As much as she’d always hated the word “blossomed,” her heart warmed at his praise.
The secretary popped her head into the room. “Your next appointment is waiting.”
“Oh,” Mayor Tweed said, startled. “Well, we’ll get straight to the point, then.”
Viola hid her smile behind her hand.
Mayor Tweed stood and walked around the desk to sit beside her. “I’ve got great news to give you.”
“What news?” Viola sat at the edge of her seat. “Did the city council agree to additional funding for the beautification project?”
He grimaced. “I’m still working on that one. There are a few tightwads on there.” He shook his head, but then smiled again. “The city council, with my sincere approval, has voted to give you the Eureka Springs Citizenship Award this year. We’ll present it at the Winter Festival Gala, if you can make it.”
The Gala was a by-invitation only event, and she’d always wanted to go. Plus the Citizenship Award? She never imagined an honor like that happening to her. Excitement raced through her, and she tried to contain it but couldn’t quite manage it. “Yes! I’ll be there.”
“Good.” Mr. Tweed nodded in satisfaction. “The gala is a formal, and the entire city council and select special guests will be in attendance. You are allowed one personal guest.”
“That sounds amazing,” she gushed. “Thank you.”
“No, thank you for all you do. You are an asset to Eureka Springs, and we’re lucky to have you.”
Viola left the office in a daze. Could her morning get any better? She went back to her office, a tiny room in a building she shared with an insurance salesman, a therapist, and a law firm.
She pulled out her cell phone to call her grandma. The phone rang once before going to voice mail. A moment later she got a prerecorded text. At yoga. Namaste.
Her grandma had more of a social life than Viola did, always out with her friends at one activity or the next.
Well, she’d tell her grandma later. Excitement buzzing through her, she pulled up Callie’s number.
The phone rang and rang, and it took Viola a few minutes to remember that Callie had gone with Xander to California for some big Pets and More board meeting.
Viola sat back in her chair and let out a long breath. She swiped through her phone, trying to find someone else she could call and tell the news.
But there was no one.
Which wasn’t a surprise, but a disappointment, nonetheless.
Mayor Tweed thought she’d blossomed from only having one friend in junior high? In a lot of ways, he was wrong. Because Viola, the woman with a million acquaintances, the woman everyone in town knew … was also the woman who only had one real friend. Both of them losing their dads—Callie’s to prison, Viola’s to running off—had a way of bonding the two emotionally damaged girls.
Well, her news could hold.
She flipped over to the news app on her phone and scrolled through a few articles, pausing when she spotted a familiar face, her heart skipping a beat.
Liam Nichols. She hadn’t seen him in almost a year. Not since Xander and Callie’s wedding. Liam had managed to get past her defenses, but he’d left her in the end, just like everyone else.
But he had been a good kisser. She sighed.
The video played without sound just beneath the headline of the article. It showed Liam bending over, his hands gripping the table before he fell to the ground. She turned the sound on and replayed it, listening to him gasp for air before falling to the ground with a thud that twisted her stomach.
The article said that he’d had an anxiety attack and had needed to go to the hospital. No one knew where he was now.
Welcome to the club. Liam had a way of being in one place one moment, then being gone the next. Still. She watched the looping video as he fell again, and winced. She hoped he was okay. If it was an anxiety attack, she wouldn’t wish those on anyone. Perhaps he’d skipped a meal or two and passed out from that. When they were in Hawaii, she was the one always insisting they go get something to eat. The man thought he could run off of hard work and nothing else.
She set her phone face down on her desk, the raw excitement of her day ebbing away. So what if she didn’t have any close friends? If she didn’t have people who really knew her? She knew a lot about everyone in town—made sure to remember small details about them and bring them up in conversation; people loved that—and that was the way she liked it.
She straightened out her new contract before slipping it into a folder and dropping it into her file cabinet. From there, she grabbed her tablet and a small tool for extracting paint samples. She headed out into the cool air of a November Eureka Springs afternoon, ready to do what she did best—jump straight back into work.
Chapter 3
Liam had lasted until nearly eight o’clock on his first morning in Eureka Springs before suiting up, getting into his car, and heading to Bentonville. Liam, Xander, and Callie had flown to Arkansas on his personal airplane late the night before, and he hadn’t gotten a good look at the view on the way to his mountain cove home then in the dark. Despite the thick fog that morning, he saw a breathtaking kaleidoscope of colorful leaves, with the gorgeous, still lake peeking through the trees.
He remembered now why, after visiting his brother when the Pets and More Bentonville location was just opening, he’d splurged on his own retreat home. He’d given the contractor free-reign, only asking that he make everything feel open and airy, and he’d also wanted an indoor lap pool and hot tub.
He had been too exhausted to go through his house the night before and had dropped into bed with the scent of chlorine somewhere in the house tickling his nose. Sometime in the night, he’d awoken with what felt like a beast sitting on his chest, making it impossible to breathe. Knowing he wasn’t dying helped a little. But he’d been too nervous to let himself fall asleep again and had lain awake until five in the morning, when he’d sought out the pool and swam laps for an hour.
The drive to Bentonville was restorative, and he walked inside the store, breathing in the familiar scent of animal food and plastic toys. The case in front with Callie’s homemade dog biscuits was filled to capacity with fall-themed treats: pumpkins, leaves, even a turkey-shaped one.
His stomach grumbled, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten breakfast. But he’d made the mistake of eating one of Callie’s dog treats before; a mistake he had no intention of repeating today, no matter how good they looked.
He went straight to the executive office in the back of the store and let himself in with his key. Thank goodness for a standard master key. He logged into his work account on the laptop and fell into answering emails.
“What are you doing here?”
The voice startled him, his fingers mashing down on several keys at once, and he looked up to see Xander standing in the doorway, wearing a Zombie 5K race t-shirt and jeans. His hair looked as though he’d maybe brushed it back with some water, but it still flew out in tufts around his head.
“Did you just roll out of bed?” Liam asked.
“We didn’t get home until almost one last night,” he said, yawning widely. “Callie’s still sleeping, but I got woken up by a phone call from Fiona.”