me again.
Oh, this man.
I sat back down at the table, taking a sip of my iced chai and trying not to give him a death stare. Ignoring seemed to be the best policy. But that was hard to do when I could feel his eyes on me. I looked down at the spread of donuts.
“I couldn’t remember which one was your favorite,” Chuck said, a hint of apology in his voice.
Sweet, sweet Chuck. I gave him a wide smile and plucked a chocolate donut with sprinkles from the center of the pile. “You can’t remember because I don’t have a favorite. Other than jelly filled, I’ll eat any of them.”
“Good to know,” he said, picking up a white powdered donut. When he smiled at me again, it was with a fresh dusting on his lips and chin. A few weeks ago, I might have wiped it off, perhaps kissed it off, but today, I simply turned away, meeting my dad’s eyes.
“How are you enjoying your stay?” I asked. “Getting a lot of research done?”
It was a dangerous question to ask. Dad could really get lost in his work and go on beyond what anyone wanted to know about his studies. Maybe given today’s odd group, having Dad go off about island linguistics would be a welcome change in conversation.
But before he could get a word out, Nadia touched his arm and leaned forward. “He’s getting into a good rhythm. And I’ve started building up some routines for beach yoga. I think there will be a lot of interest. You should come sometime, Clementine. Yoga can be really great for those people who don’t need to lose weight, but simply need some toning.”
That last bite of my donut did not go down easily. I guess that’s what happens when someone implies that you’re thin but flabby.
“That’s an idea,” I said, wishing I could say one of the other snappy retorts in my mind. But playing into Nadia’s drama had gotten exhausting. She married my father. She was here to stay. Or, at least, unless or until she found someone who was a bit more her speed than my studious, not-interested-in-fitness father.
Someone like Alec, apparently, whom she trained her sights on next. She even let go of Dad’s arm to touch Alec’s forearm. The same sexy forearm I’d admired on several occasions. Both Dad and I zeroed our gazes on the place where she touched him. That is, until Alec scooted his chair back a little and crossed his arms to get out of reach. Two more points for the man formerly known as Grumpy.
“You might enjoy it,” Nadia said. “Where do you work out?”
“How do you know it’s not just good genes?” I blurted.
The look in Alec’s eyes made me wish I had kept my mouth firmly clamped shut. “You think I have good genes? Thank you.” He pressed his lips together like he was trying to hold back a laugh. It was an infuriatingly good look on him.
I tried not to roll my eyes. I was not thirteen years old. Or twenty-three. I was a very respectable age and could conduct myself like an adult. I grabbed another donut, this time a bacon maple one. See? I was totally adulting. This donut had protein, not just sugar.
Dad spoke up, as though that last few minutes of conversation hadn’t happened. “I’m finding the island to be invigorating for my studies. Though the Wi-Fi at the hotel isn’t steady.”
“If you’re able to work in public spaces, you could work in my coffee shop,” Alec said. “It’s called A Bitter Cup. Best coffee on the island.”
I dropped my donut. His coffee shop? Alec owned A Bitter Cup?
A few things became clear very quickly, which oddly made my thoughts more murky. Casey the barista might have a crush on Alec, but another explanation of her behavior was that she wanted to impress her boss. Her very handsome boss, but still, her boss.
The other thing was something that Casey had said: the owner of the shop had painted the picture I bought.
Alec was the painter?
I closed my eyes. No wonder he was so concerned about me taking care of the painting. It was his. Which meant that the art I found myself strangely drawn to had been created by the grouchy, confounding, ridiculously attractive man currently across the table from me. The one I wasn’t completely convinced hadn’t been replaced with a much nicer clone or a twin.
When I opened my eyes, Alec (or the