Autumn Love (Love Collection)

by Natalie Ann

“I think he was afraid of you.”

  “Nah. He knows me. I see him in here all the time. Good guy, and he truly did want that table over there. He likes to come in and size me up a lot. It’s a game we play. Men like to mark their territory now and again,” he said, smirking at her. “His girlfriend just walked in anyway.”

  He watched as the woman turned to see the man that vacated the seat hugging his girl and then holding a chair out for her. “Thanks then. I’m Ali, by the way.”

  He took the hand she was offering and held it rather than shook it. “Liam Sullivan. Do you have a last name, Ali?”

  “Rogers. Ali Rogers.”

  He held his smile in place even when he knew it was going to drop. He swore Belinda said her daughter’s name was Allison, but he didn’t want to ask if Ali and Allison were the same. Not when things weren’t finalized and Belinda had admitted her daughter might have an issue with the sale of the farm. For now, it was just two adults bumping into each other at a bar.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Ali. Can I get you a drink?”

  “That would be nice. White wine. I’m not fussy,” she told Grant when he made his way back over. “I’d ask if you come here often, but you pretty much said you did. So now I have to wonder how often.”

  He smiled and she laughed. She had a nice laugh, a sexy one. A woman with a sexy laugh was always a treat in his eyes.

  “Often enough they know my name, but not so often I’ve got a monthly tab that needs to be squared away.”

  “That’s good to know. So what do you do, Liam?”

  “I dabble in a lot of things. I guess the easiest description is I’m a contractor who rents and flips properties around the area.” He wouldn’t lie, but he wasn’t going to admit anything else other than the rental properties right now. There was no need for her to know he was a silent owner in multiple businesses in the area too. “How about you? What do you do?”

  “I’m a fourth grade teacher in Glens Falls, but I live here in Lake George. I’ve lived here most of my life.”

  She didn’t mention anything about the farm, so maybe he was wrong. “Then I’m hurt you didn’t recognize my name.”

  She laughed again and then picked up her wine and sipped it, sending him a mischievous glance over the rim of the glass. “I don’t find myself in need of too many contractor services.”

  “Fair enough,” he said. He’d like to ask her what type of service she might be interested in, but for the moment, he’d be happy to settle for her number.

  Selfishness

  Ali let herself into her apartment a few hours later feeling drunk and high, and all she’d had was two glasses of wine in four hours.

  But she did have one smoking hot kiss and the promise of a date with the man who knocked her down the other day. She wondered if he’d knocked her silly at the same time.

  When was the last time she’d felt like she was a schoolgirl with a new crush? Hell, she didn’t even feel this way when she was a schoolgirl.

  Liam Sullivan did indeed have kind eyes like she remembered. He also had strong warm hands, kissable lips, and a rock hard body. She knew because she made it a point to cling onto him during the kiss they shared in the parking lot before he opened the door to her beat-up old car and made sure she drove away safe and sound.

  Now she was staring at the clock on the microwave and realized it was later than she’d thought.

  Originally she just wanted one glass of wine to relax her from the long day. She didn’t keep wine in her house because she never drank it often enough and hated to waste it. The last thing she expected was to run into a guy. Let alone him.

  Now she was glad that she’d convinced herself to go out and splurge on a drink for the night. Except it hadn’t even cost her anything other than her phone number and a couple hours of sleep, because now it was almost midnight and she’d told her mother she’d be at the farm before seven again tomorrow.

  Was her mother right? Was the farm just too much to handle now? Deep down Ali knew the answer and wished she didn’t.

  She’d never thought so before but now knew.

  Here she was, young enough to deal with the lack of sleep and the pressure that running a business would entail and she was still slightly annoyed she wasn’t getting to bed as early as she hoped.

  For her mother, on the other hand, sleep was the least of her worries. All the stress of running an orchard and farm, the business as a whole and making the decisions, wondering if they were right or not.

  It was selfishness on Ali’s part to not consider that before.

  She had a picture in her mind that’d she’d own the business someday but she’d have a staff to run everything. She could come and go when she wanted. Do all the fun things.

  Not worry about bills or staffing, bad weather that could ruin a crop, or the economy causing prices to increase.

  Nope, she wanted it to be like it was when she was a kid. When all she had to do was help her grandfather draw up mazes and hayride trails, create the haunted house and work with her mother in the bakery. She didn’t want anything that gave her a lot of responsibility then or now.

  Yep, it just made her selfish for being mad at her mother over the decision to sell.

  She’d talk to her mother about it more tomorrow and let her know that she was fine with it. That she understood and would stand by her mom’s decision, even if it broke her heart in the end.

  If there was one thing Ali had learned, it was that life taught you some hard lessons and you just had to roll with the punches to get through. Sometimes you got a black eye, other times you could duck out of the way. Time would tell if she was agile or ended up bruised.

  ***

  Monday morning, Liam walked into his lawyer’s office and explained the plans for the purchase of the farm, or the place better known as Granny’s Orchard. His lawyer, Tyler, just shook his head like he always did when Liam was going to branch out. “Do you even know anything about running a farm?” Tyler asked.

  “Nope. I’m going to learn it for the next several months under the current owner. I made her a fair market value offer for the property and she agreed.”

  “A verbal offer?” Tyler asked.

  “Yes.”

  “What was the offer?” Liam listed the figure and had Tyler bobbing his head side to side. “You probably could have gone lower, but it’s not completely outrageous.”

  “I’m not trying to take advantage of her. It’s for my mother and I’ll get the investment back. I always do.”

  “You do seem to have the magic touch with business ventures. Are you sure there aren’t some leprechauns in your bloodline?”

  Liam laughed. “Do I look like I’m a leprechaun?” He was trying not to get insulted by that comment, but knew Tyler was just busting.

  “Hardly. So who’s their lawyer so I can reach out and figure the paperwork out?” Liam pulled the card out that Belinda had handed him on Friday and placed it on the desk. “I’ve worked with him before. I’ll get in contact with him in a day or so. You might want to double check Belinda is still interested in selling.”

  “You know her?” Liam asked.

  “Everyone knows of Granny’s and the owners. Belinda is nice, but she’s been in over her head for years since her father died.”

  “No family to help her out?”

  “Nah. She’s an only child. Her husband took off when their daughter was a teen. The guy was a real prick.”

  “How so?”

  “Word around was that he thought Granny’s was worth more than it was. That he thought he was marrying into money. When he found out the work that it involved, he was more annoyed than anything. He blamed the farm for his failing marriage, rather than all the women he had on the side when Belinda, Anthony, and Ali were doing all the work.”

  “Ali?” Liam asked, his breathing stopped for a moment. He should have gone with his gut and maybe not kissed her senseless the other night because she was all he’d been able to think about since
.

  “Belinda’s daughter. She’s an only child. Nice kid. She’s got to be early twenties now, I think. Anyway, it was just the three of them holding it together for years with some staff. Then just Belinda and Ali. More Belinda than anyone, since I think Ali went away to college for a few years.”

  Shit, Liam thought. Things could get messy. He wanted this farm not just for his mother but also for him. But he also wanted Ali and she might not appreciate he was the one buying the family business.

  “What do you know about Ali?”

  “Why?” Tyler asked.

  “Just that Belinda said something about the fact her daughter might not be happy with the sale of the farm.”

  “Ali probably won’t be. My kids were a few years behind her in school, but like most people around here, we go to Granny’s all the time. Ali is kind of a fixture there. She was close to her grandfather too and his death hit her hard. They lived on the farm after the divorce and I think Anthony was always more of a father to her than her actual father.”

  “What happened?” Liam asked, thinking of the sudden death of his own father last year.

  “Not sure. He wasn’t sick that I know of. One of the workers found him in the orchard one morning. I’d only be guessing if I said what caused it though.”

  “No worries,” Liam said.

  Great, that hadn’t been disclosed to him, that someone had died on the property. Why didn’t he know that? And did it really make a difference?

  The more he thought about it, the more he realized it didn’t. It’s not like Anthony Michaels haunted the grounds or anything, and if he did, that might be kind of neat.

  Nah, Liam thought, shaking his head. Crazy thoughts.

  “Thanks for everything,” Liam said, standing up. “Let me know how you make out when you talk with her attorney.”

  “Will do.”

  Liam left and went back out to his truck, then pulled up Ali Rogers’s number on his phone. The right thing to do would be to be honest with her and tell her who he was, that he was the person buying her family business. But then he was terrified that she’d turn him down and he didn’t want to risk that.

  For now, he’d keep it to himself and see if they ended up together again. Of course after their kiss the other night, he was feeling pretty encouraged about another date… if he could get past this little hiccup.

  Something to Tell Me

  A week had gone by and Ali still hadn’t heard from Liam. She was starting to think that maybe he just wanted to try to get into her pants that night at the bar.

  Then the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she’d never been a bad judge of character, and like she’d told herself multiple times...he had kind eyes.

  People with kind eyes didn’t do that. They didn’t play games and they didn’t stand you up.

  Of course, standing someone up and not calling you after having a few drinks together wasn’t really the same thing.

  She thought about going back to the bar again tonight when she left the farm to see if he was there and pretend to run into him without him thinking she was actually looking for him. The only problem with that was, she wasn’t good at lying and she wouldn’t be able to get away with it without confessing what she was doing there.

  Maybe he was just busy this week? That had to be it. She’d been running around like crazy between work on the farm and school herself. There was no time to think about sexy men and dates. Liar!

  But by the end of the day on Saturday, she’d worked herself up so much that she realized she needed to just try to reach out to him and see if he’d respond. If he didn’t, then she’d know what a fool she was to waste her time thinking of him.

  Before she changed her mind, she texted, Hi, Liam. It’s Ali from the bar. How have you been?

  She hit send before she talked herself out of it, thinking it was too lame to text. Rather than stare at her phone for the next several hours hoping he responded, she drove home and told herself she was going to shower and throw together some dinner and see what happened.

  ***

  Liam saw the message come up on his phone and ground his teeth. He’d wanted to reach out to Ali all week but told himself he couldn’t yet. It didn’t feel right knowing that the business deal was going through.

  As excited as he was about it, he was more afraid she’d get mad and not want to see him. Then he realized she was going to know who he was anyway since Belinda was supposed to be showing him the ropes for the next few months.

  There was no way out of it at this point. When he convinced himself of that, he realized it’d been almost a week since they’d exchanged numbers and he felt like a fool waiting this long to reply.

  Now he backed himself into a corner and had no idea what the next move should be.

  He sat on her text for thirty minutes and finally decided honesty was the best policy. Good. Been meaning to text you, but there’s something you should know.

  It wasn’t long before she texted back. That you’re like a brick wall when someone runs into you?

  Shit. She had a great personality. This was going to be harder than he thought and he really didn’t want to do it this way. You’re the only one that’s run into me and has been knocked off her feet. Maybe we should take that as a good sign.

  Did he really just hit send to that?

  I haven’t had a lot of good signs in my life, so it’s nice to get one.

  Talk about guilt. That was it. He had to put an end to this. Can we meet tonight somewhere? How about dinner?

  Sounds great. Let me know the time and place and I’ll meet you there.

  He tossed his phone on the couch after he texted her the name of a restaurant that he was hoping would be somewhat quiet tonight so they could talk. Maybe being in public would help, he hoped, but he was going to be honest and upfront. If she was mad, if she didn’t want to see him again, if she felt that he was taking away something of her life, he’d just have to accept it and move on.

  ***

  Ali had no idea what it was that Liam had to tell her. She hoped to God he wasn’t some criminal or something equally as bad. She’d done a search on him and saw his contracting business, but not much more about him on a personal level.

  Oh well, guess she’d find out soon enough, but right now she was just too giddy over seeing him again.

  She couldn’t remember the last time she was excited about a date or even a guy. Sure, she’d dated plenty, but nothing had ever been serious. She was just too busy between work, getting her master’s—which she finally finished over the summer—and the farm.

  Then there was the nagging in the back of her mind that her parents’ marriage failed due to the farm. Or at least from what she’d heard growing up, not that her mother talked much about it. Nor had her mother tried to date again after her grandfather died. She’d been dating someone for about a year, but something happened there that her mother never spoke of.

  Thoughts of her parents’ relationship were putting a downer on her evening. She had just stepped out of the shower and was drying off when Liam’s text came in, so now she ran to her closet to figure out what to wear. Good thing he didn’t know she was standing wrapped only in a towel, but the mischievous side of her wanted to tease him with it when she never had done that with another man before.

  When she pulled into the parking lot, she saw Liam standing against his truck with his arms crossed and a grin on his face. Was it possible for someone to be so happy all the time? She’d always thought she was, but she never really saw too many men like that. Guess whatever he had to say couldn’t be that bad.

  “Hi,” she said, walking up to him. Yep, her body was already sizzling in anticipation of another kiss, so she knew she hadn’t made it up...what she was feeling for him.

  “Hey,” he said, reaching his hand out to hers, then pulling her in and giving her a little bit of a hug. It didn’t feel like a “relationship” hug, but more of “I’m sorry something happened to you”
hug. She was going to ask him what was wrong, but he said, “Hope you’re hungry, I’m starving.”

  “I’m always hungry, but I worked all day, so I burned a lot of calories.”

  “Well, let’s go feed you then,” he said, but nothing else.

  Dinner was great, conversation was okay. Nothing horrible, but more like boring. Not like the guy he was at the bar the other night, the one that had her laughing a few times and praying she got his number. This was a guy she would just say “thanks, but not interested” if it were the first time they’d met.

  “So what’s going on? You’re different tonight. You said you had something to tell me...”

  “Sorry. I do. It’s just I’m not sure how to say it and I didn’t want to say it in the beginning, after I asked you to dinner, for fear you’d leave.”

  That didn’t sound good. “I doubt it could be that horrible.”

  “Depends on the person, I guess.”

  “Well, tell me,” she said. The wait was killing her. She’d never had an abundance of patience in her life.

  He ran his hands through his dark hair adorably and she wanted to comment on it, but decided not to. “I was going to contact you sooner, but something happened this week.”

  “What? Are you okay?” Was he going to say he was dying or had some horrible disease? Oh God. How would she respond to that? She’d always been awkward in those situations.

  “I’m fine. I guess I’m more worried about you.”

  “There is no reason to be worried about me.” She wanted to scream at him to spit it out but instead sat there with her hands folded in her lap.

  “On Monday I was meeting with my lawyer over something.”

  “And,” she said when he stopped. Great, he’s going to go to jail. What a rotten judge of character she ended up being.

  “And I found out who you are.”

  “What did you find out?” she asked, trying not to be confused, but she couldn’t help it. She was confused.

  “That your family owns Granny’s.”