Page 108 of Loving the Liar

“It’s just before five a.m.,” he says. “She won’t be here until six, as far as I know.”

“That’s right, but the place is locked.”

He turns to me, cocking an eyebrow. “You used to sneak in here at night. Don’t tell me you don’t know a way in.”

I don’t even bother to hide the shock on my face. He’s used to it by now. “How the hell do you know that?”

“Your passion was dancing. My passion was you.”

“You’re a creep,” I chuckle.

“If only I was just a creep. Come on.”

He gets out, opening my door before I get a chance to, and helps me out of his car.

And I decide to share my little secret with him. I show him the stone wall I used to climb, and he does it in a swift, easy movement. I take him to the basement door hidden on the side of the building behind a hedge that hasn’t been trimmed since probably before Ms. Barry was born, and I lead him through the door I unlocked from the inside years ago. No one ever checked it, and it stayed that way for me to sneak in whenever I needed.

We walk up to the main area, and the first thing he does is go to the vending machine there. He pulls out his card and taps the card-reader on there, then presses a number, and a protein bar falls. Then another. Another…

“Chris?”

“You love these,” he says casually. He remembers everything.

“I do, but…” I tilt my head to the side, watching him repeat the process over and over again, until he ends up with fifteen of them in his arms and walks back to me with a grin on his face. “Seriously, what are you doing?”

“So you can bring them to the kids you teach on Saturdays. Is fifteen enough?”

I blink up at him, my heart swelling. “Uh…yeah. Yeah, it’s enough.”

“Let’s go to a rehearsal room. Lead the way.”

I do. I take him to my favorite one that has a single window with a view of Stoneview Forest. It’s the only rehearsal room with a window. Once we’ve closed the door, he sits on the floor and drops the bars. He takes one, rips it open, and offers it to me.

“Come. You’re hungry.”

I am. So I don’t fight it. I sit down and eat in silence with him.

“This,” he rasps as he swallows. “This is the best thing ever.”

“I told you they were delicious.” I chew slowly on the sticky chocolate protein bar. “I tried to order them online, but I can’t find them anywhere. Only in this vending machine.”

“I’m not talking about the protein bars, Sweets. I’m talking about spending time with you, doing something simple without anyone stopping us.”

I swallow thickly, and my heart skips a beat when he wipes the corner of my mouth with his thumb. He brings his finger to his lips and licks the chocolate off it.

“I missed you,” he admits, his gaze still on mine. “For five years, I missed you, and it came with the regret of breaking up. I missed you when I came back to Stoneview and could see the way you avoided me, trying to protect your heart from me. I thought being back and being in your presence would help, but I’ve missed you because you were right. I have your body but not your heart.”

Said heart begs to differ from how crazily it’s beating.

He nods to himself, and his hand falls to his lap. “Do you remember our first kiss?”

We’re sitting cross-legged in front of each other, and it looks almost ridiculous for such a huge man to sit like this. I observe his face. He’s got eye bags, and for the first time I notice the way everything in him seems tense. He looks older, tired, stressed.

“I’m not sure talking about our first kiss will help, Chris.”

He ignores my advice, his beautiful whiskey eyes shining with nostalgia.

“It was my eighteenth birthday. I found you in the bathroom at my house party, I walked in, and I locked the door. I approached you and I told you that I only?—”

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