Chapter Ten #3
Rowan tried the squid-ink pasta next, a sleek black knot with breadcrumbs and little clams and a hit of garlic.
Midnight streaked the bowl with every twirl.
It tasted like the deepest part of the ocean, where light barely reached and treasures abounded.
Kelsey finished her pizza and sampled the squid.
She grinned, mouth black. “Am I a goth now?”
“In a yellow dress?” Everett teased.
Rowan jumped in. “An optimistic goth.”
Everett gave in and smiled properly. For a moment, he looked like someone who might have once gone barefoot, danced in the rain, and kissed with his body and soul. Her stomach seized. He swiped his thumb along his bottom lip and left a smear of black.
“You have . . .” Her hand lifted before she could leash the instinct, then dropped. What the hell was she doing? Time to back up from these strange feelings. “You have ink on your face.”
He stilled. Then wiped his full mouth, checked his napkin, and huffed a laugh. Why did the touch of embarrassment make him oddly human and more approachable? Heat skittered across her skin. She looked at the ceiling, then at Kelsey, then anywhere that wasn’t his mouth.
Finally, the table emptied of plates and conversation slowed. Kelsey slumped in her chair. “That was fire.”
“What did you like best?” Rowan asked.
A mischievous gleam sparked in her eyes. “The pizza.”
They all laughed, and it felt like they shared a moment.
“I have to pee,” Kelsey announced. “Don’t talk about me when I’m gone.”
“You have to go to the restroom,” Everett corrected. “It’s more polite.”
“Yes, Daaaaad.” Kelsey weaved between tables, braid swinging. Quiet settled between them. She suddenly wished she’d gone with Kelsey.
Everett wrapped his fingers around his Negroni. “I owe you an apology. For earlier.”
“Which part?”
He shook his head. “Not gonna make it easy, huh?”
A smile threatened. “Would you want me to?”
“Probably not. I’d be disappointed,” he muttered, tapping his finger against the edge of his glass. She briefly wondered how he’d touch a woman. Slow and light, with teasing caresses? Strong and bold, with an innate confidence that showed he knew about pleasure?
Rowan tried to refocus as he continued. “I treated you like an employee I could control. Meanwhile, my daughter looks at you like the sun, and this week she’s been happy. I appreciate you being kind to her.” He seemed to grope for the next words. “You’re good at what you do.”
She nodded and met him halfway. “You were protective. That’s your job. I’m . . . not subtle.”
A twitch of amusement. “No. You’re not.”
She managed a shrug. “Subtlety isn’t rewarded with the waves.”
“But you don’t teach surfing anymore.” His curious stare pinned her down. She waited awhile, but he didn’t rush to fill the space. Probably another reason he was a master in business. “Why Kelsey?”
“I saw her hiding. Watching the young girls surf. She needed something. She looked lonely, like she wanted to belong. And I know how that feels.”
His quick indrawn breath confirmed he hadn’t known.
Easier to hide than try to find solutions to help a teen girl.
The lines around his eyes crinkled as the knowledge seemed to hit.
“Shit. I figured she was out having fun.” He finished his drink, then lifted his gaze to hers.
“It’s effective, hiding. Until it’s not. ”
“Is that what you do?” The question popped out before she could wrestle it back. “Hide at work? In suits and business meetings?”
“That’s reductive.” He winced, as if he didn’t like his answer.
“Maybe. I’m good at work. I understand it.
It makes sense. Kelsey doesn’t always. Life doesn’t.
” The ice clinked in his glass. “I was twenty-three when she was born. I thought things would be different. Her mother left when Kelsey was four. She wanted—” He stopped, then started again.
“She wanted the life I promised before the life I built. I stayed with the promises. Kelsey stayed with me. And I became the person who never missed a payment and never missed a meeting. I’m her security. ”
Rowan fiddled with the square of the napkin.
His words struck deep. She wondered how her father thought of his role when her mom took off.
How odd. They had more in common than she thought.
“So now you build a hotel on an island where the ocean is five feet away and you sit on your phone at the beach.”
Another wince. “Poetic, isn’t it.”
“I shouldn’t judge.” He looked up, sharply. “I’m just a woman who lost her dad and her knee and then lost the ocean because every time I look at it, I see the worst day of my life.”
He didn’t try to offer apologies the way people did to pretend hurt was a problem to solve. “Your dad died in the water?”
“No. Heart attack in a car in a parking lot. He was coming to watch me practice. We missed each other by ten minutes, and I had to stand there while the paramedics did their best. I remember the scent of wax and coffee and the tarp they put over him. I went to my competition that next week—the one we’d been working so hard on.
I intended to win. For him. But I didn’t. ”
It was the most she’d shared in a while.
His eyes reflected a mirrored grief, with endless regrets. Like he knew exactly how she felt. “I’m sorry.”
The words were simple but landed softly. Rowan’s throat burned, so she fell back on humor to lighten things up. “We’re a pair. The useful and the useless.”
“That’s not what I said.” His words were sharp and his eyes were hot. He leaned in. “You stand on a beach and make my daughter brave, because you’re fearless. Maybe I was a dick because I envy that.”
The word envy pinged like a coin tossed into a well inside her.
Her foundation shifted a few degrees when his knee knocked hers under the table.
Just a brush, but it brought a wave of heat.
Her thighs trembled. His hand rested on the table, palm up, like he was reviewing options.
But he curled his fingers into a fist instead.
“I’m not fearless,” she said.
“And I’m not only a suit. Look, I left my jacket at home.”
She gave a snort. The banter mixed with a hint of tenderness slid past her defenses. “Careful. You’ll get ink on your delicate executive skin.”
“From the black pasta?” He glanced at his wrist like he could see the threat. “Disaster.”
“Do you always keep the good stuff under wraps?”
“Is this where we exchange secrets?” His smile wasn’t the usual charming PR expression used for clients. This one was private, like it was just for her. Her body revved up at the thought.