When We Kiss by Darcy Burke Page B

Ned Stark kind, where there was no question as to whether the character could come back, and the Jon Snow sort, where there was every possibility and perhaps likelihood that death wasn’t permanent. “I’m pretty sure it’s Ned Stark dead.”
    â€œToo bad.” He unplugged all of the cables and lifted it. “I can manage this on my own—where do you want me to put it for now?”
    â€œThe garage is fine. Here, bring it back through the kitchen to the mudroom, where there’s a back door.” She led him toward the back of the house, then opened the exterior door for him. “Watch the steps.”
    He went down first, and she followed to open the door to the side of the garage, which was a separate building at the end of her driveway.
    â€œJust put it here.” She indicated the floor.
    He set it down, and they went back inside. “Give me a minute to read through these directions.” He scanned the booklet that he’d pulled from the box. “You’re setting this on the console table, right? No wall mount?”
    She shook her head. “It came with something to sit on, didn’t it?” She’d specifically looked at TVs that didn’t have to be wall mounted.
    â€œYeah.” He set the stand up on the top of the black console she’d bought with the old TV. “You ready to heft this up with me?”
    â€œSure.”
    They worked together to position the TV on its base.
    â€œNow for the hard part,” he said. “Hooking it up.”
    She heard “hooking up” at first and told herself to get her mind out of the gutter. “You sure you know what you’re doing?”
    He sent her a brief glance as he plugged in the TV. “Yep.”
    She didn’t really doubt it. Liam Archer was the sort of person who was good at anything he set his mind to. He was incredibly driven and ambitious. As a result, he made success look easy. Alex had told her lots of things about their sibling dynamics. She knew that Liam and Kyle were competitive and that Liam and Tori were the phenoms, both of them taking their respective careers by storm, and much more. What Alex hadn’t told her—what she’d figured out for herself—was that Liam’s drive came directly from his need to live a life that was big enough for two people: him and his identical twin.
    Just like his extreme sports. He did them for Alex, who’d spent most of his life dependent on oxygen. He’d never be able to jump out of a plane or go windsurfing. But Liam could. And by videotaping every excursion, he took Alex along for the ride. She’d wondered if he would stop when Alex had died, but if anything, he seemed to have stepped up his game, like he had with the heli-skiing.
    As she watched him separate the cables, she wondered how the accident had affected him. “What happened when you got hurt a couple months ago?”
    â€œI ended up on a dense trail, and I hit a tree well.” He glanced at her. “That’s where the snow around the tree is loose and usually covers a void. This was a pretty big void. I went ass over elbow and landed on my shoulder.”
    She winced. “That had to hurt like hell.”
    â€œIt did.”
    â€œHow’d you get off the mountain?”
    â€œThere was a guy behind me. He radioed for ski patrol. Took them a while to get to us, but I got down eventually.” He didn’t pause in his work as he told her the story. His retelling was rather emotionless.
    She couldn’t believe it hadn’t affected him—pissed him off, at least. “That didn’t scare the crap out of you?”
    He looked up at her then. “You mean enough to not do it again?” His lips curved into a half-smile. “It was a new experience, that’s for sure. And generally speaking, I like new experiences.”
    She crossed her arms and stared at him. “That’s absurd. What is there to