Page 103 of My Favorite Mistake

“I do,” Connor insisted, lifting her face again to look in her eyes, and something was suddenly there. Her face had zero ability to conceal her true thoughts and feelings, and something was there. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit.”

Liza placed her hands on his. “I’m just scared.”

He inclined his face toward her to peer more closely at her eyes. “You don’t believe me.”

She lifted her shoulders as her gaze shifted away and back to his. “I’m trying, Connor. We only started this again a few hours ago.”

He squinted briefly and decided that was probably all it was. “That’s fair.” He leaned forward and kissed her. “Trust has to be earned. I know that.”

“And I need you to trust me, too.” She cupped his chin and kissed it. “I have things…” She chewed the inside of her upper lip for a second. “Ten years is a long time, and things happened. Things happened to you, and things happened to me. I need to really, really trust you before I…” She lifted her hand and waved it as if shooing something away from her. “Like…you know…let it go.”

Connor’s mind immediately darted to the day he saw her medical records, and his stomach dropped like a stone. He wanted to grab her shoulders and demand to know how much he was to blame for something that was probably the worst thing that ever happened to her, but he never should have seen her medical records. Those things weren’t for him to know unless she offered the information to him. “But you will tell me, right?”

Her throat bobbed, and she turned her eyes down. She nodded slowly. “I want a life with you. I know that means being transparent.” She met his eyes. “But transparency about some things is hard. I’m sure you understand that.”

“I do.” Connor gathered her into his arms and pulled them both back under the blankets. “And I’m here. I’ll listen whenever you’re ready to tell me.”

26

Frenchmen Street, New Orleans

The label house was pretty quiet for a Wednesday afternoon. Frankie was in Baton Rouge visiting family. Brennan had met some foxy, young tourist over the weekend and was apparently spending the week in her hotel room. Liza had a dentist appointment. Jimmy was in his office on the phone. And Connor was sitting on the couch in the living room, sipping black coffee and staring at his phone as he pondered a small, yet significant idea.

He’d never done such a thing, and it seemed totally cheesy and basic. However, the content feeling from lying in bed with Liza as she slept that morning lingered in his heart, and he really wanted to do this very basic and cheesy thing. If Liza saw it, she’d surely think he was silly, but she’d probably also think it was cute. Connor thought it would be cute, too, even though he was inherentlyanti-cutewhen it came to just about everything.

But you know what? Fuck it.

Connor’s life was suddenlycute,and he was happy about basically everything, and he was gonna fuckin’ do it.

A few taps and swipes later, his phone now hadwallpaper. And the wallpaper was none other than a smiling selfie he’d taken with Liza, who was now his girlfriend again.

Selfies were basic as fuck, phone wallpaper was worse, and using a selfie of you and your significant other as phone wallpaper was the pinnacle oflame. But it was also the twenty-first century version of carrying a photo of someone in your wallet, and he liked looking at it, and that was probably the entire point. Nobody cared what was on his phone, and he was the one who had to stare at it constantly, and he loved the visual reminder that Liza was his again.

“Hey, soldier!” Jimmy hollered from the other side of the house.

“Yeah!”

“Come on back. I need to talk to ya.”

Connor pushed himself off the couch, still staring at the wallpaper as he meandered up to the front office, and then shoved the phone in his back pocket once he got to Jimmy’s desk.

“What up, pappy?”

Jimmy gestured at the chair in front of the desk. “Make yourself at home.”

“I do make myself at home.” Connor sat and couldn’t help grinning. “I ate your leftover crawfish poppers.”

Jimmy stuck his neck out as he gaped. “What the hell? I told you I was taking them home.”

“I got hungry, and there’s no food in the fridge.”

“Then go up the damn street and get your own poppers, son!” Jimmy huffed and shook his head. “And I was about to do something really nice for you, too.Shit.”

Connor lifted his palm. “I’ll go get you some more.” He tugged at his jeans and crossed his ankle over his knee. “What’s up?”

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