Page 45 of Tell Me It’s Right

The scowl returns, and I sigh. “I promise to let you look them over and veto any you don’t like once I’m finished editing them, okay?”

His shoulders relax a bit at that. “Just don’t make me look like a douche,” he mutters.

I pat his leg. “Don’t know if there’s much I can do about that. I’m not a miracle worker.”

I swat Liam’s hand away for thethirdtime. “Would you knock it off? You have your own chips!”

“Yours are better.” He smirks as he manages to steal another from the edge of my plate and pops it in his mouth.

Our timing seems like it was just right today. Beach Bunz isn’t a very big restaurant to begin with. Add in a crowd, and you can barely squeeze through the door. It was bustling with activity when we first stepped inside, but by the time we finished ordering at the counter, it cleared out enough for us to grab one of the small tables out front beneath the gigantic rainbow umbrellas.

When they leave the door propped open like this, the whole block smells like freshly baked bread. The day’s heat is in full swing by now, but the shade and breeze are so comfortable I could sit out here all day. I eagerly dig into my sandwich—the best white bean and avocado I’ve ever had, even though it falls apart as I try to eat it.

“So your friend Marti already sent in her audition for this zombie movie?” says Liam. “Those books sold a lot—so this is like a big deal, right?”

I nod as I chew. “Millions. They’ve soldmillionsof copies. She’s downplaying it. I think because she’s afraid to get her hopes up. ButIthink it’s a big deal she even got to audition. I don’t know anything about how all that works, so maybe she’s right and getting an audition doesn’t mean much.”

His eyebrows rise as he takes another bite of his sandwich. I’d expected him to go for one of the seafood ones they’re known for, but he ended up getting the same thing as me. Judging by the way he’s already down to the last few bites, he must like it. “She in LA now?”

“Yeah, she’s from there originally. Her family’s really cute. It’s like a village. All her aunts, uncles, cousins—they all live on the same block. I spent Thanksgiving with them one year.”

“Oh yeah, I remember you didn’t come home for it last year.”

My eyes flick up to meet his. He breaks the contact almost immediately and refocuses on his sandwich. He’s been expertly steering the conversation away from anything to do with him since the moment we sat down.

And I thought I could mind my business, I really did, and yet I find myself blurting out, “Where were you?”

He tosses another chip in his mouth. “For Thanksgiving that year? With your family, as usual.”

“Don’t play dumb with me.”

Finally, he meets my eyes, and it’s like I can see the thoughts churning beneath the surface as he decides if he’s going to tell me. I know the moment a corner of his mouth kicks up that he won’t. “Why? You miss me?”

“Desperately,” I deadpan.

His smirk grows as he tosses his napkin on his plate, but the look in his eyes is different now. There’s a heaviness behind them that wasn’t there before, and I mentally kick myself for bringing it up.

He checks his watch and sighs. “You ready to head back to the shop? Next appointment’s in twenty.”

He’d seemed fine at work on Monday. What could have possibly happened from the time he left my bed to later that night when he texted me about the shop being closed?

But I let it drop, because of course I’m not the person he’d want to talk about it with. I force a smile as he piles the rest of our trash together to throw out.

“Yeah. Yeah, let’s go.”

Chapter Sixteen

GRACIE

Well, it’s finally happening. After a near twenty-three years of complete and total celibacy, I’m going on my first date. It’s not that I havezeroexperience, per se. Make outs, hangouts in dorm rooms, and weird gray area “talking stages” with guys aside—there’s never been anything official.

I pause with one foot on the basement stairs. Staying in this little hole in the ground has never sounded more appealing.

This is a mistake. Miles is going to realize it too about thirty seconds into our date. We’re going to lapse into awkward silence so thick that he actually falls asleep at the table, hitting his head on the way down, then we’ll have to call an ambulance, and everyone in the restaurant is going to see that I’m the first person in history to literally bore someone to death?—

The doorbell reverberates through the house.

I close my eyes and let out a slow breath. I did not spend the last hour bent over the bathroom mirror to chicken out now. Smoothing my hands over the baby blue silk of my dress, I put one foot in front of the other, urging myself forward before I have the chance to talk myself out of it.

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