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I nodded and blinked back tears. I agreed with him wholeheartedly.
The waiter saved me by arriving with our dinner. The food looked great and smelled even better.
Unsure where to take the conversation after our discussion of Matt, I dug into my food.
Liam took a bite of his steak, slowly chewing it and eyeing me with another one of those looks that heated me up.
“This tastes great, but not as good as Tuesday night.” A wicked smirk splashed across his lips.
The comment instantly melted my panties as the sensations of his tongue on me filled my brain. I took a deep breath to calm myself and filled my mouth with swordfish.
I needed to steer away from Tuesday night if I had any chance of avoiding combustion.
“How long do we have to prepare before we meet with the Springbok people?” I squeaked. I sipped my wine to cool the fire he had lit within me.
He speared another piece of his meat and held it up before answering. “The first meeting is set for tomorrow night.”
I coughed and spit some of the wine back into my glass, luckily not getting it all over the table. “That's not enough time. You have to move the meeting out.”
“That's all the time we have. Josh set up the meeting a while ago, and one thing we know about old man Schmulian is that it would be unwise, to say the least, to try to reschedule on him.” He went back to his dinner, apparently not understanding how important it was to have enough time to get to know each other if we were going to pull this off.
I leaned forward. “You have to move it out. You're jeopardizing the success, and that means you're jeopardizing the second ten million for my company, and that's not fair——not fair to me, or the other hundred and ten people that work at Tiffany's, not to mention their families.”
He finished chewing and put his fork down. “I meant what I told you,” he said firmly, fixing me in place with his gaze and a broad smile. “I'll judge you by the effort you put in, not our results. I understand this makes it difficult, but we don't have a choice. Josh's job depends on it, and I can't lethimdown.”
“What do you mean you can’t let Josh down? Who’s Josh?” There seemed to be more going on in this transaction than I understood.
Melancholy wrote itself across his face. He didn’t respond.
I waited, giving him time to compose his answer, but it didn’t come.
“This won’t work if you won’t talk to me,” I told him. “What is the deal?”
Chapter 11
Liam
I’d understoodthe subject of Roberta would come up, and I knew I would need to discuss it with Amy, as painful as it was. I wasn’t ready, but unfortunately I'd screwed up and mentioned Josh.
In order to protect him now, I had to open up about the one episode in my life I didn't discuss with anybody. Melinda knew I’d been married before, but we’d never discussed it or the aftermath.
I found myself rubbing my ring finger as I chewed another piece of steak and composed my thoughts.
Across from me Amy waited patiently, somehow understanding not to push.
“I was married once before as well,” I started. “Her name was Roberta. We'd known each other since high school, and we dated in college. We never talked about it, but I'd known for a long time we were destined to get married.”
Across the table Amy's eyes regarded me kindly as she waited to hear the story, unaware of how the ending would shock her.
“She got a job out here in Boston, but I had to stay in L.A. I had promised Dad I’d go to work in the family business, and I couldn't convince Roberta to stay. Needless to say, that put an end to the relationship. We both knew long distance wouldn't work for us.” I could still recall the day she told me she planned to leave.
“I'm sure that must've been hard for both of you.”
I paused to take a bite of mashed potato. “It was a real gut punch. Up until then, I'd had my life pretty well planned out. I always knew I would go to work for Covington, and I always knew I would marry Roberta. Then one day everything changed.”
Amy put down her wine. “Did you consider following her out here?”
“That wasn't an option,” I explained. “I learned two things from Dad——well, a lot more than two, but two really important ones. First, family is not just the most important thing in life, it's the only thing.Family comes firstwas his motto. He even made us all wallets with FCF stamped on them to remind us every day.”
