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An elegant, older White woman followed. “Child, you know better than that,” she said as she reached the table.
“Hi, Dianne.” Tobias squeezed her hand. “Are you staying?”
“No, I left John in the car. We’ve got shopping to do and he has a meeting at four.” She smiled. “Hello, Aithan. How’ve you been?”
“Good. Thanks.” He introduced us and I learned she was Tobias’s mother-in-law.
The little girl pouted. “Gammie, don’t be mad at me. I wanted to see Daddy.” She must have been four or five years old. She had her father’s brown skin, but stunning hazel eyes and insanely long eyelashes. Her black hair was pulled into two puffs atop her head.
Tobias nodded solemnly. “And you can see me while youwalkacross the restaurant. You don’t want to trip a waiter and get hurt, right?”
“Right.” She caught his face, turned it just so, and planted a big kiss on his cheek. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, be smart,” Dianne said.
“Okay, Gammie.”
The woman excused herself, and the child turned on Tobias’s lap. “I wanna hug, Uncle Aithan.”
Aithan grinned and reached for her as the girl squirmed out of her father’s arms. “Hey, little Amara, I wanna give you a hug, too.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed as hard as she could, then gave him a kiss on the cheek. Turning, she considered me. “You’re so pretty. Are you Uncle Aithan’s new girlfriend?”
Aithan rolled with it. “Zelda and I just started dating.”
She held out her hand and I shook it, charmed by the adult mannerism. “Nice to meet you,” she said.
“The pleasure is all mine, Amara. You have lovely manners.”
“Thank you.” She turned to Tobias. “Daddy, I’m hungry.”
“Well, let’s get you a snack.” Tobias stood and she hopped off Aithan’s lap. He took her hand, then excused himself to take her to the kitchen.
“She’s so stinkin’ cute,” I said when they were gone.
Aithan smiled wistfully. “Yeah, Amara’s a hoot. She’s so much like her mom. I wish Juliette was still alive.”
“Oh, wow. Tobias is a widower? That’s rough.”
He nodded. “Juju was amazing and she would’ve been a phenomenal mother. She’s the reason Tobias has Scumwater. She pushed him to take a chance on marketing his beer. Brewing was just a hobby he started in his parents’ kitchen. Juliette helped him grow it to national distribution while we were all still in college.”
“That’s amazing. Has it been long since she passed?”
“Five years. She died three days after Amara’s birth.”
“Shit. I don’t even know how I’d go on after that.”
Aithan shrugged. “No choice. He was suddenly a single dad. Amara needed him. Family and friends stepped up, too. Those first three years were hard, but he was managing just fine.” His scowl and his bitter tone surprised me.
“Until?” I prompted.
Aithan shook his head. “Tobias decided Amara needed a mom when an old girlfriend returned to Seattle. He thought he was making a good choice, but Maeve turned out to be a real …. Mmm.” He cleared his throat rather than cuss. The man never uttered a curse word. “She didn’t like being second to Amara. Tobias got sick of her selfishness pretty quickly. Now she’s fighting for partial custody.”
“What? Why?”
“Alimony and child support.”
“Cripes. Poor Tobias.”
