He lifts me onto my bed and crawls over me, his expression starved. We devour each other’s sounds for a few minutes until I start fiddling with his belt.
He pulls back, half laughing, half groaning. “Now who’s trying to get in whose pants?”
“Me, in yours,” I state plainly.
“We need to go meet Zara,” Liam says.
“There are higher needs on my hierarchy.”
He grins. “It’s my only chance to say goodbye before she graduates and moves away.”
Flustered as I am by Liam’s dexterous fingers tugging at my hair, splayed across my hip, I’m equally undone that he cares about my sister enough to want one last dinner with her before he goes off to play a series of games in Florida.
We straighten up and head to the bookstore, sneaking loaded looks at each other the whole way there.
“Zara found out about my songs,” I tell him while she’s helping the last customer of the night check out. We’re tucked behind a shelf, out of view. Liam’s nose and lips are skimming the cotton over my shoulder.
Something satisfied flickers through his eyes, like he’s pleased it’s less of a secret now. “How did she react?”
“She said she’s always known,” I say with a sheepish smile. “She was just waiting for me to own up to it, but now that she’s leaving, she had to jump the gun.”
Liam laughs low.
“It was honestly a nonevent,” I say. “When I played her one, she started singing along. She’d already mostly memorized it through the walls.”
Another satisfied flicker. “Did you know there’s a songwriters’ roundtable happening at a nearby coffeehouse tonight?”
I tilt my head at him. “How doyouknow that?”
“As if I don’t have a laundry list of date ideas with you specifically in mind.”
“Oh, me too. Peach picking at a local farm, new car shopping.”
“You have me confused with someone who wants a new car.”
For the first time, I consider the old truck he’s driving might be a memory association for his dad and change the subject back.
“We don’t have to go to the roundtable tonight. I went with Evan once and he said it gave him secondhand embarrassment. And anyway, Zara mentioned earlier she wanted tacos.”
“First of all, Evan’s an idiot, but this we knew. Second, tacos are still on the agenda, and third, I don’t just want togo, Paige, I wantyou toplay, especially now that you and Zara have talked openly about your music.”
His words are a sharp lance. My body shuts down, no longer warm under his touch. “No.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t want to?”
His look is withering. “Don’t want to or are scared to?”
“I don’twantto. Songwriting ismything. It’s not meant to be shared.”
He sighs, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Paige. For the record, I think that’s a shame.”
“AndIthink you being on constant display for strangers is what makes you feel that way.”
Liam’s hands move to my waist. His thumbs rub in small circles. I watch them for a few seconds before forcing my eyes up to his. They’ve inhaled the sun, brought it indoors.
At least there’s no disappointment on his face. Only determination.
