4. Liam

4

LIAM

“ W hat’s with the face?” Elliot asks when I enter Redpoint the following afternoon. He looks completely at ease behind the bar, untroubled by the world and I have to temper my knee-jerk reaction to snap at him.

“What face?” I ask, trying to breeze by him before he asks too many questions.

“You know, the constipated face you make when you’re irritated.”

I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from telling him to fuck off because it will just start an argument and he will pout like a wounded teenager for the rest of the day. For being over thirty, he does a good impression of an emotional teen. “I don’t make a face like that.”

Elliot smiles to himself and the fact that he hit the nail right on its head does nothing to ease my irritation. “You’re right, you don’t make it. Your face just looks like that all the time.”

“Mature,” I comment and make my way to the solitude of my office in the hopes that I don’t see anyone else on the way there.

I sigh when I close the door behind me and let my office soothe the sharp edges of the anxiety that’s been building since the debacle with the apartment. I mean, so far everything has been going smoothly. Marley spent most of the day yesterday writing in her room and I even saw the mysterious Steven prowl through the living room when I was making dinner.

But, the fact of the matter is, I wanted that apartment as an oasis away from my brothers, away from Redpoint. An island of one. And now it’s three and I don’t quite know how to handle it.

With a heavy sigh, I sink into the chair behind my desk and try to get my shoulders to relax. They don’t. They’ve taken residence up by my ears since Saturday morning and not even my purposefully brutal run this morning made a dent in their tightness.

At least I have my office. When we made the plans for Redpoint, I made sure my specific office was as far away from everything else as possible. It’s across the bar from the brewhouse and my eldest brother Max’s office, and the entire storeroom is between Elliot and myself.

I know this is an indicator that I need help with personal relationships, but I don’t really care. I’ve made it this far in my life on my island of one and I intend to keep it that way.

A knock at my door kicks me into motion and I paste a pleasant look on my face. “Come in.”

“Hey Liam,” Gus greets me, entering with a smile that vanishes the moment she looks at my face.

Okay, maybe I don’t know how to change my expression as well as I thought I did. And that’s a mistake because Gus—our manager and Max’s fiancé—seems to see and know everything before it happens. And to top it off, she has no qualms commenting on it.

“What can I do for you?”

“You okay?” She asks, settling into the chair across from my desk as if she’s about to offer me free therapy. Her expression is open, serious, and caring and all of that makes it hard for me to tell her to fuck off like I would my brothers.

“Yeah, of course,” I lie. Well, it’s not really a lie. There isn’t anything specifically wrong. It’s just a month-long setback. That’s all it is. “Pushed myself a little too hard on my run.”

She shudders as if running is the worst thing she can think of. “I don’t know how you get out there every day. Do you ever take the day off?”

I lift a shoulder. “Christmas morning usually. And any day we climb.”

She laughs but schools her expression when she sees I’m not joking. “Oh. Well, good for you on the commitment part. Anyway, I just wanted to ask about the apartment. I know you were so excited to have your own place.”

And there it is, the question I can’t really avoid. “It’s great,” I say, knowing immediately that my tone rings false. “The movers came Saturday night, everything is in its place. No complaints.”

Gus studies me, her lips pulling to the side as she senses the climbing level of my bullshittery. When she crosses her arms over her chest and narrows her eyes, I know I’m in for it. “Liar. Something clearly went wrong. Spill it. I mean, what’s the big deal?”

I shuffle in my seat and try to grasp a way to explain it. I ran the sentences through my head a thousand times just this morning and I still can’t find a way to make the situation any less unbelievable. “Okay. Fine.” I let the tension out of my shoulders and lean forward on my desk. “I rented the apartment from Mr. Alldridge the moment it came open.”

Gus nods. “Right.”

I run a hand through my hair. “Well, it turns out that Mrs. Alldridge also rented the apartment out and neither of them communicated on it.”

Gus’ mouth falls open and she drops her arms from her chest. “Oh shit. Can they fix it?”

I frown. “We tried to call them, but they are apparently in Mexico for an entire month. So we can’t even ask who signed first or find a way to rectify the situation until they get back.”

“Oh, Liam, I’m so sorry. I know you had your hopes up about this place. What are you guys going to do?”

“We tried to find another place for one of us to live for the month, but everything is filled up and I refuse to move back in with Elliot. I’d be in jail within a day.”

Gus snorts. Outside of the family, she’s the one who’s seen us argue the most, broken up more than one almost fist fight. “You would.”

“So we decided since there are two bedrooms and no other options, we’re going to be roomies for a month.”

“God, I hope he’s nothing like Elliot,” Gus breathes, her faraway eyes imagining things I don’t want to see.

“She.” I correct. “Marley Green. And her cat, Steven.”

Gus’ eyebrows reach her hairline. “She?”

“She,” I repeat, cringing as I watch Gus’ face transform from shock to one that is probably planning how to make us a couple.

“Well, that’s interesting.” Her smile tells me all I need to know about how interesting she thinks it is and I wish I could stop her, but no one, not even my giant bear of a brother can stop her from doing what she wants.

“Not really,” I intone, opening my laptop, hoping that will signal to her that I’m done talking.

It doesn’t. She settles into the chair like we’re at a ladies brunch. “So tell me about her, what’s she like?”

I shrug because I don’t know how to answer her. “She’s nice, I guess.”

“Nice?” She leans forward. “Come on, Liam. You notice everything about everyone all the time. You’ve got to give me more than that. Is she young? Is she single?”

My gut takes a hit I wasn’t expecting at the word single. I hadn’t thought to ask her if she was and though I assumed she wasn’t, I could be wrong. What I really can’t figure out is why thinking of her as taken makes me so irritated. “She’s probably in her mid-thirties, I didn’t ask. I also don’t know if she’s single. I didn’t pry.”

“But you’d know,” she points out. “She’d have said something or would be talking on the phone or texting all the time.”

I just stare at my soon-to-be sister-in-law because she right and I don’t like how that knowledge makes my heart pound. “I suppose.”

“Is she pretty?”

Again, my gut does a weird flip and I try to brush off the question because yes, Marley is pretty. Hell, I’d go out on a limb and call her gorgeous. Curvy, gorgeous green eyes, hair that I want to bury… “I suppose.”

Gus collapses in her chair and shakes her head. “You are impossible. You know that Liam?”

“I’ve been told.”

“Max mentioned he doesn’t remember you having a recent girlfriend. Is there something—”

“Max needs to keep his mouth shut,” I cut her off, regretting it the moment her face falls.

“I’m sorry, you’re right, I overstepped. It’s none of my business.” She pushes herself out of her chair. “Well, I hope it works out soon or that the Alldridges call you back to sort things out. Let me know if you need anything in the meantime. You can always come to our place if you need to escape.”

I smile stiffly because being around my lovey-dovey, extremely handsy brother and fiancé sounds only a tiny bit better than strangling Elliot. “Thank you. I appreciate that.”

She gives me a soft smile and then excuses herself to the bar.

The moment my door shuts with a click, I let out a groan and crumple forward on my desk. I don’t know how one conversation with Gus could make me feel every emotion I’m trying to avoid, but I feel like I ran a full marathon in the space of ten minutes.

I know she’ll tell Max and Max will tell Elliot and Elliot will tell everyone on earth and beyond that will listen so I just fucked myself. And still I can’t be irritated with Gus. She means well and she keeps this place running.

Pulling myself together, I straighten, pull up the research I’m working on for our first franchise location in Aspen, and get to work crunching the figures.

Thankfully, it lulls me into to the cold, unfeeling world of numbers and after a few minutes, I’m numb again. Just like I like it.