Page 13 of Best Kind of Trouble
“Do forwhat?” I ask, refusing to take them. My voice sounds harsh and grating in the open space.
To my surprise, Liam smiles. “I know what a person looks like when they need to hit something. You, Princess, need to hit something.”
I gape at him. “No, I’m not angry. I’m…”
Sad. Defeated.Broken.
He plops the gloves into my hand. “Maybe youshouldbe angry.”
“Anger is a dark emotion.” I shove the gloves back at him. “I don’t want any part of it.”
“It’s only a dark emotion if you let it take root inside of you.” He pushes the gloves back at me, the corner of his mouth hitching up. “Look at that. You just got six months of anger management classes for free. You’re welcome.”
“You took anger management classes?”
His half-smile widens. “I’m surprised my sister didn’t tell you the whole story. She loves giving me shit.”
“All she told me is that she loves you, you’re the best brewer in town, and you’re an asshole.”
Not entirely true. She also said he’s emotionally unavailable and never dates a woman for longer than a few weeks. She made Sophie and me promise never to date him, particularly since his casual relationship with one of her former friends imploded in a messy way.
But I don’t think he’d appreciate it if I brought any of that up.
“Well, there you go.” He’s full-on smiling now. “Iaman asshole. That’s why I took anger management classes.”
“And they told you to punch someone?”
“The best way to avoid blowups is to let it out. I have a feeling you’ve been carrying everything in here.” He taps his chest with one hand, holding the gloves with the other, and my gaze follows the movement, transfixed. He has so much more physicality than anyone else I know. He’s all muscle and movement. “My sister told me what Bubba and the others did to you at Big Catch. How they humiliated you. Your father watched and did nothing to stand up for you. Doesn’t that piss you off?”
Tears burn in my eyes. “You and Hannah were both right. Youarean asshole.”
“Can’t say you weren’t warned,” he replies, his smile softer as he offers me the gloves again.
I ignore them. “Will you stop messing around and tell me if you’re really willing to consider working at Silver Star? I know Big Catch offers better benefits, but we’ve been turning a healthy profit, and I was thinking I could offer you?—”
“I’ll take the job because my sister asked me to.” All the humor has dropped from his face. “I don’t need another reason. But if you show me you’ve got some fight in you, then I’ll be a hell of a lot less pissed off about being told what to do.”
CHAPTER FOUR
LIAM
Briar wraps one hand around her hip, capturing a few locks of her long golden hair. My gaze follows the motion before I manage to tear it away.
“Aren’tyoutellingmewhat to do right now?” she asks.
I hold back a smile. Whether she realizes it or not, she’s giving me what I wanted by challenging me. Showing me she’s capable of holding her own. Which is good, because I meant what I said?—
I’m not letting my little sister down again. I’d take this job even if it were for the McDonald’s of breweries.
Which, honestly, might be a step up from Silver Star—the pretentious plaything of Don Sterling.
Yeah, I know a bit about Briar’s father, and what I know doesn’t impress me. He opened Silver Star knowing jack about beer, and it shows. Fully organic beer? Please. It’s not like they’re selling vegetables from a farm stand. Organic beer is a buzzword, a gimmick. A marketing ploy aimed at big city people, who can be tricked into paying more for the same thing.
But if Princess wants to keep her beer organic, we keep it organic. Hopefully she’ll be more open to some of my otherideas than the corporation in charge of Big Catch has been. They value consistency over creativity, which has made working there an endless slog of the same, the same, the same.So much so that it was actually exciting when someone spotted a rat racing through the back room a few weeks ago.
I’m more than ready to catch a curveball. And from the look on Hannah’s face when she spilled the whole story of Silver Star earlier in that closet, she knew it.
Briar shifts her weight from foot to foot like a prizefighter, making me smile. “There, I knew you could get pissed off if you tried. Your old man deserves it. He didn’t stand up for you the way he should have.”
