Chapter 34
Note to self:
Think about getting a tattoo.
Maybe a pirate?
After the phone call, I dug out my trusty two-piece bathing suit with the high-waisted bottoms and tank-style top and headed for the pool to hang out with Hallie and Abe, who had headed there about four seconds after we checked into the hotel. Mack was camped out in a corner, lounging on a chair with his shirt off and sunglasses hiding his eyes.
“There you are.” Mack held up a drink with an umbrella in it. “Look, I made a friend.”
The woman stretched out in the chair next to him looked about his age. She was short and round and wore a cheetah-print one-piece bathing suit along with a gauzy black cover-up that covered up nothing. Her toes were painted fire engine red, which matched her lipstick.
“Hi, honey. Mack here was just telling me about you.” The smile she beamed at me hinted she could be sweet and a whole lot sassy. I liked her immediately. “I’m Mona, but most everyone calls me Mimi.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” I plopped down in the chair next to Mack.
“I was just telling Mack here that I came all the way from Texas for a little me time and look at this, I meet a handsome man,” she winked at Mack, “from Texas.”
With a grin, Mack preened under her attention. “It was meant to be.”
“I am tickled pinker than a redhead’s skin after a day at the beach.” She poked him coyly in the arm.
“Are you here with family?” Mack leaned a bit closer.
“Oh, no, honey. I don’t travel with them. My daughter is a bit of a stick-in-the-mud. What she doesn’t see, she doesn’t need to know about.” Mimi laughed, low and sultry, and took a sip of whatever fruity cocktail she had.
“Well, I for one am glad to meet you.” He held up his drink. “Cheers to new friends.”
Giggling, Mimi tapped her glass to his.
I watched, fascinated. This was like a masterclass on flirting. Leave it to Mack to take this whole change thing by the horns and go for it.
After adjusting my chair, I slapped on sunscreen, tied my hair on the top of my head, and got comfortable. The pool was more crowded than I expected, mostly kids and parents and some loners over in the hot tub.
I scanned the area for familiar faces. “Where’s Abe?”
“He took the car to be detailed,” Mack said. “I don’t think we can handle that smell any longer.”
“Wise.” The smell of regurgitated Goldfish crackers had lingered. “Did he take Hallie?”
“Left her with Theo.” He pointed to the far end of the pool where the shallow water was. “They’re over there.”
I saw Hallie first, her hair in crooked, wet pigtails. She wore a bright-green swimsuit and arm floaties. The man beside her hooked her under the arms, held her high, and released her in the water with a splash. Her head popped right back up in a swoosh, spluttering and giggling.
The man, though…I wasn’t sure how I’d missed him the first time I’d looked. Or maybe I could see why. His hair was wet and dark, slicked back, and he was shirtless. Obviously. He was at a pool. His wide chest was tanned but not particularly muscle-y, with a light dusting of hair. But it was the huge, colorful shoulder tattoo that threw me off. Theo had a tattoo?
Alec had a few tattoos, one on his forearm, a tribal patterned armband, and another on his calf. I hadn’t had strong feelings about them. But Theo’s tattoo was doing all kinds of things to me. My fingers itched to trace it, discover all the little details. I wanted to ask him what it meant and when he’d gotten it.
Was I into tattoos and never realized it? Was this another kink? Like the backwards hat?
Just then, Hallie pointed over at Mack and me. She waved her arms in the air to catch our attention. Theo turned, the blue of his eyes reflecting off the water and looking twice as bright.
Nope. It wasn’t the tattoos. I was really into Theo. I had a Theo Goodnight kink.
I waved back, unable to help both my smile and the roaring thump of my heartbeat in my ears.
“Oh, now, is that the great-granddaughter you were telling me about?” Mimi pointed at Hallie. “She’s precious.”
“That’s her.” Mack pushed up his sunglasses and glanced my way. “Go get in that water with those two.”
He didn’t have to say it twice. I stood and slipped out of my flip-flops.
“Ali-Cat,” Mack said as I started to walk away, “you might want to move up the wedding date based on the look on that man’s face.”
“Are you engaged?” Mimi hit Mack on the shoulder. “You rascal, you didn’t say anything about that.”
“No.” I shook my head. “We aren’t together. Just friends.”
Laughing, he slid his glasses into place. “Don’t listen to a word she says. I give ’em six months.”
I put my hands on my hips in exasperation. “Mack.”
He wiggled his fingers in goodbye. “Have fun.”
The pool was bean-shaped, the shallow end farther away. I took the long route, surreptitiously sneaking glances at Theo. Except every time I glanced at him, his eyes were following me, that secret little smile hovering around his mouth. It was instinct to walk taller, push back my shoulders, and put a little extra swing in my hips. I couldn’t say I’d ever felt as sexy or noticed as I did just then, at a swimming pool somewhere in Nevada, by a blue-eyed man who wasn’t supposed to make me feel this way anymore.
“Aunt Ali,” Hallie cried, kicking her feet as fast as she could to meet me at the stairs. She scampered up the steps and reached for my hand, pulling me in.
The water felt heavenly, in cool contrast to the sun beating down. “Hey, you. Are you having fun?”
She nodded. “Teo’s throwing me in the water. Come on.”
But when we reached the spot Hallie had last seen Theo, he was gone.
“Where’d he go?” Her little forehead creased.
“He’ll show back up.”
The words weren’t even out of my mouth when someone wrapped a hand around my ankle and pulled. I screeched and clawed at the pool ledge, but that hand skimmed my leg and hooked my waist. I lost the battle and fell backward onto the warm, solid wall of Theo. Which, not gonna lie, was a pretty great place to be.
“Arrr, I’ve got you now,” he said.
I burst out laughing. “That is the worst pirate accent I’ve ever heard.”
“Teo.” Hallie wagged her finger. “You let her go.”
“I’ll not. For I am the Dread Pirate Goodnight.”
“You really do have a thing for pirates, don’t you?” I twisted my head enough to see him. “Should I be concerned?”
“Oh, definitely.” His eyes shone with mischief. “Do you think to rescue her, little girl?”
“Save me, Hallie. Save me.” I reached a hand to her dramatically.
Thus began a rousing game of Catch the Pirate. Theo moved comically slow, so Hallie had a chance of catching him, his arm still wrapped around me. Finally, Hallie caught up with us and demanded my release.
“And if I don’t release her, heh? What then?” Theo asked in his awful pirate voice.
Hallie narrowed her eyes, her mind working overtime. She smiled. “My daddy will get you and tickle you. He’s good at that.”
“Captain Ramos? My most feared enemy.” Theo clutched his heart. “Fine. Fine. I’ll release her…for a kiss.”
I gasped. “There will be no kissing, you cad.”
“Aye, I am a cad. You best not forget it either.” He tapped a finger on his cheek. “Right here, ya pretty thing, and then I’ll let you go.”
“Do it, Aunt Ali. Do it.” Hallie clapped her hands.
“Fine. It will be a great sacrifice but for my freedom, I shall kiss you.”
He waggled his eyebrows and Hallie giggled. In a move that made my stomach dip, Theo flipped me around in his arms, both his hands spread across my back. I gasped but when he pulled me closer, I didn’t stop him.
“You’re being flirty again.”
His grin was wolfish. “Oh, not me. The Dread Pirate Goodnight though? Total reprobate. Demanding kisses, kidnapping women, and kicking puppies when the need arises. Now, kiss me, you wench.”
I rolled my eyes and pressed a kiss to his cheek, my thoughts racing back to the last time I’d tried to kiss his cheek and missed. And maybe he was thinking the same thing because when I pulled back, his eyes, full of heat, dropped to my mouth. I licked my bottom lip. His hands dug a little deeper into my back. The pool, Hallie’s laughter, Mack in the corner probably watching this, the reasons I’d fought whatever was happening between us—it was gone. I couldn’t remember any of it.
I wanted him to kiss me, really kiss me, like I wanted my next breath.
But we’d said we were only friends. We’d both agreed to keep things that way. Yet every second since, it felt like I was sticking to the rules and Theo wasn’t. I didn’t know what that meant.
“Hey, what’s going on over here?” Abe hopped into the water.
I pushed against Theo’s chest and turned, plastering a smile on my face. “Playing a little pirate game.”
“You’re free. You’re free.” Hallie clapped her hands. “You got away.”
“Aye, she did.” Theo crept closer to Hallie, wiggling his fingers at her. “It means I’ll need to find another wench to kidnap.”
Hallie screeched and tried to kick away, but alas, she was no match for the dreaded Pirate Goodnight.
The four of us played for over an hour before I called it quits to take a break. Theo joined me. At the chairs, Mack was deep in conversation with Mimi. I caught bits and pieces of a story she was telling about a birthday dinner and, bizarrely, Spanx ending up on the meatloaf.
Theo took the empty lounge chair next to me. After drying off, I slid on my oversized sunglasses and arranged myself to receive maximum sunlight. The nice thing about sunglasses is that no one can quite see what you’re looking at. My eyes drifted to one of my favorite things in the world—Theo.
The tattoo I’d noticed was even more beautiful up close. A large white and pink lily sat on his shoulder, the leaves and stem leading over and down his back. Without overthinking, I trailed a finger over it, feather-light.
“It’s beautiful. For your mom?”
She’d loved lilies. Every inch of free space in the Goodnight yard had bloomed with rain lilies in the spring and summer, fat white blossoms that faded into pale pink. Just like Theo’s tattoo.
His smile was small and a little sad. “Yeah. I started it after she passed and add a little more every few months. It’s close to being finished now.”
“She would have loved it.” I dropped my hand.
“She probably would have gotten a matching one.”
“Nothing like mother and son matching tattoos to up your street cred.”
He laughed softly but his eyes were sad. “I miss her.”
“Yeah. She was pretty special.”
Slowly, as though afraid he might startle me, he picked my hand up. Carefully, gently, he turned it over and uncurled my fingers. Head bent, he traced the lines there with a whisper-soft touch. My breath caught at the small gesture. It felt wildly intimate, and it was only my hand.
I had it bad. And it was getting worse by the second.
“This will sound weird.” His eyes met mine. “I miss her hands.”
Tears welled at the heartache in his voice. I couldn’t imagine losing my mother. And for Theo, she’d been his only family.
“Remember how she always talked with her hands? Or how she was constantly putting lotion on because her hands were dry from washing them so much at work? The thing I miss the most though is when she’d touch right under her eye.”
“I remember that. What was that about?”
He chuckled, his fingers still tracing my palm. “When I hit middle school, I started to get embarrassed when she would do the whole ‘I love you, my sweet baby angel’ act when we were in public. She was kind of upset when I told her I wanted her to stop. She said she understood I was growing up but she still wanted to say she loved me anytime she wanted. So, she decided that whenever we wanted to say I love you in public, we would touch just under our eye.”
“That’s sweet.”
“Sorry.” He let go of my hand and stretched out on his chair. “I didn’t mean to get weird there.”
I stared at him an extra beat…or five, taking in the view, so to speak. Then, I followed his lead and laid back in my chair.
“Athena Norwood,” I said after a full five minutes had passed.
“Hmm?”
“A.N. Athena Norwood.”
He chuckled. “Not even close.”
“Amy North.”
“Nope.”
I threw my hands in the air. “Can I at least get a clue?”
“Alright. Let me think.” Which he did for what felt like hours. “One of the initials is the same as someone who has a special place in my heart. She’s loyal and smart and clever. Plus, she smells good, and she always makes me smile.”
I scowled. Who was this woman and how do I get rid of her? He sounded much too attached. “Do I know this person? She sounds way too perfect.”
He barked out a laugh. “Oh, you know her, and trust me, she is not perfect. Honestly, she can be slightly unhinged at times. It’s part of her charm.”
Crossing my arms, I settled back into my seat, mulling over his clues for this mysterious woman. Whoever she was, I hated her.