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"You're not getting off that easily," Amelia said, lowering her voice as footsteps hurried down the hallway toward the office door.
"Duty calls," Izzy said, getting to her feet and rushing to open the door before Sophia could get there and realize it was locked. That would only bring more questions.
"Hey, Iz, have you seen— Oh, Amelia, your husband is here to drive you home. He mentioned you have an early day tomorrow.”
"Yes, you do," Izzy said, desperate to take the attention off of herself and the topic of Everett.
“I’ll help you out,” Sophia said.
“You’re not staying? Tomorrow is Saturday,” Izzy said to her sister.
"Yeah, well, I’m not spending the night here for the same reason you don't want to have that brunch tomorrow," Sophia said sweetly, her smile as fake as they come.
"Ohhh? Does this mean you don't want to be grilled either? Who is he?" Amelia asked.
"Yeah, So-So," Izzy said, using the nickname for her middle sister she'd used since birth since neither she nor Allie had been able to pronounce Sophia's full name when they were toddlers and the nickname had stuck. "What don'tyouwant Mom and the Babes to know?"
Tessa glancedup when a shadow blocked the light shining from the railing lining the boardwalk. A man stood nearby, a smile on his handsome face.
"Uh, hi. I'm sorry, I just… I had to come over here and say hello," he said in a deep voice. "May I join you?"
Tessa loved the safety of Carolina Cove and never worried about being on the boardwalk alone at night. She’d often walk down to the swings near the pier and swing for hours, watching the tourists and locals alike. She’d always found people watching to be addictive. "Do we know each other?" Tessa asked.
Thanksgiving was less than a week away, and even though she wouldn't spend the holidays completely alone thanks to her children, it would be yet another year where she'd wake up in the house alone. And even though it shouldn’t bother her because she’d been here before, it did.
"May I?" The man waved his hand and indicated the empty space beside her.
"Uh, I suppose. Sure."
The man lowered himself beside her and seemingly noted the title of the book she'd pulled from her purse but hadn’t bothered to open. Even with the reading light she also carried with her, she hadn't so much as flipped the cover, preferring to stare at the ocean and take in the sounds after the noise of so many at the shower.
“That’s a good one,” he said with a nod at her lap and the book atop it.
The book currently ranked number one on all the bestseller lists and should have held her attention like the man beside her suddenly did. But then, when given a choice between a book and person for company...
"My name is Kirk."
"Tessa," she said, wondering why someone at least ten years her junior would want to sit and talk to her.
"Do you like it?" he asked. "I found the main character a bit whiny."
Tessa laughed and realized he was right. "Me, too! I keep going though. The writer has a style that keeps me turning the page, so I'm overlooking that annoyance."
Kirk didn't seem to be in a rush to move along, and Tessa took a glance around, figuring the other benches and swings were full and he'd simply wanted a seat. Except, the one closest to her wasn't occupied at all. "Are you waiting for someone?"
"No."
"Oh."
Kirk ran a hand over his salt-and-pepper head and shot her a slow smile.
"Sorry. I shouldn’t bother you, I suppose, but I'm trying hard to work up my nerve to ask you out. It’s taking me longer than I thought it would."
A laugh bubbled out of her before she could stop it. "I think the lighting here has messed with your eyes, Kirk. You do realize I'm older than you, right?"
"Does that matter? You're beautiful. I noticed you sitting here as I walked down the pier and I…I don't know, I knew I had to meet you."
She tilted her head to one side and tried not to be flattered. "And now that you're close enough to realize I'm not a young woman, you're stuck trying to figure out a way to gracefully excuse yourself from the situation?"
