“Like I said.” He tilted his head, laughing but not unkindly at my lack of composure.
“Who are you?” Eloise popped out of the cabinet. She’d climbed entirely into it to scrub the nether regions. From the smudges on her nose and cheeks, it looked like she’d found some proper filth.
“Hi, I’m Liam.” He knelt down to her height and shook her soapy hand. “I see you’re here helping Sophie.”
“I’m cleaning,” she answered gravely, communicating that the task was of the utmost importance. “You can help,” she offered, “but I think you’re too big to fit in here with me. Maybe Sophie can find something else for you to do.”
“This is Eloise, my niece,” I introduced her. “And Liam’s going to take a look at the floor.”
“Oh, well.” Eloise scoffed a bit, clearly sensing the inferior status of his task. “Just see you do a good job with it.”
Uh-oh, some of my mother might have be rubbing off on her. I started to say something to make sure Eloise’s words didn’t sound too bratty, but then a tune from Tangled came on and she burst into song once again.
“Your sister Margot’s daughter?” Liam asked, amusement lighting up his eyes as he stood up again.
I nodded, “Yes.” Of course he’d remember Margot. He’d been friends with my brother Ian since they were both ten. But it still felt strange. I was used to being surrounded by people who knew next to nothing about me or my family. People generally made the usual assumptions about my family’s wealth and privilege, but no one had actually met my brother or sister, and to them my mother was simply someone who would breeze through from time to time and take me to lunch at a members-only club. But Liam knew me, not just the polished and practiced self I presented to the world, but the real me. It felt disarming, unsettling, and wonderful all at once.
“How’s Margot doing?” he asked.
I looked at the floor, unsure how much to say. In rehab for her ongoing drug addictions was the obvious, honest answer. But if I said it, my mother would probably sense my breeching the family vault of silence from across the island and send a poison dart through a crack in the window before I finished the sentence. And I wasn’t sure how much I really felt ready to open up to Liam. We had a lot of history, so much unsaid, and a few recent rapid-fire rounds of fights under our belts. Maybe it was better to stay at the surface.
“She’s all right, not great but getting by. She’s in Arizona for a few weeks and Eloise is staying with my mother and me.”
Liam nodded, somehow seeming to understand all the spaces in between my prepared statement. I wondered if he’d heard about her struggles from talking to Ian. But as far as I knew, my brother didn’t really talk to anybody.
“Well, why don’t I take a look at that flooring?” He headed over to the problem corner, where I’d been informed it appeared as if there was extensive water damage. He took his time, examining the area from the inside and out, consulting me like a partner and not an idiot regarding what I’d learned about the problem so far. I’d learned there wasn’t much that could be learned until the floor planks were removed, so I’d requested and received permission from the historical society to remove the floor planks—so long as no damage came to them in the process and they were re-used in the restoration. Thank you Julia.
“No damage in removal,” he repeated, not sounding incredulous but still not liking the restriction.
“They’re not the original floorboards, but they do date back to the late 1800s,” I explained.
“I get it,” he agreed. “I worked on a house last summer with the same deal. It can be done, it just takes more time and money.”
“I know.” My voice threaded the needle between resigned and stubborn. “But I have to do what needs to be done.”
“I can start on it day after tomorrow,” he offered. “I’d start today but I’ve got to get a different set of tools and the historical society will want you to file with them for a permit. And then I work tomorrow.”
“At the station?” I asked.
He nodded. “I can do some prep here, today,” he suggested. “I’ll need to clear everything out of this area, if that’s OK with you.”
“I can help with that.” The corner of the back room had become a sort of office for me. I had a bunch of stuff piled up, mountains of paperwork, stacks of magazines for inspiration, some carpet, tile and fabric samples, plus a couple of ladders and a toolbox. Together, we moved things out of the way upstairs to the empty 2nd floor apartment. I didn’t know why he was suddenly being so nice to me, giving me that list and now pitching in, himself. But I decided to adhere to that wise old saying about gift horses and mouths. I kept my head down and accepted the help I so dearly needed, even if I didn’t exactly understand what was going on.
Eloise pitched in, too, carrying one light object at a time with tremendous pride. Liam joked around with her, airplaning her down the stairs again after each delivery, zooming her around somehow balanced on his forearm. I tried not to stare too obviously at his muscles, bulging as he played so endearingly with my niece.
“Again, again!” Eloise demanded every time he put her down.
“You’ve got to do some work to earn it,” he informed her, pointing to something or other light enough for her to carry.
They laughed and chatted together like old friends, Eloise telling him about a naughty kid from her preschool and how he never shared. “I don’t like to share,” she confided in him, using a whisper. “But I do it any
way.”
“I understand,” he agreed solemnly. “Sometimes I don’t like sharing, either.” His eyes quickly cut to mine, then back to Eloise.
“You don’t?” Her eyes grew wide. He told her about how sometimes a guy would bring donuts to the stationhouse and they’d all disappear before he even got a chance to eat one. “That’s not fair!” she declared with all the indignation a five-year-old could muster.
“It’s OK. When that happens, first thing I do after my shift is go buy a donut.”
She nodded, evaluating the justice of the situation. After careful consideration, she stated, “It’s good to be a grown up.”
“Sometimes,” Liam agreed before airplaning her down the stairs again. Setting her down again gently as she squealed and laughed, I couldn’t help making an observation.
“You’re going to be a great father one day.”
He looked right at me as he said thanks. I blushed at the intensity of his stare. That might have been too personal a comment. It hadn’t struck me as such at first, but then something in the way he looked at me reminded me of how we used to feel about each other. The way we’d talked about the future, as if being together and starting a family was a certainty. Until I’d walked away from it.
Liam excused himself shortly thereafter, promising again to come by the day after tomorrow.
“You don’t have to,” I reminded him, feeling shy. “And you have to let me know how much it’s all going to cost. I can give you a deposit, or, I don’t know how you bill—”
“No charge, Sophie.” He had his back turned toward me as he spoke, walking out as I began to protest.
“No, that’s ridiculous! Liam, you can’t—”
“See you day after tomorrow!”
“I like him,” Eloise declared by my side as we watched him cross the street, heading down to where I knew he must have a spot reserved for locals. Liam knew all the insider island tricks. But to work on my store and not even charge me? What was he thinking?
“I like him, too,” I agreed, arm around Eloise.