Page 55 of The Love Chase

“Got it,” she announced with a grin on her face. A beep sounded from the screen I had discarded to the floor in my terror. Emma snagged it and looked at the radar. “Looks like the storm is starting to break up.” She glanced up, watching for a moment before she pointed again. “See? There it goes.”

Even though I really had no interest in the storm, I looked where she pointed to find the tornado slowly spinning back toward the sky. Another few moments passed as it disappeared into the clouds.

The vise that had been squeezing the air from my lungs finally relaxed, and I took my first unhindered breath in what felt like hours, though it had barely been twenty minutes.

Emma laughed when the tornado fully disappeared. Her whole face was lit up with glee, and her smile—for the first time since I’d known her—actually made my heart skip a beat. What the heck?

“Are you an adrenaline junkie now?” I asked, still feeling like I couldn’t quite catch my breath. The twister was gone, and the worst of the storm was no longer over us, and just a sprinkling of rain pattered the windows.

Her laugh was bright and full of joy. “No, Liam. I just like weather.” Emma shrugged, then pointed at her shirt that said “I take weather cirrusly.”

“I’m a bit of a nerd.” She turned her big, hazel eyes on me. “Wasn’t that incredible?” Emma gripped the steering wheel as if she were debating taking off after the storm to see if it spawned another tornado.

“It was…something,” I finally managed.

She cocked her head as she looked at me. “I told you I’d keep you safe. There was nothing to worry about.”

I rubbed a hand over my face. “I just sat in a truck while a tornado went across the field directly in front of me,” I deadpanned. “There was definitely something to worry about.”

Emma chuckled again before putting the truck in gear and swinging it around to head back toward Meridel. “Come on, let’s get you home.”

“You know it’s normal to be scared of storms, Em. I’m not the abnormal one here. You’re just weird.” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. I thought she might be offended, but then she turned her head to give me an evil grin.

“Embrace the weird, Liam. Embrace it.”

Emma

Liam stayed out of the garage for a few days after our chasing adventure, well away from my gear, as if just by him being in its proximity he would end up back in the truck next to a tornado again. I couldn’t help but laugh at the memory.

I shouldn’t have laughed, but it was honestly refreshing to see him show something. Before he left for California, he had worn his heart on his sleeve. It had always been easy to tell how he was feeling, or maybe it was simply because I knew him so well. But this new version of Liam…he was so good at hiding how he felt, especially about our fake marriage and living together, and all the variables surrounding the situation, that I was starting to wonder if he felt anything at all.

The tornado chase showed me that, yes, Liam felt deeply.

We were best friends, and yet, I had been struggling to read him lately and know what was going on in his mind. Was it cruel of me to be thankful for him being scared in that storm just for the fact that it gave me a glimpse into his emotions for once?

Despite Liam’s obvious avoidance of the garage, the last few days had passed quicker—and easier—than I expected. Liam and I fell into a smooth rhythm, which wasn’t all that surprising. Things had always been easy between us. I tried to spend the last few evenings with Maya or Elsie and Jameson, desperately needing some space from Liam so that my feelings stopped growing so much, but I couldn’t entirely avoid him.

Even with me trying to keep my distance to protect my heart, there was still plenty of time that we spent together, grabbing takeout from Dina’s and then settling in for a movie and popcorn on the couch, or rearranging the entire living room late one night when neither of us could sleep.

Simple moments with Liam shouldn’t have made my feelings swell, but of course, there was no reasoning with my heart at this point.

Liam slept on the couch every night without complaint, though I frequently saw him rubbing at his neck or popping an ibuprofen after he woke up. I felt bad—but not quite bad enough to offer to share the bed.

I could not be responsible for my actions if we slept in the same bed.

Though it was dangerous, I grew to love the morning routine we had fallen into. Every day he made me an iced coffee with the fancy machine I still struggled to use, and I made some sort of breakfast. We sat side-by-side at the island and ate in silence, but it was never uncomfortable.

Liam and I had always been able to just hang out without worrying about talking or filling space. Our relationship had always been as easy as breathing, and I was immensely thankful that our little “convenient” marriage hadn’t seemed to change that. It was almost like the past two years had never happened, and we had picked right back up where our friendship had left off.

I could’ve easily held onto my anger over him leaving two years ago, but it was much more enjoyable to just pretend it never happened—to go back to how things used to be.

After breakfast, I’d head out to the garage and fiddle with my instruments as Liam called it, but really, I was working on recording episodes for my YouTube channel. Since I no longer had my internship, I threw everything I had into creating content to educate people about severe weather. It wasn’t my favorite thing, talking to a camera and recording myself, but the more I did it, the more natural it became and the more excited I got over people learning about weather.

My channel only had ten subscribers at the moment, but even ten was better than none. Instead of feeling like I was floundering, trying to figure out what the heck I was doing with my life, I finally felt like I’d found a purpose, a worthy cause to dedicate my time to.

In between recording, I often took off for hours at a time to chase storms, Liam barely suppressing a shiver every time I jokingly invited him. Sometimes I could hear him strumming his guitar from out in the garage, but I never went inside to listen. He was expected to work on his music while he was here in Meridel, and I didn’t want to distract him—or fall for him harder because his music was nothing short of magical.

After the announcement went public about our marriage, I expected Bridget to constantly be forcing us to go to events and outings, so we would be seen together as much as possible. But, aside from Liam’s music conversations with her, she’d been fairly quiet in the days that had passed since the wedding. We’d gotten a few tabloids in the mail, but all traces of Liam Walker—country music’s bad boy—had seemingly disappeared. Did that mean our little scheme was working?

---