I pretended to read the menu for a few minutes before my second worst nightmare began to unfold.
“Do my eyes deceive me?”
Wincing, I fought the urge to throw my head into my hands.
“Teddy Bowman, get your butt over here and give me a hug!”
Georgie’s eyes bored holes in my profile as I sat, motionless, while Teddy slid from the banquette across from us and enveloped my mother in a massive hug. She rocked him back and forth, groaning and spouting an increasingly embarrassing amount of comments about what a handsome young man he’d become.
My mother pushed him away and smacked him on the shoulder with her pen. “I don’t know how you ever let this one slip through your fingers, darlin’,” she said to me.
Teddy cocked his head and frowned a fraction.
An acidic wave of shame crashed over me. I’d forgotten—for one reason or another, everyone in Bluebell Cove assumed I broke up with him. I already boarded the plane to New York before I could quash those rumors.
“I think we both know your daughter was too good for me, Ruth,” he replied smoothly.
Despite the heat crawling up my neck, I proceeded with my in-depth study of the chrome-trimmed Formica tabletop.
My mother, per usual, was completely unaware of her gaffe.
“Now, what can I get y’all? Georgie, the usual?”
She nodded in response, each of us spouting off our orders before we were left in peace. Although, it didn’t last for long.
“E-excuse me?”
I groaned internally to see a young girl, who couldn’t be more than nineteen, standing beside our booth with her phone all-but crushed between her hands. She shifted between her feet, eyes blown wide as she staredat—
“Are you Teddy? From Teddy’s Travels?”
My fingers curled into my palms under the table. Georgie patted my knee, no doubt in some attempt to be comforting.
“Yeah,” he replied with a bright smile, stretching his arm across the back of the banquette. “What’s up?”
The girl practically swooned. I should’ve said that she was going to have a hard life ahead of her ifthatwas all it took. But I’d let her discover that herself.
“I just wanted to say—” She blushed. “I’m ahugefan. I’ve been following you since the parachuting accident in Dubai.”
Okay, that had to be a joke. Did Teddy think he was the James Bond of travel blogging?
Teddy laughed and nodded. “I might walk a little funny now, but it was worth it.”
I really did roll my eyes at that. He caught it, gaze narrowing for a split-second before turning back to hisnumber one fan.
“If you don’t mind, I haven’t seen my friends in a really long time. But I really appreciate your support.”
The dazzling grin he sent her nearly knocked her off her feet. Oh yeah, she would have a rough go of it.
“Wow, I can’t believeourTeddy has fans!” Georgie chirped when the starstruck girl wandered away.
“Neither can I,” I mumbled under my breath.
Teddy pulled a hand through his honey-blonde hair, leaving it somehow effortlessly tousled. “Trust me, it still catches me off guard.”
“Yes, you looked so uncomfortable,” I retorted sarcastically.
His expression shifted.
