Chapter Two
Monica made sure the key to the room was tucked inside her purse and checked her reflection in the bathroom mirror one more time before she opened the condo door.
She had chosen a bright yellow sundress printed with dark green palm leaves.
She had her hair twisted up into a messy bun with a few strands pulled out to frame her face.
Her breath caught in her chest when she opened the door. Spencer was dressed in jeans, boots, and a plaid Western shirt, and reminded her of the cowboy on the front of her romance book. “Hey, you are right on time.”
“A gentleman never leaves a lady waiting,” he said. “You look amazing. That dress sure brings out the green in your eyes.”
“Thank you. You clean up pretty fine yourself.”
“I do my best, but you’ll be the one that everyone is looking at all evening.”
He was a charmer for sure. Monica would give him credit for that. “Does that line work on all the women you take to dinner?”
Spencer pushed the down button on the elevator and allowed her to enter first. “Never used it before because I make it a practice to never lie. That way I don’t have to remember what I’ve said.”
When it came to a stop on the first floor, he escorted her from there to his truck with a hand on her back.
There was chemistry between them, but hey, they were in a romantic setting.
A beach with a great big ocean, palm trees, and a warm, sultry evening.
And it will all end in exactly seven days, she reminded herself when he opened the truck door for her.
“You are off in another world,” Spencer said.
“Sorry about that.” She smiled and touched him on the shoulder. “I get tangled up in my thoughts sometimes.”
“Another thing we have in common,” he said, and closed the door. He jogged around the front of the truck and slid under the steering wheel. “I spend a lot of time alone in an office throughout the week, so I often stare off into space and let my thoughts run wild.”
Another bit of information about him, she thought, and wondered what he did for a living. Whatever it was, it didn’t really matter, because this was a live-for-today situation. No past. No future. Just right now.
“I made a reservation for the restaurant,” he said as he started the engine and backed out of the parking lot. “I wasn’t sure whether to tell them we would eat inside or out on the pier. There’s a nice breeze blowing, so I chose the pier, but we can change it if you don’t want to eat outside.”
“I’d love to eat on the pier. I checked the place out, too,” she said. “The menu looks amazing.”
She had never been comfortable on a first date, and in the past she had known the men she went out with for longer than a few hours, but there was something calming about Spencer. Fiona would say boring, but then she wouldn’t have agreed to have dinner with him in the first place.
She was thinking about her sister’s opinion of Spencer when they reached the restaurant parking lot.
While he jogged around the back of the truck to open her door, she gave herself a severe scolding.
She would not ruin what looked like a lovely evening by letting Fiona into her head.
Her sister might be famous, but that didn’t mean that Monica had to live in her shadow forever.
He held out a hand, and she put hers in it. The universe was not being kind to her. To meet the only guy who had ever made her want to drag him into the bedroom, and only know him a few days, was downright mean.
Once upon a time, Spencer believed in love at first sight.
That was the day that Zoe showed up at his high school when they were sophomores.
He took one look at her with her long blonde hair and brown eyes and was instantly in love.
For the next eleven years, he still believed.
Then everything went to hell in a hand basket.
She wanted a bigger house, and when he told her that the six-bedroom place they had was enough since they didn’t have any children, she lost it.
He was used to her rage when she didn’t get her way, but then she told him that she never intended to have a family with him and ruin her body, and that she had cheated on him from the time they started dating.
She ended the outburst by saying that a dozen men would line up at the back door to give her anything she wanted.
Spencer wanted children—the more the better. Somehow the years slipped by, and he figured something was wrong with him or Zoe, maybe both.
That’s when she walked out the door and filed for divorce.
I do not need to think about that now, he thought when the waitress asked if he had a reservation.
“Yes, for Spencer,” he answered.
“Follow me,” she said, and led him and Monica to a quiet table with a lovely view of the setting sun’s reflection in the water.
He pulled Monica’s chair out and seated her before he sat down. “I’m glad you didn’t turn me down. I really do hate to eat by myself.”
“So do I,” she said, and picked up the menu. “Everything on here looks good.”
“You order the left side of the menu, and I’ll get the right. Then we can taste test it all,” he suggested.
“You are funny, Spencer.” She giggled.
“I’ve been called a lot of things, but never funny.”
“Then you have been seeing the wrong women,” she said.
“Probably so,” he agreed.
“Let’s get to know each other. I’ll ask you two questions, and then it will be your turn.”
“Sounds good,” he said.
“Okay, what is your very favorite place to eat when you are in your hometown?”
“That would be a little diner in an old railroad car for breakfast. I love biscuits and gravy, hash browns, eggs over easy, and then a couple of doughnuts to polish it all off,” he answered.
“If you could live anywhere in the whole world, where would it be?” she asked.
“Probably Ireland. I spent a summer there between high school and college. That said, I would love to visit there, but I’m content in my hometown. My turn. What is your full name?”
“Just Monica,” she answered. “Let’s don’t share our last names. We both know that when the vacation ends, we will go back to where we came from and never see each other again.”
Spencer nodded. So if whatever this was turned out to be more than friendship, then it would be a fling. Was he okay with that or was he already thinking about something more?
He raised one shoulder in half a shrug. “Leave the past behind and don’t even look forward to the future, then?”
“Absolutely. I will tell you again that I am not married, never have been, and do not have children,” she said. “That’s to give you peace of mind about seeing a taken woman or a mother.”
“Thanks for that.” He smiled.
“For this vacation, I just want to live in the present. Do you have a problem with that?” she asked.
“Not one bit.” Spencer didn’t admit that he really would like to know more about her and that it would take more than a few days to really do that.
The waitress appeared at the table with two glasses of water. “Can I get you a beer, sweet tea, or a Pineapple Willy to start with?”
Spencer raised an eyebrow toward Monica.
“I think I’ll stick with sweet tea,” she answered.
“Same here,” he said, “but we would like an appetizer. Coconut shrimp all right with you, Monica?”
“Yes. I was looking at the same thing.”
The waitress left, and Spencer grinned. “It’s my turn for two questions. How many states have you lived in?”
“Two.”
“Even for college or university?”
“Even,” she answered.
Since he had only lived in one state and one town, he wasn’t shocked. True, he had been to all fifty states and even three continents, but he was born and might even die in Louisiana. “Question number two. How old were you when you had your first kiss?”
“Three,” she said with a grin. “The little boy who moved in next door kissed me. He told me that since we had kissed, we had to get married. I asked him why, and he said that his sister kissed a boy and they had a wedding. He asked me if I wanted a chocolate or a white cake. I told him chocolate.”
“Did y’all ever date?”
“Nope, but we went to prekindergarten together, then his folks moved away. How about you?”
“Twelve, and a dry peck on the lips could hardly be called a kiss. I had braces and so did she, and I was terrified that they would lock together.” He chuckled.
They spent the rest of the meal chatting, and Spencer liked Monica more and more as the evening went on.
So much that he dreaded driving her back to the hotel.
Monica did not want the evening to end, and she sure wasn’t ready to go to her room and watch whatever reruns were on the television or even read more pages in the book she had started.
She could do those things when her vacation ended.
“After that meal, I need to walk off some of the eight million calories. I’m going to take a long walk on the beach. Want to go with me?”
“Yes, I do. Can we go from here?” Spencer asked.
“I can take off my shoes, but what about your boots? They look way too expensive to leave sitting somewhere, and carrying them …” She let the sentence hang.
“Take yours off, and I’ll run both pairs up to my room. That way we won’t have to worry with them at all.”
Monica sat down on one of the many chaise lounges around the pool, unbuckled her sandals, and handed them to him. “Thank you.”
He had rolled up the legs of his jeans when he returned and held out his hand to her. “The wind seems to have died down, and there aren’t many folks on the beach right now.”
“We have a half-moon to give us light,” she said.
“I was thinking the same thing. Who needs a flashlight when the reflection of the moon is all that we need?” he said.
They had gone several yards when he slipped his phone out of his pocket with his free hand and touched the screen. Monica recognized the song long before Chris Stapleton began to sing, “Tennessee Whiskey.”
“May I have this dance?” he asked.
“I thought you would never ask.” She put a hand on his shoulder. “And FYI, I love this song.”