Her Billionaire Heartthrob - Kaylee Baldwin Page 0,18

lot of pressure on you in addition to not getting enough sleep. Cut yourself a break, okay?”

He nodded, but she wasn’t sure if he believed her or not.

“Let’s go find your phone,” she suggested. “I still can’t believe I threw it down the duct.” She’d been known for impetuous acts all through her childhood, and though she hadn’t managed to curb them completely, she generally managed to not throw people’s phones down air ducts on a regular schedule.

“Leave it,” he said, his voice sounding completely normal this time. “I’m probably better off without it. I should have been listening to you and not so distracted with work. It’s a hard habit to break.”

“Maybe the doll possessed us,” she said.

He laughed at that. “Then I guess I’ve had a doll following me around for the last year.” He tugged on her hand, heading toward the lobby.

“I wonder what happened here?” he asked. The feeling of abandonment was so prevalent, Viola could almost choke on it.

“I don’t know if anyone knows. One day the theater was open, the next day, it was closed, and everything was gone.”

Liam locked the door behind them and walked Viola back to her office. She threw her arms around him spontaneously, giving him a quick, tight hug, then stepped back. “Thanks.”

“For what?” He lifted a quizzical brow.

“For taking me inside the theater. I’ve wanted to do it for a long time.”

He took a hat out of his back pocket and put it on, tugging it low over his forehead, flashing her a disarming smile.

“Anytime.”

He left, but a moment later, she heard footsteps on the stairs leading to the therapist’s office above her own, sounding a little lighter than before.

Chapter 9

Viola’s grandma stood in the doorway of Viola’s room. “You look beautiful.”

“Thank you.” She stared at her forest green silk dress in the mirror, turning left and then right to see her profile from each side. The square neckline tapered down to a tailored waist, then flowed into a skirt that skimmed her knees.

She’d seen the dress in one of the boutiques on Main Street last week when she’d been walking to her car and had fallen in love with it the moment she’d put it on. She’d paired it with pink platforms with criss-cross straps that formed a heart, and had pulled her unruly hair into a high bun, curling some of the strands that refused to cooperate.

All in all, she was happy with how she looked.

“Ready?” Viola turned from her mirror to look at her grandma, who was wearing a trench coat, a fedora, and some chunky Doc Marten boots that Viola had owned since high school. She was dressed as Dane Lowbridge’s character, Detective Mason Horwitz, for the event tonight.

“I’ve been ready for years,” her grandma said, with her signature, saucy grin. Viola didn’t remember her mother at all, but from pictures, she knew that she and her mom had both inherited that same grin from Grandma—the grin that said she was ready for whatever life threw at her.

The two of them left the house and climbed into Viola’s car.

“How long are we going to leave the Halloween decorations up this year?” Viola asked, as she backed out of the garage. The huge spider, nearly as big as their house, was stationed in their front yard, the eight legs rising up onto the house, over the driveway like a bridge, and nearly into the street. It was a tourist favorite on the trolley tours, and Grandma liked to be unpredictable about when she took it down.

“Fern had her husband make her a massive cartoon turkey. Multi-colored tail feathers and all.”

“Okaaay,” Viola said slowly.

“I’ve been working on a pilgrim’s hat in the garage. For the spider,” she added, in case Viola hadn’t caught that. “An entire pilgrim outfit, actually.”

Viola laughed. “Does that mean were going to keep it up a little longer?” That thing was a total pain to put up, take down, and store, so she wasn’t going to complain about that.

“Oh, I have plans for that spider this year.” Grandma’s saucy grin was back.

Viola was going to drop her grandma off at the park, then swing by Bobby’s house and pick him up for the Winter Festival Gala.

“And Fern’s husband is going to pick you up after and bring you home tonight?” she confirmed.

“Yes, Mom,” her grandma teased. “I’ll let you know if he flakes on us.” Something that had happened more than once, not because he wasn’t a great man, but because he