Trusting Liam(44)

Liam was returning to the bedroom when I walked out of the bathroom a couple minutes later, and without giving me a chance to put any of my clothes back on, he grabbed one of my hands and towed me back to the bed. Once we were under the covers, I moved closer to him until I was pressed against his chest with his arms around me.

My body instantly relaxed against his, but it wasn’t long before I realized that his felt tight—too tight. I looked up to find Liam watching me with a worried expression, but before I could ask what was wrong, I felt the smallest pressure where his hands were touching me—like he was worried I was about to disappear—and I knew.

“I’ll be here in the morning,” I assured him.

He nodded once, and his face instantly relaxed as he settled in against the pillow. “Good night, Moon,” he whispered, and I hid my smile against his chest.

“Good night, Liam Taylor.”





10



July 17

Liam

“YOUR MOM’S MAD at you.”

I looked over to where my dad had just sat down in the sand, and set down my board before sitting next to him. “Mad? Why?”

“Jesus, Harper isn’t the only one who is mad. Your aunt Bree wouldn’t let me get ready or leave the house this morning without lecturing me the entire time about you,” Uncle Konrad added as soon as he was sitting on my other side.

“Doesn’t surprise me,” Dad groaned, and lay back. “The two have been on the phone every time I’ve come home from the gym this week.”

“Well, are you going to tell me why they’re mad?”

Dad looked over at me with his eyebrows up high. “Seriously? You have no clue? You’ve been with Kennedy for how long now?”

I shook my head slowly as I tried to figure it out. “I don’t know . . . a month? We’re not really together. Kennedy’s afraid of commitment. She says she doesn’t believe in it, but I don’t buy that and I can’t figure out why she’s scared of it.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Uncle Konrad mumbled, and Dad nodded in agreement.

“Yep, doesn’t matter. The girls see it as a relationship, and they’re mad that you haven’t brought her by the house to meet them.”

“What do you mean? Mom sees her almost every day because she brings you lunch at the gym. And I have no doubt that Aunt Bree has been stopping by so she can spy on Kennedy.” I turned to look at Uncle Konrad, and found him smiling. “Figures.”

“Still doesn’t matter. Your mom wants you to bring her by for dinner or lunch or something to formally meet her as your girlfriend—or some shit like that.”

“Dad, Kennedy would take off running if I introduced her to my family as that. Shit, any girl would probably take off running after trying to introduce her to my family after only a month. But you should have seen her when I let the word ‘girlfriend’ slip to one of my friends—she completely froze and wouldn’t say anything the rest of the night. A family dinner is not going to happen.”

“Then invite both her and her sister, act like it’s nothing special or uncommon for us to have people over for dinner.”

“It’s not,” I reminded him. “But you don’t invite the employees from the gym over. Whatever I come up with, she’s going to see right through it. She’ll know what it really is.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure out a way.” Dad sent me an amused smile, like he knew exactly how difficult it was going to be. “Have fun with that.”

“And don’t be surprised when we show up and Bree starts interrogating her.”

I scoffed at Uncle Konrad’s words. “Why would I be?” I sat there for a second, then conceded with a sigh: “But if that’s what they want, I’ll figure something out. I’ll ask her soon.”

The three of us fell into a silence as we looked out at the gray ocean. It’d been a perfect morning for surfing, and it was getting bright enough outside that more people would be coming out soon. But we’d been coming here as long as I could remember; my dad and uncle long before that. We knew the perfect time to come for the waves and to have as much of the ocean as we wanted without many others around.

Uncle Konrad let out a sharp laugh, and my lips curved up in a smile at what was coming. It happened every time we surfed, and I knew today would be no different. Just like it was no different that Brian mentioned “Chachi” every time I was around him.

“Brandon. Remember that first day I went out surfing with all of you? Chase was being a dick about Harper, and you both started throwing punches that only lasted for a minute before all your housemates were pulling you two off each other.”