Missed Me, Missed Me, Now You Gotta Kiss Me

Let's Find Out

  “To stay the night?” When I nodded, my mom said, “I need the car tomorrow. So make sure you come home early.”

  “It’s okay. Liam’s gonna drop me off.”

  My mom gave me this look and for a minute I thought she saw right through me. “Okay. Yeah, that’s fine with me.”

  I went back and hugged her. “Thanks, Mom. See you tomorrow.”

  I ran outside before she could think “Hey, she was acting suspicious” and call me back. Liam was still at the barn, so I called down, “I’m waiting in the car!”

  “’Kay!”

  After I was inside the truck—Lord, I never knew how much I missed the smell of slight rust and horse—I dialed Lulu’s number.

  She answered on the first ring. “Piper! Darlin! Wassup.”

  “Nothin. Hey, if anyone asks, I’m staying the night at your house.”

  There was a slight pause. “Piper, you naughty girl. Where are you staying the night?”

  I blushed, glad she couldn’t see. “Liam’s.”

  She gasped. “You are naughty!”

  I rolled my eyes. “Grow up, Lulu. Not like that. No funny business. I just….I don’t want him to leave. I wanna be with him.”

  “You guys are such a teeny-bopper romance! It’s so cute!”

  “Oh, brother.” I glanced up and my heart hammered against my ribcage at the sight of Liam heading for the truck. “I gotta go. Talk to you later.”

  “You’d better! No funny business my ass. If you sleep with him, you’ll be my ultimate hero.”

  “Lulu, please!” I hissed in embarrassment, hanging up as Liam climbed in the truck.

  He offered an irresistible lopsided grin. “You ready?”

  “Duh.”

  He laughed and we were off.

  “Where’s everybody else?” I asked, glancing around the house.

  Liam took my bag and slung it over his shoulder. I smiled at the gentlemanly gesture. “Dad’s at work. Dunno where Mads and Mom are. Mom!”

  There was no answer. I felt a vicious fluttering of nerves at the realization we were alone.

  Liam started up the stairs, but turned back to me. “You hungry or anything?”

  I shook my head. “No. Just ate.” Then it occurred to me that he might be hungry. “Unless you are…”

  He grinned and shook his head and up the stairs we went.

  Last time I was here, I hadn’t been in Liam’s room. I was saddened to see it had, in fact, changed. There were no girl posters—not any posters, to be exact—anywhere, so that was a bit of a comfort; not that I ever thought Liam was the type to have swim suit models on his walls. He had a dark brown double bed with a plain navy blue comforter. Everything was very plain, in fact. Very Liam. Even as a kid, his room was always neater than mine.

  “Where’d you stuff the Hot Wheels?”

  He grinned, setting my messenger bag on his bed. “Storage.”

  “I knew you couldn’t have gotten rid of them.” Liam had had this huge Hot Wheels collection. Whenever I was over at his house, we would play traffic jam. It was the dumbest, yet most fun game to play with cars.