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“Sure, I’d like to see the place.”
“Soph, why don’t you show him around while I prepare breakfast?” Sophie practically growled at him in reply. The fight may be done, but she wasn’t. He needed to sweeten the pot with more than bagels. “I’ll make a pot of my special coffee and I baked apple strudel this morning—extra cinnamon.”
Sophie knew when she was being bribed, but bagels and strudel were a good bribe. She turned to Liam and with her most sarcastic tour guide voice said, “Here is our lovely soon to be state-of-the-art kitchen. Watch your step as we go. If you head out that door, we’ll head to the dining room next.”
Liam pursed his lips together. This promised to be one entertaining morning.
* * *
After they left and the kitchen door was closed, Keefe bent over supporting his weight on his knees. He needed a minute to catch his breath!
“Don’t worry. I promise not to propose, try to lay you on the bar, or adopt any children.”
Sophie smirked. Liam always knew how to break the ice. “You heard all that?” Of course, he had heard all that. The entire island had heard all that. “Sorry, I was caught off guard.”
“So, I gathered…” Liam strode across the floor and looked out the window that faced the parking lot. It would look nice in the Spring if she planted a small flower bed out front. “So… it’s a real treat being invited to see the place before it’s all polished and shiny.”
“Don’t let Keefe hear you call the place an ‘it.’ It’s a ‘she.’”
“My apologies. She is going to look great. Needs a lot of work though.”
“Tell me about it. But you know Keefe, he prefers a challenge only this time he brought me along with him.”
There was a somewhat awkward silence hanging in the air between them.
He came toward her and reached out, “You have,” she ducked away from his hand. “Just hold still.”
“Why, what are you going to do?”
“You know, you used to trust me.”
“I still do!” she insisted.
“Then just hold still!” He reached over, fingers brushing through her dark hair as he plucked out a stark white shard of broken plate tangled in the strands. Holding it up for her to see, he arched a brow.
“Oh, thanks.” She took the shard out of his hand and threw it away in a large trash bin in the corner of the room. “Come this way and I’ll show you the upstairs.”
He followed Sophie up the dusty staircase and into each upstairs room. “Are you going to open a Bed and Breakfast too?”
“Funny you say that. That’s what Keefe wants to do. We’ll see.”
Liam peeked his head inside each barren room. There wasn’t much to see except old dingy wallpaper, one room was decorated with pink poodles, another with pea green tea pots. Who the hell decorated this place? “So, how do your parents feel about you and Keefe opening your own place?”
“They’re happy for us. Our dad took it kind of hard. But really, Keefe has wanted his own place for a while now so they weren’t surprised.”
“And where Keefe goes you go.”
“I couldn’t say no to him. How could I let my brother do all this alone? Although, I think maybe he brought me with him out of pity.”
“Pity? Why?”
“Things haven’t been too good for me the last few years and by the end I was just… tired. It was like after you’ve worked a long hard day and at night your whole body aches from head to toe, inside out it hurts and you’re exhausted and all you want is sleep. That’s how I felt for a long time. Too long if I’m honest.”
“But you’re not tired anymore?”
“No, I’m not. Not anymore.” With no resistance, she had told him the truth. She had to admit, it was nice talking with Liam again. As they headed back downstairs, Sophie asked, “Do you remember Simon’s parents, Caitronia and Rowan?” Sophie asked, shifting the conversation slightly.
“I do, a little. They moved away, didn’t they?”
