Her lip curled in a smile, and Liam’s heart nearly leapt out of his chest. Mina shook her head, a quick little movement that telegraphed the entire world’s disbelief. “All right. When I was fixing up your clothes, you invited me to a party. Well, I was thrilled. I didn’t think you’d ask me to go anywhere with you. I—” She put a hand to her mouth and cleared her throat. Mina’s cheeks got pinker by the second. “I had a…little bit of a thing for you.”
“A thing for me?”
“A crush on you,” she burst out. It made such perfect sense. He’d trusted her instinctively when they ran into each other after he’d been tossed from the horse, and maybe that was why. No, Liam couldn’t remember much about those few minutes. But he could remember the way it felt to lay eyes on her face. To really look at her. It had felt a bit like flying. “Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is that I was so excited to go. I got a new top, which was a big deal, and I did my makeup. I thought something might come of it.”
Liam had never wanted to go back in time so much in his life. “Something like what?”
She waved him off. “Oh, Liam, I don’t know. I thought maybe the party would lead to dating. Something like that. It was a teenage fantasy.” Mina looked at him expectantly.
Liam was caught in a haze of memory. It was right there. The party. She hadn’t shown. “You never came. Are you mad at me for not taking you to the party?” He could feel the final piece of the puzzle hovering above him, waiting to connect with the top of his head. “For god’s sake, Mina, spit it out.”
Her face went scarlet. “Oh, I came, all right. I came just in time to hear you tell everybody how disgusted you were with me.”
“No way. I would never have done that.” A righteous anger flashed across his chest. “I wouldn’t say that about anybody. I know you don’t think highly of me, but I would never have gone and done that.”
Mina’s eyes narrowed. “But I heard you. I’ll never forget it for the rest of my life. I was about to walk into the kitchen and say hi, but one of your friends asked you if you undressed in front of me. And you said, ugh. No. I would never do that.”
Liam could see it now, clear as if it played on a projector in front of him. “You got it all wrong.”
She stood up and crossed her arms over her chest. “How exactly did I get that wrong? You said what you said.”
Liam followed her to her feet and caught up with her by the window. “I said that. But I wasn’t talking about you. I was talking about undressing in front of your grandmother. God, Mina, you can hardly blame me for saying that. I didn’t want you to get into any more trouble. I thought you might have been in hot water for fixing my clothes and taking that horse back. So I said Aileen helped me with the clothes.”
It had been years, years, since the horse incident, but Liam could still feel the way his heart had pounded in the kitchen that evening. He’d felt hotly protective of Mina, and some part of him understood that if he gave even an inch, the other boys in his class would spread rumors about the two of them like wildfire. But that wasn’t his style. So he’d gone with the convenient lie. The lie that wouldn’t hurt anybody.
Except…it had still hurt Mina. “Right or not,” he said, the anger fading away into regret, “I shouldn’t have said anything. And I’m sorry for saying that about Aileen. I’d undress in front of her any day.”
A beat passed, and then Mina’s laugh broke free from her throat. “You don’t have to say that.”
“I’m still sorry,” he insisted. Liam took a half-step toward her. “I’m really sorry, Mina. I never meant for you to hear it that way.” He had a hundred excuses and a million things more to explain. The way it was in high school, when the guys thought that kissing and telling was the ultimate cachet. But he knew it was too late for that. What mattered now was that she understood his regret. “I apologize. With all my heart, I hope you know how sorry I am.”
Mina leaned in and kissed him. Shock reverberated down through each of his nerve endings, making his fingertips and toes tingle. Liam’s body stiffened, but he relaxed almost immediately. She tasted so sweet. Like mint gum and hope. “Well, you’ve done it now,” she whispered, and turned to walk away.
Liam caught her by the elbow and pulled her back. The movement had all the grace of a move on the ballroom floor, and he caught her effortlessly in his arms. Then it was his chance to kiss her. Their lips crashed together with a certain coordination, a certain familiarity that should have been impossible. He swept his tongue over her bottom lip and teased them apart. He wanted to explore every part of her. Every single inch. That desire was tempered with the need to take his time. He could only
