Page 17 of The Grumpy Actor

What?

Lily grins. “Perfect choice.”

Lily struts back to the counter without a glance at me.

“Won’t you ask me what I want?” I yell at her.

“You can get it yourself,” Lily says sassily.

“You two always find a way to argue,” Mom says as she approaches the table. She touches my forehead. “You look tired. Have you had anything to eat today?”

“No, Mom.” I bat my eyelashes at her.

She scoffs. “That doesn’t work on me anymore.” She turns to Liam. “Welcome to our diner, Liam. It’s nice to finally meet the man causing such a ruckus in our town. Your order should be up soon.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“Call me Helen,” Mom says.

Liam beams at her as though he’s a little kid smiling at a woman who’s handing him candy. It’s so unusual to see. He almost seems like the Liam I once knew.

“Helen it is, then,” Liam says. “I’m sorry to do this, but can you not add shrimp to my food? I’m allergic.”

That’s right. I can’t believe I let him order the special that has shrimp as one of its sides.

“How did you know our special has shrimp?” Mom raises a brow.

I gulp.

He knows because I spoke fondly about how my dad and I came up with that recipe when I was in middle school. He basically knows everything that goes into it, and I even made it for him when we were still together—without the shrimp, obviously.

“I…I just guessed since it’s a beach community, and you know…”

“Right,” Mom says, nodding. “I’ll let the kitchen know.”

As she leaves, Liam lets out a sigh of relief. “She doesn’t know.”

Without asking, I know what he’s talking about.

I shake my head. “She never saw a picture of you, so she doesn’t know you’retheLiam. So you can rest assured that your secret is safe.”

I expect Liam to look happy about this, but for some reason, his jaw tightens and his eyes seem to harden with anger.

I decide to ignore him. When our food arrives, we eat without a word to each other, but the tension between us is palpable.

Thankfully, Julian comes to the diner to pick up Liam, so I don’t have to go back to the resort with him.

As both of them leave the diner, I slump into the chair closest to me, letting a breath of relief out.

“It’s him, right?” Mom asks.

I sit up, raising a quizzical brow. “What?”

“YourLiam. It’s him,” Mom says. Her eyes are slowly drooping as she sits beside me. “He’s the Liam you dated back then and fell in love with, right?”

Tears sting my eyes at the rush of memories, and I slowly feel a lump rise in my throat.

“How did you figure it out?” I ask.

---