Love Handles (Oakland Hills #1)(103)

Her mouth tickled his ear. “I love you too,” she said, and he felt the last of the brick inside him crumble.

Kate kicked a rolling rack with her foot and knocked it into the table. “Sorry to interrupt,” she said, “but the rest of us are still here.”

Liam grabbed the rolling rack, wrenching it away from Kate’s foot, and shoved it across the room. “Nobody’s keeping you.”

“We aren’t leaving until you promise Kate a job,” Gail said.

Kate glared. “I don’t want a job.”

“Apple, meet tree,” Ellen said.

Gail turned on her. “You shut up. No job for Kate, no house for Johnny.”

Ellen shrugged. “So much for family.” She walked to the door.

“No!” Bev cried. “You’ve come so close. You can’t just leave like that after all these years!”

He couldn’t believe what he was about to do, and Ed’s crazed ghost would haunt him in the corridors at night for as long as he lived, but he’d make Kate the CFO if it would get him alone with Bev, warm and naked, right now.

“Two words,” he said loudly, and everyone looked at him. “Fite Dog.”

Kate’s face lit up, but Bev gripped his arm in concern. “You’d do that for her?”

He smiled down at her. “I’d do it for you,” he said, savoring the way she glowed at him.

Kate aimed a finger at him. “You think it would suck, but you’re wrong. It’ll be the biggest money-maker Fite has ever seen.”

“Whatever you say.” He kissed the corner of Bev’s eyebrow, just below a freckle.

Far away he heard Kate say, “You are going to eat your words, buddy. Just you wait.”

“Oh, honey.” Gail scurried over and put an arm around Kate’s waist, bouncing their hips together. “It’s a wonderful idea. If it’s what you want I’ll sacrifice my father’s drafty old mausoleum to a man who can’t even get married without his mommy telling him to do it.”

Ellen got to her feet and held out her hand. “I’ll need the keys.”

Gail looked at Kate under her arm then dragged her over to Bev’s side, pulled her away from Liam and hugged her on the other side. “This is how it should be. Me and my girls.”

Bev hugged her briefly. “Ellen, if you find a way to get along with my mother—and Rachel, actually—not just for a week, but long term, lasting, sincere getting-along, then you can come back to Fite,” she said. “You’d have to put up with me and Liam calling the shots, but Grandfather seemed to like having you around, and this is his company, and if he’d wanted to fire you he would have done it years ago.”

Liam froze. No, not Ellen. After all this. Ellen and Fite Dog?

Ellen was staring at Bev, not moving. “And the house?”

“Yours,” Bev said. “You just have to keep the peace. Each year you two are making progress in your relationship, as determined by me, I’ll—I’ll distribute a share of the profits at Fite.” She glanced at Liam. “Can I do that?”

“How about we pay them all to go away?”

Bev laughed, catching herself just as Ellen was saying, “What if I don’t want to come back to Fite?”

The room fell quiet.

“Don’t you?” Bev asked.

“Not particularly. Not anymore.” She got up and walked over to Gail. “And I don’t need to be paid to talk to my own damn sister.”

The two women stared at each other.

“Oh, Ellen, I am so sorry,” Gail said, and burst into tears.

Face expressionless, Ellen opened her arms, and the two women embraced.

“This is why I like dogs,” Kate said. “No drama.”

“Really, Kate.” Gail pulled away from Ellen and wiped her eyes. “Let’s leave these two lovebirds.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a keychain. “Here, Ellen. To the house.”

Ellen waved it away. “I can wait. Johnny won’t be out here for months.”

“But you should be able to go in whenever you want,” Gail said. “We are family.”

“Can we go, please? You two had dinner, but I’m starving,” Kate said.

“I’ll need a ride, too,” Ellen said. “Good night, Liam. Bev.”

“Bye.” Liam was staring at the tender inner crease of Bev’s elbows, realizing he’d never kissed them before. She looked up and saw him staring, saw the heat in his face, and turned pink.

“Now, please.” Ellen walked out the door.

Kate followed. “Before they start up again.”

Gail lingered for a moment in the doorway, frowning and wiping her wet cheeks. “Liam,” she said, and he looked up. “Don’t let her sleep here again tonight.”

He met her gaze and nodded while Bev sighed in frustration. “I am right here. Don’t start talking to me through him. I know he’s big and manly and everything—”

“See you later, Liam.” Gail blew him a kiss and left.

Liam ran his hand down his chest to smooth his shirt. “I bet you need a home-cooked meal. I’m making you a home-cooked meal. You never did eat my marinara.”

“That’s a big step.” She pressed her chest up against him, pinning his hand over his heart. “How about sex first?”