A Love Song for Liars (Rivals #1) - Piper Lawson Page 0,26

to call it, made me angrier than anything I can remember.

My dad’s never made me feel like I owed him. Even the shock of my birth mom showing up, the secret I’ve been carrying around about the letter that lives in my desk upstairs, feels small and less dramatic by comparison.

I want to track Tyler’s dad down and chew him out. I want to tell him he doesn’t deserve to have a son who’s talented and capable, one who’s resourceful enough to fend for himself when his parents don’t.

I want…

God, I want so many things with Tyler.

I shouldn’t, but I can’t seem to stop.

We splash around for a while, trying to keep a volleyball in the air. Eventually I pause on the wall to catch my breath, watching Pen and Brandon fall into teasing conversation.

“Hey.” I gasp as I realize Tyler’s sneaked up on me in the pool. My gaze pulls to his abs and the water that licks at his stomach a couple inches above the waistband of his shorts.

“What is that?” he asks.

I glance down at the ink sticking out the top of my bikini bottom and mentally curse that I forgot to scrub it off. “Just words. I write things I want to remember.”

“Like ‘buy milk’?”

I put my hands on my hips. “No. Like ‘be fearless’ or ‘open your heart.’”

“Can I see?”

I hoist myself half out of the pool on my elbows and try not to squirm as he tugs down the side of my bikini bottoms.

“’Leave it all.’”

I feel my body flush under his scrutiny.

Normally I write wherever I have space and my words won’t be seen—my wrist, my thigh, my waist. Of course, this time it’s on the front of my hip, below my hipbone. Dangerously low.

“It means don’t hold back. Leave the fear, the doubt, the uncertainty, and give everything. Be everything. I’ve been telling myself that in rehearsal.”

I drop back into the water, and he shades his eyes with a hand. “You could get a tattoo. It’d last longer.”

I shake my head. “I couldn’t decide on one. I’d be covered everywhere. It’d make Dad’s sleeve look like one of those girly ankle tats.”

Tyler grins. When he motions me closer still with a crooked finger, I inch toward him, the water doing nothing to cool my heating blood.

Then before I can decide what his game is, he dunks me.

“I keep seeing banners around for prom. That your doing?” Brandon asks Pen as we head inside after we finish swimming to find something to eat.

“I was on the junior prom committee, but one of the directors of senior prom came down with chicken pox.” Pen shrugs. “Anyway, A’s gonna be my backup.”

“We’ll see,” I say as we scrounge some sandwiches from cold cuts in the fridge and fresh ciabatta rolls on the counter. “I might still be grounded, and I draw the line at serving drinks to the minions while wearing a monkey suit. Are you guys going?”

“I’m still waiting for the right moment to ask Tyler,” Brandon drawls, and Tyler snorts.

“Bring me roses, B, or there’s no way I’m letting you blow me in the limo.”

I shake my head because, apparently, I’m not getting a real answer. “Carly’s been bragging about how Kellan asked her. If only that’d get her off my back.”

“Guess you missed your chance.” Brandon laughs at Tyler as we take our plates of food back out to sit on the patio.

I shiver at the thought of Tyler taking Carly. I picture him in a tux, soft lights and white smiles and flirting in corners.

“I wouldn’t touch her if my life depended on it.” Tyler shifts into the chair at the head of the table. Even out here, he naturally assumes the control position.

“What about at the pool party?” I ask.

“I let her use my bathroom, then kicked her out.”

“Why?” I can’t resist asking. “She’s a dick to us, but she’d probably wax your motorcycle with her tits if you asked her to.”

“Guess she’s not my type.” He reclines in his seat, pushing sunglasses up his nose. “I don’t want her tits anywhere near my shit.”

That pronouncement makes me irrationally happy.

My phone buzzes, and I glance at it. “Norelli just said the gym is free for rehearsal for anyone who can go! I need to be there.”

Tyler cocks his head. “You’re grounded. You’re not leaving.”

I wink at him. “Watch me.”

I’m grateful we ended up consuming less than half a glass each of champagne earlier as I say goodbye to Pen, then