“Oh, is that what that was? Steak?”
“Medium well, a little overcooked if you ask me.” He grins. “But let’s not blame that on the chair, which I’d give a ten out of ten. Solid choice.”
I narrow my eyes at him, but I’m still smiling. “I can’t tell if you’re making fun of me or not.”
“I’m just trying to make you laugh. You’re taking it all so seriously, but at the end of the day it comes down to two things—do you like it, and can you afford it, which only you’ll know.”
I open my eyes wide. “But what if the future of mankind rests on which chair I choose?”
“Like some sort of butterfly effect? Pick the wrong one and a month from now, we end up in a full-scale nuclear war?”
“Exactly.”
He pretends to be deep in thought. “Well, in that case, we should probably—”
“Liam? Is that you?”
I turn to see a woman behind me. She looks to be about thirty with long blond hair falling in soft curls around her shoulders. The tight expression on her face tells me she and Liam were once more than friends.
“Hannah, hi.”
I watch as Liam stands and kisses her cheek, suddenly feeling very awkward. She closes her eyes when his lips touch her skin, and there is the tiniest movement of her face toward him when he pulls away.
“How’ve you been?”
“Great. Really happy.” She doesn’t mean it. Her eyes flick over to me, and she looks me up and down before returning her gaze to him. “Wow. Don’t tell me somebody actually passed the Olive test.”
Liam’s face hardens, but almost instantly, his easy smile returns. “This is Abigail. She’s new to the island, and she’s hired me to fix up her house. Abby, this is Hannah.”
I stretch out my hand, and she shakes it as though I have a communicable disease.
“Nice to meet you, Hannah.”
“You, too.” The two little words are loaded with disdain. She turns back to Liam. “Well, I should go.”
“Nice to see you. Take care of yourself.”
She gives him a brief nod, then turns to leave without answering.
I return to the safe topic of kitchen chairs so Hannah won’t think we’re going to talk about her behind her back (which I certainly hope we will do). “So, you think this one will work?”
She swirls around. “A little tip for you, Annabelle…if you need to find out what Liam thinks, you should ask his daughter.”
Annabelle? Okay, now I’m getting annoyed. “I’m sorry?”
Her words come out as shards of glass. “You need to ask his daughter if he likes the chair because he doesn’t know.”
I glance at Liam, completely unsure of what to say. Nothing? Probably nothing is the way to go.
He rubs the bridge of his nose and shuts his eyes for a second. When he speaks, his voice is calm. “Hannah, I’m very sorry things didn’t work out. Truly. But it would’ve been a disaster if we’d tried to force—”
She holds up one hand. “You know something, Liam? If you keep letting her rule your life, you’re going to end up old and alone.”
“I should be so lucky.”
Hannah shakes her head in disgust and stalks away. I watch her open the door and storm past the window.
When I glance at Liam, he seems suddenly tired. “Sorry about that.”
