ah, Ma,” Liam replied without removing his gaze from Natalie. How could his voice sound so even? Natalie wondered, disorientated. She jerked her hips and dropped her hands from his shoulders. She’d been holding him as if he was a life preserver and she’d been drowning.
What the hell had just happened?
Liam’s mouth flattened and he stepped back.
“I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to intrude,” Brigit said, sounding contrite. “I brought over the buffer for the floors. I tried to call first, but—”
“It’s okay,” Liam said gruffly, glancing away from Natalie for the first time since his mother had arrived. Natalie’s gaze flickered over Brigit Kavanaugh as embarrassment began to zoom through her veins like a toxin. Her cheeks flamed hot, and she felt slightly dizzy.
She knew who Brigit Kavanaugh was, of course, even though they’d never officially met. Liam’s mother was in her late fifties or early sixties, Natalie would have guessed, but she appeared ten years younger. She still had an excellent figure—petite and fit. Her blond hair was styled in a fashionable cut that emphasized Brigit’s high cheekbones and a pair of striking cornflower blue eyes. Despite all the cold shoulders Brigit had received from some Harbor Towners when she’d moved here with Liam and Colleen fifteen years ago, she’d managed to win the townspeople over with her hard work on philanthropic projects and her willingness to always help out people in need.
Brigit was the type of woman who commanded attention even from a distance, but she was downright formidable up close. Even though Brigit’s glance at her was mild enough, Natalie sensed the power of her personality.
“It’s really turned lovely after that rain, hasn’t it?” Brigit directed her question toward Natalie with friendly politeness.
She doesn’t know who you are, a voice in her head shouted. If she did, she wouldn’t be so civil.
She recognized that Liam’s mother was trying to ease Natalie’s discomfort, but Brigit’s attempt had the opposite effect, for several reasons, one being that Brigit seemed perfectly comfortable with the idea of coming upon her youngest son while he was making out with a woman. Of course, Brigit had probably witnessed him dallying with countless females since he was old enough to date. Natalie was just another forgetful face in the ongoing stream of women that paraded across the stage of Liam’s life.
She’d hired him to do a job. One second, their arrangement had been going fine—professional, if tense—and the next she’d been melting beneath Liam’s kiss like a piece of chocolate dropped on the pavement beneath a scalding summer sun.
“Excuse me,” Natalie murmured throatily as she threaded her way between Liam’s body and her car. She felt Liam’s stare tingling on her neck, but she got in her car and shut the door without another word. Casting a furtive glance at Liam and his mother, she turned her vehicle in the circular turnabout and drove off. Brigit looked a little confused, but Liam’s face looked fixed and somber. Undoubtedly, he was already regretting that kiss.
Why had Liam kissed her? Natalie wondered for the thousandth time as she locked up the office two nights later.
Once again, she was the last one to leave. Out of her two officemates, both attorneys, she was the only single one, and her work habits reflected the fact that she had no one to rush home to at night.
She did a mental eye roll when she realized she was feeling sorry for herself. It was a new thing for her, to mope about her single status or about the fact that she occasionally experienced feelings of acute loneliness. She’d had the recurrent feeling since her mother had died. Natalie didn’t like to consider that this mood had settled much more since last Sunday.
Since Liam’s kiss.
It was a beautiful August night. The sun had set, but its dusky pink afterglow lingered in the sky over Lake Michigan. Instead of walking to her car, Natalie strolled down Main Street toward the harbor, removing her suit jacket in order to better appreciate the mild breeze coming off the lake.
She had to admit the truth—that kiss had rattled her comfortable world. Natalie wasn’t too pleased about that. She’d obviously underestimated her ability to invite Liam Kavanaugh into her organized life and not be shaken up by his dynamic, volatile presence.
Somehow, the memories of how she’d felt under the influence of Liam’s coaxing mouth and knowing hands had crowded everything else out of her mind…including the reason she’d hired him. Her obsession to know more about the reasons for Derry Kavanaugh’s actions on the night of the crash had faded to the background during the past few days.
The realization made her want to call Liam. Why shouldn’t she check in for an update on his investigation? The longer she avoided him, the more it would seem obvious that his kiss had actually been significant.
She was digging in her briefcase for her cell phone when someone shouted her name. She looked across the street, her hand still jammed in her bag. Liam stood in the parking lot of Jake’s Place, a popular local restaurant and bar. He waved his hand in a beckoning gesture as she just stared at him for a moment, frozen in surprise at suddenly seeing the object of her chaotic thoughts.
“Hey,” he said pleasantly when she crossed the street and approached him. He wore a pair of jeans and an open-collared dark gray shirt. He stood next to a sleek, silver and black motorcycle. Natalie had no doubt it was his. Marc and Liam had both ridden bikes during their high school years; she’d seen Liam countless times ripping down a Harbor Town street with some girl who looked thrilled to be clutching onto him.
“Hi,” Natalie replied, hoping that she sounded completely at ease with this unexpected meeting. In truth, her heart had started to beat an erratic tempo against her breastbone.
“I was just going to walk over and see if you were still in your office.”
“Were you?”
The lights in the parking lot were dim, but she still saw something indefinable flicker across his face. “What…you don’t believe me?”
“Why wouldn’t I believe you?” she asked, glad to hear her voice sounded calm.
He gave her a level look. “Mainly because you sounded like I was full of crap for saying it,” she thought she heard him say under his breath. A car door slammed in the distance. Liam glanced past her shoulder and waved at a man who was walking toward them. He continued quietly. “I really was about to walk over to your office, whether you believe me or not. I saw your car parked on Ontario Avenue and figured you were still there. Do you make it a habit to work until almost nine o’clock?”
“Why were you trying to find me?”
Liam scowled when she ignored his question. “I thought you might want to sit in on this conversation. I did a little digging and rumor has it that this guy—” he nodded toward the man he’d just waved at who was approaching where they stood “—saw my father on Silver Dunes Beach on the night of the crash. Not sure yet if it would have been before or after the time period he was at the club. I thought you might be interested,” he finished in a low murmur.