After scanning the menu, I peeked over the top of mine at Liam. “Is it bad that I want dinneranddessert now?”
“Get whatever you want,” he said. “I think I’ve sold myself on the Reuben, anyway. What about you?”
“A greasy cheeseburger with a side of greasy fries, smothered in ketchup. I’ll probably have the worst heartburn later, but it’ll be worth it. Besides, I’ve got an extra-large bottle of Tums at home, so I came prepared.”
The waitress came back and flipped open her notepad. “What can I get you two lovebirds?” she asked, eyes still locked on the page.
I glanced over at Liam, and his eyes were comically wide.
“I’ll take a cheeseburger and fries, please,” I said, deciding not to correct her. Liam and I were by no means lovebirds, but my pregnant belly was starting to become more than I could pass off as bloating, so itwas a fair assumption on her part. No need to make things more awkward than they were.
“Reuben for me,” Liam added, handing over both menus.
“Comin’ right up,” the waitress said. She flipped her notepad closed, took the menus, and headed for the back.
“When Jace and I came here as teenagers, we always sat at the booth in the corner,” Liam said, nodding toward a spot off to our left.
“Have you talked to him since that night at his house?” I asked.
“No. He said he couldn’t forgive me unless you did,” Liam admitted, stirring his drink with his straw.
“Oh.”
I could tell by the somber look on his face he didn’t have anything to say back, so I tried changing the subject. “Tell me more about teenage Liam. What was he like?”
“Well, you know wherever Jace went, I followed. I’m surprised I didn’t run into you more as a teenager, considering how much time I spent with your brother.”
“There was a huge difference between two seniors and a tiny freshman like me. Our circles barely overlapped back then,” I pointed out.
“We were always on the run too, trying to find our next adventure or getting into as much trouble as possible.”
“I specifically remember you two always have fishing poles in the back of his pickup truck,” I said.
“We used to go sunset chasing all the time. Then we’d end the night catfishing.”
“What’s chasing a sunset mean?”
Liam laughed. “You’ve never heard of chasing sunsets?”
I shrugged. “Literally never. Not once in my life.”
He smiled. “It’s just driving around, finding a good spot to watch the sunset. Jace and I did it all the time. We made sure to find spots near a body of water, so we could fish after the sun went down. If we didn’t get any bites at that fishing spot, we’d back up and go find something else to do. It usually ended in us getting in trouble, as you know.”
“My dad was just talking the other day about the time Jace lost a bet to you and spray-painted red dicks all over the high school walls.”
Liam started coughing and laughing at the same time. “He was?”
“He talks about it now like it’s the funniest thing he’d ever seen. I think he secretly thought it was hilarious, but he knew he had to go into dad mode and scold you guys or my mom would’ve lost it.”
“He made sure to give me the same I-expected-better-from-you speech he gave Jace, since the school couldn’t get ahold of my dad. He was too busy to return calls from his own son’s school. For all he knew, Icould’ve been hurt,” Liam said with the same annoyed tone he had any time he brought up his dad in conversation.
“I knew it was you two who did that, you know.”
“How?”
“I found the red spray-paint cans under Jace’s bed. When I showed up to school the next day and saw red dicks all over the wall, I connected the dots pretty easily.”
“You were the one who ratted us out to Principal Larson?” he asked, eyes wide.
