If These Wings Could Fly - Kyrie McCauley Page 0,45
minute, Liam.”
“I cannot sing.”
I deflate. “That’s not really what I meant.”
“Sure, but I can’t just not sing—I am spectacularly bad at it. Cannot find a note to save my life.”
He knows I didn’t mean singing. No one can sing. But I’ll hold him to it anyway.
“Prove it.”
Liam doesn’t even hesitate. He pulls up a music app on his phone and chooses a song from the movie’s soundtrack. He starts to sing. And, oh my God, he’s right. He is spectacularly bad.
On the other couch, their cat lifts his head at the noise Liam is making.
I refuse to laugh, because this is such a cheating flaw and I was hoping for something a little more real, but he’s making it hard.
I hold it together until he launches into falsetto. But when he sings the last high note, his cat runs out of the room, and I’m lost. I laugh until I’m crying.
He ends as loudly and terribly as he began. And he bows deeply even though he lost fifty percent of his audience during his performance.
“Baxter doesn’t like your singing, but I do,” I say when I can breathe again.
“You liked that?” He collapses onto the couch, and I half fall onto him.
“I loved that, Liam. If all of your flaws are this incredible, you should really share them with the world. You are depriving people of some very wonderful and very human flaws.”
“Totally worth it. Gotta remember this.”
“Remember what?”
“How great your laugh is. I could definitely get used to hearing that,” Liam says, grinning. He reaches over and wipes a tear off my cheek. I cry a lot when I laugh. I cry when I’m sad and when I’m scared, and definitely when I’m angry, but also when I laugh. Especially when I laugh so hard it hurts my ribs.
Spoiler alert: Leighton Barnes cries all the time.
But now I’m not laughing or crying, I’m just curled up on a couch with a really sweet guy’s arm wrapped around me. I’m not sure how I came to be in Liam McNamara’s basement, snuggled up on the couch, seeing this side of him that I never imagined existed. I’d say it’s like I’ve arrived on an alien planet, but Liam and his family are clearly the normal ones in this scenario. I guess that makes me the lost, out-of-place alien. Don’t mind me, I’m just here to take some space alien notes on what a happy family looks like.
Liam pulls my legs onto his lap. “Leighton, I’ve been really wanting to ask you something. And I’ve honestly never asked this question before not knowing what the answer will be. And before you call me on it, yes, I know that sounds super arrogant. I just want you to know I’m feeling vulnerable here, too. Like a little baby kitten. So if you have to say no, be gentle, okay?”
“Okay, okay. I’m not this mean, am I?”
“I dunno.” He smiles. “Let’s see.”
He’s built this up so much that I’m genuinely nervous.
“Leighton, will you be my girlfriend?”
Oh.
I don’t answer him right away. If he wasn’t sure what my answer would be, neither am I.
I should say no, because. Reasons. I know that I should say no. It’s selfish not to. But I’ve felt so trapped the last two years, and with Liam, I just feel like myself. Like how I could be all the time if things were different.
Besides, Liam McNamara just called himself a baby kitten.
“Do we have to date? I’m really just in it for the sex.”
I’ve won a date night bonus round, and the prize is Liam’s deep, booming laugh.
“Seriously, Leighton.”
“Seriously, Liam?” I ask. I kiss his cheek. “Yes. I’ll be your girlfriend.”
“Does this mean I have a date to the Snow Ball?”
“You know that’s not its name, right?”
“Does this mean I have a date to the Winter Formal?”
“Yes,” I say, and only once I say it do I remember the promise I made Sofia. Maybe I was wrong, and I always would have said yes to him.
“I really wanna kiss you,” he whispers. “But I can’t right now.”
“Why not?” I whisper.
“Because then you will miss the best part.”
I lean my head on his shoulder, and we watch. It feels natural, and comfortable, and a thousand other things I haven’t felt in a long time, and they all begin and end with the feeling of safety.
For the moment, I am the happiest creature on earth.
Chapter Thirty
I ARRIVE HOME AFTER MY FATHER has fallen asleep, and leave before he wakes up.