Page 29 of Trusting Liam (Taking Chances 2)

“Aw, look at you being sweet.”

“I tried,” he said with a cheesy grin.

I took the flowers from him and started backing up to put them in a vase, but Kira was right behind me and took them out of my hand. “I’ve got this, you two go.”

“See you later,” I called out to her after she’d retreated, and followed Liam outside and to his car. My eyes widened in surprise when he opened the door for me, and I couldn’t hold back my smile as I slid inside.

“Okay, fine. The first strike has been erased,” I said once we were reversing out of the spot.

“Good,” he huffed, and sent me a look. “Because I have no fucking clue what I’m doing.”

“Ah, yes, of course. Because you’re used to having girls just fall at your feet, right?”

“Exactly,” he responded immediately, his eyes never leaving my face. “Until you.”

We’d barely reached the street outside of the complex when a car behind us began honking repeatedly. Looking behind us, I saw the driver was waving with one arm, and his passenger was holding both her hands out and mouthing the word stop.

“What the hell?” Liam whispered, but pulled over to the side of the road and rolled down his window.

The car pulled up beside him, and the lady pointed to the back of the car. “Your tire is flat!”

Liam looked in his side mirror, then out the car toward the back. “Are you kidding me?”

“Nope. Sorry, man, but it is flat flat.”

With a wave, Liam mumbled a thank-you, and sighed when the other car pulled away. When he turned to look at me, his eyes widened as he saw how hard I was trying to hold in my laughter. “This is funny?”

The laughter finally burst past my lips, but I cut it off quickly. With an amused expression, I asked, “Did you not see this?” I pointed to the huge screen on his dash. At the top was a warning about the pressu

re in the tires.

Liam sighed, and looked like he was kicking himself. “Wait. You saw it and you didn’t say anything?”

“No, no. I saw it after those people pulled up and started talking to you.” Liam was looking at me like he was trying to figure out if I was telling the truth, and I laughed. “I swear! But can we bring back strike one now?”

He rolled his eyes, but I didn’t miss his smile as he got out of the car and popped the trunk. Once he’d taken the spare out and disappeared behind the rear of the car, I got out and went around to watch him.

“Stay in the car,” he ordered, but his tone was gentle. “I don’t want you out here in case anything happens.”

“Oh no, this is a must watch. Besides,” I mumbled as I took a picture of him, “Kira needs to see how the night is starting off.”

Liam raised one hand to flip me off before going back to jacking up the car, and I couldn’t help but laugh again.

It wasn’t long before the spare was on and we were heading toward the restaurant. The entire way there, we talked about the only other time he’d gotten a flat, and I told him about all the times Kira and I had gone out to our cars to find our dad had taken off a tire and hidden it when we were supposed to be grounded.

The second we stepped inside the restaurant, I was blasted by a distinct smell, and I looked around to try to find the name of the restaurant—since I hadn’t bothered to look while we were outside. I didn’t have time to find what I was looking for, but kept my mouth shut as we were led back to a booth. I just hoped like hell that there would be something on the menu that I could eat.

After quickly glancing through everything, I bit back a smile and had to hide my face from Liam for a minute before I dropped the menu to the table and looked at him.

“You already know what you want?” he asked, surprise coating his words.

“Uh, well, if you want to end this date in the ER, then I can try to find something,” I offered, and my lips stretched into a wide smile when he looked at me in confusion. “Liam, I’m allergic to seafood.”

“Bullshit.”

I shook my head. “Not bullshit. I’m allergic to anything that comes from water, and if it’s something from the bottom of the ocean, it’s bye bye, Kennedy.”

His face fell, and a soft laugh bubbled past my lips. “Why didn’t you say anything when you saw where I was taking you?”

---