Page 80 of The Love Chase

“I need some air,” I said before pushing out of his arms and running toward the exit.

The evening air was sticky, making my skin clammy as I stepped outside and leaned against the building, trying in vain to catch my breath.

“Emma?” Liam pushed out the door, his eyes searching the parking lot for me.

“Right here,” I croaked, and his shoulders relaxed when he caught sight of me.

“Are you okay?” he asked. I was thankful that he kept his distance because I couldn’t think straight when he was touching me.

“Um, blurgyderdy.” Complete gibberish. That’s what my brain had been reduced to. I didn’t even know what that word was supposed to be. There was nothing in my noggin’.

“I don’t believe I’m familiar with that word,” Liam joked, daring to step closer. “Care to try again?”

I put a hand on his chest to stop him, desperate for air to move unhindered into my lungs. He waited with an insane amount of patience, his gaze fixed on my face as I silently melted down.

“Maybe we’ve just been fooling ourselves, Liam,” I finally whispered.

A beat of silence. I couldn’t meet his gaze.

“What are you talking about?”

I threw my arms in the air, exasperated. “We don’t fit! Our lives are so different. You have your dream and I have mine, and neither of us is willing to sacrifice them for each other. I don’t want to be some skin-tight dress wannabe groupie that follows you around, and I would never want to take you away from your music.” I paused to catch my breath. Liam’s brows lowered over his eyes as he listened.

“You’re going to go back to California eventually, and I’m going to be here where I’ve always belonged. We’re just…” I flung my hands in the air again, at a loss for words. “I don’t know. Caught in the moment or something.”

I turned pleading eyes on him, silently begging him to tell me I was right while desperately hoping he’d say I was wrong.

“We’ve been best friends forever. I’ve…”—I took a deep breath, preparing to admit the words I’d never said aloud—“had feelings for you forever, but I knew that you’d never reciprocate, and these last few days, acting like a real couple…” I paused, swiping angrily at the tears slipping down my cheeks.

“I can’t keep doing it, Liam. I can’t keep pretending that I don’t feel anything for you, faking this marriage, when I—”

“I love you, Emma.”

It felt like someone had tied a belt around my throat, halting every word that sat on my tongue and every thought in my brain.

Thoughts? What are those?

Liam took one of my hands and pressed it to his heart.

“Forgive me for taking so long to see it. You’ve always been right here, and I think part of me always loved you, but I was never brave enough to face it. You meant so much to me—you were the only one who ever believed in me, who saw the real me, and I didn’t want to risk that, so I…turned my feelings off.”

He tugged me closer. “At least until we got married, and then I was forced to face every emotion and feeling I had barricaded in my heart.”

Liam…loves me?

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner—see it sooner.” He brought my hand to his lips and repeated his words from earlier. “It’s always been you, Emma.”

I still couldn’t speak, couldn’t form coherent thoughts.

After twenty years of friendship, Liam loved me? He shared my feelings?

It was something I’d never let myself imagine because I couldn’t take the heartbreak of it never happening, but now that he had confessed, I didn’t know what to feel or what to think.

There was so much hope shining in his eyes that I did the only thing I could get my body to do, and leaned forward and pressed my lips to his.

Liam’s arms enveloped me, his scent smothering in the best way. The tidal wave of thoughts pummeling my brain was enough to drown me, but I did my best to push them away. I didn’t know what the heck would happen next, and honestly, I didn’t want to think about it. I was content to have this moment, live in it completely and take it one minute at a time.

I pulled back just enough to say, “Hey, Liam?”

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