I looked at Elvis. He was purring, a contented look on his face. As far as he was concerned, Liam was telling the truth. It was good enough for me.
I sat down on the stool again, pulled the top off the hot chocolate and took a sip. It was delicious, as usual. I’d tried more than once to wheedle the secret of his hot chocolate out of Glenn McNamara, but he’d just laugh and say, “If I told you I’d have to kill you or marry you.”
I wiped a smidge of whipped cream from my upper lip.
Liam looked at me and grinned. “So, am I forgiven?”
“I haven’t decided,” I said.
“How about I take you out for breakfast tomorrow?”
Elvis licked his whiskers at the word “breakfast.”
“You’ve always been my favorite brother,” I said.
“I’m your only brother,” he retorted.
“Then things worked out pretty well for you.” I smiled at him over the top of the take-out cup.
Liam slid down a little on the sofa so he was sitting mostly on his tailbone and yawned.
“So, how was your meeting?”
“Not as long as I expected. I think the people on the ground here are going to be pretty easy to work with.”
I leaned back against the counter. “You said you’re going to be evaluating the properties the developers are interested in buying.”
He nodded.
“But I thought everything in those whole two blocks was going to be torn down.”
Elvis had stretched out beside Liam, his front paws on Liam’s lap. Liam was still absently stroking his black fur. “Oh, that’s still the plan,” he said, scratching the golden stubble on his chin with his other hand.
“My job, for the most part, is to see what can be salvaged and reused,” he continued. “That kind of thing adds character to the new buildings, and there are financial benefits as well.”
“Remember me telling you about the chandelier we bought when Doran’s in Portland closed?” I asked, swirling the contents of my cup so the last bit of whipped cream mixed into the cocoa.
Liam nodded. “You were going to sell it to Jon West for the hotel in the old North by West project.”
“Right.” I leaned forward again. The edge of the counter was digging into my back. “The short version of the story is that after the North by West deal fell apart we were going to sell it to a builder who was working on a restaurant in Bangor and that fell through as well.”
“Don’t tell me you sold it to Jason Cavanaugh?” Liam said. Jason Cavanaugh owned Seaward Properties, the developer behind the new harbor-front development proposal.
I nodded. “Mac did, actually. Assuming the sale goes through.”
Elvis rolled over onto his back and Liam shifted his hand and began scratching his furry black chest. The purring got louder.
“So, how’s it working out with Mac living over the shop?”
I drank the last of the hot chocolate and set the cup behind me on the counter.
“It’s working out really well,” I said.
It was Avery who had originally suggested that we renovate the extra space upstairs that we used for storage, into a tiny apartment for Mac. I was putting the rent he was paying into paying down the mortgage my grandmother held on the building a little faster.
Liam gave me a sly smile. “So, anything going on with you two?” he asked.
I made a face. “No. Anything going on with you and Jess?”
He wasn’t at all perturbed at my question. “No,” he said. “Not yet, anyway.”
“Liam, Jess is my best friend,” I began.
He held up a hand. “You don’t have to give me the speech,” he said. “We were just having dinner.” He folded his arm behind his head. “Are you going to give Jess the speech about not breaking my heart?”
I shook my head. “I don’t need to. I have no idea how she does it, but she’s managed to stay friendly with everyone she’s gone out with. And no one has said she’d go out with you, anyway.”
Liam looked around. “So, what are you doing here on a Friday night?”
“I live here,” I said.
“You know what I mean,” he said. “You work too much. I saw Rose and her gentleman friend earlier. She has more of a love life than you do and she’s more than twice your age.”
“I know,” I said. “Mr. P. is crazy about her. When she got kicked out of Legacy Place, he wanted her to move in with him. He even proposed.”
“I take it Rose said no?”
“Uh-huh. That’s how she ended up here, although I have to say that’s worked out pretty well, too.”
“It’s probably kept you from starving to death,” Liam said. He gave Elvis one last belly scratch and got to his feet. He came over to me, leaned against the end of the counter and put an arm around my shoulder. As usual he smelled liked baby powder. “Why don’t you lay a big wet one on ol’ Nick? Or if he doesn’t float your boat, on Mac? This all-work-and-no-play stuff has gotta be dull.”
I poked him with my elbow, but all he did was laugh.
“I can’t do that,” I said. “Not that I want to anyway. What if things didn’t work out? Mac works for me and so does Charlotte. How messy could that get?”
“Yeah, blah, blah, blah,” Liam said. He leaned in and kissed my cheek and then headed for the door.
“My life is not dull,” I called after him. Saying that out loud was probably just tempting fate.
Chapter 10
I thought Liam had forgotten that he’d said he’d buy me breakfast, but he knocked on my door about twenty-five after seven the next morning. We drove over to McNamara’s and after he and Glenn had talked about the Red Sox we spent the rest of the meal talking about the new harbor-front development proposal. I dropped him back at the house and picked up Elvis and the clothes I was going to wear out to lunch before I headed for the shop.
Michelle pulled in behind me in the store’s lot. Elvis jumped down from the seat and instead of heading for the back door walked over to her. I followed.
Michelle leaned forward and held out her hand to Elvis. “Good morning,” she said.
He sniffed her with curiosity and then rubbed his cheek against her fingers. She began to stroke his fur and he seemed to smile at her.
Michelle looked up at me and smiled. “Hi, Sarah,” she said. “I just came by to let you know we released the Hall house. You’ll probably hear from Stella sometime today.”
My phone buzzed then. “Excuse me a second,” I said, pulling it out of my pocket. It was Stella with the news Michelle had just given me. She wanted us to get back to work as soon as we could.
“I think we might be able to get there this morning,” I said.
“Thank you, Sarah,” she said. “If you find anything that . . . might be worth something . . .”
“I’ll call you first thing,” I promised.
Michelle talked to Elvis while I was talking to Stella. When I ended the call she gave the cat one last scratch on the top of his head and straightened up. He meowed softly at her and started across the parking lot toward the back door.
“That was Stella, as you probably guessed,” I said.
She nodded. “You’re going to start again this morning?”
I slid the strap of my carryall up on my shoulder. “I’m going to try. I promised Stella we’d get the place cleaned out as quickly as we could once you were done.”
She gave me a thoughtful look. “Stella told you about Ellie.”
I sighed softly. “About the operation? Yes, she did.”
“Any chance there’re some valuable antiques in that house?”
I gave her a wry smile. “I don’t think so. Mac and I did a walk-through before we said yes to Stella, and nothing we saw looked like it was worth much. We didn’t see everything, though, so maybe we’ll get lucky.”
“I hope so,” she said. Her expression changed. “If you find any more bottles of wine, will you call me, please?”