Liam was unimpressed by the fact that his mother had tried to give me drugs. I found him upstairs in one of the bedrooms, after I’d wandered around inside by myself, finally resorting to calling his name like an insane person.

The house was nice inside, the front door opening into a formal living room filled with crisp beige couches and mahogany end tables. There was a winding staircase to the right that led upstairs to a row of bedrooms, and the upstairs hallway was flanked on one side by a slatted wooden railing that allowed you to look down over the living room below.

I found Liam in one of the bedrooms, standing by the nightstand as he plugged his phone into its charger.

“Your mother just offered me a Xanax,” I said as I closed the door behind me. I watched him carefully for his reaction, wondering if I was overreacting. I barely ever even had a beer when I was out, much less drugs or pills. But maybe Xanax was something people just offered to each other now, the way that marijuana had become almost passé, the kind of thing you could buy on every corner in Colorado.

“Did you hear me?” I prompted when Liam showed no reaction.

“Do you have concerns about my hearing, Emery?” he asked as he set the phone down. “Because you are constantly asking me if I’ve heard you.”

“You’re being a real dick.” I sat down on the bed, as if maybe my presence being closer to him would make him listen more. “Your mother just offered me a prescription drug.”

“Did you take it?”

“No, of course not.”

A thumping sound came from the other side of the closed bedroom door, and Liam waited a beat before opening it. Our suitcases sat there, placed carefully side by side and upright. There was no sign of whoever it was who had brought them.

It must have been Gustav who’d brought them from the hotel, but surely Annabelle wouldn’t have just allowed him inside of the house? Something told me she would have wanted to be the one to bring up our suitcases, that she wouldn’t have wanted to miss the opportunity to talk to us.

At least, that’s what I would have thought.

But now I wasn’t so sure.

Something had shifted with Annabelle ever since we’d arrived at the house.

And something had shifted with Liam, too.

While he’d been always cold and shut off, it was as if he were taking it to a different level now.

His insistence that I not talk to his mother had been almost constant, and now I’d just told him that she’d offered me a Xanax and he had no reaction. It was like this house, this place, being around his parents were starting to magnify all his tendencies.

“I’m going to take a shower.”

He pulled off his shirt and disappeared into the bathroom.

* * *

I dragged my stuff over to my side of the room.

In my suitcase, nestled right on top, was the bag of books that I’d bought in the bookstore casino, the Harry Potter book and the other one, the silly romantic comedy.

I took a pic of the Harry Potter book and texted it to Maddie.

Remember how your mom read this to you when we were younger and I was so jealous because I had no one to read it to me? I’m giving up my protest and finally reading it

It was a silly text, and definitely not the kind of thing that was going to make up for what I’d done -- running off and changing my mind about staying with Liam wasn’t going to be solved with a text about Harry Potter, and as soon I sent it, I felt foolish.

I sat down on the bed, listening to the sound of the shower coming through the bathroom door and looked around.

The room was sparse. It was a good size for a bedroom – big enough for at least a queen bed, a walk-in closet, and its own adjoining bathroom -- but the room itself was pretty bare. The bed was a double, with a chestnut frame, the wood of the headboard forming a lattice pattern.

There was nothing on the walls -- no pictures, no posters, nothing -- which were painted a dark blue. Was this Liam’s room when he was growing up? There was no sign that this used to be his room, no sign that it was even ever inhabited.

There were no marks on the walls from posters, no scuffmarks on the woodwork. The carpet was slightly worn, but it was the kind of wear that seemed normal, the way it would be if you were using the room as a guest room.

I stared out the window, which looked out over the backyard. The lawn was perfectly manicured, the crisscrossing lines from the mower still visible. Behind the property line was a thick swash of trees, tall California pines and redwoods, creating a beautiful blanket of dark green that slashed across the deep blue of the sky.

The sound of the bathroom door shutting snapped me out of my reverie. I turned around to find Liam in nothing but a towel. The fabric cinched around his waist, showing off his beautiful body, beads of water glistening off his muscles.

Another towel was in his hand, and he used it to dry his hair, leaving his hair mussed and damp.

Jesus.

My core clenched as I ran my eyes up his body. His masculinity permeated the room, his presence disarming.

“Was this your room?” I asked him. “When you lived here growing up?”

“Yes.”

He offered no other explanation, instead rummaging in his suitcase for clothes. A drop of water slid from his chest down his smooth torso before disappearing underneath his towel.

I averted my eyes. “Did your parents redo it after you moved out?”

“No.” He offered no other explanation. “You should get ready.”

“For what?”

“We’re going to dinner.”

“Just us?” I wasn’t sure how I felt about going out to dinner with Liam alone. On one hand, my heart longed for the way it might be if it were just the two of us, the way it had been last night. But the other part of me wanted to tell him that if he thought I was just going to pretend like everything was normal between us with the way he was acting, he was totally wrong.

“No. With my parents and my cousin and his girlfriend.”

“Your cousin?” I repeated, surprised. This must have been the cousin that Annabelle had mentioned earlier, and I was eager for details.

“Just get ready, Emery.” He looked at me, his expression blank. “Do you want hair and makeup?”

The thought of having to make small talk with Tevi and Marnie was exhausting. “No, I’m… I’ll be fine.”

He nodded. “I’ll be in the office next door working. Be ready by seven thirty.”