Or perhaps that’s all just a bunch of assuming and doesn’t actually mean anything.
“Messed with the sign,” Liam sighs. “They want to check the security footage and they need me to let them in.”
“Oh,” Kayley murmurs.
I wonder if Quinn would vandalize the sign, but I can’t think of any reason for him to do that. Surely he’d break in, rob the place, search for some of the money he mistakenly believes I owe him.
“You better go than,” Kayley huffs. “What convenient timing.”
Anger flares through me.
In my mind, I spin on her and snap that this isn’t fair. She has no right to speak to Liam like that. It’s not his fault the universe is conspiring against us with the timing.
I fight down the urge, reminding myself that Kayley has every right to be angry.
She just caught me on the couch with her dad.
Maybe that’s not as bad as catching us in bed together, but it still must’ve stung.
“I won’t be long,” Liam says.
He turns and walks toward the door. He pauses mid-turn, facing me, and I just know he’s going to lean down and kiss me. But then his eyes flitter to Kayley and he seems to remember where we are, what’s happening.
Moving to kiss me was an instinct, and he fights it.
I can see how difficult it is for him, his jaw clenched, his temples pulsating as he leaves wordlessly.
I can’t help but watch him go, my eyes tracking the broad muscles of his back, his suit jacket pulled taut across his shoulders.
“Getting a good look there?” Kayley says, less sharply than she spoke to her father.
“No,” I lie, turning back to her. “I was just … God’s sake, Kay, this isn’t what it looks like.”
“What is it, then?” she asks.
“Maybe we should wait for Liam to come back.”
“That could be an hour or more,” she says. “The sheriff might want to question him. I’m meeting Ryan soon. So I’d really appreciate some answers.”
“You’re meeting Ryan?” I ask.
She sighs and pulls out a chair. It scrapes on the ground, the wood-on-wood sounding almost violent. She drops down and picks at the table with her forefinger and thumb.
“Yes,” she says, as if only now remembering my question. “I’m meeting Ryan. Apparently, there’s a totally reasonable explanation for him acting so weird last night. I wonder if the same can be said about you and Dad spooning, huh?”
I drop down opposite her, gripping the edge of the table. My knuckles turn bone-white and my body fills with stiff tension, every part of me achy and brimming with what Liam and I did last night.
“It’s not like that, Kay,” I say.
“Then what is it like?” she snaps.
“You really don’t want to wait for him?”
“I can’t wait for him,” she says. “How am I supposed to go and deal with the mess with Ryan when I don’t even know what’s going on here?”
I let out a strangled laugh, my head falling back.
“I don’t even know how to start to explain,” I murmur.
“Maybe just try,” she says, softening up a little. “Come on. We’ve always been able to talk to each other, haven’t we?”
“Okay,” I say, returning my gaze to her. “But you have to promise not to laugh. You have to let me finish, and then you can judge me, okay?”
She takes a breath. For a second, I think she’s going to tell me to go fuck myself. But then she nods.
“Fine,” she says. “I won’t interrupt.”
I can’t look at her as I tell her.
I start with running into him downstairs the night we arrived, but I don’t go into detail about how he exploded and claimed me right there in the kitchen. I tell her about the banter, the closeness at Hidden. I tell her how we’ve claimed each other. I tell her we’re going to have children together.
I tell her that we made love last night.
And then I stop, breathless, realizing I’ve been talking frantically like a crazy person.
“Lola,” Kayley murmurs. “You know how insane this all sounds, right?”
“Yes,” I say, looking her straight in the eye so she’ll know that I’m not joking or deluded or anything. “But it’s the truth. I can’t explain it. I can’t even begin to explain it. All I can do is tell you how I feel.”
“And Dad feels the same?” she murmurs.
“Yes,” I say, stunned at the certainty in my voice.
I’ve never felt like this about a boy before. I’ve always ummed and ahhed and wondered if they like me if anybody could like me. But now I want to sing and cheer when I think about all those times I almost said something to some boy or another because it means I was saved for my man.
“So you had sex with my dad because you want to have babies together,” Kayley says, in a distant sort of voice.