Page 6 of Persuading Liam

“Oh, I’ve heard about you guys. The Winnett Sisters and how you jumpstarted the town again.”

She waves her hand through the air as if my comment embarrasses her. “That was mostly the work of Calla, you’ll see her bouncing through, blonde, bubbly, annoyingly cheery.”

I laugh. “Well, I’m really glad you did. I kinda love it here.”

She smiles. “Me too. Enjoy your food. Pie is on the house after.”

“Oh my gosh, thank you.” I feel tears well in my eyes as she walks away and I’m not exactly sure why but I imagine it has a lot to do with the weird-ass day I’ve had.

“Oh my God,” I sigh to no one as I take my first bite of perfectly cooked roast beef and buttery mashed potatoes. It goes a long way to making my living situation feel a little less terrible.

As I eat, my mind wanders back to Liam—or more specifically, his abs and when I feel that zing in my nether regions again, I try to focus on something else.

Namely, the fact that I’m starting a brand-new career in a few days.

My stomach takes a dive for the thousandth time today as the same old worry I always have creeps in. I won’t be good enough. I won’t know what I’m doing. I’ll ruin everything and get kicked out of town for sinking the newspaper before it has a chance to thrive.

As panic and anxiety creeps up my esophagus, my hands start shaking. Anxiety has been in my life since high school. But with therapy and meds when I need them, I have the tools I need to dull the manic edges when it hits.

A few minutes of breathing exercises and focusing on the spectacular view eases me enough that I can finish my meal with relative ease. The warm apple pie a la mode that Briar drops off afterwards goes a long way to making me feel normal again.

I leave the Heartleaf feeling like myself again, ready to take on new challenges. Like buying groceries and a blanket because I refuse to admit to Liam that I don’t have one.

Because I’m a goddamn adult.

4

LIAM

“What’s with the face?” Elliot asks when I enter Redpoint the following afternoon. He looks completely at ease behind the bar, untroubled by the world and I have to temper my knee-jerk reaction to snap at him.

“What face?” I ask, trying to breeze by him before he asks too many questions.

“You know, the constipated face you make when you’re irritated.”

I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from telling him to fuck off because it will just start an argument and he will pout like a wounded teenager for the rest of the day. For being over thirty, he does a good impression of an emotional teen. “I don’t make a face like that.”

Elliot smiles to himself and the fact that he hit the nail right on its head does nothing to ease my irritation. “You’re right, you don’t make it. Your face just looks like that all the time.”

“Mature,” I comment and make my way to the solitude of my office in the hopes that I don’t see anyone else on the way there.

I sigh when I close the door behind me and let my office soothe the sharp edges of the anxiety that’s been building since the debacle with the apartment. I mean, so far everything has been going smoothly. Marley spent most of the day yesterday writing in her room and I even saw the mysterious Steven prowl through the living room when I was making dinner.

But, the fact of the matter is, I wanted that apartment as an oasis away from my brothers, away from Redpoint. An island of one. And now it’s three and I don’t quite know how to handle it.

With a heavy sigh, I sink into the chair behind my desk and try to get my shoulders to relax. They don’t. They’ve taken residence up by my ears since Saturday morning and not even my purposefully brutal run this morning made a dent in their tightness.

At least I have my office. When we made the plans for Redpoint, I made sure my specific office was as far away from everything else as possible. It’s across the bar from the brewhouse and my eldest brother Max’s office, and the entire storeroom is between Elliot and myself.

I know this is an indicator that I need help with personal relationships, but I don’t really care. I’ve made it this far in my life on my island of one and I intend to keep it that way.

A knock at my door kicks me into motion and I paste a pleasant look on my face. “Come in.”

“Hey Liam,” Gus greets me, entering with a smile that vanishes the moment she looks at my face.

Okay, maybe I don’t know how to change my expression as well as I thought I did.And that’s a mistake because Gus—our manager and Max’s fiancé—seems to see and know everything before it happens. And to top it off, she has no qualms commenting on it.

“What can I do for you?”

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