Her Billionaire Heartthrob - Kaylee Baldwin Page 0,4

her news could hold.

She flipped over to the news app on her phone and scrolled through a few articles, pausing when she spotted a familiar face, her heart skipping a beat.

Liam Nichols. She hadn’t seen him in almost a year. Not since Xander and Callie’s wedding. Liam had managed to get past her defenses, but he’d left her in the end, just like everyone else.

But he had been a good kisser. She sighed.

The video played without sound just beneath the headline of the article. It showed Liam bending over, his hands gripping the table before he fell to the ground. She turned the sound on and replayed it, listening to him gasp for air before falling to the ground with a thud that twisted her stomach.

The article said that he’d had an anxiety attack and had needed to go to the hospital. No one knew where he was now.

Welcome to the club. Liam had a way of being in one place one moment, then being gone the next. Still. She watched the looping video as he fell again, and winced. She hoped he was okay. If it was an anxiety attack, she wouldn’t wish those on anyone. Perhaps he’d skipped a meal or two and passed out from that. When they were in Hawaii, she was the one always insisting they go get something to eat. The man thought he could run off of hard work and nothing else.

She set her phone face down on her desk, the raw excitement of her day ebbing away. So what if she didn’t have any close friends? If she didn’t have people who really knew her? She knew a lot about everyone in town—made sure to remember small details about them and bring them up in conversation; people loved that—and that was the way she liked it.

She straightened out her new contract before slipping it into a folder and dropping it into her file cabinet. From there, she grabbed her tablet and a small tool for extracting paint samples. She headed out into the cool air of a November Eureka Springs afternoon, ready to do what she did best—jump straight back into work.

Chapter 3

Liam had lasted until nearly eight o’clock on his first morning in Eureka Springs before suiting up, getting into his car, and heading to Bentonville. Liam, Xander, and Callie had flown to Arkansas on his personal airplane late the night before, and he hadn’t gotten a good look at the view on the way to his mountain cove home then in the dark. Despite the thick fog that morning, he saw a breathtaking kaleidoscope of colorful leaves, with the gorgeous, still lake peeking through the trees.

He remembered now why, after visiting his brother when the Pets and More Bentonville location was just opening, he’d splurged on his own retreat home. He’d given the contractor free-reign, only asking that he make everything feel open and airy, and he’d also wanted an indoor lap pool and hot tub.

He had been too exhausted to go through his house the night before and had dropped into bed with the scent of chlorine somewhere in the house tickling his nose. Sometime in the night, he’d awoken with what felt like a beast sitting on his chest, making it impossible to breathe. Knowing he wasn’t dying helped a little. But he’d been too nervous to let himself fall asleep again and had lain awake until five in the morning, when he’d sought out the pool and swam laps for an hour.

The drive to Bentonville was restorative, and he walked inside the store, breathing in the familiar scent of animal food and plastic toys. The case in front with Callie’s homemade dog biscuits was filled to capacity with fall-themed treats: pumpkins, leaves, even a turkey-shaped one.

His stomach grumbled, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten breakfast. But he’d made the mistake of eating one of Callie’s dog treats before; a mistake he had no intention of repeating today, no matter how good they looked.

He went straight to the executive office in the back of the store and let himself in with his key. Thank goodness for a standard master key. He logged into his work account on the laptop and fell into answering emails.

“What are you doing here?”

The voice startled him, his fingers mashing down on several keys at once, and he looked up to see Xander standing in the doorway, wearing a Zombie 5K race t-shirt and jeans. His hair looked as though he’d maybe brushed it