Page 72 of Changing Tides

Beach Besties Leah & Sophie

Sunset Beach

38

SOPHIE

Idrop the photo and run to the bathroom to splash cold water on my face.We were friends.Liam, Leah, Simon and me… We were friends. I run for my phone and see Liam still hasn’t texted me back. I call him. No answer. I call him again. No answer. I need to talk to him. I hammer out a text message.

Me: Liam, please call me. It’s urgent.

But I don’t havetime to wait. I grab the picture and my matching necklace and I run down the steps and into the kitchen where Ellie is cooking food for the party tonight. She turns around and cocks her head with concern.

“Sophie, dear. What’s the matter?” She puts the spatula down and comes closer.

“I need to find Liam.” I blurt out. “He’s not answering my calls. I have to talk to him.” I’m almost panicking.

“Okay, okay. Calm down. He’s at Robert’s office.” Ellie says, rubbing my arm.

“But it’s the Fourth of July!” I wail, running for the front door and slipping on my sneakers. “I have to go!” I yell. And I run.

39

LIAM

“Maybe if you turn it vertical and angle it back toward you as you go in backward,” Jack suggests. He’s standing off to the side while Danny and I struggle to move Sophie’s brand new live edge desk into what will hopefully be her new office. I stained the teakwood a light sand color and filled in the center and cracks with blue resin that looks like the ocean. I hope she will love it. I have never built something so quickly.

I told Danny on Monday that I couldn’t work all week because I was trying to finish this project, and he actually came over and helped me work on it last night. I have avoided Sophie all week and I saw that she texted that she wants to talk today. I have to get this set up and then call her to come down here.

“Why don’t you stop making suggestions and help us, jackass?” Danny snaps at Jack. Jack steps forward and lifts from the side. The table has black steel legs, so it is heavy as shit. It took four of us to get it on my truck and then I had to hope Sophie didn’t see me pulling out of the driveway.

“Okay, we’re in,” I say when we’ve crossed the threshold. Doc had the office painted a pale gray-blue color that I think resembles the sky just before sunrise over the ocean. He got her a plush tufted gray armchair and a matching chaise lounge for her patients to sit on. There are dark sea blue window sheers on the two windows that look out to the back alleyway and freshly painted white plantation shutters. He hung some local art on the wall and Ellie managed to snag her framed credentials from a box in her room last week when she was over at my house. My favorite is a canvas photograph of Sunset Beach at dusk with sparkling diamonds amongst the pebbles on the shoreline.

I hope the office is enough to make her want to stay. If she doesn’t stay, I don’t know what I’ll do. Maybe Lucy and I could move to Scranton with her, but it would be hard. I have a hard enough time working and managing childcare for her. I have clients here who come back to me for my work again and again. I would be starting completely over, but I would do it for Sophie.

My phone buzzes in my pocket. “She’s calling me,” I tell them.

“Don’t answer it. We’re not ready,” Danny says, sliding his end of the desk into place so it’s even with my end. Jack comes behind it with the armchair.

I hit decline. It rings again a moment later, this time I let it go all the way to voicemail. Sophie follows up that call with a text asking me to call her, it’s urgent.

“I think we’re good, boys,” I say anxiously. “I can’t thank you enough for helping,” I tell them, walking back out into the waiting room. They get the hint and follow me out.

“Go call your girl,” Danny says, slapping me on the back.

I grin. “Wish me luck,” and I close the front door behind them.

I walk back into the office that will hopefully be Sophie’s and take a final look around. It looks great. If all goes well, I will show her the desk, tell her I love her and that I want her to stay. Then we can go to Ellie’s party and tell everyone else. She can tell Doc she’s accepting his offer and all will be okay. I take a deep breath and dial her number.

It rings about six times before going to voicemail. I try again and the same thing happens. I try a third time and fire off a text that I’m trying to reach her. She asked me to call her and said it was urgent. What if something happened to Lucy? I rub my hands down my face and crack my knuckles. I’m pacing the room when I hear the front door jingle.

“Liam!” Sophie’s voice is frantic. “Liam? Are you here?” Her voice is moving toward the hallway.

I look out the door of her office. Relief fills me when I see her. I can tell by her face that she feels the same. She runs to me and we meet in the hallway.

“Sophie,” I rasp, cupping her face. “I have been calling you. You said it was urgent?” I’m searching her face for answers.

“I ran out of the house so fast I must’ve left my phone.” She is breathing heavily. I stroke her jawline, and she gives me the most genuine smile I’ve seen from her all week. “I have to talk to you.”

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