Nonverbal - Aria Grace Page 0,22

years earlier. I was proud of her for knowing her value and having standards.

“Avery, stop with that. You know what I mean. It’s happening. Liam is coming back to us. I can see it in his eyes.”

Mr. Brenner reached for his wife’s hand and held it to his lips as a tear slipped down his face.

Avery nudged my leg under the table to get my attention. When I caught her eye, she raised her eyebrow in a menacing way and mouthed, “Protection.”

I nodded as subtly as I could without interrupting the family’s moment.

“Thank you, Wyatt.” Mr. Brenner cleared his throat when his voice cracked. “You’ve already healed our son more in a few months than we’ve been able to do in all these years. I can’t wait to see what else develops from your friendship.”

Yeah, you and me both, sir. You and me both.

Fifteen

The Brenners left before dinner on Thursday evening. They took a late flight out of Chicago that arrived in Phoenix just before midnight, so that left Avery and me alone with Liam for the night.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Avery sing-songed as she passed by me on the stairs.

She was wearing a tight dress and had a full face of makeup, which wasn’t her normal look. “Where are you going?”

“It’s Brooke’s birthday so we’re taking her to dinner. I won’t be out too late.” She paused at the bottom of the staircase. “You guys gonna be okay alone?”

“Yes, Mom. We’ll be good.”

She barked out a laugh. “Are you kidding? My mom seems to want you to make grandbabies or something. I’m just making sure you know how to set the alarm before bed and all that.”

“Before bed?” I raised an eyebrow and took a few steps down. “Just how late will you be?”

“I’ll be home by midnight, but if you guys get in bed early, just lock up. I’ll check the alarm when I come in.”

The Brenners hadn’t given me any instructions for Avery, so I wasn’t responsible for monitoring her activities. “Okay, well, be careful. And call if you need anything.”

“I will.” She spun on her heel. “And use condoms!”

This girl was like a walking public service announcement. I was glad she had such a strong commitment to safe sex but it actually put pressure on me to do stuff that required condoms. “Don’t drink and drive.” See, I could offer safety advice too.

I went up to the studio where Liam was finishing up a New York Lego cityscape complete with Spider-Man scaling a building.

“Hey, bud. I’ve got a surprise for you.”

Liam smiled and walked toward me. His eyes lit up when I showed him the DVD of Spider-Man. “Wanna watch a movie tonight?”

He reached for the case and opened it up. With the disk in hand, he went straight to the guest room I planned to sleep in.

“In here?” I followed him in and watched as he slipped the disk into the DVD player. “Okay.”

I sat at the head of the bed with my back pressed up to it. Liam had never used electronics on his own in front of me so I was surprised when he hit all the right buttons on the remote to skip past the previews and start the movie.

He climbed onto the bed and sat right beside me, his entire left side flush up against my right side. Instinctively, I rested my hand on his thigh and he reached for it, interlacing our fingers together. As the movie started, Liam watched it with more interest than he usually showed in movies. He cringed when he should cringe and he laughed when he was supposed to laugh. That wasn’t something I’d heard before so I tickled his side to get him to do it again.

When we got to the infamous upside-down kiss, Liam’s grip on my hand tightened and his breathing changed. I could easily see his shorts moving but I tried to ignore it, hoping we could get through the movie. What I didn’t anticipate was that he’d place his hand on my cheek and turn me toward him.

Before I could ask what was wrong, Liam pressed his lips to mine, kissing me hard without moving until we were both breathless.

“Liam.” I reached for the back of his neck and held his face close to mine. “I want to kiss you, but I need to know you understand what this means…and that you want me to.”

He took a deep breath and I was afraid he’d change his mind. Maybe