The pub was busy, no surprise, since it was a Friday night. Sam was talking to a server by the bar. He looked up and smiled when he caught sight of us, heading across the floor to meet us. “Hey, kiddo,” he said, wrapping me in a bear hug.
Sam was tall and wiry with salt-and-pepper hair and a close-cropped beard. He’d been my father’s best friend and even though I’d eventually gained a wonderful dad in my stepfather, Sam had played a fatherly role in my life, too. He was always ready to listen and he never said, “I told you so,” no matter how badly I messed up.
He pulled out of the hug and offered his hand to Nick. “We missed you last night,” he said.
“I missed being here,” Nick said. I noticed that he didn’t offer an explanation for where he’d been.
“Liam didn’t say you were meeting him,” Sam said, looking toward the back corner of the restaurant.
“Liam’s here?” I said.
Sam looked a little surprised. “Yeah. They got here about five minutes ago.”
They. Nick looked at me. He’d caught the word as well. It probably meant my brother was using his considerable charm on some business associates.
I looked around Sam and caught sight of Liam in one of the back booths. He was leaning forward, one arm propped on the edge of the table, having an animated conversation with someone I couldn’t see seated opposite him. I knew that body language. He was definitely charming someone, probably a woman.
“We’re just going to say hi,” I said to Sam.
“Sure,” he said, giving me a look that could best be described as amused.
Nick and I started across the restaurant. I gestured toward Liam, who was so focused on his companion that he hadn’t noticed us yet. She—because I knew it had to be a woman he was with—must have said something funny, because Liam was laughing.
I looked up at Nick over my shoulder. “You know what he’s doing, don’t you?” I said.
He grinned back at me. “Of course I know what he’s doing. Who do you think taught him how to do it?”
I laughed. “I’m not even going to dignify that with a snappy comeback.”
One eyebrow went up. “In other words, I’ve left you speechless.”
I poked him gently in the ribs with my elbow.
Just as we got to the table Liam finally looked up and noticed us. “Hey, what are you doing here?” he said, getting to his feet and sliding out of the booth. He wrapped Nick in an enormous bear hug, clapping him on the back the way guys did. “It’s good to see you, man.”
“You, too,” Nick said.
Liam turned to me.
“We just came for supper,” I said. “I called you. Twice.”
He shook his head and put a hand to his pocket. “I’m sorry. I turned my phone off when my meeting started and then I forgot to turn it back on.”
“How long are you going to be here?” Nick asked.
Liam smiled and pulled a hand over his neck. “Looks like a couple of weeks.”
“That’s great,” Nick said. “We’re still playing shinny and I could probably scare up a pair of skates for you.”
My brother grimaced. “I haven’t been on skates since last winter. It would probably be pretty ugly.”
“You pretty much just described the entire team,” Nick said with a shrug.
“You’re in the middle of something,” I said, smiling at Liam. “We’re going to get a table. I’ll see you later, right?”
“He’s not in the middle of anything,” a voice said behind me.
I turned slowly around to see Jess, leaning out of the booth.
“What are you doing here?” I said. Liam was having dinner with Jess? She hadn’t mentioned it early when she stopped by the shop to look at the wooden church pew. Liam was turning the charm on Jess? They’d known each other since she and I became roommates in college. As Avery sometimes said, What the frack?
“In about thirty seconds, eating mac and cheese,” she said, leaning sideways and pointing in the direction of a waiter approaching carrying an oversize-serving tray on each arm.
“We’ll let you get to it,” Nick said, taking my arm. He looked at Liam. “Give me a call when you have a minute.”
“Absolutely,” Liam said. He put an arm around my shoulders for a moment and kissed the side of my head. “I’ll probably see you at the house later.”
I nodded. “Sure.”
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” Jess said to me, turning to give the waiter her own megawatt smile.
Nick looked around, spotted Sam and pointed questioningly at a table near the middle of the room. Sam nodded and Nick led me toward it.
I took off my jacket and hung it on the back of a chair, using the opportunity to look back at Liam and Jess. “Is she feeding him?” I asked.
Nick picked up my chair and moved it around the table so my back would be toward their booth. “We don’t care,” he said, enunciating each word carefully.
I made a face at him and sat down, taking the menu a waiter had just brought over.
“Thank you,” Nick said to the young man. “We’re going to need a few minutes.”
“I don’t care that Liam is having dinner with Jess,” I said. “It’s just that he’s not her type and she’s not his.”
Nick pulled out his chair, sat down and opened the menu the waiter had left at his plate. “The clams and chips look good,” he said.
“I’m serious,” I said. “They can’t be on a date, can they?”
He shook his head. “Who are you, Sarah? The person who writes the couple-matching algorithms for Match-dot-com? Leave it alone.”
“Fine,” I said. I bent my head over my menu and watched him under my lashes. As soon as he dropped his own head, I turned to look over at Jess and Liam again.
A crumpled paper napkin struck me on my right temple. I turned back to Nick. “Hey! What was that for?”
“Stop looking at them,” he said. “What the heck is wrong with you?”
I propped an elbow on the table and leaned my forehead against the palm of my hand. “I don’t know,” I mumbled. I turned my head and looked over at Nick. “What are you having?”
“Bear burger and fries,” he said.
“That’s sounds good,” I said, closing the menu and setting it on the table. I resisted the urge to glance over at Liam and Jess again.
The waiter came back for our order. After he’d taken it and headed for the kitchen, I looked at Nick. “What the heck is wrong with me?” I said. “Jess has known Liam since she and I were roommates in college. How many times have we all had dinner together?”
“I don’t know,” Nick said. “A lot.”
“So why does it feel all . . . weird seeing the two of them over there having dinner?”
He studied me for a long moment. “I don’t know,” he finally said, reaching out to set his knife spinning in a circle on the wooden tabletop. “You tell me.”
I pulled a hand back through my hair and sighed. “Liam was doing that thing he does.”
“That thing?” Nick asked, just a bit too casually, frowning across the table at me.
“That guy thing.” I made a circular motion with both hands. “You know, where he leans forward, smiles and tips his head to one side the way Elvis does when he’s trying to wrangle a bite of cookie from someone. That thing that you just said you taught him.”
“Oh, that thing,” he said, and his cheeks flushed with a bit of color.
“Jess is my best friend. I don’t want her to get hurt,” I said.
Nick actually laughed.
“Not funny,” I said, glaring at him.
He leaned against the back of his chair, still laughing. “Yes, it is, Sarah. Jess is probably the only person in the state, heck, maybe on the entire East Coast, who won’t fall for Liam’s charm.”
When I didn’t immediately say anything, he raised an eyebrow at me. “Because he is good. I did teach him well.” He leaned to one side and the balled-up napkin I pitched at him sailed over his shoulder.