Page 30 of Ly to Me

He chuckled and started pulling me by my hand. “C’mon. They’re gonna love you.”

“What? Who?”

He didn’t answer, just kept dragging me past several houses in a neighborhood I’d never been to before. Those darn butterflies had kept me so preoccupied—or really, he had—that I had no clue where the heck I was walking.

“Car, where—” He pulled me to him and slipped my straps from my shoulders, then slung it over one of his.

“I like when you call me that.” Car’s fingers trailed over my jawline before reaching for my hair, tucking the strands behind my ear. Heat flooded my cheeks.

“You’re actin’ funny again. Who’re you talkin’ about? Where are we—”

“My parents.”

“Huh?” I tilted on my toes to peer past him. A perfectly maintained white-picket fence wrapped around what could only be described as one of those HGTV farmhouses worth a million or two. Two-stories high, all white siding, with a yellow door and a wrap-around porch complete with two bench swings.

He chucked his thumb in the direction I was already looking. “Welcome to my house.”

“This…” I couldn’t find the words and felt those butterflies fall right to the lowest parts of my stomach.

“What’s wrong?” His dark brows furrowed. “Oh, shit. Am I scarin’ you?”

“Um…no, it’s not that.”

His fingers wrapped around the strap of my bag. “You’re lying again, aren’t you?”

I swallowed. “Maybe?”

A look crossed his face before he snapped out of it. “How ’bout I sneak you in?”

My eyes cut to him. “What?”

His lips found mine immediately, and those wings rose right up to my throat. “I wanna keep kissin’ you. So, we either go to your house, or you let me sneak you into mine.”

“Car.” He kissed me again and my shoulders slunk. “You’re okay with me not wanting to meet your parents?”

He shrugged, though his eyes screamed something else. “I can wait.” He touched the tip of my nose. “You’ll find I can be real patient for the things I want.”

“Like kissin’ me more?”

His eyes darkened. “You gotta pick one, Ly. Either meet my parents today, or let me sneak you up into my room.”

“How will I get back down?” I angled my body to look past him again. If his room was on the first floor, there were dozens of windows I could leap through, but the top floor—

“Same way I’m gettin’ you in. The front door.” He must’ve seen me mentally calculating that, because he added, “My parents hang out in the back a lot. As long as your feet stay quiet on the stairs, they won’t notice.”

“Okay.”

His tone shifted, clearly happy with my answer. “Yeah?”

I shrugged. “Yeah. But if they catch me—”

“They won’t. I’ve snuck out a doz—” He looked over his shoulder, then back at me. “Shit. Nevermind about that. I’m not like that anymore.”

“Like what?”

“Just, nevermind. Let’s get you inside.” He glanced up at the looming black clouds. “It’s about to storm.”

The clouds were heavy, and it was nearing summer. The storm could go all night, which meant I’d be stuck here.