“Stop worrying.” I lure him closer to me with a jerk, the movement rougher than I intended. “You have nothing to be sorry about. You sleepwalk. So what? We all have our weird, little quirks.”

He cracks a small, adorable smile. “And what are your weird, little quirks?”

“Um, hello, isn’t that kind of obvious? I’m always as freaking cheery and sparkly as the sun is on crack, trying to spin everything and everyone into sugar and rainbows with my smile. Albeit, it’s an adorable smile.” I flash him my pearly whites. “I bet it’s kind of blinding and gets a little tiring to deal with all the time, though.”

“It’ll never get tiring.” His mood shifts as his gaze drops to my lips. “And your smile’s beautiful.”

I have to take a moment to catch my breath; otherwise, my voice will wobble like mad-crazy. “You can kiss me if you want.”

“Can I?” He tries to tease, but his voice comes out raspy.

Leaning in, he places his lips against mine, giving me a featherlike kiss.

“That’s it?” I jut out my lip when he pulls away.

Sucking in a few calculated breaths, his hands glide around my back, and he fumbles with the hem of my tank top. “It’s getting late, and your parents will be coming home soon. I don’t want them to find us making out in the garage.” When I crinkle my nose, he adds, “Lila and Ethan aren’t going to be home for a while, though, so . . .”

“So, what?” I play dumb and totally get rewarded when he blushes.

“I thought we could, you know . . .” He lifts one hand to nervously massage the back of his neck. “Go up to my room for a while, and”—his blush deepens—“continue kissing.”

I choke on a giggle. “I knew what you meant from the beginning, but it was fun watching you get all weirded out.”

He jokingly scowls at me. “That was kind of mean.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s a good thing you love me.” I instantly want to kick myself for dropping the L-bomb. I know the word makes him squeamish.

He stares at me, his expression unreadable, as silences encompasses us.

“So, yeah, let’s go inside,” I say awkwardly after a soundless moment goes by.

Not saying anything, he laces our fingers together and steers me out of the garage, down my driveway, and toward his house. He pauses when we’re about to walk inside and suddenly looks down at the end of the driveway.

I track his gaze to Miss Finkleson, our neighbor across the street, watering her garden in her bathrobe. “What are you looking at?”

“Making sure my . . . babysitter isn’t around.” He tensely massages his neck.

“Babysitter? Dude, what are you talking about?” I squint at his expression. “Did you get high with Sage today?”

“No.” He sighs, his hand falling to his side. “Because of everything going on, an undercover detective has been following me to make sure I’m safe. I didn’t know it, though, and got caught going somewhere. Lila made it seem like, because I fucked up, I was going to be watched all the time, but I haven’t noticed the car around for the last couple of hours.”

“What were you doing?” I wonder. “When you got caught?”

He pulls an oh-so-busted expression. “Hanging out in front of that house Sadie last lived at. Figures the day I decide to go inside is the day they followed me. Lila was really fucking pissed off at me.”

He went into that house?

A detective is following him?

To keep him safe?

I bite down on my lip hard as reality crushes down on me and causes my eyes to water up.

“Lyric, what’s wrong?” He lowers his face closer to mine, searching my eyes. “Are you . . . ? Are you crying?”

“No,” I lie, sucking back the waterworks. “I’m almost crying.”

“Almost crying?” He frowns. “What’d I say that upset you?”

“It’s not what you said. It’s what you didn’t say, which I know is a really cliché girlfriend thing to whine about.” I blink up at the sunlight filtering through the sky, only because I can’t look him in the eye at the moment. “I hate that you keep stuff from me. You going to that house is like the Internet hacker all over again.”

“No, it’s not.” He cups my face between his hands, forcing me to look at him. “I didn’t tell you about this, because I was still trying to figure out for myself why the hell I felt the need to go there all the time.” He smooths his hands down my cheeks, down my neck and shoulders, leaving a trail of heat all the way to my waist. “I realized I was searching for something I’d never really find, so I won’t be going back.”

“Good. You should have never gone there by yourself ever. Not with all this stuff going on. It’s too dangerous.”

“I couldn’t go back even if I wanted to. Not when that detective is keeping an eye on me.” He contemplates something. “It was weird, though. While I was there, a woman came up to me and told me it wasn’t safe for me to be there. But it was raining, and she had the hood of her coat pulled up so I couldn’t see her face.”

“That’s strange,” I agree, trying not to go all crazy-girlfriend on him. But he has me incredibly worried that he’s going to do something stupid. “Did you tell Lila about her?”

“Yeah, she called Detective Rannali, and he said he’d look into it, but I guess the area where the house is has a high crime rate, especially with drugs, and he seems pretty convinced the woman was just warning me to get the hell out of the area.”