She stopped to kiss us both on the head like we were twelve instead of twenty-two, and I realized I needed this much more than I thought I would. I turned to Liam, who was licking the chocolate off his fingers. I ignored the pang of heat the sight ignited in my stomach and focused on my own cookie.
“Thank you for this,” I said around a mouthful. “How did you know it was what I needed?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t. I just tried to think of the one place that makes me feel better when something bad happens, and this was what came to mind. Besides, I had a wicked craving for homemade cookies, and I figured you wouldn’t be open to baking for me.”
We both knew he was joking, but I was grateful for the change of subject. “You’re such an asshole.”
He batted his eyes. “But you love me.”
“Debatable,” I said, but I was smiling. He had a knack for making me smile when I absolutely did not want to. We’d be in the middle of arguing about God only knew what and he’d start cracking joke after joke, because—as much as he wanted to win the argument—he wanted me to smile more. Or so he said. “What are we doing today?”
“Since chores are done and dad can’t guilt me into helping out anymore on Mom’s orders, I have a surprise,” he said, then rounded the table to pull me from the chair and push me out the back door to the attached garage. “No time for thinking right now. If you start thinking you’ll overthink it, and I can’t handle the drama.”
At first, I thought he was talking about the kiss and then I realized he must be talking about Andrew. I really needed to stop thinking about ways to go in for round two.
“Are you going to tell me what you and your dad talked about this afternoon?” I blurted out.Great job, Char. Real subtle. “You came back looking like he was drowning kittens or something.”
“Long story. We can talk about it when we get where we’re going.”
I stumbled in the darkened garage, my hands outstretched to keep from running straight into something. “Where in the world are you taking me? Liammm. I donotwant to go skinny dipping again.”
He snorted and then placed his hands on my shoulders to guide me. I heard the rattled groan of an old truck door opening followed by a waft of leather, grease, and earth. “Scoot in,” Liam said, and gave me a little heave into the cab of the truck.
“Umph,” I grunted. It was his father’s old truck. The one they used during the summer to tend to his part-time handy-man business in addition to all the work they did on the farm. “Is this going to be a theme? You shoving me into vehicles and taking me off on a whim?”
“It would be if you’d shut your trap.”
“I can’t help it. I’m not the ride-or-die type. I have too many questions.”
“Clearly,” he replied as he hit the button for the garage door opener, then backed the truck into the driveway.
Before I could ask any more questions, he’d thrown the truck into Drive and we were bouncing along a rutted country backroad. The sound of night birds filled the truck over the smooth crooning from the latest country star. Being down one sense heightened all the rest and despite my constant reminding, my brain was especially attuned to how close Liam and I were on the bench seat.
“Should I be worried?” I asked to cover my nerves. This wasLiam. I’ve known him forever. I shouldn’t be nervous. It was like we’d crossed a line into a different territory and my eyes were open to things I’d noticed, but not at this level, not with this amount of intensity.
“You know I’d never let anything happen to you,” he said.
“I know, but you’ve also never done anything like this before.”
“I had a feeling we could both use a break.”
The truck eased to a stop with a squeal of breaks. We unbuckled, and Liam tugged me into his arms and carried me to the back of the truck where he tossed me bodily into the bed. A godawful, scream-queen-worthy screech ripped from my throat as I sailed through the air and landed, not on the hard metal like I was expecting, but on soft, downy fabric.
“Listen, Walsh,” I said when I finally caught my breath, “I appreciate you kidnapping me and throwing me around, but I have to say, your attempts to cheer me up leave a lot to be desired.”
The truck creaked as he heaved himself over the side and plopped down next to me. “Shut up for a minute and just look.”
“Look?” I prompted, but he slapped a hand over my mouth and tipped my head back, and the view made me swallow my protestations.
“You don’t get stars like that in the city, do you?”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat and relaxed into the blankets. “No, you don’t.”
“I would have dragged your ass to the treehouse, but I figured the freshmen fifteen you put on might take the place down.”
“You’re such an ass, Liam,” I said, but I leaned my head against his arm as we settled into the pillows. Surrounded by the sounds and scents of days gone by, it made it easier for me to digest all the mistakes I’d made when they were so far away—which was exactly his intention, I realized.
“I thought my attempts to cheer you up left a lot to be desired?”
