Page 12 of The Arrangement (Executive Suite Secrets #3)

ROME ASHbrIDGE

Why the hell had I given Liam a range of days?

I should have told him I would be in the library on Tuesday. That way, I wouldn’t have to spend all my working hours on pins and needles, waiting to see if he caved to my ridiculous demands.

Pierce thought I was a madman and condemned my evil scheme as soon as I told him later that same evening. He predicted I was going to get Liam fired, which I would then feel guilty about, and would be forced to go to the museum, where I would have to beg them to give him his job back.

Not fucking likely.

Let him rot.

I didn’t give a shit about him or his job.

Except maybe the kids at the museum had seemed to enjoy his presentation.

Out of all the docents and volunteers at the museum, he’d been the one I’d seen them the most engaged with.

Those inquisitive little monkeys had asked him some of the most outlandish questions—most of them the result of movies they’d watched—but he’d never batted an eye or hesitated for a second. He’d had answers for everything.

But I didn’t care. Nope. Not at all.

I pushed all those weird feelings in the pit of my stomach away and focused on what needed to be done at the library.

There were books that had to be reshelved from the return bin, and more that had arrived which needed to be added to the system and given a new home.

Most of my days were spent on the first floor, where I answered questions and put books away.

However, three times a week, I ran story time, and I loved it.

Hearing those cheers and those squeals of laughter were the highlights of my week.

More than that, story time got kids excited about books. They showed up for the story, but they always walked out with a stack in their arms, ready to go on their own private adventures.

Not that I didn’t miss the irony. I’d never been a big reader growing up.

In fact, I still wasn’t a big reader. Yeah, I usually had some crime thriller sitting on my nightstand, but it would take me a couple of months to read it.

I averaged about six or seven books a year, a far smaller number than one might expect for a librarian.

However, I didn’t need to be a total bookworm to understand the value of books or the absolute lifeline libraries provided for their communities.

“Rome!” Megan greeted me in an excited whisper as she walked into the library for her evening shift.

I’d popped in to work the front desk while Lily was on her lunch break.

Megan scurried over wearing a puffy pale pink coat.

Her dark brown eyes sparkled with mischief.

Her black hair was arranged in a wild explosion of thick curls that crowded close to her round, umber cheeks. “Tell me. Tell me. Tell me.”

“What? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

She groaned, her eyes flaring wide. “Don’t be ridiculous. You know what I’m talking about.”

“Oh, that romantasy book you were waiting on. Crown of Ice or Thorns of Glass …something like that, right? It came in. I set it aside for you.”

Megan straightened, the frustration disappearing from her pretty face in an instant. “Oh, really? That’s excellent. I—hey!” Her narrowed eyes zoomed in on me, and her expression turned even more mutinous. Choking noises escaped me despite my best efforts to remain quiet.

Oh my fucking gawd, it’s so easy to distract the bookworms.

On my left, Janice cleared her throat, and Megan and I fell silent as church mice.

Janice was the oldest of the librarians on staff, and she adhered to the old-school policy that libraries should be as quiet as a tomb.

It was one of the few things I struggled with while at the library—constantly being quiet.

It was not my strong suit. Sometimes, I needed to make noise.

In those moments where I couldn’t hold it in any longer, I would sneak up to the children’s library, where Carol and Ben worked. They had no problem with my need to make noise. I was still quieter than most of their patrons.

Megan schooled her features to something a little more serious and leaned in close as she whispered, “Last week was your field trip, right? Did you see him? What happened?”

Without shifting my gaze away from Megan, I tipped my head toward Janice. “I’ll tell you later.”

Megan glared at me, looking as if she were debating whether to chuck aside her career as a librarian and become an assassin. Of course, I would be her very first target.

In the end, she walked away from violence. As she headed to the back room where we stored our things, Megan pointed at her eyes and then at me. She was keeping me in her sights until she got the full scoop about my field trip antics.

A short time later, Lily returned from her lunch break, freeing me from reception duties and allowing me to work on book returns for a while. I had no doubt that Megan would “assist” with the book returns so she could get all the dirt on my adventure at the museum.

I didn’t get that far.

The sliding doors opened, sending a cool breeze through the entrance to the library, along with the rich scent of flowers. Not the normal scent for early November, and it was enough to get me to turn to see who was walking in.

Liam fucking Rose.

And he was carrying a giant bouquet of roses, daisies, lilies, and alstroemeria wrapped in bright and cheery yellow paper.

A huge grin spread across my lips, and I returned to the reception counter.

Lily squeaked, and I swore the middle-aged woman wiggled in her rolling seat.

How could I not stand in front of the reception desk to give her a prime seat in this epic moment?

I had to admit, this was a surprise. I hadn’t thought Liam would come through.

And not in such a spectacular fashion. Flowers?

Maybe the man had learned a thing or two without me around to help him.

Of course, the glare he directed at me was just icing on the cake.

He was hating every second of this, which was exactly what I wanted.

I leaned against the counter and tipped my head up, smiling at my would-be date, mentally listing all the ways in which I was going to torment him.

Were five dates going to be enough? Was there a way that I might extend this into more?

“I’m impressed,” I murmured. “Flowers? That’s a very good first step.”

Liam’s glare shifted into a smug smirk as he bypassed me completely and strolled up to where Janice was sitting behind the reception desk. Her eyes widened, and her lips parted in silent shock.

“Hi, I wanted to apologize for the chaos I caused on my last visit,” Liam said in a low voice as he held the flowers out to Janice.

“Oh…I…thank you…you didn’t need to…” Janice stammered. It was the first time I’d ever seen the woman at a loss for words.

“No, I really did. I’ve spent most of my life in a library, and I know how critical it is to maintain an environment that is supportive of everyone who comes here. It was reckless and inconsiderate of me to destroy the peace.”

“I…thank you. I’m sure it was an accident. It wasn’t intentional.”

My chin hit the fucking ground. Janice was melting before my eyes. It had taken us the better part of half an hour to clean up the mess Liam had made and to get the books reorganized. And she was going to brush it off because he smiled at her and handed her some flowers?

“I think I’ll go put these in some water.

They’ll look lovely on the help desk, I believe.

” Blushing and grinning like a schoolgirl, Janice rose to her feet, the flowers cradled in her arms. She gave Lily a nod to say that she was to handle the desk while she stepped away.

And then I got a scowl, which clearly stated that I was not to create chaos and mayhem when her back was turned.

To hell with that.

“Smooth,” I sneered the moment Janice disappeared.

“I thought so,” Liam agreed, his smirk growing. “I made a mess the last time I was here. It occurred to me that it would be best to reassure the staff that I didn’t intend to disrupt the lives of others upon my return.”

“Welp, it looks like you’ve accomplished what you set out to do. Have a good one.” I gave a wave of my hand and a tight smile as I rolled off the reception desk and turned toward the door that led to the return room.

“Rome,” Liam growled.

Okay, that helped. Maybe I was pouty that the flowers weren’t for me. No one had ever brought me flowers. Not that I wanted Liam to be the first person in my life to do so, but still, it was the principle of the thing. Flowers would have been nice.

I spun to face him. “Yes?”

Seconds ticked by, and Liam stared at me, appearing as if he were about to choke up a hairball. His skin was growing more flushed. Would asking me out actually kill him? Maybe I should have warned Lily to start dialing 9-1-1.

“Will you go out with me?” Liam mumbled the question. His face twisted in pain as he spoke. It was as if he were in the middle of a root canal without any kind of Novocain.

“Wow. Has anyone ever said yes to you? Did you really get married?” I clucked my tongue. “It’s clear she was the one who was asking you out the entire time.”

Fuck! If looks could kill, I would have been incinerated on the spot.

Lily hissed behind me and punched my arm as soon as I got close to the reception desk again. “Be nice,” she whispered harshly. “This isn’t easy for everyone.”

“What?” I gasped. How was I suddenly the bad guy? Oh right, Lily had no idea how Liam had fucked me over as a kid. Liam deserved this and more.

While I was struggling with Lily’s admonishments, she leaned toward Liam and smiled. “Don’t worry. You’re doing great.”

Liam’s face might have been bright red, but I didn’t miss the wicked sparkle that entered his hazel eyes. He stood in front of me, wearing a pair of dark jeans and a nice, heavy winter coat. His red hair was windblown, but I could still see he’d taken the trouble to style it.