by Debbie Mason
“Are you a professional photographer?”
She scratched her flushed neck. “I’m just picking it up again. I have a website.” She rummaged around her desk and picked up a card, handing it to Sophie.
“Great. I’ll check out your site. I’m not sure if Michael and Bethany have a photographer already, but we’re hoping to make Greystone a full-service event destination. I’d like to use local talent whenever possible.”
“I really hope you can make this work, Sophie. It would be great for Harmony Harbor. Byron was such a jerk, you probably wouldn’t want to work with him, but if you’re looking for someone to consult about marketing and publicity, he owned a big ad agency. He wasn’t always this way. He’s had a lot to deal with recently.”
Haven’t we all. But something Poppy said was nagging at Sophie. “You mentioned that your brother helped Paige with the article. Is it possible there’s more to it?”
“They have gone out together, but I don’t think it’s anything serious.” She looked at Sophie. “There is a lot of money on the table, though. If she offered Byron…I’m sorry, I can’t say for certain that he isn’t more involved with Paige than I realize.”
“Thanks for being honest with me. I know this is asking a lot, but until you’re sure your brother isn’t backing the condo development, I’d appreciate it if you keep anything we talk about between us.”
“It won’t be easy, but I’ll keep as much from him as I can.”
“Thank you. I really do have to get going.” She extended her hand. “It was nice meeting you, Poppy. I look forward to working with you. I haven’t gotten up to speed yet, but we will be sponsoring local events. So if you have anything you think might be worthwhile, let me know.”
“I still have spots available to sponsor the annual Christmas parade. I think Greystone used to host an event after the parade and provide hot chocolate. If you’re planning on starting up the tradition again, we’ll be happy to publicize it.”
Sophie remembered attending the event herself. However, she had a feeling many of Greystone’s traditions had died along with Mary, Riley, and Ronan. “I’ll talk to Kitty and let you know.”
Byron was coming in just as Sophie was leaving. “Not leaving on my account, I hope,” he said.
“Sorry you had to go out on mine. Thanks,” she said when he handed her the coffee.
He held on to the to-go cup. “So tell me, is there any truth to the rumor that Colleen wrote a memoir that exposes the secrets of everyone in town?”
Sophie thought of her torn-apart office, and her stomach jittered. “Not that I’m aware of. Enjoy your coffee.”
“You too. By the way, you might want to stop by Books and Beans yourself.” He held the door open for her. Just before it closed behind her, Sophie heard him say, “Pop Tart, we should do a piece on Ms. DiRossi. I think it would make for a fascinating read.”
Her stomach, which moments ago had been treading water, did a nosedive. Byron Harte knew something, and that something had to do with Books and Beans. Sophie looked up Main Street and saw a brown-and-pink sign featuring an open book and coffee cup. She’d passed it on her way to the Gazette. She didn’t know much about the owner, Julia Landon, other than that she’d been engaged to the mayor’s son.
Sophie’s phone pinged in her purse. She couldn’t look at another message from Bethany. After talking to Poppy, Sophie was already overwhelmed with everything she had to do. Not to mention worrying about what Byron and Paige might be up to. Maybe having Liam help out with Mia wasn’t such a bad thing after all. The thought had barely passed through her mind when she saw them.
Mia and Liam were leaving Books and Beans with Brie Fitzgerald and two children. Sophie was positive the couple was behind Byron’s innuendo. He wanted her to see Liam with Brie. While there may have been a small stab of jealousy seeing the couple laughing together, it was the thought that Byron meant to exploit her daughter in a piece featuring Sophie that set off the panicked jump in her pulse. All she could think of was getting Mia as far away from Byron as possible.
Which may have been why, when she called out to Liam, she sounded furious and frantic. He looked up at the same time Sophie hit a patch of ice.
Liam was trying to figure out what had warranted Sophie yelling at him when her feet flew out from under her and she landed flat on her back, her coffee flying. He heard the dull thud of her head hitting the ice as he ran toward her, and his stomach turned. He’d barely knelt at her side when she jerked upright. He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Take it easy. Sit still for a minute. You took a bad fall.”
Mia, Brie, and her nephew and niece gathered around Sophie on the ground.
“I’m okay, baby,” Sophie said, and pushed herself to her feet, ignoring him because obviously she was more concerned about upsetting her daughter than for herself.
Placing his hands on her shoulders, he carefully turned Sophie to face him. He looked into her eyes. “Are you dizzy?”
“No,” she snapped, and started to shake her head. She pressed her fingertips to her temple. “A little.”
He gently probed the back of her skull. “Blurred vision?”
“No, I…um...my vision seems fine, but I may be hallucinating. I see Cinderella standing in the doorway over there.” She gestured at Books and Beans.
Liam smiled. “You’re not hallucinating. Julia, the owner, dresses up for the kids’ story hour.”
“You took Mia to story hour?” She frowned. “You told me you were just taking her to the station.”
“I texted—”
“It’s my fault, Sophie. Liam took us on a tour of the station, and the girls were having so much fun together, I suggested we take them to story hour. I hope that’s okay.”
Sophie gave Brie a forced smile and nodded. “It’s fine.”
Yeah, not so fine, Liam thought. He got it, though. She was overprotective of Mia to begin with, and now she had to deal with him being part of her daughter’s life. Mia came to stand beside him, looking up at her mother with a worried expression on her face. Sophie crouched in front of her. Liam watched her as she did. Her balance seemed to be good.
“I’m not lying, baby. I’m okay.” She smiled and straightened Mia’s hat. “I should have put on a pair of boots before I left the manor.”
Liam frowned as he took in what she was wearing. Her hair and clothes were soaked. “You should have put on a lot more than boots. What were you thinking coming out dressed like that?”
Other than the hardening of her delicate jaw, she ignored him. “What’s this?” She smiled, touching the Elsa backpack Mia clutched to her chest.
Liam didn’t have to worry about his daughter keeping quiet, but he did have to worry about Brie. Since Sophie hadn’t been responding to his texts, he obviously had some explaining to do. He sent Brie a warning glance before he said to Sophie, “We should get you to Doc—”
“Isn’t it the cutest? We just got them in. I made Liam buy one for Mia. Amanda, my niece”—she gestured to the little girl standing beside her—“has one, too. She and Mia are BFFs. We’re so lucky the principal agreed to put them in the same class. Amanda was really nervous about going to school, but now that Mia’s in her class, she’s not, are you, honey?” Amanda smiled shyly at Mia, who smiled back. “We better get going. Don’t forget our playdate tomorrow, you two. I hope you feel better, Sophie.”
“Thank you. We have to get going too. Mia, come on.” Sophie reached for her daughter’s hand, her face frozen in fury. Brie wouldn’t notice, but Liam did. This was a train wreck of epic proportions, and he had no idea how he was going to make it right. He knew she was nervous about Mia attending school, and he’d gone ahead and registered her anyway. And not because he felt it was his right to make those kinds of decisions as her father. It just happened. Brie practically dragged him to the school. Her excitement was infectious. The girls got caught up in it, and Liam had ended up going along for the ride.
Mia shook her head and refused
to take Sophie’s hand, wrapping her arms around Liam’s legs instead.
Aw hell. Now on top of him overstepping, Mia had just chosen him over her mother. At least that’s how he imagined Sophie saw it. If he had any doubts, the expression on her face cleared them up. She looked heartbroken.
“So cute. She’s her daddy’s girl, isn’t she?”
Sophie walked away without saying a word.
“Did I say something wrong?” Brie asked, blinking her guileless blue eyes.
“It’s okay, Brie.” He lifted Mia into his arms. “I think we better postpone that playdate for another time, though. Sophie, hold up.”
When he caught up to her, she was standing in front of an empty space between two parked cars. “At least something went right today,” he thought he heard her say, but must have been mistaken because…
“Did you park here?” he asked warily, not sure what to expect from her.
She shot him a sideways glance. “Yes, and someone stole my car. I’ll report it…later. When I’m feeling up to it.”
He cleared his throat because there was no way in hell he was going to laugh after what had just gone down. “I’m pretty sure it was towed, not stolen. You were parked in a no-parking zone.”
The only time she spoke the entire drive to Greystone was when he suggested he take her to Doc Bishop. She’d responded with a flat, lifeless no. When he stopped the Jeep in front of the carriage house, she turned to Mia before she got out. “You should probably stay with your daddy tonight, baby. Mommy isn’t feeling so good. I love you to the moon and back.” She kissed the tips of her fingers and leaned over the seat to press them to Mia’s cheek.
She got out of the Jeep and walked up the stairs to the apartment without looking back. She didn’t see Mia pressing her small hand against the glass and her bottom lip quivering.
Chapter Nineteen
Sophie sat on the shower’s tiled floor with her knees pressed to her chest while the scalding hot water beat down on her. Steam and heat filled the small bathroom, but it did nothing to banish the cold that seeped into her bones and heart. She was like Humpty Dumpty. She was broken, and nothing could put her back together again. She’d lost Mia to Liam.
“Sophie,” her grandmother’s voice came through the door at the same time she knocked. She heard her talking to someone in anxious, rapid-fire Italian.
“Chunk, get your ass out of the shower.”
Two women swore at Marco in Italian, and then her cousin’s voice came through the door. “Sophie, we’re not leaving until you come out. We need to know you’re okay.”
Instead of all the king’s horses and all the king’s men, Sophie got the DiRossis.
“Move aside. I’ll break the door down,” her brother said.
Sophie turned off the shower.
“Told you it would work,” Marco said in a voice smug with the knowledge he knew exactly how to get through to his baby sister. “She’ll be out in a minute. Go put the soup on, Ma. Ava, give her a hand.” She heard the sound of retreating footsteps. “So, sister mine, how do you want me to handle this? Kill him quickly or torture him? If it were me, I’d pick slow torture. Maybe a horse head in his bed to start with.”
She grimaced at the gory image and got out of the shower, reaching for a towel. Her brother loved The Godfather. He used to embarrass Sophie and Lucas by telling his friends outlandish tales about their great-grandfather who Marco claimed was a member of the Cosa Nostra. Sophie wrapped the towel around her, not quite ready to face her family, and rested her cheek against the door. “Mia would never forgive us if you hurt her father. She loves him,” she whispered.
“He called me, Soph. Nonna and Ava too. He’s worried about you,” he whispered back.
“You love him too,” she said, realizing he’d been teasing her, trying to make her laugh.
“Like a brother. But if I thought he’d done anything to intentionally hurt you, sister mine, he would be a dead man. Can you come out? I think I got a sliver in my lip from talking to you through the door. Ouch. Jesus, Ma, would you quit whacking me upside the head?”
Ten minutes later, Sophie sat in bed with four pillows stacked behind her back, an ice pack on her head, and a cup of chicken soup in her hand. Her brother and cousin lay on either side of her while her grandmother sat on the end of the bed rubbing Sophie’s feet. “Stupido going out with no clothes on.”
“Wait…No one said anything about her streaking down Main Street. I’m sure I would have heard about it.”
Sophie pursed her lips at her brother. “I’d just seen the article in the Gazette, and then half the manor’s lights went out when a bunch of fuses blew on the circuit panel. The electrician is replacing it as we speak and will be dropping off his five-thousand-dollar bill when he’s done. So I was a little scattered. And it wasn’t snowing when I left.” She told them about the article in the Gazette and why she was in such a hurry to get to their offices. Then, because the three of them didn’t seem upset with Liam, she told them everything that had happened. About Liam registering Mia in school without consulting her. About Mia choosing her father over her.
Ava and Marco looked at Rosa instead of Sophie. Her grandmother made an eh gesture with her hands. “It’s for the best. It’s time for Mia to make friends her own age. He texted you, bella. Mia’s just trying to find her way. Open the cage door, let her fly. She’ll come back to you. Just like you came back to us, sí?”
Ava touched her hand. “Sophie, you were a baby yourself when you had Mia. For seven years, your life’s revolved around your daughter. She was your sole responsibility. Now you have someone to share that with. Maybe, for a change, you can take some time for you.”
“Ava’s right. It’s time for you to have some fun. Get your groove on.” Marco frowned when the three of them stared at him. “What?”
Before they could respond, there was a knock at the front door. Rosa got up to answer. Marco’s phone pinged. He looked at his cell and rolled his eyes. “He’s worse than a woman. Would you respond to his texts already…Wait a minute, I have to check you over before you do or I’ll never hear the end of it.”
Her brother took the mug from her hands and made her sit on the edge of the bed. She was touching the tip of her finger to her nose when Kitty and Jasper entered the room. They each carried a bag with a logo Sophie recognized—Ship to Shore, an exclusive woman’s clothing store on Main Street. Behind them, Rosa rolled her eyes. Ava got up from the bed, gave Jasper and Kitty a self-conscious smile, and took Rosa by the arm, dragging her from the room.
“Sophie dear, are you all right? We were so worried when Liam called to tell us about your fall.” Kitty put down the bag and came to sit at Sophie’s side. “You don’t have to worry about Mia. Maggie’s over there giving the boys a hand. How’s your poor head?”
Sophie didn’t know Maggie well, but there was a certain level of comfort knowing the woman was with Mia. “It’s fine, thank you. Just a little dizzy when I move too fast.”
Jasper thrust the bag at her. “You’d do well to wear these next time you go out in the snow, miss. I should have gone to the Gazette and taken care of the matter myself.”
“It’s my job to handle negative publicity. You didn’t have to do this,” she said as she pulled the white-and-blue striped tissue paper from the bag to reveal a pair of red boots with white snowflakes. “They’re adorable. Thank you.” She smiled, holding the boots to her chest.
Jasper gestured to the bag. “There’s traction cleats in there too.”
Sophie caught her brother struggling not to laugh and surreptitiously kicked him in the shin. Marco grimaced then lightly stepped on her toes. “I’ll heat up your soup,” he said.
“Here, dear, there’s a warm coat to go with the boots. We can’t have you coming down with pneumonia.” Kitty handed her the other bag.
Sophie lifted a long, puffy red coat with a white fur-trimmed hood from the bag. “Thank you both. They’re beautiful and much warmer than anything
I have.”
“It was our pleasure. But, Sophie, Jasper’s right. You can’t take everything on yourself.”
“Dana’s helping me with the wedding and so is Ava.” Sophie paused, remembering how overwhelmed she’d felt leaving the Gazette. Trusting someone else to handle things had never been her strong suit. She’d have to learn to do that with Liam, and maybe she had to stop thinking it was a sign of weakness to ask for help. “We need to have a meeting with Mr. Wilcox. We have to keep our eyes and ears open. There’s more than Paige and Hazel interested in seeing us fail.” She told them what Poppy had said.
Kitty stood up and patted Sophie’s shoulder. “Don’t you worry. We’ll find out soon enough who else is involved with Paige and Hazel and put a stop to it. For tonight, you rest. We’ll figure out everything in the morning.”
Jasper stayed behind when Kitty left the room. “Master Liam is a good man, miss. You have nothing to fear from him. For either yourself or the little miss. The family has withstood more than their fair share of sorrow these past several years. They deserve some happiness, as do you and your daughter.”
“I know they have, and I do know Liam is a good man. So are you, Jasper. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me and Mia.”
Obviously not a man comfortable with gratitude or praise, he gave her a clipped nod and left the room. Sophie heard the low hum of conversation from the kitchen and picked up her phone from the nightstand. She scrolled through all the texts. Liam had been telling the truth. He’d texted her about registering Mia at school. Twice.
“Hi. It’s me.”
“How are you feeling?” he asked, his voice deep and rough.
“I’m okay. Better. How’s Mia?”
“Worried about her mother. So am I. You have to believe me, Soph. This is the last thing I wanted.”
“Makes two of us. I didn’t see your texts,” she said, explaining why she’d missed them.
