Tell Me It’s Right (Sweetspire #1)

Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine

LIAM

We stay for another hour or so after Leo leaves, watching the fireworks and eating Mrs. Collins’s masterpieces. I sit on the porch with Mr. Collins as Gracie and her mom laugh and dance around each other with their sparklers in the yard. It opens a hole in my stomach that I try, and fail, to shove down.

I’ve been coming to the Collins house for holidays for years, but the Fourth of July is one that started long before my mom died. She’d come with me, sometimes my siblings too, before they got old enough that it was cooler to go do things with their friends instead. Sparklers were always her favorite part. Some of my favorite pictures of her are the ones we took together every year on this day.

The lights smear across my vision, and I can picture her out in the yard too, one in each hand, beaming so wide you could see every last one of her teeth. I didn’t inherit much from her, unfortunately, but that smile is the one thing I do have.

And, well, I have her to thank for the family that basically adopted me. Leo and I never would have become friends without her and Mrs. Collins conspiring together after they met at a baking class and realized they had kids the same age.

Not that we hit it off immediately. That first playdate was a disaster, and I couldn’t shoo Leo out of our house fast enough. I was in a superhero phase, and all he cared about was the stupid train set—which belonged to Taylor, so I wasn’t even allowed to touch it.

I don’t know what it was that made my mom insist we try again. She must have seen something that we couldn’t. Maybe she could tell, even back then, that I was never going to fit into that life like the rest of them and I needed someone on the outside.

I clear my throat and shift in my chair. Mr. Collins lays his hand on my shoulder without looking at me, like he can tell what I’m thinking.

Gracie looks over midlaugh, the light from her sparkler making her face glow and her eyes shine. She looks so fucking beautiful it makes my chest hurt.

When it’s time to take her home, I keep my hands to myself as we climb into the truck and her parents wave us off. But once we’re down the street, I can’t help but reach over and lay my hand on her knee. I feel her looking at me and spare her a quick glance before returning my attention to the road. Even in the dim light, I can see the faint blush on her cheeks, and I like the sight far more than I should.

We sit in comfortable silence with nothing but the low hum of the radio in the background and the glow of the stars overhead. But as we get closer to Leo’s house, I feel the energy shift. Gracie bounces her leg and chews on her lip.

Before I can ask her what she’s thinking, she says, “There’s no point in telling Leo, right?”

I glance at her as we pause at the stop sign a street away.

“Because…because I’m probably leaving soon anyway,” she continues. “And I don’t want things to be weird, or to make a big deal out of it, so what would be the point? And I don’t even know what I’d tell him because, well.” She wrings her hands together in her lap. “I don’t really know what, exactly, is going on here.”

I stare straight ahead as I park along the curb outside her house. To be fair, I don’t know what’s going on here either, but I do know her words hit like a punch to the gut for more reasons than one.

Her eyes are round and wide in that trademark deer-in-headlights look of hers.

I clear my throat. “I…yeah, I won’t say anything. If that’s what you want.”

She’s back to chewing on her lip. “Is that okay?”

Her breath catches as I cradle the side of her face and lean in. My eyes flick to the house behind her—dark, so Leo and Keava aren’t back yet.

I feel like the only answer I can say is yes. It’s not like she changed the rules here. I always knew it was a matter of time before she left. Knew there was nothing simple about kissing Leo’s sister.

Leo’s sister .

Even thinking those words now feels wrong. Because that’s not who she is.

She’s Gracie. And for the first time, she feels more mine than his.

Leo will never see it that way.

And maybe she won’t either.

“Whatever you want, Gracie,” I murmur.

The tension in her body subsides, and her eyes soften as they meet mine.

God, I can’t think when she looks at me like that.

“Thank you for the ride home.”

I kiss her on the forehead even though everything inside of me aches for more as I pull away.