“Of course,” he said. “I want to be?—”
“Locke, is that you?”
We both whirled around at the question to find a woman standing outside the EMPLOYEES ONLY door. She was tall and pretty, with long brown hair curled in waves down her back.
“Claire!” Locke said, equal parts surprised and confused. “What are you—I mean…” A flash of awkwardness crept across his face, and his smile was strained. “I didn’t realize you still worked here.”
She closed the distance, and they hugged. Locke looked stiff as a board. “Stuck around long enough that they made me manager,” she said, pulling back. Her eyes flicked between us. “Is there something I can help you and your…”
“Isla,” he said, hurrying to introduce me. “This is Isla. Isla, this is Claire. We used to?—”
“Date,” Claire said, finishing his sentence. “Ancient history, of course. It was almost a decade ago.”
Locke let out a hollow laugh.
“Well, it’s good to meet you,” Claire said to me, sounding genuine. “Are you two shopping for a friend or for yourselves? I might be able to make a recommendation.”
“We’re actually…” He rubbed at the back of his neck, and I could tell he was stressed. “Yeah, we’re expecting. We just popped in to take a look at some things we might need.”
“The E-Z Rocker is a winner so far,” I said.
Claire smiled brightly. “It’s definitely a fan favorite. It’s usually my first go-to for recommendations. But the new generation version is coming out in a couple weeks, so if you’re interested and you’ve got some time before you really need it, I might hold out until then.”
“I don’t know how they can improve upon sitting on a cloud,” I said, “but I want to find out.”
“We’ve also got a new baby bundle that’s a great starting point for expecting parents.” Claire gestured over her shoulder to the desk. “I can put in an order for you if you want.”
“Great,” Locke said. “Yeah, we’ll do that.”
We followed Claire to the desk where she took our details and the address of the inn. She caught Locke’s eye, her smile curling. “You know, I must admit I’m surprised to hear you’ve settled down and become a father. I thought the business was your baby. You certainly fussed over it like it was.”
Locke gave another one of those hollow laughs. When he didn’t say anything in response, I thanked Claire for her help, and we left.
“So…” I started as we walked down the sidewalk. “She’s an ex, huh?”
He ran his hand down his face. “I swear I didn’t know she still worked here.”
“I’m not mad we bumped into your ex, if that’s what you’re worried about,” I assured him. It’s not like we wereactuallya thing. We were just having a baby together. And getting annoyed with someone over their past flings was silly, especially since Claire had made a point of saying that the relationship was far in the past. “She seems nice.”
“Yeah, she is.”
“What’d you do to her?”
He scoffed playfully, narrowing his eyes at me. “Why do you thinkIdid something? Maybe she broke up with me! In fact, she did, now that I think about it.”
“Yeah, exactly. Clearly, you did something to make her dump you. Was it something to do with your business? I noticed that comment about being surprised you were about to be a father and the business being your baby.”
He sighed, giving me a small smile. “The business was what we fought about, but the real reason things went wrong was that I was young and foolish and not making very good decisions. It was shortly after I started at the company with my dad. I snuck off to have a sexy lunch with Claire and totally lost track of time.”
“As one does,” I said.
“But because of that, I was horribly late for a meeting with a big client. I’d worked my socks off to convince him to sell to Fraser Developments. I still remember pulling up outside the restaurant. I was in such a rush that I tossed my keys to a guy who wasn’t even the valet.”
“Oh God,” I said, laughing.
“Thankfully, he didn’t take off with my car. By the time I got to the table, Mr. Henrickson was steaming mad at being kept waiting. He told me off for being so late. I tried to lie my way out of it and gave him the old ‘did your secretary not tell you we’d changed the meeting time?’ Turns out his secretary was his wife, and she was sitting at the bar.”
I clapped my hand over my mouth. “Locke!”
