a busy guy and you weren’t sure you’d be available to do the job.”
“All true.” Half-true. But blowing off the man’s work right now, with his relationship with Avery tilting off the ledge . . . yeah, he didn’t want to do that quite yet.
“When did you want to get started?” Liam asked, as if interested in the job.
“As soon as possible. I realize that might not be reasonable. A good contractor probably isn’t sitting around waiting for jobs to fall in their laps.”
Liam looked around the space. It didn’t look a whole lot different from the last time he’d been there. “I was going to talk to Avery about when she’d be done with her portion.”
“Originally she said at the end of next week. But apparently her aunt is sick and she had to fly to Seattle to help her out.”
Liam’s step faltered. Sick aunt? Did Avery have an aunt?
“Oh?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry about the aunt, but it’s better than her abandoning the job.”
Liam narrowed his eyes. “Abandoning the job. Why would she do that?” Did the guy in front of him make a pass at her? If so, he’d probably be nursing a bruise.
“I swung by on Monday and found her coming down from the attic. A baby tarantula was in her hair. She freaked after I got it off her, and she ran out.”
Liam wanted to shake. He’d be less than okay if a big spider was on his head.
Sheldon looked at him. “Women.”
Forging a smile, Liam agreed. “Yeah, women.”
Twenty minutes later, Liam was back on the road. So either Avery lied to him about work or to Sheldon about an aunt. A white lie to the person paying you he understood. Calling in sick on a day you wanted to hit the beach was a norm. But a full week?
The rest of the day, Avery slipped into his head anytime his mind was silent.
Damn, he missed her. Hearing her voice. Teasing her about their not-date dates.
But it wasn’t until he and Brenda were sitting at the studio, thirty minutes past Avery’s appointment time, that Liam was done sitting back.
Blowing off work.
Blowing off Brenda.
And blowing off him.
None of it felt right. Phones were in every pocket, and there certainly would be one at the hotel in Seattle.
Something tasted funny about the whole thing.
He walked into Avery’s complex and was greeted by James. “Mr. Holt. Nice to see you again.”
“Thank you.”
“If you’re here to see Ms. Grant, she’s not home.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know. She told me.” That confirmed that. “I was dropping by to see Lori and Reed Barnum.”
“Are they expecting you?”
“No.”
James walked him over to the desk and picked up the phone.
“Good evening, Mrs. Barnum. Liam Holt would like to come up.”
“Of course.”
James smiled. “You know where the elevators are.”
Liam took two steps. “Wait, what number are they again?”
James told him and he disappeared around the corner.
Lori answered with a smile and a short hug. “This is a surprise. Come on in.”
“Thanks for seeing me.”
Reed walked over from their dining room table, dropping his napkin on his plate.
“I’m interrupting.”
“No, no. We just finished,” Reed assured him. “Sit.”
Yeah, Liam didn’t want to sit.
“Listen. This feels awkward for me.” Liam glanced at Lori. “At the risk of sounding like a stalker, I just have to know she’s okay.”
Lori moved to Reed’s side. “Who, Avery?”
Liam nodded. “Yeah. Have you guys heard from her?”
“No. Not since last Monday.”
Liam ran a hand through his hair. “She told me she went to Seattle with some kind of urgency for her last job. She’s texted me twice, but all distant stuff. Which, hey, if it’s me she’s avoiding, fine. Not fine, but okay. Then today I learned that she told Sheldon Lankford that she had a sick aunt she was taking care of in Seattle. Blowing me off . . . yeah, I don’t want that to happen. But work and appointments?”
He realized when he was done talking that he sounded like a lovesick teenage boy. Which was sadly accurate.
Lori shook her head while she turned to her husband. “I knew there was a problem.”
“We don’t know that.”
“It’s been a year. She was having nightmares.”
Liam felt some of his insecurities dissipate, rapidly replaced with concern. “A year since what?” All he could think of was her divorce. But he was pretty sure she said that had been a couple of years past.
“Since New York,” Lori said as if he should understand.