Page 13 of Tell Me It’s Right

They both raise their palms and shake their heads.

“I know a losing battle when I see one,” says Mom.

“You’re a beast,” agrees Dad.

“Liam!” Leo hops up and joins him by the couch. “Please beat my sister. I don’t think her inflated ego will fit in this house anymore if she leaves here the reigning champagain.”

I don’t bother reminding him the last time Liam was able to beat me was probably seven years ago. Liam meets my eyes for a moment before settling in on the floor beside me.

“Kick his ass, Gracie!” yells Dad.

“Don’t you dare let me win,” I say.

Liam grins. “I would never.”

Three, two, one…

We hook legs, and I pool every ounce of strength. Liam doesn’t move nearly as easily as Leo did, but even with the way I can feel his muscles flexing, he doesn’t move me either. Imanage to pull his leg an inch, but then just as quickly, he pulls me back. We stay locked like that—an inch one way, then the other. I grit my teeth, my hands curling into the rug beneath us, and my pinky brushes his.

A weird flash of heat rushes through me. I don’t know why such small contact in comparison to the way our legs are wrapped around each other makes me falter, but it does.

But it makes him falter too.

I recover first and have him flipped over in the next second.

The room erupts in applause.

“She strikes again!” calls Dad.

Liam sighs, sits up, and braces his arms on his knees. “One of these days, Little Leo.”

I smile and snatch the hat back. “Not on your life.”

Chapter Five

GRACIE

The sun wakes me again the next morning, but this time, I roll over, throw a pillow over my head, and go back to sleep. If all I have to look forward to in the mornings is an interrogation from Keava, I think I’ll start waiting until she leaves to go upstairs.

“You planning on skipping your first day of work?”

A scream lodges in my throat as I jolt upright and find Liam standing at the foot of my bed. I yank the blanket over my chest despite being completely covered in my oversize T-shirt.

“I—what are you doing here?”

He paces around and glances at my belongings—most of which are still in boxes—like he’s browsing in a store. “Keava let me in.”

“What are you doing in mybedroom?” I fish my phone out of the sheets and squint at the time. “Atsix in the morning?”

That, finally, makes him look over at me. His expression is entirely innocent, as if this is a perfectly normal thing for him to do. “Thought you might need a ride. Leo said you don’t have a car anymore.”

A very unnecessary reminder. I sold it toward the end of junior year when Mom and Dad were constantly arguing over whether they could afford to put Grandma in a nursing home,and I couldn’t bring myself to tell them the money they’d been sending me wasn’t covering the electricity…or food…or gas, so I couldn’t drive the damn car at that point anyway. I’d taken on an unpaid internship that year in addition to my crazy class schedule, leaving no space for a job.

I don’t respond at first, my brain still trying to wake up. “You…were serious? About the job?”

“I’ll go grab some coffee. That’ll give you about twenty minutes to get ready.” He pops his eyebrows and heads for the stairs. “Meet me out front.”

It doesn’t occur to me until after I’ve showered, put on a quick face of makeup, and am standing in nothing but a towel staring at my clothes that I have no idea what Liam does.

---