Know Me Well

by Kait Nolan

  When Sharilyn excused herself to go to the ladies’ room, Riley rose too. “I’ll go with you.”

  The restroom, a fancy one with a little sitting room, was blessedly empty. She waited until her mom was washing her hands, meeting Sharilyn’s soft brown eyes in the vanity mirror. “I owe you an apology.”

  “For what, baby?”

  “For being so hard on you. For always expecting the worst and not really giving you a chance. You’re not me, and I shouldn’t expect you to behave like me. What you’ve done is wonderful. And I just wanted to say that I’m really, really proud of you. You’ve worked so hard since you came home, and it’s finally paying off.”

  “I owe it to you.”

  “Me?”

  Sharilyn dried her hands and turned to face her. “You finally made me stand on my own two feet. You’ve been doing that yourself since you were a little thing. Even before your daddy died. Always so independent. Randy used to say you were his little carbon copy, and in a lot of ways you are. He took care of me. After he was gone, you stepped into that role far too early. I shouldn’t have let you do it. But I’ve never been as strong as you.”

  “Mom—”

  “No, let me finish. I’m grateful you were strong, that you have that much of your father in you. It helped. It helped that you’re so like him. Because as long as you took care of me, it was a little like having a piece of him back.” She stroked Riley’s hair back.

  Riley swallowed past the tightness in her throat.

  “I let that go on way too long. I’m under no delusions about where we’d have ended up without you. But I’m glad you finally broke the pattern and made me break it, too.”

  It hadn’t been for her mother to break. Riley had played her father’s role for far too long, trying to take over and do everything. Enabling and perpetuating the cycle they’d been stuck in. And that hadn’t been what Sharilyn needed.

  “I think, maybe, it’s helped me stop looking for your daddy in other men. Randy was one of a kind. I was so, so lucky to have found him. But it feels good to take care of myself. Good to contribute to something. So, thank you.”

  “Seems like Matthew’s helped with that, too,” Riley conceded.

  “He has. That man has the patience of Job and a heart bigger than the ocean. He understands where I came from and seems to know exactly how to support me without taking over. Your daddy never had the patience for that, God love him.”

  That was what Sharilyn had needed.

  Liam instinctively understood that kind of support. He was strong enough to help, strong enough to stand back. And maybe it was exactly what Riley needed, too.

  As if she knew where Riley’s thoughts had turned, Sharilyn linked her arm through Riley’s. “We Gower women seem to be doing pretty well for ourselves in the man department lately.

  “You two seem good together.”

  “He’s good for me. And I hope I’m good for him. But we’re taking things slow.” Sharilyn dimpled. “A novel concept for me.”

  “Slow is good.”

  “It can be. But there’s nothing wrong with fast either. Not when it’s right.” She shot Riley a meaningful look.

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Mom. Liam and I are fine exactly as we are.”

  “If I were you, I’d grab on to that man with both hands and never let go.”

  “For once, Mom, I’m inclined to agree with you.”

  “He’s got a very nice behind for grabbing.”

  “Mom!” Riley laughed.

  “No harm in appreciating God’s artwork, honey. Now come on I want to get some tiramisu.”

  Chapter 20

  “I don’t understand why I have to wear a blindfold.” Riley started to reach up and remove it, but Liam stopped her.

  “You have to wear a blindfold because it’s a surprise.”

  “Nobody else is wearing a blindfold.”

  “It’s not a surprise for them. Now come on.” He took both her hands and led her through the doors into the newly renovated pharmacy.

  Molly, Jessie, and Ruby followed them inside, trailed by Norah and Mitch, who’d joined the back of the group without Riley noticing. They’d all already seen it when the group convened late the night before to set all the displays and stock back up, so they kept silent as ordered. Riley had been kept out of the loop, under the impression that the floors needed a couple of days longer to cure than they really did.

  Liam led her down the center aisle, to the front counter, then turned her to face the finished space. “Ready?”

  “So ready.”

  Strangely nervous, he slid the bandanna off.

  Other than a sharp intake of breath, Riley didn’t make a sound. She scanned the completely stocked aisles, the reclaimed wood floors, the freshly painted walls with their new wainscoting, past the new shelving displaying her entire collection of antique pharmacy memorabilia, all the way up to the ceiling, which had not only been repaired, but had been covered in vintage tin. The whole place fit neatly in with Norah’s historic restoration concept, the building having been dialed back as much as possible to the original early 20th century architecture from the Woolworth’s it had once been.

  “It’s finished.” Riley’s voice was barely audible.

  For a moment, Liam wondered if he and his mother had miscalculated, if Riley wanted to do that part herself. But she turned into his arms and buried her face against his chest, squeezing tight.

  “It’s beautiful.” Her eyes were suspiciously glassy as she looked up.

  Liam felt a trace of panic. “No crying.” She’d done far too much of that this summer.

  Riley laughed a little “They’re happy tears.” She rose to her toes and kissed him. “Thank you.”

  “Hey, I helped too,” Mitch protested.

  “Get your own woman, Campbell.”

  “I keep telling him he should do that,” Norah said.

  Mitch clapped a hand to his heart. “The good ones keep getting snapped up.”

  Riley kissed Mitch’s cheek. “You will find someone when you’re least expecting it. Autumn swears that’s how this works.”

  Liam snorted. “Give her the least bit of encouragement and she’ll start matchmaking you.”

  Riley arched a brow. “Oh, you mean unlike all the female members of your family?”

  He tucked an arm around her. “I’d have gotten here on my own eventually.” Sensing his mother was about to speak, Liam pegged her with a look. “Not one word.”

  Molly pressed her lips together, but he could see the laughter in her eyes.

  “Now come see the rest.” He pulled Riley over to the wide, cased opening into what had been the storage room and turned on the light. The new displays lit—carousels, shelving, free-standing units that could be converted to shelves or hanging space, as needed. All were currently empty.

  “You built my artisan marketplace!” She ran her hand along the smooth wood of a tall unit serving as a partial room divider. “Oh it’s wonderful! Where’s my actual storeroom now?”

  “Back here.” Liam opened the double doors. “You’ve got stainless steel racks around the perimeter. It’s a smaller space than you had before, but it’s actually organized. With all the junk that was in here tossed, you don’t actually need more than this. Which left plenty of room to maximize your consignment space out here.”

  “Do you think we can find enough people to use all this?” Riley asked.

  “Already on it.” Norah stepped forward. “I’ve put together a list of artisans who are interested in leasing booth space from you, along with a couple of example contracts for how the terms can be laid out. All you need do is pick your poison and call them, and you’ll have the whole place full up by the open house. Oh, and the draft marketing plan is also in the folder.”

  Riley accepted the folder and stared at her. “You never just sit on things, do you?”

  Norah grinned. “Now, where would be the fun in that?”

  “Thank you.”
>
  “You’re welcome. Although, I should warn you, it’s not entirely altruistic on my part. I’ve got this whole big Master Plan to highlight local artisans and bring more out-of-towners to Wishful for our rural tourism campaign. This is just a cog in that whole big machine.”

  Mitch wrapped an arm around Norah and covered her mouth. “Do not let her get started on her Master Plan. We’ll be here all night. She’s secretly planning on taking over the world.”

  Norah tugged his hand away. “Shhh. It’s not a secret if you tell people.”

  “C’mon, General Burke.” Mitch tugged her toward the door. “We’re due at Grammy’s for peach pie.”

  “I should be getting on, too,” Jessie said. “There’s a new episode of Game of Thrones and a pint of Ben and Jerry’s with my name on it.”

  Everyone made their excuses and headed for the door.

  “See you at the open house!” Norah called. “Liam, I’ll be in touch about the rest of my plans.”

  And then they were alone. Alone was good. They hadn’t had much opportunity for that recently, and he hoped to sweet talk her into creative expression of her gratitude back at her place. But there were a few more things to show her here first.

  Riley turned another circle. “I just can’t get over how good it looks. All the little historic touches are wonderful! But how on earth did you get this done on the original budget?”

  “Also part of Norah’s Master Plan is the historic restoration of downtown. Mom’s into that, too, so she upped the budget. That, combined with the insurance payout, made this more than possible. This was, essentially, my audition. Norah pitched me as the contractor for the job, and the City Council accepted.”

  “Liam, that’s amazing!”

  Her obvious pride in what he’d accomplished had something warm sliding through him.

  “There are a few more things I want to show you. C’mon.” He led her behind the counter. “I’ve added electronic locks to the doors. So if you’re here at night by yourself and realize you’ve forgotten to lock the doors, you can do it from the computer here at the counter or back in the office, wherever you’re working.” He demonstrated and heard the whine snick of the lock out front. “And you can unlock it from here, too. The security system has been updated, so it can be set not only to the typical away, but also to stay. If you’re here by yourself after hours, you can set the alarm to stay, and it’ll be armed, but the motion sensors inside will be off while you’re working. If somebody messes with any of the doors or windows, the alarm will trigger and the call will go out automatically. That way if you can’t get to the panic button for some reason, the alarm still sounds. And unlike the panic button, it’s actually audible and loud, so it would hopefully deter anyone from actually coming on inside.”

  “That’s good. Although, I expect it’ll be a long time before I actually stick around to use it.” Her eyes flickered to the door of the office.

  “Nothing wrong with that. But maybe this will help.” He opened the door and tugged her inside.

  Riley’s mouth fell open. “Holy crap. You gutted it.”

  “Not completely, but close. You’ve got a built-in desk here and custom cabinetry throughout.”

  “Where did you move the safes?”

  “I didn’t. Just covered them up.” Liam opened the cabinet doors masking both.

  “It’s beautiful. And had to be so much extra work on top of everything else you did.”

  Liam jerked a shoulder. He hadn’t gotten more than nine hours of sleep over the past three days. Totally worth it. “I wanted to do whatever I could to keep it from reminding you of bad memories when you had to come in here.”

  She turned another slow circle. “I keep saying thank you but that doesn’t seem like enough.”

  “Well, if you’re looking for other ways to show your appreciation, I have a few ideas.”

  Her eyes took on a wicked gleam. “So do I.” She shut the office door and turned to the computer terminal. A few mouse clicks and she’d relocked the front door of the pharmacy, setting the alarm as he’d showed her.

  Liam arched a brow. “I’m thinking your ideas just got more interesting than mine.”

  “Well, it was a good notion to change what it looks like in here so that I don’t have all the visual cues. But it seems like we should take it one step further and just replace those memories with new ones entirely.” She stripped off her shirt and tossed it to the side, revealing a silky bra of midnight blue lace. “I’d much rather not want to walk in here because it gets me all hot and bothered thinking of you.”

  The shorts dropped next, and Liam’s mouth went dry as he saw the matching panties.

  “What do you say, Boy Scout?”

  What kind of man would he be if he didn’t answer such a call?

  Sliding his hands around her generous hips, he bent his head. “I live to serve.”

  ~*~

  The pharmacy open house was in full swing. Displays were moved again, this time to make room for the band of pickers and fiddlers, who currently rocked out “The Battle of New Orleans” as patrons circulated. Tables of food and drink were set up near the front counter, heavily weighed down with fresh watermelon, pimento cheese sandwiches, sausage balls, pinwheels, and other classic Southern party food. Wearing a swingy, A-line sundress in a bold cherry print, Riley was enjoying every minute.

  The place was hopping. Part of that was due strictly to word-of-mouth and part to the front page article run in this morning’s newspaper. And part, her cynical side reminded her, was probably due to the free food. But the important thing was that people were here. Patrons she knew had moved over to Walgreens were back in her store. That didn’t guarantee they’d be moving their business back, but it was a good start. And absolutely everyone loved the Artisan Market. Zach Warren was snapping photos to document the event, and Norah’s intern, Cecily Dixon was chatting folks up, getting quotes for the town blog.

  Ginny Honeycutt bounced up, a broad grin stretching across her cheeks. “Hi, Ms. Riley!”

  “Hey there, sweetie. Where’s your sister?”

  Tara brought up the rear, balancing two paper plates. “We just wanted to thank you again for recommending that tea tree oil. It worked wonders.”

  The little girl beamed. “No more creepy feet!” And she bounced off again to join some friends.

  Tara shook her head. “Someday we’ll learn about appropriate things to say in public.”

  Riley laughed. “Honey, if you could hear some of the things people tell me in here. That was nothing. How’s your booth doing?”

  “Already half sold out of stock. I can’t believe my jewelry’s been so popular!”

  Riley tapped at the earrings she wore and grinned. “I can.”

  “The market was a great idea.”

  “I’m just the idea woman. Liam’s the one who made it happen.”

  “Well, thanks to you both. I’d best go keep track to make sure Austin doesn’t eat you out of house and home.”

  As Tara headed off, the band transitioned into a waltz. Across the room, Howard Tolleson began to circle his wife, Winnie, his cane hooked on the crook of his arm, his wrinkled cheek pressed to the top of her cloud of snowy hair.

  With a happy sigh, Autumn linked her arm through Riley’s. “They are the cutest thing ever.”

  “True thing.” The sight of them made her heart go gooey.

  “I want that someday.”

  “Don’t we all?” With a smile, Riley saw Matthew pull her mother into a dance, too.

  “Well, these days, you’re closer to it than I am. Where is your other half, anyway?”

  “I don’t know. Actually, now that I think about it, I haven’t seen him in a while.” Riley craned her neck, scanning the crowd for Liam. At his height, he was generally easy to spot, but she didn’t see him anywhere. “I don’t see Judd or Mitch either. Maybe somebody should go check upstairs to see if they snuck away for a six pack.”

  Autumn tugged at her elb
ow. “I don’t think he snuck away for a six pack.”

  Riley followed her gaze to the front door, where Liam stood decked out in his dress blues. “Oh my.”

  Tall, straight, and gorgeously built, he commandeered the attention of everyone in the room as he made his way through, shaking hands, answering questions. And that smile…

  Autumn tapped Riley’s chin. “Pick your jaw up, honey, you’re drooling.”

  “Well, my God, he’s totally worth it.” He looked even better than she remembered from the one time she’d actually seen him in dress blues.

  “Can’t argue that.”

  He finally reached them, grinning from ear to ear.

  “To what do I owe the glorious eye candy?” Riley asked.

  Liam removed his hat and sketched a bow. “You, my lady, made a request for sandy beaches and palm fans, complete with a heroic, movie-worthy exit. I’m here to deliver. So start saying your goodbyes. We’ve got a plane to catch in—” He checked his watch “—three hours, and we’ve got to get to Jackson.”

  Riley gaped at him. “You’re serious?”

  “As a heart attack. Seven full days of sun and tropical breezes.”

  Vacation lust hit her square in the chest, followed immediately by doubts. “But I can’t go anywhere. We just got the pharmacy back open, and I’m not even packed.”

  “Mom’s got the pharmacy, and sure you are. Autumn packed for you.”

  Riley turned to look at her friend.

  “It’s true. I did. I was all up in your closet, double-oh-seven style.” Autumn mimed sneaking like a spy.

  “When?”

  “I have a key. It’s not like it was hard. Liam’s got the bag in his car.”

  “But how do I even know you got everything?”