Page 63 of The Love Chase

Maybe in the end, he was just as confused as I was.

Maya hummed, breaking me out of my thoughts, and I knew it meant she was about to meddle.

“Why don’t you just talk to him about it?”

“Maya, the great meddler of relationships, wants me to talk to Liam? Not come up with some ridiculous plan to get him to admit his feelings for me?”

I could hear Maya’s eyes rolling through the phone. “What can I say? I’ve seen the light.”

An unattractive snort came out of me. The day Maya stops meddling will be the day the earth freezes over.

“What?” she snapped. “It’s true.”

“Ha. You not meddling? That’s a good one.”

“Ugh. Just talk to him, Em. You’re clearly both feeling something, and you need to get on the same page. You might be married, and it might be fake, but there’s still room for both of you to get hurt, and I know you don’t want that. Talk to him.”

The idea of admitting my feelings terrified me. I’d been hiding them for so long, I didn’t even know how to put them into words anymore. Those three simple ones didn’t seem like enough, and yet they were the only ones that came to mind.

I didn’t have the energy to argue or come up with excuses, so I said, “I’ll try.”

My stomach gave a lurch then, and the faint pulse of an incoming bad headache started in my temples.

“I should get some sleep,” I said, glancing at the clock. It was after midnight now.

“I mean it, Em. It’s time for you two to have a feelings talk.”

“Yeah, yeah. Go snuggle your husband.”

There was a smile in her voice as she replied, “Right, snuggle.” She paused before adding, “I’m waggling my eyebrows in case you couldn’t tell.”

I laughed. “Bye, Maya.”

“Toodles!”

The call dropped and then it was just me, my spinning thoughts, and the sound of the shower running in the adjoining bathroom.

I did consider—for a brief moment—doing what Maya said and trying to talk to Liam. But after everything that had happened tonight, I didn’t know if I could handle him saying he didn’t have feelings for me. I was pretty sure I was well past getting my hopes up.

The shower turned off, effectively coiling my nerves into knots. What should I do? Pretend to be asleep when he emerged smelling like an Old Spice ad? Or should I actually be an adult and ask to talk?

My decision was made for me when the door suddenly swung open, a wall of steamy air cascading around Liam’s enormous body—and the measly towel he had slung around his hips.

I wasn’t proud of the way I stared or the way I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

I’d seen him shirtless—plenty of times. We’d spent half our childhood at the pond at the Walker Farm after all. This was nothing new.

What was new was the tattoo I could finally see in its entirety, which wrapped up his upper arm and over his shoulder. It had sunflowers and music notes swirling in mesmerizing patterns. There was more to the design, but I was too far away to see it. What was new was the six pack that definitely wasn’t there when we were kids. I could neither confirm nor deny whether my mouth went dry as cotton at the sight of it.

“Sorry,” he said, stepping further into the bedroom, running a second towel through his hair. “I thought you’d be asleep by now.”

“It’s fine,” I managed to croak.

“I’ll just grab my clothes and get out of your way.” He tossed the hair towel into the hamper in the corner before crossing the room to the dresser and rummaging through the top drawer.

“You’re not in my way,” I muttered beneath my breath, but the smirk he threw over his shoulder told me he heard it.

Liam closed the drawer and opened the next one. “Have you seen my watch anywhere?”