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“Mm, yep,” Grant said, reaching for his napkin again.“Are you going to try the calamari?”
Bea ignored the vibrating buzz of her phone in her back pocket and eyed the rings of fried food.“It’s not too fishy?”
“It’s not,” he assured her.“Try it with the marinara.”He pushed the little cup of red sauce toward her, watching while his smile crinkled at the corners of his eyes.
Bea looked back at him, took an overexaggerated breath that made him laugh, and picked up the smallest ringlet of calamari she could find.She dunked it in the marinara and took a teensy bite.
“Oh, come on,” he said, chuckling.“That’s not even a bite.”He picked up a big ring, bent it in half to get it in the sauce, and ate half of it at once.He wore starlight in his eyes, and Bea wondered what it would feel like to be that happy over something like an appetizer.
She put the rest of her ring in her mouth, and while it wasn’t fishy, the calamari definitely tasted like fish.She immediately reached for her napkin so Grant wouldn’t be able to tell she wasn’t chewing.No, this was better to just swallow whole so she could get it out of her mouth.
He burst out laughing then, but Bea was still trying to get the calamari down.“Stop it,” she said, half laughing and half trying to swallow.She got it and reached quickly for her glass of water.One big drink later, and she said, “It’s not bad.”
Grant only laughed harder then, the sound full and rich and reaching right inside her chest and tickling her heartstrings.She even laughed with him, and she hadn’t had a great sense of humor about herself and her quirks in a while now.
“I think you’ll like the red sea bass better,” he said.
“It’s coated in pecans,” she said.“What won’t be to like?”
Grant settled down, though his smile never left his face.“What about you?Have you always lived in Texas?”
“Yes,” she said.He’d spent most of the drive over here talking about the island or himself.Anything he had asked her, she’d answered with a simple single word.He knew it; she knew it.
One eyebrow went up, making him seem boyish and funny at the same time.“So…you’re here alone.Your friend booked the cottage for you.”He left things there, plenty of open-ended questions streaming from him silently.
“Yes,” she said again, her lips curving up ever so slightly when he gave an exasperated sigh.
Bea giggled—a sound she hadn’t made since turning forty over five years ago—and covered his hand with hers.Everything in the restaurant stilled, from the music to the scent of hot sauce to her giggling.
Her eyes met Grant’s, and it looked like the earth had stopped spinning for him too.Pops and sparks raced up her arm and scattered along her shoulders, all of it initiating from where they touched.
She didn’t know what to think of it.She hadn’t felt excitement like this in years, a decade, longer.She’d accepted that her life was doing laundry and running lunches to schools after whomever had forgotten them.
She loved her children, and until fairly recently, she’d loved her husband.She thought of the love list, and all the things on it she and her friends had come up with to add joy to her life.Things she’d wanted to do but had put off.New things she’d thought she’d never get to do, like travel to new places and see the wonders of the world like the Grand Canyon.
She’d never once thought over the past fourteen months that she could meet another man and have a different kind of relationship with him.Any relationship at all.
Did one simply start their life again at age forty-five?What if she’d been with the wrong man for twenty-five years?
She blinked, the idea of one right person evaporating just as quickly as she pulled her hand back.She took another drink of her water, regaining her composure and her Texas manners.
“I’m single,” she said.“Cass had to book the cottage, because I never would’ve done it.”
Grant’s hand slid off the table and into his lap, and Bea wondered if he didn’t want to touch her or if he’d been as affected as she had and didn’t want to show it.“Did she drive you to the airport?”
“No,” Bea said.
“So some small part of you must’ve wanted to come,” he said, giving her a grin again.
“I suppose,” she said.“It’s meant to be a rejuvenating trip.”She took another drink, trying to swallow back the second half of that sentence.It wouldn’t go.“My divorce was finalized less than a week ago.”
Grant leaned back into the booth behind him, putting even more distance between them.“Ah, I see.”
“It took fourteen months,” she said.“Not the greatest experience.I’m glad it’s over, and—” She exhaled again, glancing up when the waitress arrived with their food.She kept her thoughts to herself as her pecan-crusted sea bass with the rice pilaf and roasted asparagus got placed in front of her, and Grant’s crab cake sandwich got put in front of him.
“Thank you,” they said together, and Bea smiled at Grant.She couldn’t remember the last time Nort had said thank you for anything.Not to her, not to his assistant, not to one of their children, not to a waitress.He seemed to think everyone on the planet had been put there to serve him, no thanks necessary.
“You’re glad it’s over and?”Grant prompted, already lifting his sandwich.
