Page 11 of The Love Chase

He crossed a leg over his knee as he settled back in the giant bean bag chair on the floor. “She’s at The Roasted Bean trying to finish up edits on her next book. She has a deadline coming up.”

“Another book, eh?”

“Yeah, the publisher really liked the first one and offered her a contract for two more in the series.”

“That’s amazing. You must be so proud of her.”

The loving look that filled his eyes was almost too much for me to handle. How many times had I wished that Liam would look at me that way? How many times had I wished for him to see me, love me, the way that Jameson loved Elsie?

I mean, Jameson and Elsie were complete strangers when they met. My cousin, Maya, had forced them to do a couples photoshoot even though they had never met before. Elsie liked to deny it, but it was basically love at first sight for both of them.

Liam and I had been best friends for twenty years. Why couldn’t it happen for us? Would I ever find my person?

Jameson clapped his hands on his knees and stood after another weighted moment. “Welp, I should get things ready for work tomorrow and head to bed. It’s an early morning at the clinic.” He paused next to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. “Help yourself to whatever’s in the kitchen.” He planted a kiss on the top of my head, just like I vaguely remembered my dad doing when I was little. “Night.”

A lump stuck itself in my throat and my eyes burned, and I was glad Jameson’s back was to me so he couldn’t see the effect it had on me. I had been really young when my dad died, and I had very few memories of him to begin with.

But even so, it didn’t stop the grief from surprising me sometimes. It snuck up on me, rearing its head in small moments that I thought I had forgotten. But it always brought me back to being a child and sitting on his lap while he read me a book, or when we ran through the sprinklers together, or when we scared Jam-Jam and made him fall off the dock into the lake.

Just when I thought I was over the grief, it hit me like a knife to the gut, staying for a while, and then suddenly I was fine until the next time something triggered me. The worst part of it was that ever since he died, I was paranoid that I would suddenly lose everyone I cared about.

Dad’s death was sudden, a terrible car accident late at night when he was coming home from a long shift at work, and even though there was nothing he could’ve done to stop it, I still felt abandoned sometimes. I missed him.

Jameson had done his best to fill that hole in my chest, but he, too, had had to grow up too quickly, and I hated that my brother was forced to sacrifice so much for me, and then for mom when she got sick.

With a long, shaky breath, I pushed those thoughts away. I didn’t want to deal with them right now.

And I didn’t want to deal with the crap show of a day today had been either.

Ignoring the growl my stomach emitted, I skipped finding something to eat and went straight into the bedroom, face planting myself onto the bed. My boots thunked to the floor as I kicked them off, not bothering to change into pajamas before closing my eyes.

Tomorrow. I’ll figure out what to do tomorrow.

Liam

Iexpected it to feel weird, being back in Meridel after two years away.

And while it did feel weird seeing how people and shops had changed, or hadn’t changed, it still felt comfortable. I could walk Main Street blindfolded and still know exactly where I was and how to get to any shop on the street. In fact, when we were kids, Emma and I had done just that. We had always challenged each other to ridiculous dares. At the thought of Emma, my lips curled into a smile.

Yeah, seeing her at the farm was a little rocky, but she couldn’t stay mad at me forever. We were too good of friends. Or we used to be anyway. I just needed to remind her of that and not get discouraged by her anger toward me. We’d been upset with each other plenty of times in the past—that was just part of friendship. The important part was not to give up on each other.

And I’d be danged if I gave up on Emma Beck.

She meant far too much to me.

The bell above the door dinged as I walked into The Roasted Bean, sighing in relief when the air conditioning cut off the heat outside. I glanced around the room, looking for a familiar brunette with hazel eyes, like I had been doing way too much the past few days, but Emma was nowhere to be found.

I couldn’t tell if it was relief or disappointment filling my gut.

It was just after nine in the morning, which meant the morning rush had already happened, and the coffee shop was relatively empty. All except for a man who stood at the counter ordering. He wore dress slacks and a polo shirt.

It wasn’t until he turned around that I realized I knew him—fairly well in fact—and a surge of hope filled my insides.

“Jameson,” I greeted, sticking my hand out toward him.

Emma’s brother smiled before giving me a firm handshake.

“Liam.” He seemed genuinely surprised to see me here. “I heard you were back in town, but with the rumors of this small town, I didn’t know if it was true.”

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