Page 53 of Liam

Liam raises his eyebrows at his younger brother. “Unless you like vegetarian?”

“Gross.”

I snicker. It’s the same reaction Liam had when I told him.

“You’re vegetarian?” Lucas asks.

“No, I just likes vegetables.” I nod toward Roman. “Someoneused to force them down my throat when I was a kid.”

Roman grins at that.

“Awww,” Laney coos. “We love a caring brother.”

Lachlan scoffs. “Yeah, the only thing my brothers forced down my throat was a live frog.”

The room goes silent.

One second.

Two.

Then Logan busts out a laugh. “I forgot about that!”

“You didnot,”Laney gasps.

“They took me on a camping trip when Luke first got his license.”

“You were, like, five,” Laney says, back-handing Lucas’s stomach.

Lucas chuckles, turns to Logan. “Remember how every time he would speak after, we pretended like the only thing we could hear was?—”

“Ribbit, ribbit,” Logan finishes for him.

Now everyone’s laughing. Everyone but Lachlan. “And you wouldn’t let me call Dad to save me.”

“We had no service,” Lucas says through breaths of laughter.

Lachlan slams his fist on the table. “We were a mile up the road!”

“You didn’t know that!” the twins say in unison.

Lachlan shakes his head, shoves a slice of pizza into his mouth, and mutters, “How am I even alive right now?”

Next to me, Liam checks his watch. “I gotta go.”

“Thanks for getting these,” Tom calls out.

Liam doesn’t acknowledge him, orme, before exiting the room.

Then the house.

My spine straightens as I stare down at the pizza in front of me, the sudden confusion causing an ache in my chest.

The conversation around the table continues, and I try to keep up, but it’s so much of everything, all at once. I’m sad that Liam isn’t here. Disappointed, really. I force myself to eat two slices of pizza before turning to Roman. “Where’s the bathroom?”

Nothing sayspatheticlike hiding out in the bathroom while the world goes on around you. Ireallydon’t know what I was thinking—going out and buying dresses, as ifwhat? Looking a certain way would impress Liam’s family, so that maybe… maybe it would impress him, too?

Like I said,pathetic.

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