I turn my head to watch the plane take off, savoring the view as the city gets smaller and smaller below us. We are headed on a quick flight back to my stomping grounds of Washington, D.C., where Daphni will be playing two more shows.

We’re using one of our family’s jets to travel for the tour, while the remaining crew are stuck bussing it. I almost considered joining the crew bus when I overheard Drizzle making a mile-high joke, but by then it was too late, so I made sure to be the first one to scramble aboard the plane and claim the two seats in the front row.

Now that we are up in the air, I take a quick second to glance behind me. As predicted, Daphni and Drizzle are in the back row recreating some animalistic mating ritual I am sure I have seen on some late-night Animal Planet special. Melissa is curled up in another seat, flipping through a pile of magazines. My greedy eyes continue to dart throughout the interior until they land on Liam. He’s seated in the middle of the jet, his long legs spilling out into the aisle. He is in a heated discussion with the other two security detail sitting across from him. I can’t hear them, but his hands are animated and his brow furrowed. I can see the other two men following his words with interest, nodding along.

I turn in my seat before anyone can catch my obvious staring. Deciding I need a distraction, I grab my bag and rummage through until I find the John Grisham novel I had packed. I had picked up The Firm, justifying it by telling myself that since it was technically a novel with a lawyer as the protagonist, it counted toward my study hours.

I thumb through the paperback, finding the page where I’d left off. My eyes skim over the page and I keep rereading the same lines, none of it sinking in. I already know how the novel ends, thanks to Wikipedia. I never pick up a book, or go to see a movie, without reading every possible spoiler first. I used to drive my family crazy by researching movie spoilers before committing to watch any movie. If there is one thing I hate most in the world, it’s surprises. For me, the best way to avoid surprises and be prepared is to simply know the ending before I even open the book.

After a few minutes of rereading the same word a hundred times over, I decide trying to continue is futile. With a frustrated groan, I slam the book closed and drop it down on the table in front of me.

“Must be a good book, then?” Liam’s rich brogue instantly pulls me out of my fog and I jump in my seat with surprise. How had I not noticed him?

He slides into the seat across from me, a playful smile on his face.

“Eh, sure,” I reply absently before pointedly turning my attention to the window at my side in a futile attempt to ignore both Liam and the visceral impact he is obviously having on me.

I weave my fingers together and crack my knuckles. It’s a horrible nervous habit I have and Daphni has convinced me I am going to end up with puffy fingers from my “bloated cartilage.” I hate how anxious I feel around Liam, and even though I keep my eyes glued to the window, I can feel his gaze on me.

“Tell me about the book.”

“What?” I ask, turning to face him. His eyes dart down to my discarded book and I feel my cheeks heat. “Oh, right. It’s about a young lawyer named Mitch. He gets recruited for this law firm in Memphis and then a bunch of the other lawyers at the firm start dying, so he hires this private investigator to look into it. Then he gets approached by the FBI and he finds out the firm is basically laundering money for the mob. In the end, he turns over all these documents to the FBI then runs off to Cayman Islands with ten million dollars.”

Liam shoots me a quizzical look. “You finished the book already? It looks like your bookmark is right in the beginning.”

“You know, you are creepily observant,” I respond, which draws a smile to his lips. “I’m actually only on the third chapter. I just don’t like not knowing how something is going to end, so I make sure that it has a satisfying ending before I waste my time reading it. I don’t want to be disappointed.”

Liam leans forward, resting his elbows on the table. “But what about the excitement of not knowing?” he asks, with a playful wink. “What about the danger?”

I roll my eyes in response. “Life is too short to take risks like that.”

Liam leans back in his chair, a serious expression overtaking his playful smile. “No, Gabby. Life is too short not to.”