“Couldn’t he have just let you be a kid? Instead, he had you going all around town, posting fliers, talking to local businessmen, and putting so much pressure on you to make your business a success.”
She surprised Liam again by placing her hand on his cheek. She’d never been an overly-affectionate mother, though Liam had always known she loved him. She just tended to fall into the background whenever Liam and his dad were together. “So you’ve learned how to run a business, yes, but have you ever learned to have fun with it?”
He blinked. “Running a business and fun are two separate things.”
“They don’t have to be. I’ve always wondered,” she went on, so quietly, it was almost to herself. “What would you have done if you hadn’t had this mantle placed on your shoulders from such a young age?”
Before Liam could respond, or even process fully what she was asking, someone took his arm from behind. He turned to see Fiona and her husband, Nick.
“Liam, it’s wonderful to see you again.” She had a warm smile on her face as she grasped his hand in hers. “I’m so sorry to put this speech on you. How are you feeling?”
Liam’s returning smile suddenly felt plastic. Was this what he was in for the entire night? People treating him like he was broken and asking how he was feeling? He squeezed Viola’s hand gently, and she responded by stepping closer to him, so their arms were touching down the length of them. His breath caught in his chest.
“I’m fine,” he said.
“Good,” Fiona said, looking relieved. “I’m hoping to touch base with you tonight on a few things.”
“Tonight is for celebrating my husband,” his mother cut in.
Fiona stepped back, looking startled. “I know,” she replied. “I need only a moment or two of your time, Liam. After your speech, of course.”
Tightness gripped his chest again, and he could do nothing but give her a short nod.
“Let’s go find our seats,” Viola suggested, pulling him away from the duo. “That’s who’s doing your job right now?” Viola asked quietly after they had moved a step or two away.
“Yes”
“She seems … nice.”
He appreciated Viola’s diplomacy. “Nice isn’t the world I’d use to describe Fiona. She’s hard working, she’s tenacious, and she’s driven, for sure. That’s what makes her such an asset to the company.”
“You’re going back to work after tonight, aren’t you,” Viola said suddenly. It wasn’t even a question but a resigned statement.
Liam didn’t reply. He didn’t know. He could already feel himself getting absorbed back into the ninety hour workweeks, and he hadn’t even sat at the table yet. Viola pulled away from him, both physically and mentally, as they sat down. Her smile didn’t quite seem to reach her eyes, and her fingers couldn’t stop moving—whether they were twisting her napkin on her lap or tapping against her thigh. Liam reached out to take her hand, relieved when she didn’t pull away.
Dinner went too quickly, Liam unable to eat more than a few bites because of his nerves.
After the last plate was taken away, Fiona stood at the podium and welcomed everyone. “Tonight, we have the privilege of meeting together to honor our dear friend and colleague, Robert Nichols. Who better to do that, than his oldest son, Liam Nichols, CEO of Pets and More? Liam started working with his father at a young age—from only nine years old, he was helping stock stores.” Fiona continued through his history, and with Liam’s mother’s words in his ear, he realized that in a lot of ways, she was right. He’d had pressure on him to be successful for as long as he could remember. It was rare he could just be a kid, make mistakes, play. Instead, everything he did was expected to be perfect and make profit, and if it wasn’t, then he’d better try harder next time.
He loved his dad, he really did. He missed him in a way that was hard to even fathom some days—when he’d pick up the phone to call his dad about a problem and then remember that he wasn’t there anymore, or expect to see his dad at the head of the table, leading the board meetings, only to realize it was his own responsibility now. Even tonight, Liam half-expected to see his dad stroll through the door, kiss his mom on the cheek, and then start going around the room, making sure he met every single person there. There was a reason everyone had loved his dad.
“And with that, please welcome Liam Nichols.”
Liam stood to the polite applause, a rush of blood whooshing through his ears.
Not here. Not now.
He didn’t move from his spot, and Viola reached up to take his hand. She kissed the inside of it, her lips soft and tender against the skin of his palm. You’ve got this, she mouthed and then winked.
The applause had died down, and the room waited, as if on bated breath, wondering what was going on, and what was going to happen mext. He knew there were several people in that room who would be thrilled if he had a break down right then and there, if only to see him fall.
He took one deep breath and then another, relieved to feel his chest expand fully again, recalling his therapist’s advice for centering himself. He squeezed Viola’s hand. I’m good, he mouthed and then he headed up to the podium.
Once he was up there, staring out at the crowd, confidence filled him. He recognized nearly every face there, though he couldn’t remember everyone’s names. He’d never been as good at that as his father.
“Dad would have loved this,” he began. “Except he would have grumbled about the fact that steak wasn’t one of the dinner options.”
The tension in the room broke as everyone laughed. Liam jumped into his prepared speech, a life-sketch of his dad … not as a husband or a father, but as the CEO of Pets and More. Because of his dad’s work, thousands of people across the country had jobs. Millions of people could afford care for their pets. His dad’s work made a difference, but as he spoke something became very clear to Liam.
Pets and More had been his dad’s passion in a way it never was Liam’s. Liam’s passion had been pleasing his father, and if he was no longer there for Liam to please, Liam didn’t quite know where that left him.
After thirty minutes of speaking, he finished his speech to loud applause, and then sat down, his mind torn, residing on two planes. In one, he experienced the muted applause, the people shaking his hand and patting him on the back, almost as if it resided in the background, and in the other, he felt as though he was drifting away from who he always believed himself to be.
“That was wonderful,” Viola said, and Liam once again felt fully present in the room as he stared into her eyes. The still-ongoing applause was loud again, and he tore is gaze from Viola’s to look around his table. Xander’s cheeks were pink, the way they got when he was feeling emotional, and his mom had tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Thank you, son,” she said. “He really would have loved that.”
The rest of the night passed in a blur of everyone wanting to speak to him and hearing new stories about his father. This was the part of going to an event that Liam normally loved. He enjoyed hearing people’s stories, not only about his dad, but about themselves. What made them tick.
“You, Liam, have a gift,” Viola told him quietly, at one point when there was a slight lull in people approaching them. It was nearly ten o’clock, and much of the adrenaline-fueled energy from giving his speech had drained out of him.
“What gift is that?” he asked her.
“Making everyone you talk to feel like they’re the most interesting person in the world.”
He lifted his eyebrows, surprised. “Nah, my dad was the one who was good at that.”
“Well, you must get it from him. You have a way of asking the right questions and then listening so deeply that it makes people feel like they matter.”
Liam sat back in his chair. He’d never realized that people thought of him that way before. “This is my favorite part of the job,” he admitted, something he’d never said out loud before. “Meeting new people. Talking to them. Hearing wha
t makes them tick.”
“So not running a business, then.”
He smiled, feeling the weary tug of his lips. “That’s the vehicle.”
She laughed, but it cut off abruptly when she looked over his shoulder. He turned to see Fiona standing there.
“I hate to pull him away from you,” she said to Viola. “But I really do need a few minutes with Liam.”
“Okay.”
Liam nearly growled in frustration when he saw the wall drop over Viola’s eyes again. Just when things were going well, Fiona had to come and ruin it.
“We need to head back to the hotel. Mom’s worn out,” Xander said. He and Callie had spent most of the night chatting together at the table. As much as Liam loved these events, Xander merely tolerated them, usually avoiding speaking to anyone he didn’t have to speak to, and counting down the minutes until he could leave.
“You can ride back with me and Nick,” Fiona said quickly to Liam. “There are a few things that just can’t wait.”
Viola lifted a brow. “Can’t wait until tomorrow?”
“Unfortunately not,” Fiona replied.
Liam closed his eyes with exhaustion. He could do this. It was just one meeting. He turned to Viola. “Can I come by your room in about an hour to get you for Times Square?”
“Sure,” she said, but she wouldn’t look at him. Xander frowned in disappointment, and Liam had to turn away.
“Perfect.” Fiona took the seat that his mother had vacated to his left. “This shouldn’t take longer than an hour.”
Set boundaries, Liam. He could almost hear his therapist’s voice in his head, firm but kind, reminding him that he didn’t have to be subject to the whims of everyone else in his life.
Liam bent over Fiona’s tablet, and all thoughts of boundaries left as he was soon lost in the work. It didn’t take him more than a minute to slip back into the skin of Liam Nichols, CEO.
The incessant pounding in his head finally forced him to look up from the tablet. He blinked, realizing that all around them, the banquet had been cleaned up, the pictures of his father removed from the wall, the podium and stage torn down, and every table but their own put away.
He yawned and rubbed at his eyes. “Thanks for covering everything, Fiona.”
“Does this mean you’re ready to come back? We really need you,” she said.
He stretched his neck out, aching from being bent over for so long. His mind raced with everything they talked about—people he’d need to call, reports he needed to go over still, stores that needed a visit from him. It all piled down on him, one brick after another, but he couldn’t see any other way it could be than this.
“Yeah,” he said wearily as Fiona grinned. “I’m back.”
Chapter 17
Viola checked her watch again, trying not to be too antsy.
He’s coming, Viola.
It had been an hour since she’d gotten back from the banquet. She kicked off her shoes first thing—they were killing her—and slipped into a comfortable outfit of worn jeans, a dark red long-sleeved T-shirt, and thick socks. She grabbed her boots and her coat to slip into once Liam arrived.
Filled with nervous energy, she paced the room before ending up outside on her balcony, watching the ever-moving city. Eureka Springs had a vibrant nightlife, but this was something else entirely. It seemed to be even busier after ten than it had in the middle of the afternoon. She glanced up at the sky, the stars obscured by the light pollution. She smiled, recalling Liam’s email about the stars. At the time, she thought it odd, but now she could understand how awed he could have been by a massive night sky full of them when it wasn’t something he saw in the city.
Viola forced herself not to check her watch every few minutes, but she could feel the time easing away, minute by minute. And then hour by hour.
She went back inside her room from the balcony, chilled, and sat on the edge of her bed, replaying their goodbye in her mind. Fiona coming by their table. How quickly he’d shifted into work mode. How he’d stayed instead of coming back to the hotel with them. How he hadn’t even glanced her way when she left.
He’s not coming, Viola. He’s forgotten you.
Nervous energy ran through her, making it impossible to just sit on the bed. Flashes of Hawaii rolled through her mind. How wonderful, how amazing, it had been to be with Liam that week, and how devastating it had felt when he never showed up to meet her on the beach that night. Then when she found out the next day that he had left to work, without saying a single word to her, forgetting her in a moment like that.
She closed her eyes and breathed out through her nose. She would not be left again. She couldn’t do it. It hurt even more now than it had then.
In Hawaii, it had been mostly attraction and that zing you get when you connect with someone in an instant.
But now it was deeper. More real. Based on how she’d gotten to know him and how he’d gotten to know her, and it made the sting all the more painful.
She grabbed her suitcase and started throwing her clothes and shoes into it without stopping to fold anything. She took her nice dress from the hanger and shoved it into a corner of her bag, knowing she would never wear it again, so it didn’t matter if it was ruined with wrinkles. Finished packing, she searched flights on her phone.
There. A red-eye that left just after midnight. She glanced at her watch. If she got a cab, she could make it just in time. She cringed at the price tag, but paid it anyway.
The rest of the night flew by in a blur of exhaustion. She sent a text to Callie that she knew she’d see in the morning, letting her know she’d gone home. She didn’t want them to worry, and she felt bad about leaving her friend like this, but she knew Callie would understand.
Still, she couldn’t stop herself from looking at her phone every few seconds to make sure she hadn’t missed a call or text from Liam. But there was nothing.
Up until the moment her boarding number was called and she got onto the plane, she hoped Liam would call. Maybe he’d explain what happened. Apologize. Ask her to stay.
But that call never came.
She powered off her phone, placed it in her purse, and stuffed it all under the seat in front of her. The plane was mostly empty, so she had the entire row to herself.
Liam had called himself an idiot, but the real idiot was her, for believing that things would end differently this time.
Chapter 18
Liam rubbed the back of his neck as he unlocked the door to his hotel room. It was past one in the morning, and he and Fiona only stopped working because the banquet hall had asked them to leave so they could finish cleaning.
Every muscle in his body screamed with exhaustion, in the same way it did after he swam laps for an hour. What he wouldn’t give for his pool right now. Or his hot tub, with the jets turned on full blast to knead the knots bunching up his neck and shoulders.
He turned on the light to his suite, loosening his tie as he walked in, his mind full to the brim with a quickly forming task list. First he’d need to email all the store managers and let them know he was back to work. Then, Fiona was encouraging him to agree to one of the many interview requests he’d been getting from the news stations. He could announce his return to Pets and More and give an update on his mental health at the same time.
He collapsed into the chair by the desk, wishing he could climb in bed and go to sleep, but he told Fiona he’d try to get caught up on his emails tonight.
He pulled up his laptop and logged in to his work account for the first time in almost a month. His stomach dropped at the number of emails there. Fiona’s assistant was going to check his email and forward all of the urgent ones on to Fiona. Yet, there were over twelve-hundred emails still in his account. People waiting to hear from him. Advertisers, suppliers, regional managers with questions, and that was merely the tip of the iceberg.
He rubbed at his eyes, trying to mentally gear himself up to jump into this monumental task. Water would help. He stood an
d went into the kitchenette, pausing when he saw the pile of leftover candy bars from the impromptu chocolate tasting sitting near his sink.
Viola.
It was like a switch in his brain flipped, turning off the work that had so consumed him, and lighting up everything else. Times Square. They were supposed to go tonight. He swore under his breath.
Had he even said goodbye to her when she’d left the banquet? He wracked his brain for some memory of kissing her, walking her to the car, promising to see her soon.
Nothing. Fiona had set that tablet in front of him and started talking work, and like an addict, he hadn’t pulled his eyes from it for a moment.
2:00 a.m. Would it be worse to wake her up or to let her sleep and apologize first thing in the morning?
He glanced at his computer. He could probably tackle a good couple hundred of those emails, snatch an hour or two of sleep, and still wake Viola up just in time for breakfast. Times Square in the morning wasn’t quite as awe-inspiring, but it was still a lot of fun.
Once he started in on the emails, the time flew, and when he checked the time again, he realized he hadn’t given himself any time to sleep. Instead, he finally got out of his suit and jumped into the shower in an attempt to jump-start his brain.
He sent a quick text to Viola once he got out and dressed. Breakfast?
Then he called down to the front desk. “Can you send flowers to room number 1082?”
The clerk hummed under his breath, and Liam heard the clacking of keys. “I’m sorry, sir, but there’s no one in that room right now.”
“There is,” he argued. He’d dropped Viola off at her door just the night before after their “chocolate” tasting. They’d shared a long, lingering kiss with her pressed up against number 1082 on the door. “Viola Nightingdale.”
“Hang on a second.” More keys clacked. “Okay, it says here that the person in room 1082 checked out last night.”
Her Billionaire Heartthrob: Billionaire Bachelor Mountain Cove Page 10