Last night had turned out better than he thought it would. It had taken her a few hours to calm down and accept his presence, but eventually, she gave him a job. Then another. By the end of her shift, he knew how to shape a blob of dough into an acceptable bread roll, and how to make a glaze for her sticky buns and not get it everywhere but where it was intended. He’d also managed to operate the bread-slicing machine without cutting off any fingers and iced six trays of sweet finger rolls. That hadn’t ended so well. He could still see the pink icing on his good shirt.
For his efforts, she’d given him a loaf of his favorite sourdough bread and a dozen iced donuts to take to work to go with their coffee.
He’d break down her resistance sooner or later. She’d ended up speaking more to him last night than she’d done in the last two years. If he kept repeating the evening over, she’d have to buckle and admit she wanted him. At least that was what he told himself.
As he crawled into bed, Liam tried to hold onto the budding romance they’d shared years ago. There was still something there—he was sure of it.
By lunchtime, Liam found himself struggling to keep his eyes open. He poured himself a strong cup of coffee and walked outside to get some fresh sea air, hoping that would help keep him awake.
“You sick or something?” Drew walked out to join him and peered into his eyes. “You look like shit.”
The guy had a way with words even after a superb college degree. “Thanks.”
“Seriously, are you feeling okay? Do you need to take the afternoon off?”
Liam sipped his coffee. His eyes burned with the bright light. Coming outside wasn’t the smartest move after all. “Just a bit tired. Didn’t sleep well.”
“Any reason why?”
Liam glanced at his friend and business partner and debated not telling him, but they’d both been worried about Aggie and had discussed it before. Now wasn’t the time to keep secrets. “Aggie. Last night I decided to call in and say hi. Ended up scaring the crap out of her. She was so shook up I decided to stay and keep her company.”
Drew’s mouth dropped open. “No.”
“Yes.”
Drew laughed. “So you thought you’d go and play the white knight and it all fell apart on you.”
Liam saw the funny side of it now that it was all over. As he recounted his evening to Drew, he sounded pathetic and desperate, not heroic, which was how he’d seen himself when he’d offered to stay and help Aggie. Crap. Had he left her thinking he was needy?
“Yeah. She was so spooked I couldn’t leave her so I stayed, much to her horror. I think she tried to get back at me by putting me to work. Probably thought it would scare me off but it didn’t. Those donuts you wolfed down before? I helped make those.” He gave a smug grin. Who knew it would make him feel so accomplished to fry up little pillows of soft dough and dunk them in sugar?
“Seriously? Never would’ve guessed. They were pretty good. Did she say anything? Tell you why she’s been like a cranky bear for the last two years?” Worry filled Drew’s eyes.
“No. Insisted everything was fine, which is bullshit. She’s hiding something, Drew, and I intend to find out what it is despite April telling us to back off and leave her alone.” If he’d taken anything out of being with her last night, it was that Aggie needed help and he intended to be the one to give it to her. No matter how much she might protest.
“Good. I always liked you two together and still don’t understand what went wrong between you.”
“That makes two of us.”
“Look, go home and put your head down for a few hours. The workload isn’t that hectic this afternoon and I can cope with it unless we get an emergency. Just don’t forget the wedding rehearsal tonight, okay? April will kill us both if you don’t make it.”
“Thanks. And don’t worry, I’ll be there.” He drained his coffee cup and headed back to the break room to drop off his mug before going home in search of his pillow and a couple of hours of shut-eye. He didn’t know how Aggie managed it. Shiftwork had killed him as an intern, and his body sure didn’t like it any more now that he was all grown up. But if you did it long enough, you got used to it and therein lay the problem. He was used to more sociable hours.
After a few hours of restful sleep, Liam showered and chose smart-casual clothes to wear to the rehearsal. He wanted to ask Aggie to go for a drink or a meal with him afterwards. If she was going into work, that was where he’d go too. The thought of her being on her own at the bakery at night and being so scared worried him. It wasn’t right she felt that way, especially not on Hope Island where he’d always felt it was safe. All through their growing up years, they’d been left to do pretty much what they wanted. To think that wasn’t possible now was pretty sad. Perhaps that was why Ben had been asked by the women’s shelter to do the classes. Too much had changed.
He arrived at the small stone church right on time and parked next to Drew’s car. Liam noticed Atticus Hope and his sister Gigi standing outside talking and walked up to greet them. He kissed Gigi on the cheek and shook Atticus’s hand.
“Evening, folks. Lovely night.”
Atticus smiled his lazy smile that always made Liam
