Page 56 of The Perfect Deal

“Yeah, she just came in to ask me a quick question.” I sat back down in my chair, ready to dig in. “Thank you for this, and for coming to get me.”

“Of course,” she said, pulling out her own sweet onion chicken teriyaki six-inch. “I couldn’t let you Uber home.” We ate for a few moments in silence before Liberty asked another question. “Why did she look so unbelievably happy?”

Confused, I stared at her for a moment. “Who? Karrie?”

Nodding, she said, “Yeah, she looked like she’d just won the lottery or gotten a promotion or something.”

I shrugged. “Liberty, if I could figure Karrie out, I’d let you know, but honestly? The woman is an enigma.”

She mulled that over for a second before asking, “Do you have any water?”

“You bet.” I hopped up and went to the minifridge to grab us each a bottle of water and then sat back down. We’d had little meals like this a few times before, at various times over the years, but it was always nice. Just the two of us, doing something normal together, something a couple that had been together for years could do to spend time with one another.

Looking at Liberty sitting across my desk from me, I saw more than my best friend’s little sister. I saw more than the girl I’d known growing up who lived in the neighborhood. I saw a beautiful, intelligent woman, someone who was fun and knew how to make me feel like all was right with the world.

I wasn’t exactly sure what it was going to take to get Landon to come around and accept us as a couple, but I knew I had to find out.

34

LIBERTY

Sitting in Joshua’s office across from him, eating Subway sandwiches and chatting, everything felt right with the world. It wasn’t. If my brother knew what we were up to, he’d be furious. Still, for a few moments, Joshua and I could act like a couple, doing something normal that a couple would do, behind closed doors.

As we munched on our subs, my mind went back to the situation with Karrie. She’d had such a massive grin on her face, like something really special had happened. Joshua said he didn’t know what she was so happy about and sort of shrugged it off, but I couldn’t get that grin out of my mind. It was the same kind of smile I might wear after Joshua and I had a stolen moment together, and it made me a bit jealous to think of Karrie walking around with a similar expression on her face.

Only about a fourth of Joshua’s sandwich remained while I still had half of mine, and my sandwich was half the size of his to begin with. The man could eat, but he burned all of those calories off working with the kids, so he always looked amazing. I paused for a second to admire the way his bicep bulged beneath his shirt as he lifted his sub to his mouth.

Raising an eyebrow, he asked, “You okay, Libby? What are you thinking about?”

I felt my cheeks flush at being caught—and at the use of a name he never called me, for the most part. “Yep. I was just thinking about how nice this is,” I admitted. “We’re here, chilling, having a meal together, without having to worry about anyone else wondering what we’re up to.”

“Does Landon even know you’re here?” he asked, taking a drink of his water before he finished off the last few bites of his meatball sub.

Shaking my head, I said, “I was vague. Just told him I had some errands to run before I left for camp again. I ran by the new house, too, so it wasn’t a lie.”

Joshua nodded, but he had an odd look on his face. Maybe he was thinking about the fact that I was building a house, and he absolutely loved his house. If we did end up together, we’d have to sort that out. Or maybe I was reading too much into all of it, and he was just thinking about how good his sandwich tasted and how he wished he had more.

“I’m excited about camp,” I told him. “I’ve been thinking of some different types of pictures I can take to help round out the images you have on the website.”

Joshua’s face brightened as he grinned at me. “I absolutely loved the pictures you’ve already sent me. I’ve got a few of them up on the website, and people are commenting about how great they are. Same on social media. That one you have of Robby dunking is phenomenal.”

“Thank you.” I couldn’t help the rush of heat that came to my cheeks at the compliment. I was so proud of my work and couldn’t wait for him to see what else I had in mind for the next session. “I’ll get you the rest of the session-one pictures soon. I’m thinking a week after the second session, they should all be done.”

“No rush,” he said. “You’ve already supplied more pictures than all of my other photographers ever have over the years, and all of your pictures are great. Half the time, the pictures they send me aren’t even usable.”

That surprised me. I couldn’t imagine turning anything in that wasn’t my very best work, but then, I knew I took more pride in my photographs than a lot of people did. “I love the editing process, too, so I’ll get them to you soon.”

We were both finished with our sandwiches, so we cleaned up our trash. “I have a few more things to finish up before we can go,” Joshua said. “Is that all right?”

“Sure. Is there anything I can help you with?” I asked, leaning back in my chair.

“No. I just need to send a few more emails and double-check some of the files the team sent me. Then, I think we’ll be ready to go.”

It didn’t take Joshua long at all to finish what he had to do, and then the two of us walked out to my car. Once again, I was reminded of how nice it was that we could do something normal without having to worry about Landon finding out.

On the way home, we listened to the radio and chatted, mostly about how great our beach trip had been. Inevitably, the topic of my brother came up as we neared Franklin. “Do you think there’s really a chance he’s actually open to us seeing one another?” Joshua asked.

I took a deep breath, thrumming my fingers on the steering wheel as I considered his question. It was the same one I’d been asking myself for days, especially since Poppy had said she’d been talking to my brother about it, and she thought he was open to the possibility. “I don’t know,” I finally said, which wasn’t helpful. “I hope that he is, but I’m afraid he’s going to change his mind.”