Say Yes (Nostalgic Summer Romance)

The wine had me feeling swimmy inside, my eyelids heavy, giggles rolling out of me more and more easily as the night progressed. When it was just us and one other table left on the patio, the conversation softened more and more until we were just staring at each other from across the table, the air between us thick with electricity.

“So,” I said with another sip of liquid courage. “Was I crazy feeling a connection between us the other night? Or did you feel it, too?”

The question made the smile slip off Liam’s face like a busted egg, the shell of his expression cracked as he let out a long sigh and looked away from me and over the river.

It was answer enough to make my smile crack, too.

I shook my head, eyes falling to where my hands gripped my wine glass. “Never mind.”

“Don’t do that,” he said, still not looking at me. “You’re not crazy. I kissed you, didn’t I?”

Hope balled up in a thick knot in my throat, one I couldn’t swallow past. “Yes,” I whispered. “But then you left. And then Saturday night…”

Liam sighed, running a hand over the scruff lining his jaw. “It was a mistake.”

I swallowed. “Kissing me? Or ignoring me after?”

“Both.”

The word hit my chest like a sledgehammer.

“I can’t be with you,” he said, his eyes finally meeting mine. “I’m fucked up. Broken. I’m not capable of having any kind of relationship with anyone — not just with you. I don’t see the world that way anymore.”

“You’re not fucked up,” I argued, but it was on a tentative whisper. “You’re funny, and charming, and… sweet.”

Liam shook his head, and I could see how hard he had to fight not to roll his eyes at the assessment. “You caught me on a rare day. Or, rare night, I guess,” he said. “That was one of the good days, and they don’t come often.”

“What do you mean?”

He was still shaking his head, still not looking at me, and he chewed the corner of his lip, knee bouncing slightly under the table.

“Why does it have to be all or nothing?” I asked after realizing he wasn’t going to elaborate.

Liam cocked his head to the side on a frown.

“What if… what if you just gave me the summer. What if we just did whatever we wanted to, whatever felt good… for now?”

Liam’s chest rose on a heavy breath, his nostrils flaring, eyes heating to a sizzle where they watched me. I didn’t know whether to feel ashamed for making the suggestion or as proud as the Venus I’d painted.

But after a long moment, he tore his gaze away, taking a long sip of wine to douse the flames. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

And shame won, my chest deflating on the next breath. “Oh.”

Silence fell between us, all the laughter and playfulness from earlier gone, and for a moment, I wondered if I’d spoiled it all by bringing up how I felt.

But the longer we sat there, the more that shame and regret turned to anger and annoyance.

He had been the one to hold my hand that night.

It was him who’d asked to come up to my dorm.

He said we should shower together.

He asked if he could kiss me.

He was hard as a rock when his tongue was halfway down my throat, and now he wanted to say it wasn’t a good idea?

I frowned, folding my arms over my chest. “Well, I do.”

Liam turned his attention to me with a cocked brow. “What?”

“I do think it’s a good idea.”

“Harley…” he warned.

“No. Don’t do that. Don’t talk to me like I’m a little girl or like I don’t know what I’m asking for.”

“But you don’t.”

“Yes, I do. I want to kiss you again.”

The corner of his mouth curved with my admission. “You do, huh?”

“I do. And I think you want to kiss me, too.”

His smile grew even more before it fell altogether, and he inhaled a long breath, his eyes floating out over the river. “It’s not that simple.”

“Sure, it is. You hook up with all these other girls,” I said, waving my hand in the general vicinity of the city. “Why not me?”

“Because you’re different.”

I frowned, confused, but then I thought about the way his eyes had slipped to my hand that first night in the bar, the way he’d handled each finger with such care and tenderness in the shower.

“Oh,” I said softly. “I get it.”

Liam’s eyes met mine, but he didn’t say a word.

“It’s because of my hand, isn’t it?”

“Harley—”

“You think because I have an underdeveloped hand, that I can’t handle casual sex?” I asked, maybe a little too loudly because the only other table left glanced at me before hurriedly tearing their gazes away.

“Harley, stop.”

But I couldn’t.

“You think I’m like this… this…” I waved my hands in the air. “This fragile little thing that needs protection?”