Page 43 of Finding My Forever

I wouldn’t give up. Not yet.

Elijah stood and stretched his arms over his head. “We have a few hours before rehearsals start. What do you guys want to do?”

I was a little surprised he wasn’t trying to get rid of us yet. Maybe he and Sophia had hit it off.

I looked to her for help. She was the one with the itinerary.

“I want to see your favorite place, both of you.”

Elijah ran his hand through his hair. “That’s too hard. You need to narrow it down by category.”

“Fine. Your favorite place to go when you have some free time between class.”

“That would be my room to take nap,” he replied.

We laughed at him but he shrugged. “Seriously. My schedule is so crazy I take sleep whenever I can get it.”

“Fine then. Show us your place.”

Elijah and Liam looked to each other and shrugged. “Sounds good.”

“Is that your favorite place, Liam?”

He avoided the question and now I was curious. “It is definitely in my top three, but I also end up at Washington Square if I want fresh air and I have a break. It’s the best people watching.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “It became my favorite place too.”

“I don’t get you guys. It’s a nice park, I’ll give you that, but there’s so much in the city and you like your bed.” Sophia pointed at Elijah before turning to us. “And you two want to sit in a pigeon infested park like old people.”

“When you live here, you don’t have to sprint around the city seeing everything in a few days. We can take our time.” Liam countered.

“Plus, he’s from Boston, and I’m from New Haven. We’ve grown up coming to the city.” Elijah explained.

“So, eventually the magic wears off?” This was the absolute last thing I wanted to hear.

“No,” Liam shook his head. “Never. We’ve just been able to take it in over the years, and now it’s home.”

“Fair enough, but if someone asked me where my favorite place in Portland is, I would have a solid answer and it wouldn’t be my bedroom.”

I shot Elijah a smirk, and he narrowed his eyes as he smirked. “We can either walk around for a while or we can go up and watch a movie or something?”

Sophia looked at me giving me the lead. I wanted to go. I needed to spend more time with him, but going into a near stranger’s house went against pretty much everything I’d been taught.

Two girls going alone with two guys they met off the street and no one knew where we were going. It sounded like a bad horror movie plot.

I could text Katie when we got there and share my location. I told her that if she didn’t hear from me by five to call the police. Perfect.

“Sure, can you show up some of the NYU buildings on the way?”

Liam smiled and I had a feeling he was happy I trusted him. “Yeah, we’ll give you guys an abridged tour on the way.”

His eyes held mine and the doubts and fears circling in my head slowly faded away. It had been one day since I slammed into him, but I already knew I was changed. This was right. This was him. I had to believe that. The necklace had never let any of the women in my family down before. It wouldn’t start with me. Hopefully.

Chapter 13

I fell in step with Liam suddenly all too aware of my body and his. Our arms swung in sync, so close that I could feel the electricity bounce between us, but we weren’t touching.

I should just do it.