Kennedy smiled playfully and lifted her eyebrows once. “I can see that.”

Pressing her mouth to mine, she kissed me long and slow as I grabbed at her jeans and pulled them off of her one leg at a time.

“Is that all you have for me tonight?” she asked against my lips.

I smiled as I stood from the couch with her wrapped in my arms. “Not even close, Moon.”

19

December 6

Kennedy

“MOON, IT’S TIME to go eat pancakes.”

I was having a nightmare—a horrible one. There were pancakes everywhere and someone was telling me to eat them. No. No, no, no. Pancakes mean secret looks between my parents that make me want to throw up. Pancakes are the food devil.

“Wake up.”

Yes, I want to fucking wake up from this pancake nightmare!

“Moon,” Liam yelled, and my eyes flew open.

“Jesus Christ! You scared the shit out of me.”

He smirked proudly. “You were impossible to wake up, not my fault I had to yell.”

I groaned and slapped at his chest before burying myself under his comforter. “It is your fault because you’re the one who had me up until almost four this morning.”

“Are you complaining about that?”

My cheeks heated, and I shook my head quickly even though he probably couldn’t see what I was doing.

Liam lifted the comforter away from me and passed his lips across my nose. “It’s Sunday.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“You know what that means . . .”

No, I didn’t. I didn’t really care about what anything meant because I’d just realized that Liam still didn’t have any clothes on.

“Pancakes with my family.”

“Oh my God,” I whispered, horrified. “That was supposed to be a nightmare!”

Liam’s eyebrows drew together in confusion.

“I was having a nightmare that someone was making me eat pancakes and I was surrounded by them! It was awful!”

He burst into loud laughter and pulled me into his arms. “These won’t be bad, you want to know why?”

“No,” I mumbled against his chest.

“They won’t be bad because you’ll be eating them with me. You won’t even be able to see your parents, so whatever it is with them that ruined pancakes for you and your sister will be nowhere near you.”

“Still doesn’t sound good.”

“My mom makes banana pancakes.”

I lifted my head and widened my eyes. “I love bananas.”

Liam smiled. “I already know that, which is why I was using it to lure you in. So what do you say?”

“To banana pancakes, or to brunch with your family . . . including your sister, who I’m pretty sure hates me.”

“All of the above. And Kristi doesn’t hate you. She only knew that you had been married and that I was miserable, and she didn’t wait to hear the rest of the story before she reacted. I don’t know what she did to you, but I know how she was to me. But she knows now . . . the whole thing—even Vegas. My entire family does. So I can assure you no one there will hate you.”

“Oh my God, they know about Vegas? What the hell, Liam? I can’t go there now!”

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, you can. So are you coming with me?”

“No,” I said stubbornly.

“Banana pancakes?” He waited a few seconds before repeating with exaggeration, “Banana pancakes.”

I sighed dramatically and mumbled, “Well, I guess I know why Kristi stopped giving me the death stare every time she walked by me.”

“Still waiting.”

“Yes, Liam. Yes, I will go with you to brunch with your family and eat banana pancakes. As long as we get something straight, first.”

He’d started pulling me out of bed when I agreed, but abruptly stopped. “Like what?”

“What am I?”

Liam watched me for a few seconds before saying, “A woman?” I shook my head and started to clarify, but he spoke again. “Not a woman? Uh . . . a unicorn?”

Hard laughs burst from my chest, and it took me awhile to calm down enough to speak. “No! What am I to you? What is your family going to think I am? I think we need to get that figured out before you toss me into a house with them.”

“My girl, mine, girlfriend . . . whatever you prefer, as long as it’s clear that you are mine.”

“All of the above?” I offered.

With a nod, he agreed, “All of the above, then. Let’s get ready and go.”

THIRTY MINUTES LATER, we were walking up to his parents’ door. I was wearing my clothes from the night before. I had no makeup on because it looked better than the half-smeared-off look I’d been sporting when Liam woke me up. And I was wearing Liam’s deodorant. I. Felt. Fabulous.

“You do realize this is my first Sunday with your family, and I look like I spent the night in your bed.”

“You did.”

I smacked Liam’s stomach as we continued walking. “Yeah, but they don’t need to know that.” I groaned and rubbed at my eyes. “Oh well, they probably already figured it out when you told them I was coming.”

Liam glanced at me with a confused look. “I didn’t tell them you were coming.”

“Fuck this, I’m not going.” I turned to go back to his car, but he caught me around the waist and started carrying me toward the door. Ass first. My hips were against his forearm, my arms and head were hanging down next to his butt, and the tips of my toes were just barely scraping along the cement so it was giving me a tease of being able to regain control if I could just put my feet down. I looked like a damn rag doll.

“Put me down!” I hissed when he rang the doorbell.

“Hell no. If I do, you’ll leave.”

“Since when do you ring—” Brandon’s deep voice cut off as he started laughing. “Never mind. Understood.”

“I’m starving,” Liam mumbled as he walked us inside.

“Well, you came to the right place,” Brandon said, his tone still light with the hint of laughter. “Is she misbehaving again?” he asked his son.

“I hate you both,” I grumbled, but the defeat was clear in my tone. I knew this was about to be the worst day. Never mind that I looked like I’d been fucking their son all night, I was also being dragged into the house like some kind of object.

“I’m so glad—” A woman, who I was almost positive was Liam’s mom by the sound of her voice, began saying, but cut off as she started laughing just like Brandon had done.

Within seconds there were numerous other people laughing too.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

“Well then, back to what I was saying. I am glad you showed up today, and I love that you came with him, Kennedy!”

“It wasn’t voluntarily!” I called out.

“I can see that.” Liam’s mom sighed, and I listened to her light footfalls as she approached us. From the way Liam bent, I assumed she was giving him a hug, but then I heard a smack and Liam cringed. “Put the poor girl down! Gently! Gently put her down.”

As soon as I was on my feet, I straightened and blew out a frustrated breath, then turned to see everyone watching me with amused expressions. “Hi,” I said awkwardly. But no one said anything back; they just kept smiling as they looked between Liam and me. “Um . . . huh. So . . . the pancakes smell good.”