Page 24 of Trusting Liam (Taking Chances 2)

“Don’t worry, LC. You’ll figure it out when you’re ready, just the same as she will. I’ve seen this before. If I hadn’t, you wouldn’t be here today.”

7

June 13

Kennedy

“ARE WE GETTING out of the car, or are you going to keep sitting here worrying over how fat your ass looks in that bikini?”

My head whipped to the side to face Kira, my mouth and eyes going wide. “Don’t be a—wait! My ass looks fat in this?” My hands immediately went to where my skirt-covered butt was planted in the seat, and suddenly I was worried about it. “Why didn’t you tell me before we left?”

Kira rolled her eyes and reached for the handle of her door. “Because it doesn’t, you’re just pissing me off because you won’t leave the car and we’ve been parked here for eight minutes. But if we don’t get out of here soon, I’m sure you’ll be able to start worrying about having a flat ass.”

“You’re such a brat,” I muttered, and looked straight ahead at the ocean again.

“Are we going or not? I’d rather sit on the couch in the condo than stay in a car that is rapidly turning into an oven.” Before I could respond, she added, “You already know he’s going to be here since he’s the one who invited us. You spent an extra half hour getting ready for him, which is even more pathetic considering we’re going to be at the beach all day.”

“For him? Get ready for him? Are you fucking kidding me? I couldn’t care less what he thinks of me and the way I look.”

“You’re still feeding yourself that line, sis? Neither Liam nor I has believed that since the beginning . . . I’m surprised that you’re still trying to get yourself to believe it.” She laughed, but it sounded more annoyed than anything. “The last time you spent so much time trying to make yourself and those around you believe you didn’t care about someone, he was your—”

“I will kill you if you finish that sentence,” I said, cutting her off, the warning in my tone clear.

Kira raised a challenging eyebrow. “Starting to see the resemblance in the two?”

With a shake of my head, I reached for the handle of my door and tossed the keys onto Kira’s lap. I didn’t exactly want to go hang out with Liam and a bunch of his friends after what happened between us the other night, but right then I would have done anything if it meant having space from my sister. “I don’t know what’s happening between you and Zane, but Jesus Christ, he has turned you into such a bitch.”

Stepping out of the car, I shut my door and began walking toward the sand without looking back. I knew after what I said, it would take Kira a few more minutes to leave the car—if she left it at all—and for a second I felt bad about using Zane against her just then. But then I remembered who she’d been using against me, and it didn’t take me long to get over it.

“Hey!”

I looked up to find Liam jogging toward me, and my body froze. Part of me wanted another taste of what he’d given me not forty-eight hours before, the rest wanted to run from him while I showed him how little he meant to me.

He stopped suddenly when he got close to me, and his eyebrows slanted down. “Whoa, are you okay? And where’s Kira?”

“She’s in the car.”

I’d taken a step to walk around him, but he caught my arm and pulled me closer. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong.” I tried yanking my arm from his grasp, but he never loosened his hold.

“You’re lying to me. It’s all over your face.”

“Well then, it’s the sun getting in my eyes.” After another yank, I glared up at him and took a step back.

“Kennedy, why—”

“Will you let go of me?” I asked, my voice rising.

He immediately released my arm, but those ice-blue eyes still held me captive. “You need to tell me what I’m missing here. I know after what happened the other—”

“What happened Thursday night was a mistake.”

“M

istake,” he stated, his voice low and flat. “Are you—God, Kennedy, what do I need to do? Where am I going wrong, because even though you shut down again, I know damn well that ‘mistake’ is not even close to the way you looked after. You looked scared.”

I couldn’t respond to the last part, because even though he and I both knew he was right, I wasn’t about to admit it. “What you need to do is stop trying to make something happen—or stop thinking that there’s something happening. I told you the first day that nothing was going to happen between us. That hasn’t changed.” I started walking past him again, but hadn’t made it more than two steps when I was pulled back. “Liam—”

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