Page 47 of The Design of Goodbye
“Way more.”
“But you have no idea what’s in the water.” He lowered his voice. “There could be snakes.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“More dangerous than hiking?”
I nodded, a little too emphatically. “Absolutely.”
“There could be bears.”
“I’ll take a bear over a bike any day.” At his amused expression, I explained, “A bike will hurtle you down a hill so quickly you’ll fly over the handlebars, roll down said hill, break your arm,andneed stitches.”
I pointed to the scar on my chin, as if this proved my point. He squinted at my enormous scar. Okay, fine, it was tiny. Miniscule, even.
“Ah, yes,” he said. “A bike that controls itself. Scary.”
“So, what,” I started, hands on my hips, “you’ve never fallen off your bike before?”
“Well, there was this one time a girl hit me with her car and—ow!” He rubbed his arm where I’d swatted him.
“I meantotherthan that.”
“Sure I have.”
My eyes widened. “Did you get hurt?”
“A few times. I fell over the summer, and it was bad.” He pointed to a nasty scar on the palm of his hand.
“How’d that happen?” I grabbed his hand to inspect the scar. My fingers burned at the contact, but I didn’t let go.
“I landed on something sharp,” he explained. “Not sure what it was, since it was dark. Probably glass.”
I got chills. “Stitches?”
He shook his head. “My dad said I didn’t need them. Took forever to heal.”
The raised scar hadn’t healed very well, so I was pretty sure his dad had been wrong. I reluctantly dropped his paint-splattered hand.
“Are you impressed with my biking skills yet?” he asked.
“No,” I lied. “They’re still considered below average.”
“Below average? That’s harsh. I might have to take the coffee back.”
“No.” I took a quick sip, savoring the flavor. “Mine.”
“Good?”
I nodded. It was literally the best pumpkin spice latte I’d ever had, even though it was slightly cold.
And then?
I hugged him.
I don’t know why. My body just did it, like I was craving the closeness. Like Liam was a magnetic force and I was drawn to him. He was tense, but when I hugged him tighter, he relaxed and squeezed back. I wondered why I didn’t want to let go, and why he never pushed me away.
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