“Breakfast is all ready,” Callie told him. He followed her to the breakfast nook, where a plate had already been set for him. Powdered sugar and fresh, syrupy berries topped thick slices of French toast. A couple pieces of bacon sat on the edge of his plate. A glass of orange juice and a bowl of cream sat to the upper right and left sides of his plate. His stomach grumbled in anticipation. After swimming for so long, he was really starving.
Xander was on his phone when Liam walked in, but he hurriedly shoved it into his pocket as if worried that seeing him on his phone would be triggering for Liam.
And maybe it was. Because Liam immediately itched to ask what was going on. They were in the fourth quarter, and he had no idea what their sales were looking like. He didn’t know how much longer he could stand this self-imposed exile. The whole point was that it would help him with his anxiety, but from where he sat, things seemed to be getting worse, not better, so he might as well be working.
“Is everything okay?” Liam asked. He spooned a healthy amount of sweet cream onto his French toast.
“Great. Completely under control.”
Liam narrowed his eyes. Was he detecting nervousness in his brother, or was he just reading into things because he was dying to get back to work?
“Stop,” Xander said, reading him correctly. “We’ve got this for a little longer.”
Liam responded by taking a bite of his food. He needed to hire a chef. It just seemed pointless when it was only him, but he could have them only come a few times a week, the way Xander and Callie did.
“How are you feeling?” Callie asked. She was taking him in, and he could imagine what she saw—what he’d seen that morning when he’d looked at himself in the mirror after his shower. Exhaustion leaked out of every part of him.
“Great.”
Xander and Callie exchanged a glance across the table, but he ignored them to keep eating. The bacon was perfectly peppery and crispy, just the way he liked it. Maybe their chef could come to his house on their off days.
“What are your plans today?” Xander asked.
“Absolutely nothing.” A dull headache was starting to pulse in the back of his head at the thought of a long day stretched ahead of him.
“Why don’t you come with me to my store today. I could use some help sorting through my new shipments.” Callie hesitated. “Which probably sounds horrible to you. You can just come and keep me company while I sort.”
Actually, the work sounded exciting. Like something to do to get him out of the house. This is what my life has come to … looking forward to sorting through inventory.
But the idea of going back into Eureka Springs for the day appealed to him quite a bit. He hadn’t realized how much he needed to go back until relief filled him at the thought.
“Sounds good. Consider me your employee for the day.”
“Not a lot of people can say they’ve had Liam Nichols as their employee,” she said, a sparkle in her eye.
“Very true.” Liam took a long drink of the fresh-squeezed orange juice. “Don’t let it go to your head.”
“Now I’m wishing I didn’t have to go into Bentonville,” Xander said. “I’d love to see this.”
They all laughed, and it felt good, like the last bit of tightness from the night—a tightness he hadn’t even realized still lingered—finally loosened.
Chapter 8
Viola sat down at the outside table across from Callie. The waiter at the cafe had already brought out their sodas—Callie knew what Viola’s favorite order was—and said the food would be out soon.
“Sorry I’m late. I got caught up in paint matching and lost track of time.”
Callie laughed. “I figured. I’ve only been here for about five minutes.”
“Who’s covering the store?” Usually it was Allison, but Callie had hired a couple of seasonal workers who were hit or miss as far as reliability went.
“Liam.”
Viola nearly choked on her soda. “Liam Nichols?”
“The one and only.”
“What in the world?”
Callie cracked a smile at that. “He’s at wit’s end, so I invited him to come help unpack my inventory. When he had that done in about half the time it takes my other workers to do it, he wanted to learn how to do everything else.”
“Has he started talking about franchise options for your store?”
Callie laughed. “Not quite yet. He’s still figuring out how to work the cash register at this point.”
“Liam Nichols behind a cash register. This is something I need to see.” She was having a hard time picturing the man in the power suit, always on his phone, ringing up her grandma’s dog treats. Which reminded her. “Can you set aside a half-dozen assorted treats? Grandma is going to come pick them up sometime today, and she’s worried about them selling out before she gets there.” Today was the day she volunteered in the hospital gift shop and then she usually got to chatting with someone, and she loved buying treats for Fern’s dog.
“Sure,” Callie said.
“So, catch me up on your life,” Viola nudged. “How’s Cole doing?”
“Really well,” Callie said. “He’s got a girlfriend now, and we’re going to get to meet her next week when we fly out there to see him.”
Callie’s brother Cole was at a boarding school in Seattle, which was as swanky as it sounded. After getting into a lot of trouble with his friends the year before and nearly landing himself in jail, Callie and Cole both decided that a change in scenery was just the thing for him.
“He’s doing well there?”
“He loves it. They call it the Billionaire Academy. He’s driving Xander’s grandpa’s old truck everywhere, working at an ice cream stand.” She laughed. “I’ve seen such a change in him. Less angry at the world and more eager to work hard so he can become a website developer.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” Viola had watched Callie struggle with her brother the year before, and her heart went out to them. They’d been dealt a difficult hand, and they hadn’t let it get them down.
The waiter came, and the ladies ordered their food, eating it while they caught each other up on what else was going on in their lives. Viola had been worried that she might lose her friend to Xander when they got married, but that hadn’t been the case at all. If anything, it had entrenched Callie even more firmly into Eureka Springs.
They finished eating, paid, and then gathered up their things. Callie had ordered a to-go sandwich for Liam.
“How are things going for him overall?” Viola asked as they walked in the direction of From Wags to Wishes. She had to admit, she was surprised to see him still in town after all these weeks.
Callie shook her head, and for moment, Viola didn’t think she’d answer. Then she replied, “I’m worried about leaving him next week. Xander says he’ll be fine, but I don’t know. He just seems … lost.”
“He emailed me at about four o’clock this morning,” Viola said.
“Oh, yeah? What about?”
The stars. Just thinking about it made her stomach jump. “He wanted to get an update on the building restoration.”