perfect between them, Liam was glad to be here with her. Covertly, he watched her eat.
“What?” she asked, tapping her mouth with her napkin.
“Nothing. Tell me about working at the gallery.”
For the next twenty minutes, she went through how much she enjoyed it, mentioning how her job had expanded to being a buyer. “And, as you know, Mr. Temple lets me have a room in the back to paint. That’s important to me.” As if sensing Liam’s questions, she said, “I just had to get the paintings out of me, okay, Liam? They didn’t mean anything.”
He didn’t want to ask, but he couldn’t resist. “Why did you rewrite history in that painting?”
“What do you mean?” But she was blushing, and he knew she knew what he meant.
“In the picture of me proposing. You looked happy and like you were accepting, and we both know that’s not what happened.”
“I did accept.” She argued.
“And then dumped me flat for Trey.” He kept his voice calm.
Her face reddened. “What happened to not talking about the past?”
He calmed himself. “Fine.”
For a few minutes they continued eating, then her hand flew to her stomach, and her eyes bulged.
“Are you okay?”
She jumped from her seat and rushed to the bathroom.
Oh dear. He put his fork down and wiped the corners of his lips, worrying about her. Was she sick? After several minutes, he paid the server, and then he waited by the front door.
Eventually, Evie emerged, but she was pale. She rushed by him. “Sorry, I have to get home. I think I’m having an allergic reaction.”
He put out his hand. “Let me drive.”
She relinquished the keys, and he opened the door for her before jogging around to the driver’s side.
As he drove out to Melvin Beach, she put her hand over her stomach and cringed randomly. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he wondered what was happening.
She gulped and clapped a hand over her mouth. “Pull over.”
He swerved to the side and she jumped from the car, though she didn’t get far before she barfed into the weeds. He grabbed some tissues and water before rushing out to her.
She finished retching and sobbed, “I’m sorry.”
He handed her the tissues and water and moved closer to support her from behind. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”
Her trembling fingers fumbled with the bottle cap. He opened the bottle for her, then helped her clean up a little. She swished with water and spit, and then he guided her back to the car.
They had driven a while before she said, “I’m so sorry. This is disgusting.”
“I don’t care. I’m just glad I’m here to help you.”
As he pulled up in front of the cute bungalow, he turned the car off, then rushed to her side and steadied her on the way to the front door.
“The key is under the frog,” she said.
He fetched the key, put it in the lock, and turned the doorknob.
She moaned and broke free of him, bursting through the door and rushing down the hallway. “Sorry!” He heard a door slam shut followed by retching.
“Dang.” Liam grimaced sympathetically. He stepped back outside long enough to put the key back under the frog. He’d have to talk with her about having better security.
He walked into the little living room, which had a retro kind of look, and then into the kitchen. He didn’t hear any more retching, but he worried about her. She’d seemed so strong today when they’d been climbing the bridge, which mystified him, because she hadn’t liked heights at all back in the day.
He moved out of the kitchen and admired the pictures of sunsets and beaches on her wall. She’d painted these. He moved closer to the magnet board she’d attached around the whole living room with assorted paintings. These didn’t have people in them. He hadn’t been able to get the paintings from yesterday out of his mind. The pictures were their story, which they’d made up and delighted in for one year while she was in AVI.
Liam paused in front of a magazine she had lying haphazardly on the couch. He and Shay were on the front—Liam had dreadlocks in the photo—and their siblings were on the back cover. Country Sound, the magazine was called. He picked it up, thrilled that she had the magazine.
The other Summervilles would be here soon, and he would start touring in Australia. What would happen between him and Evie? He didn’t want her out of his life, even with all the pain. It’d felt so