Page 11 of He Loves Me Knot

She’d worn yoga pants and a hoodie for the early morning flight and didn’t have a lick of makeup on. Normally, she wouldn’t care if anyone saw her without makeup . . .but everyone else isn’t Callum.

Callum was an exception to that.

Because she’d decided two years ago when she’d met him that she would never,everlet Callum see her at anything less than her best. Everything she did for him was perfect. Precise. She’d never turned in a deliverable or project to him that wasn’t polished to the extreme.

If she was honest, she had largely put their first run-in to the back of her mind. She’d worked hard, and at no point in the past twenty-four months had he had any cause to fire her—or even suggested anything like that. Not that he ever really gave out compliments.

But as his presence still sometimes rattled Liddy—he really is nice to look at—and even though he wasn’t the most communicative boss, she was so glad that she’d moved to London. It wasn’t home, per se, and she still missed her mom, dad, and brother, but she’d found her routine, a community, and true job satisfaction.On her own.Which was what she’d set out to do.

She lifted her carry-on so that the wheels wouldn’t drag behind her and risk making any sound on the tile floor. First, she’d make a beeline to the restroom and throw on some makeup with whatever she had in her purse. She really should have packed her makeup bag in her carry-on, but since she had decided to carry the bulky garment bag with Elle’s wedding dress onto the plane rather than risk letting anything happen to it, she’d been forced to take her smaller, more lightweight carry-on.

The strap on the garment bag was cutting off the circulation to her right arm, as it was.

Rather than continue forward, she stepped backward, hoping to slip behind the safety of the restroom wall just before the boarding area.

Crash.

Lydia whirled around in time to see a bright yellow plastic Do Not Enter sign tumble to the floor behind her.

But that wasn’t the worst of it.

As she turned, she tripped on a janitorial cart, which had been behind her. She hadn’t noticed the restroom being cleaned before, or the cart, and as she tried to catch herself against it—clutching the top of the cart—the wheels skittered forward, taking her flying forward.

The cart slammed against the restroom wall, rolls of toilet paper spilling from the top. A mop bucket attached to the side of the cart gave asloshand gray water splashed onto her thigh on her pants leg, just narrowly missing the garment bag with Elle’s wedding dress.

Oh, eew. But also, thank God.

“Lydia?” a familiar, deep voice sounded beside her.

Shit.

Of course.

Cheeks flaming, Liddy cringed, then straightened, both of her hands still on the janitorial cart. She turned to find Callum approaching, his strong, dark eyebrows knitted with proper concern. “It is you. I almost didn’t recognize you with that dark hair. Are you all right?”

“Oh—” Words got stuck in her throat as she scrambled for what to say to him. She’d nearly forgotten that she’d gotten her hair dyed to a pretty chestnut last night after work, not that she needed to explain that to him. Her natural roots had been showing, and she had figured she may as well go with her base color for the wedding.Look different from Elle.

She stood there, trying to remember how she’d even started thinking about her hair, then she relived Callum’s approach a minute earlier. After a few awkward seconds, she gestured to her wet pants leg and blurted out, “Mop water, not pee.”

He furrowed those brows further, but now amusement hinted at his light blue eyes. “What’s that?”

Really?That’s the first thing she’d said to him? Her embarrassment increasing by the second, she cleared her throat and tried again. “I hit the cart and covered myself with mop water. You know. Um . . . just in case you thought I didn’t make it to the bathroom on time.”

This had to be a nightmare.

“I wasn’t.” He took three quick strides toward her, then grabbed a stack of paper towels from the cart. “You look like you could use these, though.” Handing her half, he squatted beside her, then wiped the spilled water on the tiles by her feet.

She stared at him suspiciously. In what universe did Callum ever do anything nice for her?

Liddy dabbed her pants, wishing she’d packed a change. If it wasn’t for the sign, she’d dash into the bathroom and seek shelter. But considering the succession of unfortunate events that had just happened to her, she’d probably slip on the floor and hit her head or something.

She frowned down at the garment bag, still resting against her body. This wasn’t the sort of luck she ever had.

This is Elle’s luck.

Clumsy, wouldn’t-believe-it-if-I-told-you, doesn’t-happen-to-anyone-else luck.

Her big sister had the craziest things happen to her. While people who didn’t know her often watched with astonishment, Liddy had grown accustomed to it by now. And it wasn’t just bad luck, either. The love of Elle’s life, Quinn, had stumbled across her sleeping in a closet. Elle had also had a brush with fame and was still a recognizable face in the country music world because she’d won a Grammy for the best new artist after being discovered while singing at karaoke in their hometown of Nashville.