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He walks out and I follow him, but he comes to an abrupt halt when he sees Liam standing there.
“Well hello,” Donald says jovially, shaking Liam’s hand like he’s his best friend. “What are you doing here?”
“Waiting for my girlfriend,” Liam says.
Donald blinks, looking from Liam to me. “Sophie’s your girlfriend? Why didn’t you say? You could have come in with her for the meeting.” He presses two fingers to his temple, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “Or you could have called me. We could have talked this through.”
“Sophie prefers to fight her own battles,” Liam murmurs, looking at me. “Is everything okay?”
I nod. “Everything’s fine. More than fine.”
“Sophie’s a valued member of the station,” Donald tells us. “I just wanted her to know that.”
Liam’s lips twitch.
“We should have lunch soon,” Donald says to Liam.
“Sure,” he replies smoothly, still looking at me. “Let’s do that.”
Donald nods and walks down the hall, leaving the two of us alone.
“So it’s all okay?” Liam asks me, pulling me into his arms. I melt into his chest. This is my favorite place to be.
“The email bounced,” I tell him. “From BTV’s servers. It’s like it never got sent.”
“Is that right?” he asks mildly. “That’s good.”
I step back, giving him a quizzical look. This time he won’t quite catch my eye. “Did you have something to do with it?” I ask.
He lifts a brow. “Something to do with the server of one company bouncing an email back to another company, neither of which I have anything to do with?” he asks.
I notice he doesn’t say no.
* * *
LIAM
It feels like a minor victory that I could do one thing for her to make it better. She’s going to have to learn to accept help but I’m a patient man. I can wait.
Decades if I need to.
I linger back as she walks outside to tell her friends about her reinstatement and the email and that they really should come inside and get back to work. This is her victory and she deserves it.
And I want her to realize I’m not the only one on her side. They all are. Every one of them with the exception of Michael, her boss. And I’m kind of certain he’s not going to be her boss for much longer.
I’m almost certain she’s going to grill me about the email later. And I’m here for that. I’ll be honest with her, the way I’m always going to be honest with her.
And maybe she’ll meet me in the middle occasionally. Let me help her, protect her, not tell her everything because I know she feels uncomfortable in gray areas.
It all boils down to one thing. She needs to trust me. And I need to earn it.
The door opens and Sophie walks back in, followed by her friends and colleagues. Her face is glowing and when she sees me waiting for her she gives me the sweetest smile.
And I know I need to get her home and soon. I want the making up part right now.
“I’ll be five minutes,” she tells me. “I just need to go get my laptop and send that email.”
“Double check the address,” I advise her. She rolls her eyes at me.
