Page 82 of The Summer I Destroyed You

“I’m sorry,” I tell Ellis. “I’ve got someone waiting on me at home. But I can email you the numbers if you’re open to it.”

That avid light in his eyes dims a little, and I can’t even blame him. He wasn’t initially interested in speaking to me because I look smart. I used the possibility of sex to get my foot in the door and now I’m removing it. “Sure,” he says, pulling a card from his pocket. “But if you find you’re free after all, my cell is on there. I’ll send a car for you.”

I thank him and walk away. I’m pretty sure I’m going to spend the rest of my life regretting that I didn’t go for it. But right now nothing matters quite so much as hearing Liam’s voice.

I call him the minute the car drops me off at the hotel. “I’m on my way back to my room,” I tell him. “How goes work on the implant?”

“Just don’t look in my garage. The robot prototypes are doing things to each other even I didn’t know were possible.”

I laugh as I unlock my door. “You wouldn’t want a robot to suck you off anyway. Think how often self-driving cars make dangerous errors.”

“Yeah, but you’re not here,” he says. “What option do I have?”

I’ve never had phone sex. It’s another one of those trust things. I’ve always pictured my voice caught on tape, played in public, saying dirtier things than I’d ever say in person.

“Pull it out,” I reply. “I’ll talk you through it.”

I trust him. I hope it’s not a mistake.

40

EMMY

“Jeff and Jordan are coming over for dinner,” my mother says. “This place needs to be cleaned up.”

I went straight to Liam’s yesterday and came home after she was already in bed. This is the first thing she’s said to me since I got back. In fact, it’s the first thing she’s said since last week, when she told me to stay in the car during PT.

“I’m not the help, Mom, and I’ve got a full day of work ahead. If you want it cleaned, then clean it.” She is perfectly capable of walking around to dust and pick up her coffee cups, though she hasn’t been doing it. I wish I’d said it weeks ago.

“That’s why you’re here,” she snarls. Her hand trembles slightly no doubt with the urge to hit me. I’m an adult and she’s not all that mobile, but she’s still clearly wondering if she can get away with it.

“No, I’m here to drive you to appointments and make sure you’ve got food, though you’re well past the six-week point and should be driving yourself.”

I open the door for Snowflake and keep walking, drawn like a magnet toward the sight of Liam in the yard, talking to one of his guys. The moment he spies Snowflake, he turns toward the house and the slow smile on his face is precisely the antidote I needed.

I meet him a couple feet from the bottom of the deck. He reaches out and presses a thumb to the space between my brows. “That little worry line is showing. What’s wrong?”

I bite my lip. “It’s stupid. My mother is having Jeff and Jordan over for dinner tonight. She seems to think I should spend my day cleaning.”

His head tilts. “I’ve never seen you struggle to tell someone to fuck off.”

“It’s different with her,” I say, my voice dropping though I know she can’t hear me. “And she and Jeff tend to gang up on me, so tonight was already going to suck, but now—” I shrug. Now it’s going to be unbearable.

He glances over his shoulder to make sure no one’s looking, and then his hand reaches out to slide over my hip. “Invite me.”

“To dinner?”

He laughs. “You don’t have to look so horrified. I promise I’m not going to tell them I’m your boyfriend or something.”

They’ll want to know what he is, though, if he’s not my boyfriend, and there’s no answer that will suffice. She’ll be livid that I’ve invited him, the help, to dinner.

“Invite me,” he says again. “You want me there.”

My mouth opens to make a polite excuse, but just the thought of him by my side makes me feel a little less alone. And his presence there will force her to at least be civil.

“Get ready for lots of stories about my weight.” I try to laugh and it comes out shaky.

He steps close and leans down until his mouth is beside my ear. “Tell Sandra to bring out every one of them,” he says. “I’m fucking ready.”

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