“No pressure.” Tristan looked at Marius as if inviting an opinion, but Marius just shrugged.
“It’s the weekend,” Liam said. “You should have a plan in place for Monday morning in order to keep the gossip from getting out of control, but you don’t need to decide anything right away. If you don’t want to work with me, you could callShannon Tate—she’s looking for a change, I think, and she’s got a good head for business. Lars Pedersen might be able to help out, but you’d have to back up the money truck to get him away from Mikhael. Might be worth it.”
“But they won’t be familiar with our projects, our staff.”
“No, they won’t. I’m definitely the best person for the job. Unfortunately for you, I know my value.”
Tristan closedhis eyes, probably as an expression of disappointment or disgust, but there was enough ambiguity for Liam to say, “You’re tired. I should be going.”
No one objected, so he left, stopping at the nurse’s station on the way to check on regulations for sending flowers or gifts to the patients. Yeah, that’d be smooth, to send a really clean, modern flower arrangement to Tristan—something bold andarchitectural. That’d be a nice touch.
There should be other details Liam could plan out, other moves in his little power play. He should call up Scarlett and Nolan, architect friends, and see if they were free for dinner, or at least drinks; they were good strategists and would be able to help him brainstorm. Or maybe it was time to get in touch with a few key clients, let them know that hemight not be leaving the company and gently manipulate them into contacting Tristan and offering their support.
Yeah, there were lots of things Liam should be doing, but as he stepped out of the bright hospital lobby into the even brighter early afternoon, he didn’t want to do any of them. He’d left the car at home and taken a cab to the hospital; now he started walking, hoping the exercise wouldclear his head.
Strategies. Plans. A real opportunity, right there waiting for him.
He wondered if the raspberry battle had been won and whether there had been casualties. He thought about Ben’s car and whether it even made sense to fix something that old or whether it’d be better to send it straight to the junkyard and get something new. Was Ben sentimental about the piece of crap, or was hejust cheap? Or, hell, maybe he couldn’t afford anything better. Teachers didn’t make all that much money, did they?
But maybe Ben really liked the job. He hadn’t planned on being a teacher, not back when Liam had known him. Ben had been content to just let things happen and go with the flow. It had worked well, him being so laid-back, because Liam tended to be more driven, and if both of themhad been driving at the same time, it could have been pretty messy. No, they’d been a good team. A good couple, until Liam had thrown it all away.
But, no, none of that was what he was supposed to be thinking of. Damn it. There was something important at stake, here. Yeah, partly it was a chance at—not revenge, exactly, but vindication at least. But mostly it was an opportunity. Tristan’s firmwasn’t huge, but it was prestigious, and being one of two names at a boutique firm was way better than being an anonymous cog in some big architecture machine. Yeah, this was a great chance, a real opportunity.
It would have been nice to talk to Ben about it. He’d always been good at getting excitedforLiam. Not competitive, not thinking about how something might be of benefit to himself. He’djust be happy because Liam was getting what he wanted.
Would he still be that way? Was he still the same person he’d been before?
Goddammit! That didn’t matter. It wasn’t what Liam should be thinking about.
He pulled out his phone and poked at the screen, then ended the call before the first ring. He didn’t want to talk to Scarlett and Nolan, didn’t want to talk to any of his friends or allies,not about this. If it didn’t work out? If Tristan decided that Liam wasn’t such a prize and decided to go with one of the other options? That was a humiliation Liam would manage on his own; he didn’t want an audience for it.
Not an audience of city people, at least.
If he could talk to Ben about it? Not looking for actual practical ideas, just as a sounding board. A support. Yeah, if he couldtalk to Ben about it, he’d do it. Hell, if he could drive back up to North Falls and talk to Ben and Seth, and even Seth’s wife, who was new sometime over the last fifteen years but was probably pretty cool if she’d managed to catch Seth’s eye, he’d do it.
He’d talk. He’d share with them.
But he’d blown that years earlier, and Ben had made it clear there was no point in taking a trip any furtherdown memory lane than they’d already gone. Fair enough.
So that left Liam in the city. On his own. Well, that was fine. He’d do just fine without them.
“WHAT DOEShe look like?” Dinah asked. She and Seth had been reasonably discreet while Tamara was with them all in the yard, but now that Seth was off supervising Tamara in the bath and Dinah and Ben were relaxing on the back patio withwell-earned drinks, the questions were coming out. “I’ve seen old pictures, obviously, but has he aged well? Sometimes guys like that—I mean, he was sopretty, wasn’t he? Sometimes they kinda lose it when they fill out. Is he still pretty?”
Yup, there it was again. The same conflict, the same desire to talk about Liam, to obsess over him, fighting with the absolutely commonsense instinct to avoidthe topic and work on banishing him from Ben’s mind. But Dinah was his hostess and was making pleasant conversation—it would be churlish to shut her down. “He’s not so pretty. But he still looks good. Just in a different way.”
“Still has the cheekbones, though?”
“Really, Dinah, where would his cheekbones go?”
“They could get buried under fat. That happens. Or just—I don’t know. Saggy skin,maybe?”
“We’re in our thirties. I don’t think we need to worry about saggy skin. Not yet.”
She took a sip of her lemonade, then said, “You’re still pretty, in case you were wondering. A bit more manly than in the old pictures, but if I compare now-you to then-you, I’d say you’re still at least as good-looking. He wouldn’t have seen you and been disappointed. In case you were wondering.”
“He’sspent more time with Uncle Calvin than he has with me. Whatever he was doing in North Falls, it had nothing to do with how good-looking anyone is. And he’s gone back to the city now—at least, he was supposed to have—so none of this is important anymore.”
“Was it important before? When he was still here?”
