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“Muh?” I blinked awake and found my little sister peering at me, mere inches from my face.

“There’s a boy here.”

“What?” I sat up and reached for my phone—I hadn’t gotten any calls or texts, and it was only nine.

“Is he supposed to be here?” she asked. “Is he your boooooyfriend?”

Well, was he?Excellent question, Allie. “Where is he?”

“Outside.”

“Good girl.” I rolled out of bed and started pulling on the same thing I’d worn yesterday. Darius had to know if he surprised me like this I wasn’t going to look amazing—suddenly all the girls I’d ever mocked for trying too hard were taunting me inside my mind, a cruel chorus. “Tell him I’m coming. Don’t let him in.”

“Okay!”

I hauled my hair up into a ponytail and brushed my teeth and then went for the door.

“What’re you—” I began, and then saw who it was.

Liam. He gave a low wave. “Hey.”

“Hey.” I’d imagined this moment at least forty million times. “What’s up?” I said, stepping outside and pulling the front door very firmly shut behind me.

“I thought maybe I could bum some English knowledge off of you today.”

I grinned. “All tutoring appointments have to be made twenty-four hours in advance. If you’d’ve read the fine print, you’d’ve known that.” I crossed my arms and tried to look serious.

“Awww, come on. professor. You got better places to be? I’ll even feed you breakfast. Or lunch. Whichever one sounds better.” Some small part of me trilled as he kept talking. “Just us. No books even. Unless having books around makes you feel safer, and well, then, books.”

I couldn’t help but laugh and do that thing where I tried to hide behind my hair only I’d pulled it into a ponytail earlier so I probably looked like I was having a seizure.

He was three steps lower than me, holding out his open hand, and everything in me was tempted to take it. Up until a week ago I would’ve gone with him without question. But now –

I heard the front door reopen behind me. I turned to give Allie a death-stare and found my smiling mother just inside.

“Liam Lewis! Well I never—come in, come in!” she said, and it was too late.

“Hello. Mrs. McMullen!” he said cheerfully.

“Call me Rachel,” she said, waving us both inside.

Liam behaved like this sort of thing happened to him all the time. The line of recognizable people in Redson wasn’t very long—the Mayor, Rebecca Molange—the newscaster from Lawrence that started here and who came back to do exposés after each tornado—and all three members of the Lewis baseball dynasty.

I wondered what it was like to be him and go to the grocery store.

“I would’ve cleaned if I’d known,” my mother apologized, rearranging throw pillows on our shabby couch, then hip bumped me suggestively toward him and looked pointedly at the kitchen. Allie sat on the kitchen table with her colors out and was watching.

“Do you, uh, want anything to drink?” I asked, feeling like a robot.

“No, I’m good, thanks.”

“So what brings you here today?” my mother butt in, saving me from small talk.

“I was just hoping Jessie here could help me study.”

“I’m sure she could—my daughter’s probably the smartest girl in that school.”

I felt myself flush bright red, then saw Allie’s mouth opening, to tease me I was sure—and then my phone got a text. I pulled it out, even as the words unfurled in my mind.