Page 45 of The Focal Point

“Well, glad you could make time to come. Liam didn’t tell me he was bringing you.” I didn’t miss the glare he shot my way before taking the pie out of her hands. “Let me grab this from you. You didn’t have to bring anything.”

“I was taught never to come empty-handed. It’s from Pie in the Sky Bakery. It’s their seasonal—strawberry rhubarb,” Bailey replied before she crouched down to greet the adolescent German shepherd puppy. “Hey, Scout.”

“I’m never going to say no to Pie in the Sky.” Tom lifted the box top to peek inside. “Thanks, Bailey.”

She looked up from giving Scout a belly rub and smiled. “No problem.”

“Liam, will you help me for a sec?”

I had been watching Bailey interact with Scout, and I dragged my attention away to find my best friend giving me a look.

“Switching out the tank? Yeah, sure.”

I trailed Tom to the table laden with food and watched as he took the pie from the box almost reverently—it hadn’t been an accident I had suggested Pie in the Sky to Bailey. It was Tom’s favorite dessert place, an obsession, really, and I was trying to get on his good side. I knew he was the wild card about Bailey, or, rather, about me bringing Bailey.

Then he picked up the propane tank from where he had left it and hauled it the rest of the way to the grill while I followed.

“Damn thing gave out on me halfway through. I thought I had at least enough to last the barbecue,” he muttered, crouching to turn the valves. “I just hope it was warm enough in there to save the ribs.”

“That would be a travesty,” I agreed. Tom’s ribs were the stuff of dreams, and I’d been thinking about them all week.

Tom fell quiet as he disconnected the empty tank and handed it to me so he could put the new one in its place. Apart from Tom’s glare, he hadn’t said anything yet about bringing Bailey, and I took that as a good sign. Maybe he had just needed my help.

“Weren’t they supposed to come out and hook this up to the gas?” I asked.

“Of course, they were. It was a stupid oversight, to begin with. But thanks to their oversight, I have to buy a whole new grill and have someone come out here to change the bricks and countertop. That’s a lot of money, so I will switch out the propane tanks for now.”

Sometimes, I felt like Tom forgot just how much we made as my CTO and partner. He hadn’t come from money. Then again, neither had I. Sometimes I had trouble writing a check for something I knew I could cover. Apparently, redoing something he had already paid good money for was where Tom drew the line.

Done tightening the valve, Tom stood and brushed his hands off on his jeans before turning on the burners. He waited to hear the ignition and woosh of the flame catching before he turned on me.

“Do you want to tell me what the hell you’re doing?”

The swiftness of the demand startled me, and I gaped at my best friend for a moment.

“What?”

“Don’t what me. You know what I mean. Have you told Bailey about the houses yet?”

Shoving my hands into my pockets, I looked away, ensuring the woman in question wasn’t near us. She was, thankfully, talking with Jordan and Gloria.

“I promise I’ll tell her. Things have been crazy lately, and we haven’t had much time together,” I replied.

“When? When she’s working on the fifth house? Maybe the seventh?”

“I’m not going to buy seven houses,” I grumbled. “I just want this to develop a little bit more. I want her to trust me more.”

“And this is going to help?” Tom stared at me, incredulity in the way his eyebrows neared his hairline. “What part of this is going to help you gain her trust? Didn’t you tell me she has an asshole ex who did nothing but lie to her? How do you think she’s going to take this?”

Tom’s voice had risen steadily through his lecture.

“Keep your voice down,” I hissed, glancing over at Gloria’s husband, Fred, asleep in one of the Adirondacks on the lawn, his bald pate shiny in the late afternoon sun. Then someone laughed, and I turned to find Bailey smiling as Jordan regaled her and my assistant with some story. She looked beautiful in the soft light, her dark hair down around her shoulders, in jeans and a shirt for once, her body language relaxed and happy. As though sensing I was watching her, Bailey turned her head to meet my gaze and smiled.

The warm glow I always felt around her grew at the sight, spilling on the butterflies dancing around the same space.

“Seriously, dude?” The glare on Tom’s face as I returned my attention to him dampened the feeling. “You’re crazy about her—everyone can see that. And she’s smitten with you.”

“Who uses the word smitten anymore?” I grumbled, grasping for anything to distract Tom from this conversation I did not want to have with him.