Page 16 of The Focal Point

“Great.” Her bright smile lit up the inside of my chest and made my heart pound. “I’m looking forward to working with you and on your house, Liam. I know I can make it what you want and preserve your family’s home.”

“I know you can.” I had no doubt, but I was more excited about the prospect of spending more time with her than anything else.

Bailey stuck out her hand, and I took it. We shook on our deal, all business, but I didn’t think I imagined the way her hand lingered in mine for half a beat longer than it should have. For a split second, the impulse to lean down and kiss nearly sent me forward.

But then Bailey’s hand slipped from mine, and she unlocked her car with the fob. The answering beep shattered the feeling of the moment.

“Thanks for dinner, Liam. I’ll see you next week.”

My new interior designer slipped into her car and out of the parking lot while I stood there, watching the lights of her car disappear, disappointment making my chest tight.

I was a hopeless romantic, but even I had never felt this way so quickly about someone. I didn’t even know what it was except Bailey herself. All I wanted to do was get to know her, spend more time with her, and keep talking to her.

As I wandered back to my car, I reminded myself of the timeline Bailey had given me—three months. I had three months to spend time with her, get to know her, and discover where this was going. Whatever this was.

If it was anything at all.

I hoped it was.

Chapter 6

Liam

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“DID THAT WORK?”

“No. Try something else.” The disembodied voice came from the pantry off to the side of the kitchen. My fingers flew over the keys as I made tweaks to the program.

“What about now?” I called.

A pause while I held my breath.

“Yep, that did it.”

I let out the breath and grinned at Tom as he came out the door, Scout trotting behind him, his jaws clamped around the back of his owner’s sweatshirt, seemingly just for the puppy thrill of it.

“Nice job.” Tom slapped me on the shoulder and leaned over to glance at my computer screen. “Wouldn’t have thought of that fix.”

“I hadn’t either until a minute ago. It popped into my head.”

Tom straightened, shaking his head. “That’s why you’re the CEO and not me. Beer?”

“Yeah. And you’re the freaking CFO. Don’t talk to me about not me being the smart one—you know you would have figured it out if I hadn’t.”

Tom half-turned, one hand still on the open fridge door, a grin splitting his face and a glint of mischief in his eye. “We both know I got the job because of these.”

He curled his arm, flexing his bicep.

“Whatever.” I threw a balled-up piece of paper at my best friend. He dodged it easily, laughing as he turned back to grab the beers.

But I had to laugh, too. Tom looked like a meathead, some tech bro who’d spent his entire high school and college career womanizing and too drunk to care. I was the swimmer, but even so, he’d beat me in the strength category. Tall and broad across the chest and shoulders, he looked more like a linebacker than the tech genius he was. He had, in fact, spent most of his high school years volunteering at the local animal shelter when he wasn’t playing one of our massively multiplayer online role-playing games with me.

But Tom was also brilliant. Our minds were a lot alike, which was why we had become such good friends, and later business partners in our tech firm. But between his looks and his ability to get distracted by the most minor thing, his intelligence surprised people who didn’t know him well.

To be fair, Tom loved to play the idiot meathead to throw people off, partly for fun and partly because it gave him an edge in a business where the entire goal was to get ahead, sometimes by illicit means. People who thought you were stupid tended to make mistakes they wouldn’t usually make, and Tom had given our company the advantage many times with his ploy.

I was grateful Tom had the stomach to play the game when needed. He was eternally optimistic, second only to me, funny, and a loyal friend to the end. But he didn’t hesitate to do what had to be done if the moment called for it, something I had always found was beyond my personality.