Page 15 of Fall for Me

Seamus blinked, and that intense look he’d been giving me seemed to disappear. He did that hand-on-the-neck thing again as he turned to look at them. “Eli’s pissed Jude took you out of the hospital.”

At least he didn’t make something up. I sighed. “Yeah. He would be.”

When I looked at him, I could see the questions on his face: how’d they let me out? And why had Jude agreed? But he was too polite to ask. Or he was just Seamus, who I couldn’t remember ever asking a question for his own curiosity.

“Jude owed me one, so he charmed us out of the hospital,” I said, answering his unspoken question in the simplest terms.

The truth was, I’d called Jude, who’d been on his way to the hospital anyway, and told him point blank he needed to break me out and drive me directly to Seamus Reilly’s place, right at that very second. He’d refused, of course, until I called up something he definitely owed me for. Jude told the clerk at the counter that we were just taking a walk, and she’d been so charmed by Jude’s grin she’d visibly tittered. I don’t even think she knew he was a former tennis star—she’d probably have fainted if she had. In any case, we made it outside and headed right here, my fury so frantic I didn’t realize until now that it had eclipsed my nerves at being in a vehicle again.

Seamus nodded, not asking for more details.

I studied him for a moment. “Do you ever say what’s on your mind?”

“No one needs to hear what’s on my mind.”

“Why not? What if I do?”

He looked me in the eye. I noticed this because he didn’t look up to the bandage. I could tell the difference.

“I like listening better.”

“Why?”

“You always ask so many questions?”

No. “Yes.”

The corner of his mouth lifted. Only a hair, but I caught it.

Had I just made Seamus Reilly smile? Something fluttered in my stomach.

Seamus looked out toward the river, and whatever smile I’d imagined there faded. I opened my mouth to speak, but considering what we’d been talking about, clapped it shut again. After a moment, he said, “You can learn a lot more about someone when you’re not talking yourself.”

I considered that for a moment, something prickling over my skin. I remember having the same thought, but somewhere along the way I’d forgotten.

“I never used to talk,” I said. “When I was really little.”

“I remember.”

That startled me. I glanced over at him, but he was still looking out over the valley. Of course. Seamus had known me for longer than I remembered him. I swallowed. “I always thought being quiet was some kind of character flaw,” I said softly. “In me, I mean. Like it was something I needed to fix. It’s why I… It’s why I tried so hard to snuff it out of myself last year. Like if I could just be loud like everyone else, I wouldn’t have to feel so much.”

The moment the words came out, I felt a rush of embarrassment. Why had I said that? I didn’t fess up to people like that, ever.

But Seamus met my eyes. “Everyone underestimates quiet people. They think they’re scared.”

“Or weak,” I said quietly.

“Maybe everyone else just needs to talk a little less.”

I couldn’t help it; I let out a laugh. Was this what it was like to feel seen?

Seamus looked slightly bewildered, but then that lip twitched again, and I could tell he was trying not to smile. Warmth flooded through me. I’d made Seamus Reilly smile.

He folded his arms. Still, as he shifted, I saw him wince. I realized I hadn’t asked him how he was. He’d been in that crash, too. I opened my mouth when a voice boomed from behind us.

“Chels! Come on. We have to get you back. Cass is losing it.”

Eli. He had his phone in his hand.

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