by Meg Benjamin
Relief.
He wasn’t going to leave Antero. He wasn’t going to leave the brewery.
He wasn’t going to leave Ruth.
Now, all he had to do was figure out how to make that happen.
Chapter Twenty-One
On Saturdays, the deli closed at three rather than five thirty since the afternoon traffic was a lot slower. Ruth made it through the day by pretending it was just like any other Saturday. It wasn’t, but not because she wasn’t trying.
Carol stuffed her chain-mail gloves into a drawer below the counter where they’d be out of her sight. Ruth gritted her teeth, but she didn’t know what else she could do. Every time she remembered Carol’s joy when she’d first pulled the gloves on, she regretted not punching David when she’d had the chance.
Bec came in around ten, looking glum. Ruth considered unloading on her, but didn’t—she looked like she had her own problems. “What’s up?”
“I don’t know if you’ve heard. Black Mountain Tavern is closing tonight. I’m afraid Liam’s going to be leaving for Park City sooner than I’d expected. I don’t know when he’ll be back. I wasn’t ready for him to go.”
A sudden chill worked its way down Ruth’s spine. It hadn’t occurred to her that Liam might leave Antero so soon. She’d thought he still had a couple of weeks. The day seemed to be heading downhill faster than ever.
At two she sent the waitress home, then helped Peaches clean up. Whatever goat cheese was left in the deli case would go into the freezer for the weekend while the deli meats would go into the cooler. There were only a few pastries left, and she’d take them home for breakfast rather than using them for crumbs.
After Peaches left and they’d taken care of the few remaining chores, she herded Carol to the Toyota. There was a mall in Barrington, and she was looking forward to a little retail therapy, plus shopping for school clothes to get their minds off their problems.
They had dinner at a fast food place, something Ruth usually avoided, but these were desperate times. Carol had been quiet all afternoon, accepting Ruth’s advice on clothes shopping without much comment, which was almost unheard of. Ruth even picked up a new pair of shoes for herself. Granted, they were ballet flats and about as far from exciting as possible, but they still seemed a little like a reward for surviving an incredibly tough week.
When they got home, Carol said she was going upstairs to read. Ruth let her go without comment. They’d had a lot of time together that day, but they hadn’t talked about David or California. Still, just being together was reassuring, at least for Ruth.
She hoped Carol felt the same way.
She watched a little television, not that she paid too much attention, but having the set droning away in the background was comforting. Having some wine was a possibility, but one she rejected. Drinking when she was this edgy was probably a bad idea.
At ten, she headed upstairs to tell Carol it was time for lights out. She knocked on her bedroom door. “Carol? Time for bed.”
She waited a couple of moments, but there was no answer. Maybe Carol had already fallen asleep with the light on. Ruth opened the door as quietly as she could, trying not to startle her if she was sleeping.
At first she couldn’t make sense of what she was seeing. The bed was empty. So was the easy chair by the window, which was open.
Ruth stepped back into the hall to check the bathroom, but the room was dark.
She stared back at the bedroom again, her pulse speeding up as she began to understand. Her daughter was gone. The window was open. She could have been abducted, but knowing Carol, she doubted it. If someone had come through her window, she would have raised hell.
Which meant that Carol had gone out the window herself, climbing down the massive blue spruce tree next to the house.
Her daughter had run away. And she had no idea where to start looking for her, except to call David and see if Carol had headed for his hotel. She slid down the wall to the floor, resting her head on her knees as she tried not to be sick.
…
The final Saturday night at Black Mountain Tavern had been a bust. Or an anti-climax, depending on point of view. Liam had wondered how many employees would walk out once they found out what Stanton was planning, but everybody had stuck around for another night. Even McCullough had stayed in the kitchen. Considering that he’d lifted a bottle of bourbon from the bar before he’d started cooking, what came out of the kitchen wasn’t worth a whole lot.
Some of the tavern’s longtime customers dropped in to say goodbye, but they didn’t stick around. Stanton hadn’t done any food or drink specials, and their beer inventory was almost nonexistent anyway. By ten, the bar was mostly empty and the few tourists who’d made the mistake of coming in for dinner were finishing whatever was on their plates.
Liam started serving tequila shots to the waitresses, but they weren’t particularly interested in sticking around, either. By eleven, he was on his own.
He sighed. It wasn’t much of a finale for what had once been a damn good bar. It shouldn’t have closed down. We all deserved better than that.
He was still thinking about how he could make staying in Antero work for him. He had the germ of an idea, but he hadn’t entirely worked it out yet. Maybe cleaning up the bar would help him ponder.
He put the last tray of dirty glasses into the dishwasher and turned it on. Stanton could collect his glassware on his own, but Liam would at least wash it for him. The last bar setups would go into the garbage this time since there’d be no reason to save them and even he wasn’t desperate enough to want a dinner of maraschino cherries.
A noise in the general direction of the storeroom brought him up short. He was pretty sure McCullough had already left, and Stanton hadn’t even bothered to show up. Were there still a few waitresses around?
It would be the height of irony if the tavern got robbed tonight of all nights. It would also be a bad deal for the robber, given how low the cash register was after the small number of customers.
Liam picked up a push broom, which was all he had in terms of weaponry, and started carefully down the darkened hall.
He paused outside the combo storeroom and office. Someone had turned the desk lamp on. He stepped into the room more cautiously. “Hello?”
The desk chair creaked as it turned around and he caught sight of a dark, close-cropped bob. For one wild moment he thought it was Ruth, and his heart gave a mighty thump. But the person at the desk was a lot smaller.
“Carol?”
She looked up at him, biting her lip and nodding. She didn’t look twelve all of a sudden—more like five.
“How did you get in here?”
“The back door was unlocked. I just walked up the hall, and this was the first room I found.”
“Does your mother know you’re here?”
Carol shook her head slowly. “I climbed out my bedroom window.”
He knew he needed to call Ruth immediately, but he was also curious. “Why?”
“I wanted to talk to you. I can’t really talk to Mom about some stuff. She keeps trying to tell me everything’s okay, but I don’t think it is.” She frowned. “You see what I mean?”
“Sort of. I need to call your mom and let her know you’re all right.”
Carol’s eyes widened. “I left her a note.”
“That’s good, but I still need to call her. Stay here, okay?”
Carol looked like she might object, but then she slumped in her chair. “Okay.”
Liam stepped back into the hall, far enough away that she’d have a tough time hearing the whole conversation, but close enough that he could keep an eye on the door to make sure she stayed put. He sort of trusted her to do what she said, but not entirely.
Ruth picked up almost immediately. “Liam? Oh God, Liam, I need your help. Carol’s gone and I’m frantic.”
“Relax,” he said quietly. “She’s here at the tavern. She came in the back way and nobody saw her until I was getting re
ady to close down a few minutes ago.”
“At the tavern?” Ruth’s voice shifted from frantic to faintly pissed. “What the hell is she doing at the tavern?”
“I’m not sure. She says she needs to talk. I’ll bring her back home.”
“I’ll come over there. I’m only about two blocks away.”
Liam frowned. “You’re outside?”
“I’ve been looking for her ever since I found out she was gone. I even called David because I thought she might have headed to his hotel.”
He had a sudden image of Ruth, alone and desperate, searching the streets for her missing daughter. He wanted to punch somebody, but that would be counterproductive. Plus he wasn’t sure who to punch. Probably David.
“Listen, give her a few minutes. Let me talk to her. I’m not sure why she’s here exactly, but I’d like to find out.”
“She’s there because David and I had a fight about her, which she overheard. He said some stupid shit, and she’s upset.”
“Let me talk to her and then I’ll take her home. We’ll figure something out.” He wanted to sound confident, but he wasn’t sure he made it. At least now he knew for sure it was David who needed punching.
“Okay. Maybe you’ll have more luck than I did. At least it’ll give me time to try to calm down and to call David back before he heads over to the house.”
“Right, see you soon.”
He turned back to the storeroom. Carol was where he’d left her, sitting at the desk. She looked even more worried than she had before. “What did she say?”
“She was really frightened, but she’s a little better now that she knows where you are. She’s waiting for you at the house. You’ll need to apologize to her, big time.”
Carol nodded glumly. “I really did leave her a note. Maybe she didn’t find it.”
“I’d say not.” He leaned against the side of the door. “Now tell me what’s going on.”
“My dad wants me to visit him in California, which I sort of wanted to do at first. But now, I’m not so sure.”
“Why’s that?”
“I guess he thinks I’m sort of weird. He got all up in Mom’s face about buying me my chain-mail gloves, but I don’t understand why exactly. And he said he thought I was strange. Or sort of strange. Mom said he was talking about some TV show, but I didn’t get that part.”
The need to punch David Mobley had become acute. “Yeah, well, that’s horseshit. You’re not strange at all. You’re smart, and sometimes dumb people get nervous about smart kids. But you just ignore them if they do that.”
“It’s hard to ignore somebody calling you strange,” Carol said slowly. “Particularly when it’s your dad.” Her lower lip began to tremble. “He says I should move to California with him full time. Then I wouldn’t be so weird. I guess he thinks he can fix me.”
Liam bent down on his haunches until the two of them were roughly eye-to-eye. “Look, here’s the thing. You don’t need fixing. You’re the least broken person I know. Your mom is a great mom, and you’re a great kid.” He had no idea if he was putting that the right way, but it was the only way he knew how.
Carol nodded stiffly. “Yeah, I know. But I really wanted to visit him and see California. Only I don’t want to go if he’s going to try to make me different.”
Liam shook his head slowly. “He can’t make you different if you don’t want him to. And you can come back here and be the same person you were when you left.”
Her jaw firmed. “I don’t know if I want to do that anymore. Why should I go to California if he’s being such a butthead?”
Why indeed? But he didn’t think agreeing with her was a good idea right then. “Because this is your best chance to get to know him better. And for him to get to know you better. He’s not used to Antero. He probably thinks we’re all weirdos because we’re not like the people he knows. Hell, even I think we’re all sort of weird, but I’m used to it, so it doesn’t bother me.”
Carol’s lips crept up slightly into a ghost of a smile.
“Maybe you need to be patient with him. I mean, you can let him know how you feel, and you should. He may not realize he hurt your feelings.” Yeah, she should definitely tell him about that—and hope that he’d listen. “But let him get the hang of this parenting thing. It’s tricky. The two of you need some time together to work things out.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to him. Maybe I can make him understand what he did wrong.”
“I hope so.” He started to push himself to his feet, then paused. “One question—why did you come here tonight?”
She blinked at him. “To talk to you, of course.”
“Why me?” He’d never figured his charm extended to twelve-year-olds.
“Because you like my mom. And she likes you. And I sort of helped you get started with all of that. I figured you might be able to help me. Which you did. Why did you go away, anyway? Mom’s been awful unhappy for the last few days.”
He shouldn’t have been pleased to hear that, but he was. “Your mom and I had an argument. It was sort of stupid, but I was letting her cool down.” And hoping like hell that she’d let me come back.
“Okay, maybe I’ll talk to her about it.” She gave him a beatific smile that managed to turn into a yawn.
“Come on, kid, let’s get you home.” He extended his hand toward her and she took it.
It was still early by Antero standards. As they walked down Main, he could hear music from some of the bars, and couples stood two-deep outside the doors of the more popular restaurants. Black Mountain Tavern could have made it. There’s room for another bar. A good bar, anyway.
Something to think about once he took care of the current crisis.
The lights were on at Ruth’s house. They climbed the stairs to the porch as the front door flew open. Ruth knelt down in front of her daughter and gave her a fierce hug, which Carol returned. Then she leaned back to look at her daughter. “Okay, kiddo, you’re in major trouble, you know.”
Carol nodded slowly. “I know. I did leave a note. Maybe it blew out the window when I climbed down the tree.”
Ruth pushed herself to her feet. “That tree is getting trimmed tomorrow. There will be no more climbing out the window, young lady.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Carol muttered.
Ruth turned toward Liam. “Come on in. I saved you some wine.”
She took Carol upstairs, and he settled into the kitchen with a glass of red. In reality, he’d have preferred a beer, but he’d take what he could get, as long as she let him stay.
Ruth entered the kitchen a few minutes later, sliding into a chair opposite him. He handed her a glass of wine for herself. “Okay?”
She shook her head. “Not really. But I’m not going to go over it with her tonight. She needs to get some rest first, and so do I. Was she running away?”
“Nope. I don’t think so anyway. She said she left you a note, and that she wanted to talk to me. She was upset because her dad called her weird.”
Ruth set down her glass. “Dammit. Damn him. He didn’t really call her weird, but he implied it pretty strongly. He didn’t know she was listening, though.”
“He’s an asshole. But you knew that already.”
“I did. I’m not sure Carol did. I want to be certain she doesn’t think he’s right when he doesn’t understand her.”
He narrowed his eyes. “She’s sort of confused. But I don’t think she believes him.”
“Good.”
“But there’s still the question of her going to California with him.”
Ruth closed her eyes. “I hate that. I hate thinking of her out there, having David try to give her a makeover. But I don’t think I can stop it. And maybe I shouldn’t.”
“You’ll let her go?” Liam asked carefully. He wanted to make sure he didn’t screw up again.
She bit her lip, looking at him from beneath her lashes. “I think so.”
His temperature seemed to spike up a few degrees. He reache
d across the table to take her hand. “Can I stay tonight?”
“Yes.” She paused. “If you want to. I mean, I don’t want to pressure you…”
He reached for her, pulling her out of her chair and into his lap, running his hands along her sides, along the lines of her hips and up to cup her breasts as he leaned down to touch his lips to the side of her throat. “Yes, Ruth, I want to stay here with you. If you’d rather I not be here when Carol wakes up, that’s okay. I can go home. Or I can stay. I can do whatever you want me to do as long as you want it.”
She turned to bring her lips to his, winding her arms around his neck. Heat flooded his body. His skin was on fire beneath her fingertips. They might try for sex on the kitchen table, but then again, that might be a little unsanitary.
She stared up at him with those chocolate eyes. “Are you leaving for Park City soon? Bec said you might.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want to. I’m trying not to. Everything’s a little bit…fluid right now.”
“Good.” She took a deep breath. “I don’t want you to go, Liam, if there’s any possibility you could stay. I want you here with me.”
“I want me here with you, too.” He lowered his lips to hers.
After a long, hot, heart-pounding moment, she slid off his lap to stand beside him. “Come on. Grab the wine bottle. Let’s go to my room. I don’t know if I’ll want you to leave later or not, but right now that’s where I want you. Okay?”
He nodded. “Okay. Most definitely okay.” He put an arm around her waist, pulling her tight against him, and headed up the hall toward his temporary paradise.
Chapter Twenty-Two
In the end, Liam left around four in the morning, ambling down Main in the grip of a giddy sleeplessness that was beyond exhaustion. He’d pay for it later, and he didn’t give a damn.
He headed back to his own place to take a shower and grab some breakfast. He might have gotten a little more sleep, but that wasn’t likely. He didn’t think he’d be able to do it.
He had to talk to Bec and Wyatt, and he had to clear his head. He needed to be in command of everything he’d been thinking about for the past day.
