Kelsey frowned at her daughter and tried to pry her fingers loose. In pain, but impressed by Isabella’s strength, Seth waved Kelsey off. “Let me, please.”
“Hey, sweetheart,” he coaxed, slowly freeing her grip on his hair and shifting her in his arms so he could look into her sweet little tear-streaked face. “Dinnertime, okay? Mama has your favorite.” He glanced at the jar of carrots and made a face. “At least she has something healthy. Yum!”
Isabella didn’t look convinced, but she allowed him to settle her back in her high chair. She regarded him with a look of betrayal and once more held out her arms.
“Dinner first,” Seth told her, as Kelsey lifted a spoonful of carrots toward her.
Isabella batted the carrots away. Kelsey started to get up, but Seth put a hand on her shoulder. “Concentrate on getting that into her. I’ll clean up.”
Double-teaming Isabella, they finally managed to get her fed. Kelsey handed her a bottle and she leaned back, contented at last, her big eyes still following Seth every time he moved.
“Now, let’s get back to you,” Kelsey said, turning to Seth.
“Let’s not. I’ve got places to go and things to do.”
“You’re not staying for dinner?”
“Not tonight,” he said. He had no idea where he was going to eat, but it wouldn’t be here.
“Interesting,” Kelsey said. “Last night, MIA. Breakfast, MIA. And now out to dinner with no admitted destination. I think I’m detecting a pattern.”
“Whatever pattern you think you’re seeing, keep it to yourself. I’ve had about as much aggravation as I can take for one day,” he said as he walked out the back door.
“You do know it’s only because we care,” she called after him.
Yeah, he got that. But right this second, he could do with a little less caring and a lot more privacy.
* * *
Though Seth wanted nothing more than to head directly to Abby’s, if only because she would commiserate with him over the grief Kelsey had subjected him to just now, he talked himself out of it. If he kept showing up there, it would just add to the mountain of evidence people seemed to be gathering already that he and Abby were a couple.
Instead, he went to Flavors. It was another unseasonably warm night and ice cream held a lot more appeal than dinner. When he walked in the door, Mary greeted him with a smile.
“You just missed Abby,” she told him.
So, yet again, someone was assuming that would matter to him. It did, but did everybody have to hop on that particular bandwagon at once? It was starting to freak him out.
“Did she come in for more ice cream? I knew she’d be hooked.”
“Actually she came by because she’d heard the plan we’d devised to win over Sandra had backfired.”
Seth’s heart sank. “What plan was that?”
Mary filled him in as she scooped up his usual praline ice cream and handed him the cup. “It should have worked, too,” she lamented. “Those houses over in Naples were beautiful, everything we could possibly want to see out here.”
“Abby must have been disappointed,” he said.
Mary’s expression turned thoughtful. “Actually she seemed to take it better than I’d expected. I got the feeling she has something else up her sleeve. She didn’t say a word about it, but she left here looking pretty determined.” She gave him a sly look. “Maybe you should check it out. Could be she’s just good at hiding her feelings and would love a shoulder to cry on.”
Before Seth could say whether he’d drop in or not, Mary scooped some of the mango gelato into a carton and put on a lid. “Take this by. It’s on the house.”
With the pint container already filled, Seth couldn’t very well decline. Besides, this gave him the perfect excuse to do what he’d been wanting to do all day, anyway: see Abby again without having to acknowledge to anyone—even himself—that he couldn’t stay away. He might have acknowledged to himself that he was down for the count, but the whole blasted world didn’t have to know it.
“Yours is on the house, too,” Mary said, shooing him toward the door.
“You seem awfully anxious to see that Abby’s doing okay.”
“Truthfully, I’m worried she’ll get so sick of Sandra and the politics in this town that she’ll pack up and leave. That would be a crying shame, you know what I mean?”
Seth knew exactly what she meant, and the thought of Abby going anywhere before they could figure out where they were headed as a couple made his heart ache. He gave Mary a wave and left Flavors, determined to do everything in his power to keep Abby right here in Seaview Key.
* * *
Ever since she’d gotten home, Abby had been online researching how to get the Whittier home onto the National Register of Historic Places or even onto some Florida equivalent that would assure the home’s place in local history.
She didn’t have access to enough information to fill out any forms herself, but she printed out everything to pass along to Kyle and Mary. She’d just printed the last document, when Seth tapped on the front door, then held up a container of ice cream.
She beckoned for him to come in.
“You’re bringing bribes now? Didn’t you think I’d let you in if you came empty-handed?”
He laughed. “I was hoping that my charming self would be enough, but Mary had other ideas. She thought you might be feeling blue, so she sent more of that mango gelato you liked so much.”
Abby sighed. “Then I assume she told you what happened with Sandra and our grand scheme.”
Seth nodded. “Want me to scoop this up?”
She shook her head. “I’m good right now. Put it in the freezer for later, unless you want some.”
“I just had a double scoop of praline in a cup on the walk over here,” he admitted. “Dinner, as a matter of fact.”
She frowned at that. “That’s not exactly a healthy meal. I have some pasta I made with tomatoes and fresh basil. There’s plenty left over. Interested?”
“It sounds good, especially if you have grated Parmesan cheese.”
“Of course I do. And it’s fresh, too, not in one of those boxes.”
“What a woman!”
“Don’t get too excited. For someone who owned a restaurant, I have a surprisingly limited repertoire in my own kitchen. What I do, though, I try to do well.”
Abby led the way into the kitchen and took the leftover pasta from the refrigerator. “You realize this won’t be as good reheated as it was when I made it.”
He grinned at her. “Stop making excuses. I’m so hungry, I could eat cardboard.”
She put the pasta into a pan to warm, then regarded him closely. “I thought you usually ate dinner at the inn, at least when you don’t have other plans.”
“Tonight’s menu included too many questions about where I spent the night,” he admitted.
Abby chuckled. “Ah, Grandma Jenny was on a quest, was she?”
“Not Grandma Jenny. She wasn’t even around. This was Kelsey. That was embarrassing enough. I didn’t stick around to see what might be on Jenny’s mind.”
“You do realize they’re only the tip of the iceberg, right? If we keep seeing each other, there will be questions and looks and speculation everywhere we go.”
“We could just hole up right here,” he suggested hopefully.
Abby laughed. “I know this house seems as if it’s hidden away, but trust me, on Seaview Key nothing is off-limits to prying eyes.”
He sighed. “Yeah, I was afraid of that.”
“There’s always the mainland,” she suggested. “No one over there knows us or cares what we’re up to.”
She was only joking, but Seth immediately stilled, a frown settling on his face. “What?” she said.
�
�Are you thinking about leaving Seaview Key?” he asked.
“Of course not,” she said at once. “I was teasing. Why?”
“It was something Mary said. She was afraid if you got too discouraged, you’d take off.”
She studied him intently. “And that would bother you?”
“Well, sure it would,” he said irritably. “We’re just getting started. I know that I’ve predicted all along that we might not last, but I was hoping for more than a one-night stand.”
Abby thought she heard real worry in his voice. She turned the heat off under the pasta and slipped onto his lap, linking her hands behind his neck. “How about a two-night stand?” she suggested quietly.
He smiled at that. “Not enough.”
“Three?”
“Better.”
“You want to go for broke?” she asked. “See how long a run we can have?”
“That sounds more like it,” he agreed. “How about you?”
“Just what I was hoping you’d say,” she agreed, lowering her head and touching her lips to his.
The kiss was so sweet, the heat so immediate that dinner no longer seemed to be on Seth’s mind. As for Abby, she couldn’t think at all.
* * *
It was after midnight when the grumbling of his stomach reminded Seth that he was hungry for more than the woman beside him. He tried to slip out of the bed, but Abby’s whimpered protest kept him in place.
“Don’t go,” she murmured.
“I was just going to the kitchen to heat up that pasta.”
Her eyes blinked open and she was suddenly wide-awake. “Oh, Seth, it’s probably a congealed mess by now,” she said apologetically. “I’ll fix you something else.”
“I can make a sandwich or something,” he protested. “You stay right here.”
She looked as if she wanted to argue, but then she sighed and stretched, drawing his attention straight to the expanse of well-toned skin exposed by the suggestive drape of the sheet. He blinked and looked away. If he focused on Abby, he’d never get out of this room.
She smiled, obviously sensing his struggle. “You won’t take off, will you?”
“Not a chance,” he promised. “Try to stay awake till I get back.”
“I might be fighting a losing battle,” she said. “But feel free to wake me.”
Seth nodded and headed for the kitchen. The pasta truly was an unappetizing mess, so he fixed himself a thick ham-and-cheese sandwich on sourdough bread, then even grilled it. As he finished the last bite, he congratulated himself for not having lost his skill at making the best grilled cheese he’d ever tasted.
In the bedroom doorway, he hesitated, noting that Abby had snuggled deeper under the covers and was sound asleep. While crawling back into bed with her and taking advantage of her invitation to wake her held a lot of appeal, so did the prospect of going back to the inn. A night in his own bed might save him from another awkward cross-examination. It would also help him to reclaim some of the emotional distance that made him feel safe, as if he were still in control of his life.
He jotted a note—“See you tomorrow. Love, Seth”—and left it on the nightstand, then headed back to Seaview Inn.
Only when he was stretched out in his own bed did he acknowledge that what he’d done was a self-protective act of cowardice. He was still hedging his bets where Abby was concerned. As long as he could walk away, even for a few hours, as long as he could sleep without her beside him, he could tell himself that his heart wasn’t in danger.
The reality, though, was that he’d already lost it. That note he’d left? Love, Seth. It pretty much gave him away.
* * *
Abby woke to a lonely bed and a note that said far too little. Impulsively, she picked up her cell phone and dialed Seth’s number.
“Did you get scared?” she asked bluntly.
Rather than a direct answer, he said, “You were sleeping so soundly, I didn’t want to wake you.”
“Very thoughtful,” she commended him. “Did you get scared?”
She heard him sigh and knew she’d hit the nail on the head.
“Okay, yes, I had a momentary twinge of panic,” he admitted eventually. “But it wasn’t so much about us.”
“Oh?”
“It was more about avoiding another one of those inquisitions over here,” he insisted.
He made it sound like a credible excuse, but Abby wasn’t buying it. “I find it hard to imagine that a woman in her eighties and a girl in her twenties can scare a big, tough ex-soldier like you.”
“Have you met those two? Those in-your-face reporters on 60 Minutes are pussycats by comparison.”
Abby laughed. “You just have to learn avoidance techniques,” she said. “Dodge and weave. Isn’t that something they taught you in basic training?”
“That’s a technique for avoiding gunfire. It has nothing to do with evading a direct question from a female who’s staring you straight in the eye and all but daring you to lie. I swear that’s almost as intimidating as facing down the enemy. It creeps me out.”
“You need to toughen up, big guy. Come back over here for breakfast and I’ll give you some tips,” she suggested. “Besides, I owe you a decent meal.”
“Not your fault that I never got that pasta,” he reminded her. “And the sandwich I made myself later was pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.”
“So, you didn’t starve,” she agreed. “But that was hours ago and you know what they say—breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If you don’t have it with me, you’ll have to sit across the table from Jenny and Kelsey. Now you tell me which of us is less likely to give you grief.”
Seth laughed. “Definitely a valid point,” he said, but he didn’t sound a hundred percent convinced.
“What’s worrying you now?” Abby asked.
“If I take off again this morning, don’t you think it’ll just cause more speculation?”
“It might, which is exactly why I’ll be coaching you on the best way to head off these inquiries.”
She hesitated, then made what she considered to be the perfect, devious suggestion guaranteed to get him to her place. “Or,” she began innocently, “I could send Hannah over to help you out. I’ll bet she taught some of her clients how to get around tough questions. And she certainly has plenty of experience at evading Jenny’s prying.”
“I think Hannah will have enough tough questions of her own for me,” Seth said. “Let’s leave her out of it. Give me a half hour and I’ll be there. Make the coffee very, very strong.”
“Done,” she said at once, satisfied with her progress in learning which buttons to push.
As soon as she’d hung up, she showered, pulled on clean clothes and headed for the kitchen, wondering what she’d find after Seth’s late-night snack attack.
To her surprise, the kitchen was spotless. The dishes had been washed and put away. The counters were clean and the coffeepot had been filled to a level that promised Seth’s desired strength. It was already plugged in, which made her wonder if he’d intended to come back this morning all along.
She found herself grinning as she flipped the switch to turn on the coffeemaker.
She searched the kitchen until she discovered her mother’s old waffle iron in the back of the pantry. Then she made the batter for waffles while it heated. She set the table, poured the juice and was on her second cup of coffee when Seth arrived. He had a handful of daisies in his hand. She laughed when she saw the roots still clinging to some of them.
“Please tell me you did not yank those out of Jenny’s garden,” she said.
He shrugged. “I figured she’d give me a pass this once. She’s a big fan of the romantic gesture.”
“Good luck with that. She’s also very protecti
ve of her flower beds.”
Seth chuckled. “And that’s why these didn’t come out of the flower beds. I yanked them out of a container on the steps, then hid the container.”
Abby stared at him. “You didn’t.”
“I did,” he confirmed, looking pleased with his own ingenuity.
“In that case I’m very glad I decided to fix you waffles this morning,” she said. “You deserve a really fabulous last meal.”
Seth looked vaguely alarmed by her comment, then shrugged it off. “She loves me,” he insisted.
“I sure hope you’re right.”
“What about you?” he asked, holding out the flowers. “Do these get me points with you?”
“You don’t need any more points with me,” she told him, moving closer. “You had me the day you rescued me and let me kiss you.”
“Yeah, I was pretty much lost that day, too,” he said, setting the daisies in the sink and looping his arms around her waist.
“Seriously?” she asked, surprised by the admission.
“Come on. There was a beautiful, sexy, half-drowned woman in my arms and she was kissing the stuffing out of me. It would have taken a much tougher man than I am to resist.”
She leaned back and met his gaze. “So you did kiss me back? I didn’t imagine that?”
“Afraid so,” he said. “Do you think less of me now for taking advantage of you in such a vulnerable moment?”
“I think we can agree that whatever happened was mutual,” she said, relieved to know that she hadn’t made a complete fool of herself that morning. She grinned. “And maybe we should never speak of it again.”
“I don’t know,” he protested. “I sure don’t want to forget those moments.”
“I doubt that’s an option,” she conceded. “But I’d like to think we can keep on topping that morning.”
Seth laughed. “Now there’s a goal I can definitely get behind.”
Abby nodded, pleased. Every goal they shared brought them one step closer to an intimacy that might have the potential to last. At least that’s what she increasingly found herself hoping.
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