Page 79 of The Perfect Deal

If she refused, I might never recover.

48

LIBERTY

After Poppy left, I took a shower and got myself cleaned up. She was right—Joshua wouldn’t care if I looked like a trainwreck, but I wasn’t ready to head across the hall just yet. With my hair done and my makeup on, I did feel better. The cute outfit I’d selected helped, but I found myself lingering on the balcony overlooking the ocean, trying to decide what to say to him. “Hey, Joshua. How’s it going? Sorry I haven’t been brave enough to face you in two days,” sounded lame.

The sound of my door opening had me thinking maybe time was up and I’d have to figure out what I was going to say right away. I’d given Poppy a keycard earlier when she’d come to visit me, in case she needed something while I was getting ready. Had she delivered it to Joshua? With a deep breath, I headed back inside, wondering if the right words would come out of my mouth when I opened it.

Only it wasn’t Joshua standing in my room looking all sad like a hurt puppy dog. It was my brother. I wanted to slug him. Despite the way Poppy had explained the situation, how she’d tried to help me to see things from Landon’s perspective, I couldn’t help but think that this was all his fault. After all, if he hadn’t stuck his nose where it didn’t belong, none of this would’ve happened.

“I think you should leave,” I told him. “I gave that keycard to your fiancée, not to you.”

“But I brought you iced coffee.” My big brother extended the plastic cup like it was some sort of a modern-day olive branch. “Please, Liberty? I came to apologize.”

I scoffed at him, my need to be angry overriding my want to move on with my life. “You? Apologize? I’m surprised that word is even in your vocabulary.” I swiped the cup out of his hand and walked back outside, sinking down into one of the chairs that had a brilliant view of the ocean. Of course, he followed, sitting down near me.

“I don’t blame you for being angry. I shouldn’t have blown up like that. I only did it because I love you so much, and I was afraid this situation would end up like what happened with Grady.”

I took a sip of my coffee. It was really good—damn him. Shaking my head, I told him, “Grady and Joshua are nothing alike, and you know it. Do you really think Joshua is capable of treating anyone the way that Grady treated me?”

“No, of course not,” he said. “Not now that I stop and think about it. But I wasn’t thinking clearly then. I was just mad. I’m really sorry, Liberty, and I want the two of you to get together. I want you to be happy.” Landon’s tone was convincing. He sounded like he was on the verge of tears, something I’d never really seen from my brother. There had been only a handful of times, usually because he thought he’d lost Poppy forever.

That was how I felt at the moment. Even with Landon’s blessing, there was no guarantee that Joshua was ready to forgive everything that had happened and give me another chance. The idea that Landon might’ve ruined this for me made me want to punch him in the face. Instead, I just started crying all over again, ruining my makeup.

Landon’s hand on my shoulder shaking me lightly felt soothing. “Liberty, it’s okay. It’s all going to be all right.”

“You don’t know that.” I swiped at my tears. “What if this is all ruined because of you?”

“It won’t be.” Landon spoke with a confidence I couldn’t quite muster. “Sometimes you have to trust your big brother.”

I almost laughed at that, but it wasn’t funny. “Fine. I’ll forgive you as long as Joshua doesn’t decide he never wants to go out with me again.”

Nodding, Landon said, “That works for me. I promise to stay out of your business from now on and remember that I’m your big brother, not your father.”

“Dad wouldn’t even care if I was dating Joshua,” I reminded him.

“I know, but then, Dad doesn’t know about the situation with Grady, either, does he?” he reminded me. “That’s all this is, Liberty. If you two would’ve told me back in high school you liked each other, I would’ve accepted it.”

“Bullshit,” I told him. “You’ve always been overly protective of me. That’s why I was so shocked that you didn’t mind when Grady asked me out.”

“Grady and I were friends, but nothing like Joshua and me,” he said as if that made it better. It shouldn’t have. “While I will admit it probably would’ve taken me some time to get used to, this time, I got so mad because I didn’t realize that you’d been crushing on one another for years. I thought he’d slept with you only a few weeks after I told him that it was okay for the two of you to see one another.”

“But now you understand that even that’s none of your business, right?” I asked, setting my coffee down to fold my arms.

“Yeah, I see that now.”

I gave him a skeptical look, but it didn’t matter. “All right, brother. I forgive you. As long as Joshua wants to get back together with me and you keep your nose out of our business.”

“Deal.”

We both stood and hugged it out. It felt nice to have my brother’s strong, protective arms around me, but I couldn’t let him know that or he’d be right back into ruthless mode.

Once he let me go, I went back into my room, intending to fix my makeup and go talk to Joshua—somehow.

“Hey, could you come down to my room in about ten minutes?” Landon asked me. “I have something I need to show you.”

I arched an eyebrow but found myself nodding. “Okay.” Whatever it was, it would give me a few more minutes to consider what to say to Joshua.