Page 32 of Harboring Secrets
The ball ricocheted off the bumpers, bounced off the sides, and I slammed it back up into play with the left flipper. The table had certain targets you could hit to rack up a higher score and there was a trick to hitting them all. I’d spent hours learning just how hard to hit the ball and what spot it had to be on the flipper to shoot up and get the trickiest target.
When my luck finally ran out and my play was over, I turned to Liam. I hadn’t realized I’d been smiling until Liam slanted his mouth over mine, catching me off-guard in the best kind of way.
I laughed against his mouth, a short burst of joy before melting into his kiss. Not too much, we were in public after all. And though there wasn’t really anyone around, I didn’t want to get too carried away.
That was the problem with Liam and me. One touch was never enough. It led to two. Led to holding hands or kissing. I could kiss Liam for days. Years. Eternities. I’d already fallen for him, but every moment we spent together, every little thing he did to show me how much I meant to him, only made me fall harder.
Liam’s hands dug into my waist, fingers like iron vises. He gripped me like he planned to never let me go. If only he hadn’t in the first place.
The thought was an unwelcome bucket of water. I pulled away, a little breathless. Disoriented. Sometimes I felt like I’d stepped out of reality and hadn’t found my way back.
Liam’s thumb traced my lower lip.
“Show me something else,” he said.
“Okay.”
He ducked into the service station slash convenience store and bought a couple bottles of overpriced apple juice. Instead of giving him directions, I plunked an address into the GPS.
He held my hand while he drove, which was a new experience for us. When we’d met, we went everywhere via transit or taxi. There was something far more intimate about sharing a car this way. If I let myself, I could get used to it. I could get used to a lot of things.
Kisses after pinball. Stealing bacon off his plate. The way his thumb stroked over my skin almost absentmindedly as he drove. Not sleeping alone. Fuck, I missed that. The way his body sought mine out in the night. I loved waking up with his arms around me, his lips brushing the back of my neck.
Was I ready to invite him to stay over? I wanted to be ready for that. For everything we’d had and had lost. Maybe not lost, but temporarily misplaced. I wanted it back. But only if I knew for certain that I’d get to keep it.
And that was the rub. There were no certainties in life. There was just chance and trust.
The car came to a stop in a familiar-to-me location. Liam looked around with a furrowed brow. I could understand his confusion. The place I’d taken him was a run-down house in a grungy neighborhood. More than a few houses on the street sported an overgrown lawn spotted with junk. Peeling paint. Boarded up windows. It wasn’t the nicest place.
“I grew up in that house,” I told him. To his benefit, he kept his expression neutral. More interested in me and what I had to say than looking at the house that would probably be better off demolished.
“It’s a two bedroom. I wasn’t really planned, but…” I shrugged. “There was a room that was supposed to be a storage room that was turned into my bedroom. It was barely big enough for a bed, and there were shelves built above the one side of it. I was terrified to sleep on that end of the bed. I thought the shelves would fall on my head and all my books and stuff would tumble down on me and kill me.”
Liam didn’t let go of my hand. “Did you want to get out and take a closer look?” he asked me. “Does anyone live here now?”
I shook my head. “Mom lived here up until Shane won the lottery. He bought her a nice house across town. She runs a shelter for abused women. She still owns the house, but she hasn’t decided what she wants to do with it yet.”
“Sometimes, it’s hard to let go of things, even if they serve no purpose for us anymore.”
“Did you want to see inside? I have a set of keys.”
“Only if you want to show me.”
Relief rushed out of my lungs in one huge breath. “Not especially. I think I’d like to go home.” A smile tugged at my lips. “Home. It’s weird to have one of those again. But weird in good way.”
Liam looked at me, long and meaningful. He held my gaze and lifted our joined hands. Brushing a kiss against my knuckles, he said, “Yeah, it is good.”
I knew what he meant by the way he looked at me when he spoke. The earnestness in his voice and the intensity of his gaze made my heart race. Me. I was his home.
Chapter 16
Liam
Thedisparityinourupbringing had never been so obvious. I’d had love, but I’d also had financial security. Money came with a lot of privilege. I’d never had a closet as small as the room Brodie described as being his for his formative years, barely large enough for a single bed. I had a hard time wrapping my head around it.
None of my hardships had anything to do with money.
“How did you lose your parents?” Brodie traced the lines in the palm of my hand with the tips of his fingers
