Page 146 of Liam

“You’re pretty special to me, Addie, and I know it’s not a sunrise, but it’s the sunset…”

“Your favorite time of the day.”

He nods. “With my favorite person.”

“Liam…” I breathe out, my vision blurred by the tears.

He kisses me once, lets it linger a beat before pulling away. “I think we should talk about what happened today—with you and Pierson.”

“Right,” I sigh out. I’d been so wrapped up in Liam and being in the Preston world, I almost forgotten about Pierson.

When Liam texted me to go to his house instead of the cabin, I was a little nervous. Okay, alotnervous. I hadn’t really interacted with all of his family since Roman and I haddinner there, and a lot has changed since then. Still, I showed up, simply because Liam asked me to. And then I entered the kitchen, unsure of what would greet me. But I didn’t need to worry, because there was nothing but grace and acceptance, and as lame as it sounds, it felt like being wrapped in a warm blanket after being left out in the cold. If they can makemefeel like that, I can only imagine how they make my brother feel. Loved, I bet. That’s what it felt like to me. They refer to Roman as family. I smile at the thought, at the future in front of me.

“Addie?” Liam says, pulling me from my daze.

“Sorry. I was just… thinking.”

“About?”

I shift, positioning myself so I’m sitting across his legs. The view ahead might be great, but the view ofhimis better. “I was just thinking about how great your family is.”

His grin is instant. “Yeah. They’re pretty amazing. And they clearlyloveyou.” There’s that word again. “I didn’t get a single goodbye when we left. It was all about you.”

I smile at that.

He taps my leg, his eyes distant as he stares ahead. His jaw works, eyebrows lowering. I canfeelthe weight of the thoughts creeping into his mind.

“I’m glad I went to see him,” I say, hoping to ease some of his anxieties.

His gaze drops to mine. “Yeah?”

I nod. “You were right. It definitely needed to happen.”

“So… what did you talk about?” He pauses a beat. “If you want to tell me. You don’t have to.”

“Iwantto,” I assure. “I feel like we didn’t talk about much, but also, kind of everything. He filled in all the gaps of what happened after the accident, and since then, and that helped a lot—just to know for certain. And then…” I trail off, unsure of how to proceed with the next part.

“Then what?” he urges.

I release all the air in my lungs and sit taller. “I’ve had this feeling deep in my gut for a while now, and every time I felt it, I pushed it away because I thought I had no right to feel it, or maybe my feelings weren’t valid, you know?”

“Not really,” he says truthfully. “What feelings in particular?”

“I was mad,” I blurt out, my gaze dropping in shame. “Like, I appreciate what he did for me, but I was also mad at him. I didn’taskhim to do that for me, and I would neverwanthim to. But he did. And for three years, I’ve felt this immense amount of guilt over it. Not just over the accident itself, but over a choicehemade, and—” I break off when a single tear slips from my eye, but Liam’s quick to discard it before I can, wiping it away with the pad of his thumb.

He cradles my jaw, urging me to look up at him. So I do. “Did you tell him that?”

“Yes, and I felt horrible for it, but I just—I held it in for so long, and it felt selfish to let it out, but—” I break off on a sigh.

“How did he take it?”

“He said he understood where I was coming from, but he also said he wouldn’t change a thing.”

“That’s valid,” he murmurs. “And so are your feelings, Addie.”

“You don’t think I’m a horrible person for feeling that way?”

He scoffs. “Not even a little bit, baby.”

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