Liam
Once he gives me the letter, I play the song for him right then and there.
I learned not to want him when it was raining, we were reading
The lesson never took and now I’m praying
The pitcher keeps me
There’s a question hanging between us, called forth in the letter, restated in the lyrics: he claims I stopped him in his tracks the day we met. And now I’ve admitted to trying not to want him because I thought he was interested in Maisy.
When my fingers lift off the keys and the last note dissolves against the walls of my bedroom, Liam kisses the back of my neck once.
“Liam?” I ask. I stand, turn to face him.
“Paige.”
“You were flirting with me, right? The day we met.”
Something shutters behind his eyes. Some kind of guilt. “Yes,” he says anyway, not denying it. “I was never interested in Maisy.”
My brow furrows. “You had to have been a little bit interested if you went on a date with her, Liam. It’s okay. I promise it’s okay.”
He scrubs a hand over his face, pushing back his hair. “I mean, I guess for a minute, when I thought you weren’t available. I’ve never been one to say no to a date and at that point in my life I wasn’t taking anything too seriously. But that’s all it was. Just one date. We weren’t a match.”
“Hang on,” I say, coming dangerously close to a conclusion Ihate. “What do you mean I wasn’tavailable?”
He clears his throat, focuses on the wall, then forces himself to meet my eyes. “I thought I was walking out of the bookstore with your phone number. When I called and Maisy answered, she and I laughed about the confusion at first, but—she told me you had a boyfriend, then asked if I wanted to get dinner. I said yes.”
I was under the impression you and Evan got together right when you moved to Knoxville.
“I know how that looks. And Iswear, Paige, I don’t think of girls interchangeably, but you were taken, and she asked, and—”
“Liam,” I say, cutting him off. “I’m not mad you went on a date with Maisy. I’m—I was single. For like,monthsafter we met, I was single.”
He waits for reality to hit me, just as surely as it must’ve hit him when he learned my first date with Evan was on Halloween.
Maisy kept us apart.
“When I realized,” he murmurs, “I thought about confronting her, giving her the opportunity to tell you the truth herself. But I figured she’d find a way to rationalize it, and I was scared she’d maybe even paint me as the villain. I’m normally all for giving people the benefit of the doubt, but I’m not taking any risks this time around when it comes to you.”
My head is shaking in denial. “There has to be an explanation, though. She knows we’ve been—that we’re—sheknowswe’d figure this out eventually.”
“Not if she genuinely thought I was only planning to get in your pants,” Liam says sadly, “and then never speak to you again.”
“Maisy must’ve been trying to protect me,” I reason, imagining her voice saying,Paige, a guy like that would’ve eaten you alive, especially back then. You were too naïve for him. I was just pulling you off his radar.
“You wouldn’t have needed protecting,” Liam promises, the gold in his eyes like flecks of light on water. “I wish I’d gotten the opportunity to prove that. I’venevertreated a girl in a way I’d be embarrassed for you to learn about.”
Liam is mad at Maisy and trying to swallow it, because he can tell I’m tryingnotto be mad at her. It’s just that I can’t imagine Maisy doing this out of jealousy or ill intent. She’s been my best friend since we were little. She had to have had a good reason.
“I’ll talk to her about it,” I say, and after Liam’s apprehensive look, I add, “I’m not going to let her change my opinion of you.”
He nods but looks ill at ease. I approach him cautiously, wondering how to vanquish it. My head tilts up in invitation, and Liam’s eyes go to my lips before his mouth follows.
We’re still so new at this. He’s careful with me, slow and gentle, his lips coasting over mine, but soon he dips to whisper in my ear, “Loved the song. Play it again?”
“Maybe later.”
