Page 37 of Love Under Review

With a smirk, he said, “Those need to go into the too-small box.”

“But we’re drinking hot chocolate, and the rain is making it cold outside. I just wanted to wear these one more time before you hide them.” Cari’s eyes turned big, channeling her inner puppy dog.

“Fine. But I’ll have to hide the whole box this time if you’re going to keep pulling out everything you’re too big for.” He turned and emptied the packet of hot chocolate into her cup, stirring it around until everything was mixed. “Here you go, Princess Cari. Your hot chocolate, just how you like it.”

Cari’s nose wrinkled, and she gave him a sad look. “No mini marshmallows?”

Liam frowned. “Oh, I think we’re out. I’ll write it on the list of things to get when we go to the store. How does that sound?” He moved to the side of the fridge where he’d hung a piece of paper that already had cheese, seasoning salt, and hot sauce written on it. He tried not to laugh as he thought about how different his life had become now that he lived in Sage Creek. He was making lists and running to the grocery store. His old self never would have believed it, having lived mostly on takeout.

“I guess I can survive. But when we get them, we have to have hot chocolate that night. Because I don’t want to wait for you to go on another date.” The serious look on her face was hard to resist.

Liam ruffled her hair. “I think we can arrange that. You think I need another date, huh?”

Cari beamed up at him. “That’s the only time I get to play with Tasha.”

They settled onto the couch with a blanket and turned on the movie again. As they watched, Cari’s giggle cut through his thoughts now and again. He kept seeing Danielle, her long sandy-brown hair and her fiery personality making him grin even now.

At one point, Cari turned and asked, “How was your date?”

Startled, Liam looked at her, surprised she understood this much at such a young age. “It was good. It started to rain, which ended it early, but it was a lot of fun.”

“Do you like her?”

“Yeah, she’s really nice.”

Cari’s face turned mischievous. “No, do youlike herlike her?” She wiggled her eyebrows and ducked when Liam moved to swat the top of her head.

“Where did you learn about that?” He tried to keep from smiling, but the way she’d said it kept running through his mind. Were his feelings that obvious?

“Sarah in my class said shelikelikes Stephen. So, I kind of know what it means, but kind of don’t.” She looked at him expectantly, as if hoping he would clear it up for her.

Liam debated whether or not he should be the one to have this conversation with her and finally said, “You can like someone as a friend, or, as Sarah is saying it, she wants to be his girlfriend.”

Cari’s eyes opened wide, and one side of her nose turned up. “She wants to kiss him and stuff? That’s gross.”

Laughing loudly, Liam pulled her in for a hug. “Keep thinking that way, kid. Until you’re older.” He felt a poke in his side and looked down to see her finger jabbing into his rib.

“You’re older. Does that mean Danielle is your girlfriend? And that you want to kiss her?”

“No, no. First, I’m not that old. And second, she’s not—well, she’s not my girlfriend. Let’s just finish the show and head to bed. We’ll have to call your mom tomorrow and see how she’s doing.”

They leaned back, and Cari snuggled up to his arm. He thought about their conversation and how Cari interpreted things with her six-year-old mind. Things were so clear-cut at that point in life. If only his own life could be that way.

Chapter 23

Danielle finished the first draft of book four that Friday, excited to get to the end but not excited to go through and make preliminary edits. When she’d sent Liam a text to celebrate, he’d volunteered to beta read it for her, but she wasn’t comfortable with the manuscript just yet, nor was she ready for him to know she was MK Malone.

She checked the dashboard of her book sales, surprised to see the number of the other ebooks sold continuing to rise by the day. Were there really that many people in the world who wanted to download something she’d written?

Now that she was back in Sage Creek, she thought of the world as being only as big as the few thousand people who lived in the town. But remembering California, she knew this town was just a drop in the bucket in terms of the number of people out there.

Deciding she needed to stretch her legs, she went for a walk, her steps taking her through the upper streets of Sage Creek. It only took about fifteen minutes before she stood outside the bookstore, surprised that the lights were out so early on a Friday afternoon.

Where would he have gone at that time of day? She needed someone to celebrate in her victory of words, and he was the most likely candidate. He seemed to get what it took to be a writer, at least a small part of it, and now that she wanted to chat, he was nowhere to be found.

Thinking he might have gone to the diner, she walked in that direction, nodding to the occasional people sitting outside the shops. She opened the door to the diner and entered, searching the tops of the heads in the restaurant. With no luck, she walked to the counter and ordered a cherry chip milkshake, thinking she might as well celebrate on her own.

“Hi, Velda,” she said to the owner, who was flying through the restaurant as usual.

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