“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come here. It’s late.” She glanced over her shoulder at the parking area for a second car.
“You’re welcome here anytime,” Liam said. “You know that, Georgie.”
“Thanks, but if you have company, I can leave.” She took a step back.
“I’m alone. Just couldn’t sleep.” He stepped back, holding the door open for her. “Come on in. Join me for a drink.”
Georgia obeyed, heading for the kitchen.
“Since you’re here, I’m guessing Eric told you,” he said tightly, pulling two beers from the fridge.
“Told me what?”
Liam let out a mirthless laugh, and Georgia glanced around the kitchen, noting the empty beer bottles by the sink. Her brother didn’t drink much. Rarely more than one or two beers, especially during fire season when the crews had to harvest trees whenever they could. More than two and he didn’t feel comfortable operating the machinery the next day.
“Are you drunk?”
“Getting there. I bet Eric sent you here to check on me. You two are close. More so now that you’re living with him. Are you sure he didn’t ask you to come by and question me?”
“In the middle of the night? Why would I question you in the middle of the night?”
Liam set his mostly full beer on the counter. “The DOF is accusing me of running the equipment after one in the afternoon the day the fire started.”
“What? But you didn’t, right?”
“Hell, no. But Eric,” Liam said, running both hands through his hair, “I’m not sure he believes me. Even if he does, if the DOF investigation concludes that I ordered the crew to run over, if they believe this goddamn anonymous tip, he won’t have much choice. He’ll have to fire me.”
“Eric wouldn’t do that.”
Why hadn’t Eric told her? She thought back to the other night, when he’d come home in a foul mood. He hadn’t said a word.
Because when he’d mentioned real consequences—and nothing was more real than firing his best friend—she’d turned the conversation 180 degrees and focused it on her time in Afghanistan.
“He wouldn’t fire you if you didn’t do it,” she said firmly. “Talk to him. He’ll tell you the same thing.”
“I don’t think he’d have much choice,” Liam said. “And shit, I told him not to tell you. He promised he wouldn’t.”
“He didn’t say a word about the DOF and their accusations.”
“Then why are you here? Did something happen?” Concern trumped his drunken state, and she could see Liam was ready to take on whatever had sent her running home.
“I had a nightmare.” She proceeded to tell him about waking up and needing to go for a drive, leaving out the part when Eric burst in to save her or Nate woke up afraid that bears had invaded her room. She explained about the deer in the road.
“I realized how foolish I’ve been, trying to feel alive instead of focusing on living, instead of opening up to the people around me.”
“You weren’t foolish,” he said, crossing the room and pulling her into a hug. “You did some stupid things, but maybe that’s what you needed. Don’t give yourself too much grief. That’s what I’m here for.” He drew back and smiled down at her. “So this focus on living? What does that mean?”
“Not driving too fast,” she said. But she couldn’t tell him the rest, not tonight. She wanted to wake up every day in love and surrounded by people she called family. It wasn’t a cure-all. She’d still have nightmares, possibly other setbacks. But she wasn’t going to let those hold her back. Not anymore.
“I guess that’s a start,” Liam said.
Georgia nodded. “I’ll let you know when I figure out the rest.”
“OK,” he said. “Planning to crash here tonight?”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind. I might need to stay for a while.”
His smile faded. “Because of the nightmares? Or did things go south between you and Eric?”
“After the nightmare, I think it might be best. For Nate,” she said. Right now, she couldn’t say one way or the other where things stood between her and Eric. She only knew what she wanted from him. “We can figure it out later. Right now, I’d like to watch a movie on your couch. Maybe fall asleep.”
“I’ll join you,” he said, stepping back, releasing his hold on her as he headed for the other room. “And if you fall asleep, don’t worry. I’ll stay up. You know, just in case you start to have a bad dream.”
“Thank you.” Georgia slid off her stool and followed him into the living room.
“I’m your big brother, Georgie. That’s what I’m here for.” He sat on the couch and picked up the remote. “But no chick flicks. I can’t stay awake watching some shirtless dude.”
She laughed, despite the swirling emotions inside. Liam was here for her, always. And how was she repaying him? Sleeping with his best friend and boss. But no, it wasn’t just sex—she was falling in love with Eric. And she refused to walk away from love just because it was complicated.
Chapter Seventeen
ERIC WOKE TO small hands pushing against his shoulder. He opened his eyes. A stuffed giraffe stared back at him.
“Georgia says you have to get up.”
Rolling until his back lay flat against the hardwood floor, Eric found Nate staring down at him. “She’s here?”
Nate nodded, pointing to the door. Lifting his head, Eric spotted her, leaning against the entrance, holding a steaming cup. It was as if he was waking from his own nightmare. Except this time, Georgia had come back, leaving him wondering if he’d emerged in a dream.
“We let you sleep in as long as we could.” She stepped into the room and held out the mug. “Coffee?”
“Thanks.” He stood, tucking his dress shirt back into his pants before accepting her offering. After she’d driven away, he’d returned to Nate’s side and spent the night in yesterday’s suit. But that was only one reason he felt as if the lines between dream and reality had blurred. He’d watched her drive away last night and assumed he’d lost her. And now she was standing in front of him with a cup of coffee.
Lifting the mug to his lips, he studied her. She’d traded her jeans and T-shirt for a red polka-dot sundress with buttons running down the front and sandals. But the young, feminine clothes bore a sharp contrast to the determination he saw in her brown eyes.
“You came back,” he said softly, unable to hide his awe. “I thought you were gone.”
“I needed to think,” she said. “And after I take Nate to school, we should talk.”
“Whatever you need,” he said. The idea of redefining this relationship, thrusting it back over the line, ripped at the raw, hurting place inside him. But he’d stand by those words and do as she asked. If it was in his power to help her, he would, no matter what it cost him.
AN HOUR LATER, Eric was sitting at the kitchen table, checking his email and notifying his assistant that he’d be arriving late this morning. He’d showered, shaved, and dressed for the day in a fresh suit, shoving his emotions aside as he went through the routine actions.
He’d called a few independent investigators, asking them to drop by his offices that afternoon. If the DOF insisted on blaming his crew, and Liam in particular, he wanted confirmation from an outside source before he let his best friend go.
“Is now a good time?”
He looked up. Georgia stood in the doorway, twirling her keys in her hand.
“Yes.” He closed the laptop and stood, heading toward her. “Did Nate get to school OK?”
She nodded but didn’t move from the doorway. “Were you planning to tell me about the fire investigation and Liam?”