The faint friendliness in his face disappeared in an instant, and Olivia winced. "You're a vendor? I set aside time each week to meet with vendors. If you could-"

"No! I'm not a vendor. I'm... If you could just give me a moment to explain..."

He narrowed his eyes and studied her for a few seconds, then shrugged. "Fine. My office is in back."

She followed him into the office she'd already seen once, then slipped into a chair before he could change his mind.

"What can I do for you, Ms. Bishop?"

"I..." She had to swallow hard to clear the nervousness from her voice. "I'm an instructor at the university. I teach classes on retail business. Restaurants and hospitality, to be specific."

He inclined his head warily.

"I've been working with your brother, helping him develop some new ideas for the brewery."

Now he let all his wariness show, and his shoulders grew stiff. "We don't need new ideas, Ms. Bishop."

"Still, it wouldn't hurt you to look at them, would it? We've been working on a portfolio-" she put it on his desk and slid it toward him "-if you'd be willing to-"

"Does Jamie know you're here?"

"He..." Good Lord, this man really was intimidating. She felt as if she'd been called to the dean's office. "No. He has no idea."

"That makes sense, because Jamie quit last Friday."

"What?" she gasped. He quit? She scrambled back through her thoughts, trying to remember exactly what he'd said. He hadn't meant to quit, had he? "How can he quit? He's an owner."

"He's still an owner, but he's no longer working here."

"But..." Oh, poor Jamie. Something awful must have happened. "But you can't let him do that. He loves this place so much. If you'll just look at what he's done..." She moved a shaky hand toward the portfolio.

"Ms. Bishop, I appreciate your concern. But it's really none of your business."

He was right, damn him. And now Olivia felt like the younger sibling called to task by this man. He looked simultaneously disappointed and unmoved. She squirmed, but she didn't concede. Whatever had happened, Jamie must be heartbroken. She wished they hadn't ended it so badly and she could call and find out how he was.

Olivia looked down at her hands and took a deep breath. "I'm sure you think it's none of my business, but I've been working with Jamie for weeks on this. I admit that in the beginning I may not have taken him seriously, but he's passionate about this place. And thoughtful. He has what it takes to turn the front room into a true gathering place. A destination."

"It's already a gathering place," Eric snapped. He shoved the portfolio back at her. "And I'm sorry to ruin your admirable portrait of Jamie, but he's not as adorable as you think he is."

Adorable? A flush climbed up her neck at the implication of his words. "I didn't say he was adorable. He really stepped up to the plate, and if you'd bother looking over his work, I promise you'll be impressed. Whatever mistakes he's made in the past-"

"In the past? Is that how he sold it to you? In the past?"

Aware of all of her own mistakes she'd stumbled over in the past few years, Olivia glared. "We all make mistakes. That doesn't mean we're not still valuable."

His gaze rose to the ceiling as if he were praying for patience. "Look, I don't know what your investment is here, but your argument is moot. Jamie didn't get what he wanted, so he left."

"Because you wouldn't give him a chance?" she challenged.

"A chance?" His mouth curved into a bitter smile. "You're saying I didn't give him a chance?"

"Um..." Olivia found herself squeezing her fingers tighter and tighter together. "I'm sure you-"

"This isn't a matter of a few late arrivals or entering credit card totals incorrectly. This isn't about me being an asshole who holds every order error against him."

"Maybe..."

She cringed when Eric set his hands on his desk and leaned closer. "Do you know what his last little innocent mistake was, Ms. Bishop?"

She shook her head as the tips of her fingers went numb.

"Two months ago, he tanked a business deal I'd been working on for months. I have plans for this place, too, you know. And my plans included a new distribution deal that Jamie destroyed by sleeping with the daughter of the distributor."

Olivia's heart stopped. It just stopped. And for a long moment, she was stuck there in complete silence while those awful words sunk into her skin.

"He made the mistake of throwing everything away for a chance at meaningless sex. Do you want to know what he's done since then?"

"No," she croaked, but he was already speaking.

"Just last week, that woman came in and they argued. And by argued, I mean I had to haul her off of him, in my goddamn bar. Oh, and on Friday, he got into a fist-fight over a woman. A different woman."

Oh, Jesus. Olivia bit the inside of her lip until that pain overtook her horror.

"So I don't want to hear about giving him a chance, Ms. Bishop. He's had plenty, and I. Am. Done."

Olivia blinked slowly and tried to think how to exit this place gracefully. Jamie had slept with someone else just two months before? And maybe more women since then. He'd told her it had been a year. He'd lied about something he hadn't even needed to lie about. Why would he do that?

Eric frowned, his gaze slipping down to Olivia's hands. She couldn't feel them at all now.

"Um..." For the first time since she'd met him, Eric looked uncomfortable. He darted a worried look toward the door, then back to her. "I'm afraid I've... Perhaps I misunderstood the nature of your relationship with my brother."

"No," she managed.

"I shouldn't have said what I did. I'm sorry. I hope you-"

She stood up so quickly that Eric jerked back.

"Thank you for your time. I appreciate it." She started to reach for the portfolio, but when her fingers touched it, she paused, then drew her hand away. Jamie might be a lying, cheating asshole, but the plans for the brewery were his work. She left the portfolio where it was and stood straight. "It was nice to meet you," she managed in a raspy voice.

"Listen-" he started, but she was already out the door, already rushing as quickly as she could down the hall.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

"Olivia?" a woman's voice said from behind her.

As Olivia pushed through the swinging doors, she glanced back to see Tessa Donovan watching her with complete confusion written on her face. Olivia didn't respond, she just raced for the front door and the parking lot beyond.

Thank God she hadn't fallen in love with him. She couldn't handle being broken like that again. What had she done to deserve so many lies in her life?

She'd been the good girl, done the right things. She'd saved herself for love once and given in to passion the next time, and both had turned out the same way. With lies. And platitudes. And stupid, false reassurances that she was special and desirable and sexy.

Swiping tears from her eyes so she could see well enough to drive, Olivia started the car and pulled out. She drove deliberately, not speeding away, not trying to escape. She had nothing to escape from, after all. It was over with him.

It was over with all of them. She wasn't getting involved again, not with anyone. In a few years, once she'd established her business and made her own dreams come true, maybe she'd think about dating again. After she had everything she wanted for herself, she'd consider seeing a nice man. Someone smart and shy. Someone who'd never offer sweet lies about other women just because the act of lying gave him some misguided thrill.

"I got what I wanted," she said aloud, the words broken with tears. And she had. She just didn't like feeling like a fool again. A stupid, blind, helpless fool.

Even though she was almost home, Olivia could no longer drive. She turned onto the very next street and pulled to the curb. One sob escaped her control, and then another. Olivia put her forehead to the steering wheel and let the tears come.

She'd wanted it to be special for Jamie, because it had been special for her. She'd wanted it to mean something to him, because for a few days, he'd meant the world to her.

And instead he'd taken her heart and- But, no. No, Jamie hadn't taken anything.

She swallowed another sob and shook her head. He hadn't taken anything, because Olivia had given herself, and there was power in that. She was going to take that power and turn it into something amazing. She was going to emerge from this smarter and stronger.

But first she was going to cry like a baby and let herself mourn what she'd never had.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.

THE TREES FLEW PAST HIM in a blur of cool green. Jamie steered around a sharp rock and balanced his weight on the balls of his feet as the bike dropped down a shallow ledge.

For a third time, he felt the vibration of the phone in his pack. For the third time, he ignored it. He was fifteen miles into a twenty-mile ride, and he'd come out here to not think about his family. Damned if he was going to invite them to join him. And who else could it be, calling over and over as if there was an emergency?

Shit. What if there was an emergency?

Jamie pushed on, splashing through a stream that tossed ice water against his legs. He popped over a disintegrating log and slid around a curve. A few yards later, the trail emerged from the trees into a wide turnout that seemed to hang in the air above the town. The sky went on forever above him, miles and miles of blue. Jamie propped his bike against a tree and dug the phone out. Three missed calls from Tessa. Before he could call her back, the phone buzzed again.

"What's wrong?" he asked as soon as he answered.

"Nothing," she said. "What are you doing?"

Jamie let his head fall back and he sighed his exasperation into the sky. "I'm on a ride. Why the hell did you call me three times-four times-in a row?"

"I just wanted to talk."

"Well, I'm busy."

"Every time I call you you're busy!"

Jamie paced to the edge of the cliff and back. When he didn't acknowledge her complaint, Tessa pressed again.

"Can you come in today?"

"No. I'm busy."

"Please, Jamie. I want to talk to you. And Eric wants to talk to you."

Jamie took a deep breath. He paced to the edge a few more times, then sat down on a boulder that eased out even farther into the air.

They wanted to talk. A few days ago, he would've said no. He was done talking. He was done pleading for a chance.

But after his first days of outrage and fury had worn off, Jamie had felt a hundred different things. Determined, yes. And self-righteous. And scared. And hopeful. But at night, those feelings had slowly fallen away and revealed the one true emotion pulsing beneath it all. Grief. Grief for what he'd lost.

"Jamie?" his sister whispered. "Will you please come talk to us?"

He closed his eyes and listened to the silence around him. The peace. It sounded nothing like what was going on inside his head. "Tessa...I don't want to talk anymore."

"I mean, we really want to talk. Not argue. And not lecture."

"Why?" he asked wearily.

"Because you're a part of this place!" she yelled. "And we don't want to do this without you." Jamie heard Eric's voice in the background before Tessa snapped, "Shut up. You're on my shit list, Eric, so zip it."

Jamie's eyes popped open. Eric was never on Tessa's shit list.

Tessa cleared her throat. "Please come in, Jamie." Her voice was all sweet vulnerability again. "You've already quit, so what can it hurt?"

Crap. His pride told him not to go, but the truth was that he missed the place. He'd only been gone a few days, but the distance was there. He missed the brewery. He missed his place there. He missed his sister. For now he was leaving Eric out of it.

He'd tried to turn his mind to the future. This morning, he'd even gone to look at a few available properties, but it felt strange. It wasn't the exhilarating passion he'd felt before. Jamie rolled his shoulders, trying to shake the feeling off, but even after fifteen miles on the trail, it was still there.

"Fine," he bit out. "I'll try to be there in an hour or so."

"Thank you!" she gasped. "I'll see you in an hour."

"Or so," he clarified, unwilling to leave an opening for Eric's criticism. The phone clicked off. He got back on the bike and headed downhill. None of his worry had left, but at least he felt as if he was heading in the right direction.

Exactly one hour later, he stepped through the front door of the brewery. His timing was no accident. He hadn't even bothered to dry his hair after the shower. He wasn't going to give Eric the chance to aim that familiar look in Jamie's direction.

"I'm here," he said flatly as he stepped into Tessa's office.

She jumped up from her chair and shooed him out. "Eric's office."

"Fine." He stalked into his brother's office and dropped into a chair. Eric looked exactly the same-stern. Jamie met his eyes and said nothing. If Eric wanted to talk, let him talk.

The door behind him closed with a snap, and Tessa dropped into the last chair. "Okay," she said, taking his hand into her smaller one.

"Okay, what?" Jamie asked.

Her hand squeezed his, and for one heartbeat, everything was quiet inside him. Then Eric pushed something across the desk.