Trusting Liam(35)

“No, no. I saw it after those people pulled up and started talking to you.” Liam was looking at me like he was trying to figure out if I was telling the truth, and I laughed. “I swear! But can we bring back strike one now?”

He rolled his eyes, but I didn’t miss his smile as he got out of the car and popped the trunk. Once he’d taken the spare out and disappeared behind the rear of the car, I got out and went around to watch him.

“Stay in the car,” he ordered, but his tone was gentle. “I don’t want you out here in case anything happens.”

“Oh no, this is a must watch. Besides,” I mumbled as I took a picture of him, “Kira needs to see how the night is starting off.”

Liam raised one hand to flip me off before going back to jacking up the car, and I couldn’t help but laugh again.

It wasn’t long before the spare was on and we were heading toward the restaurant. The entire way there, we talked about the only other time he’d gotten a flat, and I told him about all the times Kira and I had gone out to our cars to find our dad had taken off a tire and hidden it when we were supposed to be grounded.

The second we stepped inside the restaurant, I was blasted by a distinct smell, and I looked around to try to find the name of the restaurant—since I hadn’t bothered to look while we were outside. I didn’t have time to find what I was looking for, but kept my mouth shut as we were led back to a booth. I just hoped like hell that there would be something on the menu that I could eat.

After quickly glancing through everything, I bit back a smile and had to hide my face from Liam for a minute before I dropped the menu to the table and looked at him.

“You already know what you want?” he asked, surprise coating his words.

“Uh, well, if you want to end this date in the ER, then I can try to find something,” I offered, and my lips stretched into a wide smile when he looked at me in confusion. “Liam, I’m allergic to seafood.”

“Bullshit.”

I shook my head. “Not bullshit. I’m allergic to anything that comes from water, and if it’s something from the bottom of the ocean, it’s bye bye, Kennedy.”

His face fell, and a soft laugh bubbled past my lips. “Why didn’t you say anything when you saw where I was taking you?”

“I didn’t know! I wasn’t paying attention when we walked in. When I smelled it, I was hoping there would be something else I could eat. Coming from Tampa, there are obviously a ton of restaurants with seafood, but more often than not, there are other things on the menu as well.”

His eyes widened, and he leaned over the table. “Don’t touch anything! We’ll get out of here, just try not to touch anything!”

I laughed at his panicked expression, but did as he said as I slid out of the booth. Our waiter was walking up as we got out, and after a short explanation from Liam, we were walking out of the restaurant.

“Strike two?”

Liam didn’t seem to find this funny; he was looking at me like he was waiting for something drastic to happen. “Are you going to be okay?”

“Liam, really, I’m fine. My allergy’s not so bad that I can’t be in a restaurant that serves fish. If my hands touch something that has had any kind of contact with anything I’m allergic to, then my hands swell up and start itching. If I actually touch a food I’m allergic to, then I’ll be sucking down Benadryl like it’s water. But if I were to eat it, then it would be really bad.” Lifting my hands for him to inspect, I wiggled my fingers for a second. “All I touched was the menu. I’m fine.”

He sighed heavily and wrapped an arm around my waist to lead me back toward the parking lot. “I swear to God, this night is already a fucking disaster.”

“You still have one strike left, don’t write off the night yet,” I teased.

Liam was mumbling about flat tires and trying to kill me when we got to the car and he abruptly stopped walking. Releasing my waist, he searched his pockets quickly before uttering a curse and trying the passenger side door. It was locked. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he groaned.

I laughed loudly and leaned forward to look into the car. When I saw the keys in the ignition, I started giggling so hard that I snorted, which made me laugh harder and hold myself up against his car so I wouldn’t fall. “How—how did—oh my God, I’m sorry. I can’t,” I forced out between hysterics. “How is it locked?”

Liam was looking straight ahead with an expression that had me laughing even harder, and doing everything not to pee myself. “If the car is turned off, the doors automatically lock after a few minutes.”