was no longer there for Liam to please, Liam didn’t quite know where that left him.
After thirty minutes of speaking, he finished his speech to loud applause, and then sat down, his mind torn, residing on two planes. In one, he experienced the muted applause, the people shaking his hand and patting him on the back, almost as if it resided in the background, and in the other, he felt as though he was drifting away from who he always believed himself to be.
“That was wonderful,” Viola said, and Liam once again felt fully present in the room as he stared into her eyes. The still-ongoing applause was loud again, and he tore is gaze from Viola’s to look around his table. Xander’s cheeks were pink, the way they got when he was feeling emotional, and his mom had tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Thank you, son,” she said. “He really would have loved that.”
The rest of the night passed in a blur of everyone wanting to speak to him and hearing new stories about his father. This was the part of going to an event that Liam normally loved. He enjoyed hearing people’s stories, not only about his dad, but about themselves. What made them tick.
“You, Liam, have a gift,” Viola told him quietly, at one point when there was a slight lull in people approaching them. It was nearly ten o’clock, and much of the adrenaline-fueled energy from giving his speech had drained out of him.
“What gift is that?” he asked her.
“Making everyone you talk to feel like they’re the most interesting person in the world.”
He lifted his eyebrows, surprised. “Nah, my dad was the one who was good at that.”
“Well, you must get it from him. You have a way of asking the right questions and then listening so deeply that it makes people feel like they matter.”
Liam sat back in his chair. He’d never realized that people thought of him that way before. “This is my favorite part of the job,” he admitted, something he’d never said out loud before. “Meeting new people. Talking to them. Hearing what makes them tick.”
“So not running a business, then.”
He smiled, feeling the weary tug of his lips. “That’s the vehicle.”
She laughed, but it cut off abruptly when she looked over his shoulder. He turned to see Fiona standing there.
“I hate to pull him away from you,” she said to Viola. “But I really do need a few minutes with Liam.”
“Okay.”
Liam nearly growled in frustration when he saw the wall drop over Viola’s eyes again. Just when things were going well, Fiona had to come and ruin it.
“We need to head back to the hotel. Mom’s worn out,” Xander said. He and Callie had spent most of the night chatting together at the table. As much as Liam loved these events, Xander merely tolerated them, usually avoiding speaking to anyone he didn’t have to speak to, and counting down the minutes until he could leave.
“You can ride back with me and Nick,” Fiona said quickly to Liam. “There are a few things that just can’t wait.”
Viola lifted a brow. “Can’t wait until tomorrow?”
“Unfortunately not,” Fiona replied.
Liam closed his eyes with exhaustion. He could do this. It was just one meeting. He turned to Viola. “Can I come by your room in about an hour to get you for Times Square?”
“Sure,” she said, but she wouldn’t look at him. Xander frowned in disappointment, and Liam had to turn away.
“Perfect.” Fiona took the seat that his mother had vacated to his left. “This shouldn’t take longer than an hour.”
Set boundaries, Liam. He could almost hear his therapist’s voice in his head, firm but kind, reminding him that he didn’t have to be subject to the whims of everyone else in his life.
Liam bent over Fiona’s tablet, and all thoughts of boundaries left as he was soon lost in the work. It didn’t take him more than a minute to slip back into the skin of Liam Nichols, CEO.
The incessant pounding in his head finally forced him to look up from the tablet. He blinked, realizing that all around them, the banquet had been cleaned up, the pictures of his father removed from the wall, the podium and stage torn down, and every table but their own put away.
He yawned and rubbed at his eyes. “Thanks for covering everything, Fiona.”
“Does this mean you’re ready to come back? We really need you,” she said.
He stretched his neck out, aching from being bent over for so