There was an emphasis ontheir engagement, or maybe it was just me and I was reading too much into it. There had been a way she’d looked at Liam that I didn’t think he’d noticed, as if she was asking questions of him. I wondered if they’d had a past together. I also wondered why I was bothered.
“It’s such good news. I can’t wait for the wedding.” Lainey smiled at me, and this time she rocked the acting job at being genuine.
Seph arrived back with a glass of red wine for Lainey, sitting down next to her and frowning. “I don’t get men like that.”
“What was he doing?” Lainey looked like she was bracing herself for bad news.
“He’s chatting up some woman who’s just come in. Don’t go over there. If you do and he says something to you that makes you upset again, I’ll do something to get kicked out of here and I like this bar.” There was less anger in Seph’s voice now.
“I’m not going over there. I need to make a decision about where I want to be though. I miss my job. I need something to do.” Lainey looked at the wall behind Amber.
“What is it you do?” Amber asked. She was seeming more and more human.
“I’m an equine therapist. I majored in psychology and from that did my post grad in equine therapy. I was working on a ranch in New York State up until a couple of months ago when the job came to an end, so I decided to move back here. My parents have recently moved back to Ireland so it kind of made sense.” Her wine was going down pretty fast.
“I might know of a place that’s going,” Seph said. “Vanessa’s gran lives in a small town up north. I know one of the farms is up for sale – it’s got a lot of stables. Why don’t you think about that? I know you said you wanted something of your own.”
Lainey and Seph started to talk about the possibilities of a business, and the distance between Severton and London. I excused myself and headed for the bathroom, taking my bag.
I was applying a coat of lipstick when I noticed Amber standing behind me, her coat on, looking ready to go.
“Just thought I’d say goodbye,” she said. “And wanted to give you some parting advice:you’re not Liam’s type.See you soon.”
She walked away before I could say anything.
* * *
Someone should’ve done her homework better.
I stared at my computer screen and cursed myself for sometimes being too arrogant. I’d done a brief browse through the interweb and search Liam, formally Leif, Rosehill. I’d seen photos of him with his band, surrounded by groupies, a picture of his foster sister and a few random girls on his arm, including a Victoria’s Secret model who used my spas on occasion.
Another search of Liam’s stage name with Amber’s and I found what I’d suspected. They’d been a couple. A couple of years ago there had been several different sightings of them together, once in what looked like a drunken kiss – it looked hot.
Amber was his ex. Maybe even a bit too recent to be his ex.
But that didn’t matter because this wedding was fake. We’d slept together once. I didn’t have any feelings for the man except toleration of my dislike.
If that was a feeling.
However, I was pretty sure that I wasn’t Amber’s favourite businesswoman and that she might still harbour some sort of feeling for Liam Rosehill.
Lord knew why.
A notification flew up on my computer, telling me I had an email from the man himself. I debated not opening it, ignoring it until the morning just to piss him off because he’d probably be expecting a response straight away. I’d learned in the last couple of weeks that everyone answered Liam Rosehill immediately.
Temptation got the better of me.
His email was succinct, one line:
Plans for you to approve.
We’d already approved the plans. The architect had them back to us in a matter of days, because no one kept Mr Rosehill waiting.
I opened the file, feeling my hackles starting to zoom to the top of Everest.What had the fucker done?
Everything we’d agreed on had been changed. He’d swapped our sides, giving me the small wing of the building, where I could only fit three therapy rooms, rather than the six, and then the grounds had been divided differently, meaning the number of pods I could include would be halved.
“Shit.”
