Page 160 of Liam

“Set up what?” I ask.

“We got a big screen and projector. We’re doing a movie night.” He kisses me—a little too passionately in front of his whole family. “You’re staying, right?”

I look over at Griffin and Dayna—Dayna trying to balance on a paddleboard while Griffin laughs, shaking the board. “Yeah, I think we’ll be here a while.”

“Perfect.” He kisses me again. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

We wait until the sun begins to fade before we all gather to watch the movie. Some of the Preston boys line up their trucks and sit in the beds, and others are happy to sit on the grass. Dayna, Griffin, Roman, and I sit together on giant blankets provided by Tom.

“This is so unreal,” Dayna says, pushing into my side. “It’s like a private drive-in.”

“I know. It’s crazy.”

Linc and Liam are on the bed of Lincoln’s new truck, where the speaker, projector, and laptop are. I get giddy when Liam hops off the truck and starts making his way toward me. I adjust, making room behind me where I know he’ll sit. Dayna shifts to the side so he can put his legs on either side of me, his arms immediately going around my waist.

“Gross,” Roman mutters.

Liam chuckles. “How’s Heidi?”

“Who’s Heidi?” Dayna teases. She knows as much about Heidi as I do.

Roman sighs—so done with our crap.

The speakers crackle, and the moment the screen flickers on and the intro for the Preston Twins channel starts, Benny and Katie shout, “Uncle Twinnies!”

The twins appear on the huge screen, Liam behind the wheel, and Lincoln right beside him. It’s an older video, though, one I saw back in my stalking days. “What’s up, guys?” the on-screen twins yell, and all the Prestons here shout, “We’re back!”

I giggle, snuggle in closer.

On-screen Lincoln says, “We finally caved to your demands, and we’re going to answer your random questions from the comments.”

“Oh, I’ve seen this one!” I blurt, turning to Liam.

He shakes his head. “Not this version, you haven’t.”

“What?” I face the big screen again.

Lincoln continues, “And since Liam doesn’t read the comments, and I didn’t want to spoil it for myself, we had our brother find some questions for us. Which brother, you ask?”

Logan pops up from behind the driver’s seat. “I can’t believe you had me hiding all that time.”

“As some of you already know,” Liam says, “This is our brother Logan. Logan say hi.”

“Hi.” Logan smiles at the camera before grasping Liam’s shoulders. “Don’t worry, we’ll ease into it.”

I turn to real-life Liam. “I’m positive I’ve seen this one.”

Liam presses his lips to my temple. “Just watch.”

I sit and watch, and everything that plays is exactly as I remember it. Them joking about Lucy reading the comments because she’d pick out girlfriends for them. Then the question about sports and how they used to play but people got mad because they weretoogood. They swear in some places, and it’s bleeped out in this version—likely for their niece and nephew. So far, that’s the only difference I’ve noticed between this one and the online version.

On-screen Logan focuses on his phone. “Okay,” he says, then reads out, “expose the weirdest thing y’all have done. No limits.”

“No limits?” Lincoln says, a sinister smile playing on his lips as he looks directly into the camera. In the version I watched, half of what he said was muted, a black bar over his mouth so people couldn’t read his lips. Liam’s arms around me tighten, just as Lincoln continues, “When we were little, like eight or nine, Liam had the biggest crush on this girl and he would—” The audio cuts out, just like the one I’d seen before, and all of the Prestonsboo, throw random things at the screen. But then the video pauses, rewinds, and I sit taller, looking from the screen to Liam and back. The video starts again, right at the beginning of Lincoln’s speech. “When we were little, like eight or nine, Liam had the biggest crush on this girl and he would always want to be around her. He’d come up with reasons just to be near her. Like, he made me play baseball, even though I hated it, just becauseshewas on the team.” Air traps in my lungs, my mind working, my pulse racing. “That’s crazy, right?” Lincoln says, shaking his head. “Wrong. You want to know what’s crazy? One day, she started wearing her hair in a braid with these different colored ribbons weaved through the strands. And every single day, hewould write the color of the ribbon in his little school planner. Always in code. O R for orange. P P for purple. L B for light blue.” He pauses a beat. “Her name was Adelaide Baker… the love of Liam’s life…”

EPILOGUE

Addie | One year later

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