music soundtrack.
“It’s not up for discussion.”
