Know Me Well (Wishful 3)

Not exactly a yes, but he’d take it.

She shrugged out of her lab coat and hung it on a hook behind the door. “Can I give you a ride somewhere? I assume you drove Jo here to deliver her.”

“I’m on the demolition crew for the city playground.” Which had been slated to start at noon, so he was officially late.

The playground at Waldrop Park was Norah’s latest cause. On seeing the patchwork of rust and warped wood that constituted the play space, she’d orchestrated a picket fence fundraiser. Seemed like more than half the town had bought a picket to raise the money for replacement of the equipment that hadn’t been touched since Liam himself had been in elementary school. Once the new playground was built, the pickets would each be inscribed with the name of the donor, and a new fence built around the park. It was pretty ingenious, really.

“Jessie left for that about an hour ago.”

Liam eyed the shorts and t-shirt that had been hiding beneath her coat. “Why don’t you come with me?”

“Beg your pardon?”

“Come to the work day with me. Bunch of folks are gonna be there. I think it’d be good for you.” It would give her a chance to work off some of that frustration still simmering below the surface.

Riley frowned.

“You have something else to do this afternoon?”

“Well, no, but—”

“Then come break stuff with me, Riley Marie.” He tweaked her pony-tail, much as he’d done when they were kids.

“You’re such a guy.” But the corners of her luscious mouth twitched.

“What? Breaking stuff is fun.”

“You think I don’t remember you had exactly the same expression when you, Jack, and Cruz thought it would be a good idea to blow up pumpkins with M80s?”

A lot of the best times with his brothers had involved blowing things up. “Blowing stuff up can be fun, too.” Liam took her arm and started steering her toward the door. “I volunteered to rig the explosives, but Norah vetoed that plan.”

“Well, it’s not exactly safe to be exploding things in the middle of town.”

“Not if you know what you’re doing. Which I do. Mitch thinks she’s running a secret op to get sweaty, shirtless pics of the available bachelors in Wishful for a fund-raising calendar.”

Riley snorted. “You know she wouldn’t make a secret of it. She’d give some kind of compelling presentation about the marketing benefits and everybody would jump to do her bidding.”

“This is probably true,” he conceded. “So how about it? You coming with or are you gonna wuss out?”

She shot him a narrowed-eyed glare. “Watch it, Boy Scout, or I’ll suggest that calendar to Norah.”

He held up his hands in surrender. He’d had enough trouble after his mother’s announcement at his welcome home party about taking applications for the mother of her future grandchildren. She’d been joking. He was pretty sure.

As he shoehorned himself into Riley’s car, his phone buzzed with a text.

Speak of the devil.

Mom: Just heard from Jessie. Walgreens is opening out on the highway.

Well, that explained part of Riley’s mood.

He texted back, I’ll mention it to Norah at the demolition.

They both knew Riley would never say anything herself.

When they got to Waldrop Park and climbed out of the car, Norah called, “You’re late!”

“Doesn’t count.” He and Riley crossed to join everyone. “I brought more helping hands.”