Page 54 of Best Kind of Trouble
Instead, I slip behind the bar and seize the photo of her father to take out our list of rules. I grab a pencil and add:
Don’t touch your boss.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
BRIAR
I gape at the barrel room, taking in its complete transformation. The soft silk flowers. The warm lighting. The romantic purple velvet tablecloth, draped over the small antique table I spotted on the listing for the estate sale. The beers we’ll be tasting are arranged on top of it, waiting for us.
Liam made it clear he didn’t want to be any kind of partner in Silver Star, and yet he helped make this happen.
I’m glad he’s not down here, because my breath catches in my throat, and I almost feel like…
Briar, you will not cry, for God’s sake.
I may be too soft, but I won’t let myself cry in front of Nora, who is clearly made of stronger stuff.
“Do you like it?” sweet Otis asks, as if anything else might be possible. I’ve wanted to transform this room for so long, but when I shared my idea with my father a couple of months ago, he harrumphed about time wasters and children who think money grows on trees.
It’s everything I thought it could be, though, as if Liam and Otis plucked it from my dreams. Sophie, too, of course. DearSophie, who always finds ways to help other people, even though she’s plenty busy with her pop-up business.
My throat choked with emotion, I say, “It’s perfect. Thank you.”
Nora glances around the space with brisk efficiency. “I suppose you didn’t set it up like this so the staff could use it as a break room?”
“I’m going to offer a dinner experience down here. Only one couple at a time. A local restaurant is partnering with me.”
“Very nice,” she says with a small smile.
Her approval feels like a lifeboat, carrying me along, even though I remember Liam’s advice about not caring what anyone thinks. I don’t think I’d like to be that way, though. I don’t want to care what everyone thinks anymore, but that’s not the same as not caring whatanyonethinks.
I want the good opinion of the people I respect.
“It wasn’t that hard,” Otis says with a broadening grin as Dottie pats him on the back.
I can hear the squeaking of the stairs down the hall, and my heartbeat picks up before Liam fills the doorway. The entire space brims with his scent, his masculine energy, and the half smile on his face commands my focus. He’s pleased with himself, but right now, at this moment, I know it’s because he’s pleasedme.
“Ready for the tasting?” he asks.
“Oh, yes, please.” Dottie smooths the front of her button-up sweater. “It’s cold outside today, so I wouldn’t mind a bit of a tipple.” She takes a seat in one of the chairs. I offer the other to Nora, who lowers into it, but probably only to keep Dottie company.
I find Liam’s gaze and hold it as if it’s something precious. The intensity with which he stares back warms me from the inside out. “Thank you for helping.”
He inclines his chin, acting as if it were nothing. “It’s my job to help out around here.”
“Please don’t tell my business partner that,” Nora says. “He might start thinkingIshould hang flower garlands.”
“God forbid, but I think you could probably manage it,” Liam replies with a completely straight face. “You’d just need a stepladder.”
Otis snorts.
Nora rolls her eyes.
Dottie, who seems to have tuned out the teasing, picks up one of the labeled glass bottles on the table. “Oh, yes, I think I’d like to start with this one, if you wouldn’t mind.”
“Would you like to make an introduction?” I ask Liam as Dottie pours beer into four shot glasses. Everyone takes one except for Liam.
“That’s my rosemary saison,” he says. “Bottoms up.”
