“Huh.”
He squeezed me once. “What about you? What would you be instead of a med student? Because I know you want more than that.”
There was a burn in my throat when I thought about the song he had written for me. “I have no idea. Since I graduated high school, my whole life has been about medicine. I’ve never had the chance to be good at anything else.”
“That’s a lie.” He frowned. “And you don’t have to be good at something to be interested in doing it.”
“I guess.”
“You’ve got a great voice, Avery, and a history with music. Doing something with your talent never crossed your mind?”
“Yeah.” I swallowed. “Before the accident, it did. Without my dad there to teach me or encourage me, I kind of lost my way.”
He took two steady breaths. “You know, I was thinking.” His fingers rubbed my cheek. “What would you think about being on the ‘Hollow Again’ track with me?”
I stiffened. “Like, singing?”
“Yeah. With me.” I could feel him smile at the idea. “Everyone was blown away by your voice the other night, and it’syoursong.”
But it wasn’t.
“What about Danny?” I asked.
He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “Danny is slowly coming around to us being together. Maybe he won’t hate knowing you helped with our music as much as I originally thought. We could always test it out in the studio first before we present it to the rest of the band. It might feel good to get it out. Kind of like ‘Vienna.’”
I could feel my heartbeat in my throat. After everything he’d done for me, I couldn’t lie to him about this anymore. “Liam? I have to tell you something.”
His chest rose and fell with an even breath, but I heard his pulse kick up when my voice shook.
I turned my head and rested my cheek flush against his chest, too scared to look him in the eye for this. The warmth and safety of being wrapped in him eased my nerves and loosened my tongue. “I didn’t write that. It’s not my poem—er, lyrics.”
Liam’s whole body tensed around me as he let my words sink in. “What?”
I closed my eyes.How are you going to explain this?
I eventually found the strength to look up at him, which was a huge mistake. There was a large crease between his furrowed brows. I couldn’t tell if he was more hurt or confused.
“You lied to me? This whole time?” Disappointment melted off his tongue.
“I was scared.”
“Scared of what?”
Don’t, Avery. He won’t understand.“Of you, or anyone, finding out who it really belonged to.”
Oh God.I’d gone too far. There was no turning back.
Sensing my nerves, he began tracing patterns with his fingers on my naked thigh. “Avery, whose lyrics am I singing?”
I swallowed and swung my legs off the side of the bed, bending down to grab the box hidden underneath. Every neuron in my head fired, telling me to run. If I ran, I wouldn’t have to explain.
But my heart told me I could trust him. That it was going to be okay.
Liam sat up on his elbow and took the box of journals holding my father’s secrets, his past, and the truth of what had really happened ten years ago. “What are these?”
I was tired of treading water alone. “My father’s journals.”
His gaze flickered from me to the leather-bound pages, stamped with the lettersDandFon the spines.
