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LAYLA

"Oh,no. Oh, no. No, no, no.”

Liam linked his fingers with mine. “You’re fine, Layla.”

I scooted closer to him in the cart, my grip on his hand growing tighter. “I can’t watch. I can’t do it.”

“You’ve done this before.”

I wrapped my opposite arm around his bicep, nuzzled my cheek against his shoulder, and closed one eye. “It’s still scary. That’s why they call it a haunted house.”

“I promise that nothing bad is going to happen.”

The cart had made its way from outside the haunted house, where we hopped into our two-person cart, past the doors that led inside.

Darkness surrounded us. My heart pounded.

“I hate this ride. Why did we start with this one?”

With his fingers still linked with mine, Liam lifted his opposite hand to the side of my face and stroked lightlyalong my cheek before pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “I would never let anything hurt you. You’ll be safe.”

“I know. I know. But you know how much— Oh, God!”

The sound of a horn filled the air as headlights flashed in front of us. Great. Just great. That was just what I needed, a mock head-on crash.

Burying my face completely in his shoulder, squeezing both eyes as tight as I could, I felt Liam’s body vibrate with laughter.

As our cart picked up more speed and took the turns through the house faster, I tried to focus on the part of this that I loved the most. I didn’t watch what was happening, and I forced myself not to focus on the sounds around me.

Just Liam.

Just the feel and smell of him so close. The laughter and joy that he was experiencing.

Nothing else mattered if he was happy.

And it worked. Before I knew it, our cart came to a grinding halt outside the haunted house.

“Look at that. You survived.”

I tipped my chin up, blinking my eyes to adjust to the light, and murmured, “Narrowly.”

“Now I remember why I like riding the rides with you so much.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“Because you can’t keep your hands off me.”

I pursed my lips and gave him a playfulshove.

And four hours later, my cheeks hurt.

I’d done nothing but laugh—and scream—during our visit to Westwood’s.

My idea for Liam and me to do something fun following lunch had been smart. But his idea to take me back to the place where it all began was genius.

Brilliant.

I hadn’t thought he’d ever want to go back to where he worked, just to spend some time with me, but since we were going there to ride all the rides we could, I guess he didn’t give it a second thought. In fact, he seemed thrilled to be taking me all through the park, skipping the lines, and laughing as I screamed my head off.