Know Me Well (Wishful 3)

“You’re welcome. Although, I should warn you, it’s not entirely altruistic on my part. I’ve got this whole big Master Plan to highlight local artisans and bring more out-of-towners to Wishful for our rural tourism campaign. This is just a cog in that whole big machine.”

Mitch wrapped an arm around Norah and covered her mouth. “Do not let her get started on her Master Plan. We’ll be here all night. She’s secretly planning on taking over the world.”

Norah tugged his hand away. “Shhh. It’s not a secret if you tell people.”

“C’mon, General Burke.” Mitch tugged her toward the door. “We’re due at Grammy’s for peach pie.”

“I should be getting on, too,” Jessie said. “There’s a new episode of Game of Thrones and a pint of Ben and Jerry’s with my name on it.”

Everyone made their excuses and headed for the door.

“See you at the open house!” Norah called. “Liam, I’ll be in touch about the rest of my plans.”

And then they were alone. Alone was good. They hadn’t had much opportunity for that recently, and he hoped to sweet talk her into creative expression of her gratitude back at her place. But there were a few more things to show her here first.

Riley turned another circle. “I just can’t get over how good it looks. All the little historic touches are wonderful! But how on earth did you get this done on the original budget?”

“Also part of Norah’s Master Plan is the historic restoration of downtown. Mom’s into that, too, so she upped the budget. That, combined with the insurance payout, made this more than possible. This was, essentially, my audition. Norah pitched me as the contractor for the job, and the City Council accepted.”

“Liam, that’s amazing!”

Her obvious pride in what he’d accomplished had something warm sliding through him.

“There are a few more things I want to show you. C’mon.” He led her behind the counter. “I’ve added electronic locks to the doors. So if you’re here at night by yourself and realize you’ve forgotten to lock the doors, you can do it from the computer here at the counter or back in the office, wherever you’re working.” He demonstrated and heard the whine snick of the lock out front. “And you can unlock it from here, too. The security system has been updated, so it can be set not only to the typical away, but also to stay. If you’re here by yourself after hours, you can set the alarm to stay, and it’ll be armed, but the motion sensors inside will be off while you’re working. If somebody messes with any of the doors or windows, the alarm will trigger and the call will go out automatically. That way if you can’t get to the panic button for some reason, the alarm still sounds. And unlike the panic button, it’s actually audible and loud, so it would hopefully deter anyone from actually coming on inside.”

“That’s good. Although, I expect it’ll be a long time before I actually stick around to use it.” Her eyes flickered to the door of the office.

“Nothing wrong with that. But maybe this will help.” He opened the door and tugged her inside.

Riley’s mouth fell open. “Holy crap. You gutted it.”

“Not completely, but close. You’ve got a built-in desk here and custom cabinetry throughout.”

“Where did you move the safes?”

“I didn’t. Just covered them up.” Liam opened the cabinet doors masking both.

“It’s beautiful. And had to be so much extra work on top of everything else you did.”

Liam jerked a shoulder. He hadn’t gotten more than nine hours of sleep over the past three days. Totally worth it. “I wanted to do whatever I could to keep it from reminding you of bad memories when you had to come in here.”

She turned another slow circle. “I keep saying thank you but that doesn’t seem like enough.”

“Well, if you’re looking for other ways to show your appreciation, I have a few ideas.”

Her eyes took on a wicked gleam. “So do I.” She shut the office door and turned to the computer terminal. A few mouse clicks and she’d relocked the front door of the pharmacy, setting the alarm as he’d showed her.

Liam arched a brow. “I’m thinking your ideas just got more interesting than mine.”

“Well, it was a good notion to change what it looks like in here so that I don’t have all the visual cues. But it seems like we should take it one step further and just replace those memories with new ones entirely.” She stripped off her shirt and tossed it to the side, revealing a silky bra of midnight blue lace. “I’d much rather not want to walk in here because it gets me all hot and bothered thinking of you.”

The shorts dropped next, and Liam’s mouth went dry as he saw the matching panties.

“What do you say, Boy Scout?”

What kind of man would he be if he didn’t answer such a call?

Sliding his hands around her generous hips, he bent his head. “I live to serve.”