"Five years?" I laughed, lifting a brow.
"Five years seems like a good timeline for settling down." She shrugged as we entered the store.
Talia"s eyes flitted from the table in the front to the racks set up and shelf after shelf of baby clothes.
"They"re so tiny," she said in awe. "Wow."
She reached out and picked up a small yellow and white striped onesie with a duck on it. Her fingers shook slightly, and I heard her gasp.
"I"m still struggling to believe it"s real."
She picked up a green hat with little ears on it.
"Look at this." Rebecca came over to us, carrying a pale pink onesie with a tutu attached. "Is this not the cutest thing you"ve ever seen?"
"That"s adorable," Talia cried, taking the onesie from her and holding it against her chest. "Guys," she said softly, "I"m going to be a mom. Isn"t that crazy?"
"It means you"re like a real official grown-up now," Rebecca mused. Her mouth parted in horror. "This means you can"t drink! For nine whole months. Forget it, I"m never having kids. I"ll raise chickens instead."
I snorted. "Chickens?"
Rebecca pursed her lips and gathered her whitish-blond hair into a ponytail. "Chickens are cute, and I like eggs."
Talia and I looked at each other and broke out into laughter.
"Humph," she made a noise in her throat, "no eggs for you guys then."
Talia put the onesie down and moved to another table set up that held the softest looking blankets I"d ever seen and small stuffed animals.
"Aw, I love this one." Talia picked up a blanket with an Aztec print on it in colors of navy, gold, and light green. "And look at this. This is precious." She held up a small gray and white stuffed bunny. Tears shimmered in her eyes. "I want these," she said softly, holding on tightly to both. She looked at the prices and paled. "Never mind." Her voice grew soft and crackly with sadness as she put them down. The tears in her eyes pooled further, and this time I knew it wasn"t because she was overcome with happiness. "Let"s go eat," she said forlornly, heading for the exit.
I didn"t hesitate to grab the blanket and stuffed bunny.
"Ari, no." Talia grabbed my arm and tried to stop me. "You don"t need to do that."
"I want to," I told her, "and Liam would want me to too. Consider it a gift from both of us." I laid the items down on the counter.
"Did you find everything okay?" the checkout girl asked.
"Yes," I replied with a smile.
"Ari," Talia whined, "you don"t have to do this."
"Shush."
The checkout girl gave me the total, and I handed her the cash.
"Have a nice day," she chimed merrily, handing me the bag.
"Thanks," I said, promptly handing the bag to Talia.
"Thank you so much." Talia grabbed me in a hug. "This means a lot to me, you have no idea." The tears returned to her eyes.
I shrugged like it was no big deal. "You and Ollie really helped me out, and now it"s my chance to return the favor a little."
"Stop being sappy. You guys are going to make me cry." Rebecca fanned at her face. "And I don"t cry."
I b.u.mped her shoulder. "There"s nothing wrong with shedding a tear now and then. It cleanses the soul."
"Bleh," she made a face as we started toward the food court, "my soul is practically a hunk of a coal. Nothing is going to cleanse that thing."
"What do you guys want to get to eat?" I asked them.
"Cheesecake Factory," Talia cried and then looked a little astonished when she realized she"d yelled so loudly. In a softer tone, she added, "I really want some cheesecake."
"That sounds good to me." Rebecca nodded.
"I"ve never been," I mumbled.
They both looked at me like I"d grown two heads. "It"s only the best." Rebecca shook her head.
I followed them into the restaurant, and after a short wait, we were seated.
I picked up the menu and began flipping through the pages. "Oh, wow, there"s a lot to choose from."
"They have everything," Rebecca agreed.
"And even more cheesecakes." Talia licked her lips.
The three of us each decided to only get a sandwich because it was necessary to get cheesecake. You couldn"t go to a place called Cheesecake Factory and not get the cheesecake. Blasphemy.
When the waiter set down our waters and left, Rebecca clasped her hands together and announced, "So I met a guy."
"Ooh, a guy-guy?" Talia waggled her brows and took a sip of water.
Rebecca nodded with a silly grin.
"Tell us about him," I urged, surprised she hadn"t brought him up last night.
"His name is Chase, and we"ve only gone out twice, but I had a good time. He"s nice, but not overly so, if you know what I mean." She winked.
"So he"s dominant in bed then?" Talia laughed.
"Oh, yeah." Rebecca nodded. "The boy knows what he"s doing."
I shook my head, pink staining my cheeks.
"Ari, what"s Liam like?"
"Huh?" My eyes widened.
Rebecca laughed. "What"s Liam like in bed?"
"I told you we"re not together."
"So?" she questioned. "You don"t have to be in a relationship to have s.e.x."
I squirmed in my seat. "Can we talk about something else? Anything else?"
Talia must have sensed something in my tone of voice, because she quickly jumped in and started talking about something Ollie had done that morning.
I gave her a grateful smile. Talia was a lifesaver, in more ways than one.
I came home to find Liam getting settled in the family room with a bowl of popcorn.
"Hey," he gave me a half-smile as I entered the room, "how"d it go?"
"I had fun," I replied, leaning my shoulder against the doorway. "What"cha watchin"?" I nodded my head at the TV.
"I was going to start The Fast and the Furious. You wanna join me?"
I hesitated for a moment. I"d run out on him the night before and things had been kind of tense in the morning. He seemed genuine, though, not like he was asking just for the sake of it.
"Sure."
I sat down and he started the movie.
He set the bowl of popcorn between us and grabbed a handful, shoving it into his mouth.
I sat awkwardly, unsure what to do.
I couldn"t get into the movie, and I kept thinking about our time in the dark room. I was dancing around my past, and Liam wasn"t dumb. He knew something was up and I knew it was only a matter of time until he figured it out, or something close to the truth, and the thing was, I was starting to want to tell him. It was like the truth was clawing at my throat, desperate to get out.
Liam paused the movie and set the remote down.
"I can feel you thinking," he said, turning so he faced me. "Do you want to talk?"
Right there, on the tip of my tongue, were the words I was kidnapped.
My heart screamed for me to say it, to rip them off like a Band-Aid, but I couldn"t. Not only was I terrified to share that truth with someone, but I was even more afraid of saying the words out loud. I never had. I"d never been able to bring myself to acknowledge the truth. I fed myself as many lies as I did the world. It was easier that way, and after a while, the lies start to feel like the truth.
"I"m sorry about last night," I said instead. "I know I act weird sometimes and I"m sorry for that. I"d love to go with you to Hawaii."
He stared at me, his eyes seeming to peer right through me. His face was unreadable. He never gave me any sort of clue as to what he was thinking and sometimes, like right then, it was so incredibly frustrating.
I kept waiting for him to say something or do something. Anything. But he continued to stare at me like I was some sort of complicated jig-saw puzzle he was trying to figure out.
"Why?"
"Why what?" I replied, completely confused.
"Why are you here?"
There were so many ways to interpret that question.
Why am I in California?
Why am I staying in his house?
Why am I still there?
"I don"t know," I answered, when I really wanted to say: I am saving myself.
I need the protection.
I"m in love with you.
Liam.
"Whoa," Ari"s eyes widened as the car parked near the plane. "You weren"t kidding about the private plane thing."
I looked out the window at the jet. It was painted a dark blue with a willow tree on it and the name of the band, WILLOW CREEK, emblazoned across the side.
"Why would I joke about that?" I gave her a funny look as the driver opened the door.
"I don"t know." She shrugged, stepping out of the SUV. "It seems pretty unbelievable."
I ducked my head, hiding my amus.e.m.e.nt.
I followed her out of the car, and the driver grabbed our luggage from the back. We started toward the plane as another SUV rolled up. Ollie, Talia, Jeremiah, and Brady hopped out.
Ollie cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "I don"t know if Hawaii is ready for us."
"It"s probably not," I yelled back while they waited for their luggage.
The compet.i.tion still a few days away, but we were all headed to Hawaii. I hoped my nerves would calm down before the day of the event, but that wasn"t likely. I couldn"t wait to get out on the water there, though. Hawaii had some of the best waves, and I"d been itching to go back before I even qualified for this event.
"Come on." My hand settled on Ari"s waist, and I ushered her up the last steps into the plane.
I"d been avoiding her the last few days, ever since I asked her to watch the movie with me. I"d seen something in her eyes that night, something I couldn"t quite describe, and it scared me, so I"d backed off. I knew she was hurt, but I"d chalked up my absence to all the training I was doing, which wasn"t a lie. I"d been living in the water, and it was paying off, but against some of the best surfers in the world, I didn"t think I stood a chance. I wanted to win, more than anything, but I was also so grateful to even be a part of the compet.i.tion that I wouldn"t care if I lost. Okay, I would care, but I"d be okay. I couldn"t let my desire to win cloud my love for the sport.