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Just then, the soft sound of crying broke Liam’s concentration. Grace was awake. He leaped to his feet and hurried down the hall to her. In her room, Grace was sitting up in bed, her small face red, sobbing.
“There, there.” Liam hurried to her. He picked up the toy he’d made and set it in her arms. Then, awkwardly, he patted her back. “It’s okay.”
Perhaps he should have taken the little girl into his arms to comfort her, but Liam couldn’t figure out how to make that work. This child was a stranger to him, even though she was related to him.
He patted Grace’s back and offered her breakfast — even more ice cream, if she wanted. As he did so, he thought again of Amelia. He needed her, now. He was failing as a father, and he knew it.
Failure was a new sensation for Liam. He’d always been wildly successful in business, as in most of the things he did. The idea that he wasn’t going to be able to handle something was both new and deeply unpleasant, especially now. Fatherhood was the most important thing to be good at, and Liam just couldn’t do it. Even two-year-old Grace knew that.
Liam, usually poised and on top of his emotions, half-wished he could wail alongside his young daughter.
CHAPTER 6
AMELIA
Amelia let out a long, slow sigh. She’d spent the morning sitting at her kitchen table with her laptop in front of her, scrolling through a job website. Her résumé was up-to-date, she’d chosen her references, and she had a few cover letters ready. She’d even starred a few potential jobs that would be a good fit for her experience and skill set.
Yet now that it was time to actually apply, she was having a very hard time bringing herself to do it.
She’d worked so hard at Shondyn to make the company the best it could be and to grow her own skills. Yet that had all fallen flat. Even though Amelia knew it wasn’t the case, she couldn’t help feeling like she’d failed. And the thought of another job that would take all her time and energy just wasn’t appealing at all.
Yet Amelia couldn’t afford to take more time off work. She had savings, but she also had bills to pay, and she needed a steady income. Now. The thought of seeing her nieces and nephews less hurt, but she wasn’t sure what else to do.
It was time to just apply for at least one of these jobs.
Amelia let out a long sigh. There was no point putting it off anymore. She selected one of the jobs she’d starred, more or less at random, and started uploading her résumé.
As though by serendipity, at that exact moment, her phone rang. She scrambled to answer it, eager for any distraction from her job search.
“Hello, Amelia Holland here.”
“Good morning, Amelia. This is Liam Bradshaw.” Amelia’s heart stopped at the familiar voice. Oh, no. This was the same businessman she’d let Jamie smear ice cream on. Her offer to pay the dry-cleaning bill was going to come back to hurt her. After all, with an expensive suit like that, dry cleaning might not be enough. Maybe Liam had needed to replace the suit and was going to ask her to pay for it.
If that happened, Amelia would be out thousands of dollars and would definitely need a job — yesterday.
“Hi, Liam. Did you make it to the dry cleaners?”
“The dry cleaners?” Liam sounded so confused that, for a moment, Amelia wondered if she somehow had the wrong man. But then he seemed to remember. “Right, the suit. Yes, my assistant took it in. Apparently, it wasn’t the first time they’d seen that much ice cream on a suit.”
Amelia chuckled nervously. “Well, I’m glad you were able to get that sorted out. Just send me the bill when you get a chance.”
“The bill?” Again, Liam sounded completely nonplussed. It was a little strange, given how worried he’d been about his suit the day before. “No, don’t worry about that. It’s taken care of. But perhaps you’d be willing to help me out in another way.”
Amelia’s brow furrowed. “How do you mean?”
“Would you be available to join me for lunch today?” Liam sounded ever so slightly nervous and, in that moment, Amelia’s heart melted. Perhaps she’d read the guy wrong the whole time. After all, today he was friendly and seemed to care not one bit about the suit. Plus, he’d just invited her to lunch.
Maybe he’d been having a bad day yesterday. Maybe this lunch was even supposed to be a date. Had Katie been right about the ice cream incident being a meet-cute? Despite herself, despite the fact that Amelia had a lot more on her mind than romance, she felt her heart flutter.
“Sure. It would be my pleasure.”
“Let’s meet at the Revena, around one?”
“Okay. See you then.” They disconnected the call. Amelia could feel that she was grinning and, slightly surprised, she lifted her fingertips to the corners of her mouth. It had been a while since she’d been so excited about anything except her young nieces and nephews.
Half an hour later, though, she was rather less excited. First, she’d looked up the Revena and seen that it was a very classy restaurant near the waterfront. There was no way she could afford anything more than a glass of water and an appetizer there. Then, she had gone to her closet to find an appropriate outfit — and determined that she didn’t have one. Her wardrobe was mostly business attire, slacks and skirts and blouses from her old job, plus a few pairs of jeans and T-shirts that she’d purchased more recently. None of it was exactly date wear.
Not that this was necessarily a date. Although Amelia couldn’t fathom why else the attractive Liam would invite her out to lunch on such short notice.
