Page 7 of On the Line

“Shame.”

“Liam.”

“I’m kidding.”

“Good.” Probably. “And no weird pet names.”

“Sweet cheeks?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Pumpkin?”

“No.”

“Snookums?”

“I will push you into the lake.”

“So violent,” he says, sounding pleased about it. I pull into the driveway behind four other cars, and my stomach flips over.

“This is insane.”

“Too late now.”

“I could still tell them the truth.”

“You could.” He looks at me, and then he smiles. “But where’s the fun in that?”

God help me.

We’re halfway up the walk when the front door flies open and Nora comes out onto the porch. Her eyes go straight to Liam, then to me, then right back to Liam.

“Oh my God.”

“Hi, Nora. Nice to see you too.”

She doesn’t even hear me. “You did bring a boyfriend!”

Liam leans down to my ear. “An imaginary one, anyway.”

I elbow him. Nora comes flying down the steps and hugs me, and then she steps back and looks Liam over the way my mother looks at cantaloupes.

“Nora,” I say through my teeth, “this is Liam.”

He holds out his hand. She hugs him instead. Of course she does.

“You exist,” she says into his shirt.

“So I’ve been told.”

She laughs, the traitor.

Within ten minutes Liam has a beer in his hand and he’s talking boats with Aaron like they’ve known each other for years. Within twenty, Kelsey asks how we met, and I nearly inhale a tortilla chip.

Liam doesn’t blink. “At a pizzeria.”

“That’s where you met?” Savannah asks.