Chapter 220

Liam’s POV

In my office later, I spent more time thinking about how to prove my love to Aria than I did actually working. Fortunately, not much was needed from me that day, though Joanna, ever watchful, was quick to call out my distraction.

“Maybe you should focus on work instead of thinking about a woman who doesn’t even want you.”

I ignored her for a time. After all, she was half of what got me into this mess so deeply. If she had been honest with Aria, then I could have avoided much of this. Instead, Joanna doubled down, making it seem to Aria that the engagement had been real.

“She’s going to leave you, Liam,” Joanna persisted. “The sooner you recognize that, the happier you will be in the long run. Spare yourself the humiliation of having to grovel.”

I wasn’t groveling. I was just proving my sincerity.

Joanna, someone who knew nothing about love, wouldn’t understand the difference. To her, any act of emotional devotion was less than unnecessary, it was demeaning.

Still, I tried to continue to block her out. For a while, it worked. Her objections were less vocal while I focused on my work. But then, during break, when I brought up a few websites and made a few calls, her disapproval seemed to increase tenfold.

“Planning the perfect date?” she asked shortly. “How quickly you forget that you are engaged to me.”

“We aren’t engaged, Joanna,” I said, cracking at last in my attempt to ignore her. “I’m married to Aria.”

I’d thought she was just attempting to sabotage me when she told Aria that the engagement was real. Even now, I’m not totally sure. She must know it wasn’t real, and yet she was persistent that it was.

“You are leaving her,” Joanna said. “Or she is leaving you. It makes little difference how it happens, but you must see to it quickly. For the sake of the will.”

“I did not let my father control me when he was a life, and I’ll be damned if I let him control me now that he’s gone.”

Reaching for the phone, I lifted it and then called the number on the website on my screen. I was determined to do my best to make sure Aria had an amazing time.

I could feel Joanna glaring at me from across the room, but with my determination restored, it was easy to ignore her once more.

Aria’s POV

Despite the heartache of the morning, most of my workday had been going alright. The drivers were performing well on the track. Everyone was eating right, and their numbers looked good. They were even getting hyped up for the race this weekend, which was always a positive.

Confidence could be key sometimes, when combined with the right training and a good crew.

All and all, the day was going well.

Towards the end of it, as I was transcribing the numbers from the charts into the computer system, the phone on my desk rang.

Picking it up, I answer, “Hello?”

“Miss Aria,” said the receptionist from the entryway of the building. “There is a car here for you.”

“For me? There must be some mistake.” I hadn’t arranged for any car.

The receptionist pulled the phone away from her mouth for a moment, to talk to someone. After they exchanged a few muffled words I couldn’t hear, she came back on the line.

“You have a secret admirer, Aria,” the receptionist said. “The car is here to take you on a date.”

“A date?” Who else could it be but Liam? He had said he was going to prove his love to me. He must have meant right away. “I’ll be down in a minute.”

After hanging up the phone, I looked at the chart and then the computer screen boxes where I was supposed to fill everything out.

I kept thinking about the car waiting for me downstairs. The thought of what kind of date Liam wanted to take me on was an incredible distraction. I mistyped the same numbers several times.

Finally, putting aside the char, I gave up. I could always fill this out correctly tomorrow. No use doing it incorrectly today and having to redo it anyway.

Closing the charts, I set them aside, grabbed my things, and headed down to the main entryway. Outside, a town car was waiting for me, with a chauffeur standing by the door.

“Aria?” he asked as I approached.

“Yes, that’s me.”

He opened the door for me. Inside, Liam was waiting.

My heart thundering, I slid into the backseat beside him. The chauffeur closed the door behind me.

“What’s all this?” I asked when we were alone. Though the chauffeur slid into the driver’s seat, the partition was up, dividing the front seats from the back. He couldn’t hear us.

“You deserve special things,” Liam said. “We’ve been handling so many… difficulties lately, that I thought it might do us both some good to focus on just each other for a while.”

I was still wary about this, given everything I’d witnessed the past few days, but since Liam clearly went through a lot of effort, I was willing to go along with this. For now.

Our first stop was to a diner. At first, I’m a little confused seeing it. I would have thought he’d try to wine and dine me with something fancier, even if the diner was more my speed.

“I know you like the hot turkey sandwich here,” he said, remembering that from the two times we had been here with the kids in the past. I had said as much, but didn’t think he was paying attention at the time.

“I do,” I said.

Liam nodded. “I thought you’d be more comfortable here than at some white-tablecloth restaurant.”

“I am.”

Inside, I got my hot turkey sandwich, and Liam had too, to try it. He didn’t seem as enthusiastic as I was about it, but he enjoyed it all the same.

After our meal, we returned to the car, which seemed to drive us out of town and into the country.

“Where are we going?” I asked, watching as the trees grew denser beside the highway. Soon, the car turned off the highway, then followed a long country road to a clearing.

In that clearing, that field, there was a hot air balloon, the rainbow balloon already filled up, the basket tied down and waiting.

“Liam…” I gasped.

“I thought we could use a different perspective,” Liam said. “See the world differently, from up there. Or so I’ve heard.”

We greeted the hot air balloon controller, and then boarded the basket. As the balloon started to lift, I grabbed onto Liam for support.

I wasn’t afraid of heights, but it was slightly alarming being raised up so high with only a basket beneath us.

From the sky, we could look down at the city. Liam had been right. The world did look much more different from up here. Things were peaceful and perfect.

“Do you like it?” Liam asked me.

I’d been so angry at him lately. Even now, I could feel that anger, driven by hurt, throbbing behind my ribcage. Yet, at the same time, I felt myself softening to him.

“I do,” I told him, while looking at him, his bright eyes, and his boyish smile.

In that moment, it felt like the easiest thing in the world to lean in and kiss him.