Page 29 of Just Between Us

“I am relaxed,” I manage, but my voice betrays me, the sound of someone who is anything but.

His chest vibrates against my back with a low laugh. “Sure you are.”

For a moment neither of us moves. His hand stays on my hip.My back stays pressed to his chest. Our Mii characters remain frozen on screen, oblivious.

“Now imagine the ball is coming toward you.” His hand tightens around my wrist and we swing together, a slow arc through the air. But I’m having trouble focusing on the imaginary ball. Liam’s breath is warm on the side of my neck and if I turned my head just right, my mouth would be dangerously close to his.

I don’t turn my head. But god, I think about it.

I expect Liam to step away, but our feet stay rooted in place. The heart in my chest is beating hard enough for both of us as the moment stretches, taut as a high wire, and I know if I stay here one more second, I might do something that can’t be filed under friendship.

With herculean effort, I take a step forward, and the loss of his warmth is immediate. Physical. Like stepping out of glorious sunlight into the shade.

He takes his position again next to me, and I search for anything to break the remnants of tension still simmering in the air, so thick it’s almost corporeal.

“So…” I clear my throat. “Clearly your training in virtual athletics has paid off.”

Liam blinks rapidly as if surfacing from a trance, and his face slowly breaks into a smile.

“Yeah, well.” He shrugs in a false self-deprecating way. “I try to stay in peak physical condition.”

Peak physical condition indeed.

Liam starts the game over, but despite his very distracting demonstration, I still lose every set. And I couldn’t care less. Because all evening I’ve been present in the moment, having more fun than I remember having in a while. I haven’t thought about nasty break ups, brothers who are more broken than they realize, or mothers that avoid her children.

We play for over an hour, but eventually end the game andsettle back on the couch. Mutt is no longer between us, rather, he’s sitting on my lap like I’m his new best friend.

“What are the books?” I ask, tilting my head toward the leather-bound books on his bookcase.

Liam doesn’t respond right away, only stares at the bookcase for a second. But then he stands, walks over, and selects one bound in a deep wine-colored leather. He flips it open, takes his seat on the couch, and begins reading.

“It was many and many a year ago, in a kingdom by the sea, that a maiden there lived whom you may know, by the name of Annabel Lee. And this maiden she lived with no other thought than to love and be loved by me.”

Liam weaves spells with words, reading of love that was more than love, that not even death could destroy. I lay my cheek against the back cushion and just listen to the soft melodic cadence. I watch the way his lips shape each word, the way his lashes cast shadows on his cheekbones in the lamplight. There’s a reverence in the way he holds this book, as though it’s something sacred, and I realize I’m not just listening to a poem. I’m watching a man peel back a layer and reveal a part of himself others rarely see. But my ears perk up when Liam’s voice goes thick.

“And so, all the night tide, I lie down beside of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride, in the sepulcher there by the sea, in her tomb by the sounding sea.”

The poem comes to an end, and Liam closes the book, both of us lulled into a contemplative silence. I’m sure at some point in my education I had to memorize that poem, but never in my life have I heard it recited with the emotion Liam just possessed.

“They’re all books of poetry,” Liam says, cutting through the silence. “Not only do I have ADHD, but I’m also dyslexic. School was hard for me. Teachers didn’t understand that I had a learning disability. They only focused on how hyperactive I was. I could sweet talk some of my teachers into letting me dobullshit extra credit work, enough to keep from failing completely. All I really cared about was music. By then I’d gotten pretty decent at several instruments and I was trying to put together a band to play some gigs around town. But by the tenth grade I was failing every class. Made up my mind as soon as I turned sixteen I’d quit and go for my GED.”

“And did you?”

Liam shakes his head. “I did not. It was actually Penny’s dad, Charlie, who realized what the problem was. I guess my dad told him about my struggles in school or something, I don’t know. But one day he called and asked me to stop in at the studio after school.” Liam laughs, a quick sound. “I’d actually skipped that day, but didn’t tell him. He told me his brain worked just like mine. He pulled out a book of poetry and worked with me on reading the poems. We did this every day until little by little the words made sense to me. One day he set the book down, offered me a cigarette—it was no secret I’d been smoking a while by then—and told me there’s nothing wrong with a GED. But he’d really like to see me finish high school, and if I did, he’d hire me to be in the studio band.”

“And let me guess.” My mouth curves into a soft smile. “It was straight A’s from then on.”

Liam scoffs. “Fuck no. I scraped by with Ds. But a place in the studio band was damn good incentive. Still didn’t get to walk at graduation, but I went to summer school and had my own personal ceremony.”

His voice lifts when he says personal ceremony, and I raise a questioning eyebrow. “I sense a story there.”

“I already had the cap and gown. Mom asked around at the school and figured out when summer school diplomas would ship out. She sent invitations to a few of our friends, and with everyone standing along the front walkway of my house, Mom played “Pomp and Circumstance” on her phone, and I walked to my mailbox to receive my diploma.”

I’m still smiling from ear to ear when Liam walks me to his door an hour later. I step over the threshold and turn back to face him. He’s leaning, one arm braced against the doorframe watching me with an expression that causes liquid heat to simmer in my belly. The porch light catches the green of his eyes, and for one held breath, his gaze drops to my lips, lingering there.

Liam opens his mouth to speak, whenfwoosh.

Not even I, with all my horror loving tendencies, could have predicted this. I now know what Melanie Daniels felt like inThe Birds. Out of nowhere a blur of black swoops down, and I fling up my arms to shield my face from the attack. I feel something land in my hair and I let out the most undignified scream.