Disclaimer: Liam and Annie, unfortunately, do not belong to me.
A collection of Liam/Annie summer moments to get me through the summer hiatus. If you want me to continue, reviews would be appreciated. I might just continue anyway - the writing is a great way to distract myself. But, all in all, just short, sweet chapters, and the next couple will be more focused on particular events.
No one can ever know. The depth of the emotion she feels when she is around him. She, herself, doesn't understand. At any moment she has an overwhelming urge to call him, to talk to him. And, more often than not, she succumbs. She'll call him, sometimes during the day, sometimes at night, but phone calls don't suffice, not for Liam. No, he always asks her to meet him, in the park, at the beach, In his shed.
There is never an awkward silence anymore. There used to be, initially, a silence full of waiting. Now their silence is a peaceful stillness, brimming with words and no need to express themselves with sounds. She understands him completely.
He makes her feel. She cannot pinpoint the sensation, because it isn't just a feeling. It's more complex than that. What they are to each other goes further than sexual tension, or an attraction to his mischievous good looks and handsome physique, although they can merit any girl's gaze. It's the constant humming in her ears that says his name, the countdown in her mind that starts whenever they walk away from each other, and reaches zero the minute he is once again in her sight.
He looks for any excuse to touch her. She knows this, and enjoys it more than she should. Every time he caresses her cheek, when submerged in their flowing conversations, or strokes her hair, it's electricity. Initially, she pulled away, but now it's just another of their unspoken secrets. She lets every wall, every guard of hers drop, except this one. Because she knows if it starts, it can never stop.
And it cannot start. Naomi is her friend. She is self-centered, proud, vain yet she is also an influential and caring ally. Furthermore, Annie knows what it is like to be up against the force that is Naomi.
Summer just started two weeks ago and yet she cannot remember a time before, unless it is in her nightmares. The best news is, there is so much of summer left. With Liam's encouragement, she had faced the fear that had haunted her for a full year. He held her hand when she confessed at the station, took her into his arms when she was told the date for her hearing, and whispered promises to take her there himself, in the midst of his intense embrace. And who else would? Her brother disappeared, as did her father, her mother still with her but in a deep depression. And so, with over a month until her court appearance, the days were the times to enjoy before the night still haunted her, sometimes with Joe Herman, other times with the never ending lack of her father. To make it worse, the only time the nightmares stop is when she spends the night with him.
It's nothing more than friendly – to an onlooker. She'll drift into and out of sleep on an old sofa he brought into his shed, and he'll wrap a blanket around her and recline next to her, with enough space between them to be completely innocent. But, tap into their thoughts and it's a different story entirely. He doesn't sleep in his bedroom anymore – in fact, his bedroom is bare of all the possessions he thought important enough to take with him. His workshed is the place for sleeping, when he isn't working on a new boat. She tries to help, but what does she know about nautical engineering? Nothing of course, yet still, he considers all of her suggestions with a smile and a wink, as if they bear importance to him. Which, in terms of sentimental value, they do. Because anything Annie says is of importance to him. It's her company that doesn't drive him crazy, instead that drives him to wake up every morning. And the mornings where he wakes up next to her serene body, hearing her deep breathing, are the best.
