Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 29464 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 147(@200wpm)___ 118(@250wpm)___ 98(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29464 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 147(@200wpm)___ 118(@250wpm)___ 98(@300wpm)
Liam sucks in a breath. Eyes wide.
Then looks away.
Teague chuckles at Liam’s reaction, unsure how to take it. His voice softens. “So imagine my surprise when I found out you were working at the store I just got hired at. Funny thing, my first day working, was the first day I talked to this guy on this app. It gave me the confidence to walk into that store. I almost chickened out! And when I saw you, I thought … my whole summer … it would be made! But nothing’s gone right. Every time I thought we were growing closer, I’d just mess things up. Just like I did earlier with our errand out to Gary’s. I couldn’t even bear to keep things going with the guy on the app these past few days, because all I could think about … was you.” He shrugs. “You’d probably like him, y’know. He reminds me … of you.”
“Teague …”
“But I’m sorry. I’m sorry about how this looks. I … I shouldn’t have ghosted him. I should’ve had the respect to end things. That is so crummy of me, to lead him on, to keep feeding my fantasy that he could be you in some other Greek multiverse, that maybe Zeus or Aphrodite or Cupid was sending me a sign …”
“Teague …”
“No, no, really, it’s out of character for me to be like this, but my emotions have been, like, fucking everywhere lately, and I—”
“The middle one.”
Teague stops talking. Liam’s eyes are clamped shut, with his head turned slightly, like he can’t bear to make eye contact.
It confuses Teague. “Uh … what?”
“The middle one,” Liam repeats.
Teague doesn’t follow. “The middle …? What … What do you mean? The middle what?”
“Head. Cerberus. My answer. To your question. The … middle one. That’s the one I’d give CPR to. Quickest path to the lungs.” Liam finally opens his eyes and turns to him. “Simple biology.”
Teague’s lips hang open. “You …? You’re …?”
“Tongue Tied In Knots. Knots.” Liam’s face tightens. “My last name, Teague, you big dork. Liam Knott.”
The dots slowly connect in Teague’s eyes. Electricity fires in every corner of his brain as he, in the cramped and unforgiving space of seconds, relives his entire summer so far with a totally altered understanding. His eyes glow with incapacitating disbelief. “I’ve been … been talking … to you … this whole time …?”
“Yeah.” Liam sits back, unpinning Teague. “And … apparently I’ve been doing the same. Like an idiot.”
Teague sits up at once, surprising Liam, then wraps his arms around him. “Oh my gods. My gods. All of the gods and goddesses. Oh my gods …”
“Teague, you’re choking me.”
Teague lets go and brings his face close. “Are you pranking me right now? Did you open my phone? Did you read the messages and are pretending to be the tongue-tied guy?”
Liam snorts. “Really?”
“Are you serious? We’ve been falling in love this whole past month and didn’t even realize it until tonight?”
Liam’s face freezes. “Wait … what? Falling in—?”
“You’re the sexy nerd with untamable cowlicks?” Teague goes on, his heart ablaze. “You’re the one who’s kept me sane all those nights when my dad was a total jerk? All those nights I felt lonely? But you said you didn’t have braces! You said …” He overturns him suddenly, startling Liam as Teague now pins Liam to the bed with expert skill. “I dunno whether to shout or cry,” he says, staring down at Liam, pinning him just like in his dream. “I can’t believe it’s really you. I … I can barely breathe I’m so happy.”
After a moment of recovery, Liam finds himself smiling. “At least if you pass out, I’ll only have one mouth to choose from.”
Teague dives into Liam’s face right then, and at once, kisses replace words, and the boys lose the rest of the night to each other’s desires—this time, with no more mysteries between them.
13
A Hundred Kisses
“Gosh, you two have gotten awfully close.”
The comment comes from Gracie, who stops by on her break to check on Liam and Teague, who are in the midst of helping each other set up a display in the front of the store.
Liam glances at Teague, feeling coy. “Have we?”
Teague shrugs. “Didn’t notice.”
Another day, the boys clock out for a break together, where they decide to partake of some tasty treats in the bakery section. Liam feels his heart drum happily in his chest as he feeds Teague a bite of his pastry. Teague sticks a finger in his Bavarian cream donut and makes Liam lick it off in a silly way. Then they laugh, the lovey-dovey moment over, having cracked each other up.
The whole time, an out-of-the-loop Gracie stares at them from behind the counter, baffled.
It’s so obvious Liam and Teague are a thing now, even if no one else can believe their eyes.