But even compared to me, Folly was the most aimless after high school. She bummed around Bristol for a few years, moving in and out of our family house every time she got dumped by a boyfriend and subsequently started a new relationship. She slept late, got fired from a few of the local businesses for missing work, got in little tiffs with Dad and Zara (and Maren, through the phone), cried sometimes.
Then, right after I graduated, Folly started seeing this new guy. He wanted her to move to Portland with him, and she agreed, especially since Dad was thinking of selling the Bristol house. I didn’t think much of it at first, but once she got out there, something in her changed. Folly stopped responding to me, to all of us, and eventually group-texted our whole family saying she needed space and to please leave her alone.
Just like Mom.
I didn’t talk to her for two years. Which Liam knows, because he was there when Folly reappeared in my life.
“Folly was happy for me,” I tell him. “Especially once I told her I was starting to feel good about Belmont. She wanted me to have a purpose even when she couldn’t figure hers out.”
“I think it’s awesome that you guys are living together these days,” he says.
“Yeah, well. I’ve never kept many friends I’m not blood related to.”
Neither of us brings up Maisy.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we get through this entire summer without bringing up Maisy.
“I’ve always admired the relationship you and your sisters have with each other,” Liam says, sinking his cheek against the pillow. “Even though I’ve never met Maren or Candice, I remember the way you and Zara would talk about them on the Wednesday nights the three of us would hang out. How Maren would create schedules for who got picked up or dropped off from which activity and what time. And Candice explaining what heteronormativity was around a bonfire in your backyard with a flashlight under her chin.”
I snort at that one. Liam chuckles.
“I’m nervous for you to meet them,” I admit. “But I guess I should start by asking if you’d even want to.”
“I want to,” he says quickly, watching me in the half-light. “You don’t think they’ll like me for you?”
“I think they’ll like you too much.”
Liam clears his throat. “Why would that be a problem, Paige?”
Frustration flares across his face. Outside of the bubble we’re blowing, unsaid words are threatening to burst through.
He doesn’t trust your intentions,I remind myself.
Which is still true, but an unfair reaction towhyI said what I said.
“I’m worried they won’t likemeforyou,” I explain quickly. “I’m worried they’ll secretly wonder why you’re interested in me.”
Though maybe the truth is I’m worried my two oldest sisters will disapprove of what we’re doing.
His eyes soften into a warm, endless brown. “I thought you and I decided a long time ago that we could be different than what we were told to be.”
“I’m trying,” I whisper.
“Then you’re already doing more than enough.”
I smile, my cheek pinching up against the pillow. I wonder if Liam has thought of telling his family that I’m back in his life. If maybe he already has.
But I doubt it.
The tour isn’t stopping in Savannah, and even if it were, I wouldn’t be surprised if Liam didn’t want to involve his family in this. Us. Me. The girl who was there and then gone, and might follow the same pattern, again.
“I’m nervous to meet Candice and Maren too,” Liam says.
“Don’t be. They’re going to love you, just like Zara and Folly already do.”
“What about you?” Liam asks. He grabs a lock of my hair that had fallen between us. The only part of me he seems willing to touch. “How much do you love me today?”
I think about it, pulling an arbitrary number from my head. “Fifteen percent?”
