“And I’m missing a ton of notes. My Step 1 exam is coming up next month, and I don’t feel anywhere close to being ready.”
“Step 1 exam?”
“It’s pretty much the hardest and most important test I’ll ever have to take in my life. It decides what residency I get and what residency I go to in the future.” She sighed heavily. “And I’m nowhere near ready.”
I could see her mind beginning to race, and I started to drive, but I wasn’t going back to the house. She needed a distraction. And with the rain pounding on us, I knew exactly where to go.
After fifteen minutes of driving in the opposite direction, Avery was able to focus enough to realize we weren’t headed home. “Where are we?”
I made a quick left turn and pulled into the parking lot of a park I knew would be empty with how shitty the weather was.
Perfect.
“Liam?”
I let out a heavy sigh, knowing it wasn’t going to be easy to get her out of the truck with how hard it was raining. “Can you just do what I say and not ask any questions?”
“Probably not.”
I smiled and grabbed her hand without warning, and then I pulled her through the truck, out into the rain.
Avery tensed and gasped at the cold drops hitting her bare skin and soaking her clothes. “Are you crazy? What are you doing?”
I started to second-guess bringing her out here until I caught a glimpse of a smile lifting her cheeks.
“Liam, it’s freezing!” she yelled over the sound of the rain bouncing off the pavement.
I paused in the middle of the parking lot, shifting my hold from her wrist to her hand. She spread her fingers and interlocked them with mine, like it was natural.
My lips curled with satisfaction at the sight of her laughing and looking up at the sky. I squeezed her hand and caught her next glance, leading her down onto the wet ground.
She let out a high-pitched scream as she lay completely flat, soaking her backside on the cold, drenched concrete. “This is insane. What if—”
“Shut up and feel it, Avery,” I said, rubbing my thumb against the back of her hand. “Stop thinking, stop worrying, and just feel it.”
22
Avery
The walls between Liam and me came tumbling down, disintegrating in the water beating around us. As much as I wanted to defy him, I listened to his instructions and focused on the rain hitting every inch of my body. The tiny beads of water pummeling my face, my bare legs, and my chest were overwhelming at first, but I eventually got used to it. The constant impact of the freezing cold rain began to numb my skin and, with it, my ability to care.
I let go. I felt everything and nothing, all at once. It was freeing. Liberating. The world around me seemed infinite, and I couldn’t help but think about how insignificant all of my problems were. My stress with school, my problems with my mom, my worries about my future—they all were insignificant in comparison to the way I felt, holding Liam’s hand in the middle of a rainstorm.
This, right here, was living. I’d forgotten what that felt like.
Turning my head, I opened my eyes and set my vision on Liam’s perfectly sculpted face. Rain ran down his profile—from his nose to his sharp jawline, all the way down his neck and to the ground beneath. I watched it over and over, like a dance. I suddenly became envious of the rain and how it got to feel every curve of his body, the roughness of his unshaven stubble, the soft flesh of his lips, and the dips of his lower abdomen.
A crack of thunder sounded overhead, making us both jump.
His deep brown eyes locked with mine and then darkened when he must have realized that I had been looking at him this whole time.
Another bone-chilling jolt of thunder rang through the sky, and we scrambled to our feet, running to his truck as fast as we could.
He opened his door and let me climb in before him, and then he turned the ignition and blasted the heat as we both dripped all over the cab.
“My heart is beating so fast.” I laughed. My voice was uneven from the shivers setting in. “Thank God you fixed the heater.”
Liam nodded and blew into his hands, trying to warm them. “It still takes a minute to warm up. Sorry.”
