“There’s obviously a lot to admire,” Tessa said, mulling over all this new information.
Then Lorna gave a dry laugh. “Oh, but you’re not here for all that, are you? You’re not buying Dusty, you’re buying a place to live and”—she tapped the screen with a long nail—“I have a townhouse right here that does have a hint of a water view from the rooftop.” She made a face. “Would something like that work for you?”
She stared at Lorna, still thinking about the beach bad boy turned into a halo-wearing angel of mercy when the door from the garage opened behind them, and they both turned.
Dusty stood there in khakis and a short-sleeved button-up, holding a bouquet of flowers from the market. “Hello, ladies.”
Lorna smiled and gestured to the flowers. “Oh, for me?”
“Only if she made an offer,” he joked, coming all the way in. “Actually, they are for my dinner date.” He handed the flowers to Tessa. “Trying to make up for the many sins of my past.”
She wasn’t sure how to react, other than to accept them with thanks, but Lorna’s brows shot up.
“Dinner date, huh?” She gave Tessa a sly look. “And here I am talking on and on.”
About Dusty, Tessa knew she meant. “No, you’re finding me my dream house.”
“This isn’t it?” Dusty asked.
Tessa gave him a warm smile. “Very close,” she said. “But I’ve decided to keep looking for my unicorn.”
“Welcome to the club,” he teased.
“And you both have me to findtwounicorns,” Lorna said, flipping the cover of her tablet to close it. “I shall make it my goal.”
“No rush here,” Dusty said, walking out of the kitchen. “I have a few things to take care of while you finish up.”
He disappeared into the living area and down the hall, leaving Lorna and Tessa in an awkward beat of silence.
“I should have mentioned…” Tessa said softly.
“No, no. You don’t…no.” She regarded Tessa with a long, warm look. “Anyway, now you know you couldn’t do much better than Dusty Mathers.”
“We’re just old friends, honestly.”
Lorna shrugged, obviously doubting that. “It’s been two years and he’s not a man who should be alone. He needs someone lively and beautiful. And…” She leaned in and lowered her voice, “he’s looking for waterfront, too. Imagine what you could do together.”
Tessa just laughed at the implication while Lorna stood and slung her bag over her shoulder.
“Have fun tonight,” she added. “That is what he needs more than anything. In the meantime, I’ll keep looking, Tessa, and we’ll be in touch.”
With a wave, she let herself out while Tessa sat stunned and holding sunflowers and…maybe some stupidly high hopes. For a house and a man like Dusty Mathers.
Dusty drovethem to a precious Italian restaurant near the harbor, tucked under an awning of bougainvillea. The drive didn’t take long, and the conversation was easy—about their mutual house hunt and how much they wanted to be able to see the Gulf, hopeless as that seemed. They chatted about the weather, the changes in Destin, the latest on Jonah’s travails since the barbeque.
Tessa let all that she’d just learned about the man next to her settle on her heart. Everything she thought she knew about Dusty Mathers had turned upside down in the last hour.
She tried to set it aside as they were seated at an outside table, and he surprised her by suggesting they have wine. Did Lorna say he didn’t drink? Or just that his father had?
It was a stark reminder that she shouldn’t take everything the hard-selling real estate agent just shared as gospel truth.
So she also ordered a crisp Pinot Grigio and decided the job of revealing his personal history was Dusty’s, not Lorna’s. She’d let the evening unfold as if she hadn’t just been given a glimpse into his life.
After a moment alone, he leaned in, putting both elbows on the table, giving her a chance to really drink him in.
She liked a man with a beard, and his was clean-cut and the perfect amount of silver and black. He wore dark-rimmed glasses, but they didn’t hide the glint in his deep brown eyes. His shoulders had the breadth of a man who was no stranger to the gym—or, maybe in his case, building materials.
She even noticed clean, blunt-cut nails and the fact that sometime in the past two years, he must have stopped wearing a wedding ring—there wasn’t even a tan line.
