Secrets Whispered from the Sea - Emma St. Clair Page 0,54
big guns.”
She waved off my credit card. “Alec said your money’s no good here.”
“And I meant it,” he called.
I stuffed a ten in Casey’s tip jar, and she beamed at me. If part of my motivation was so that she’d be more likely to forget the awkward exchange Alec and I had the morning before, so be it. She hadn’t said anything when I walked in this afternoon with the girls, but there’s no way she forgot.
When I sat back down with my Americano, three pairs of eyes looked at me. Alec had folded his reading glasses and tucked them into the pocket of his button-down shirt.
“Well?” he asked. “We’re all dying to know what you think. I’ve got the approval of these two for the structural elements and the design plan.”
He nodded to Sophie and Camille in turn, and I couldn’t help but be impressed that he’d learned their names and also could distinguish their personalities already. People got them mixed up all the time, even now that they dressed and acted so differently.
“From what I saw, it looks great. And if these two approve, even better.”
“I may have some new consultants,” Alec said, putting an arm around each girl and giving them a quick squeeze. “Now, ladies. How do you feel about chocolate and peanut butter?”
“We’re allergic to peanut butter. If we ate it, we’d die.”
There was nothing funny about a peanut allergy. There wasn’t. But the deadpan way Sophie spoke to Alec, had me covering my mouth with my hand.
“How about chocolate and mint?” Camille asked.
“Equally good. I have it under good authority that Miss Casey can make epic chocolate mint milkshakes that are not on the menu. No peanuts at all. Why don’t you go ask her about it?”
He didn’t need to say it twice. Both girls scrambled to the counter, and a moment later the blender whirred to life. I crossed my arms.
“Who are you?” I asked.
Alec only laughed. When he did so, his head tipped back, showing off the stubble on his throat. When and why had I started finding necks attractive? I didn’t want to even consider where my percentages on Alec were now.
“You didn’t see me as a kid person?”
“Nope.”
He looked down at his hands, then back at me. “I have two daughters. They’re grown now, but I remember a few things. Plus, your nieces are delightful.”
He couldn’t have shocked me more than if he’d grown two heads. I’d had a lot of questions about Alec before, and now they multiplied. He had children. Daughters. Grown daughters.
Had he been married before? Did he and his ex still talk? Did they live On Island?
“I see that I’ve shocked you again.”
“How old are you?” The question shot out of me, totally not something I had wanted to say out loud.
Alec leaned closer and fluttered his lashes at me. “Why, Miss Firth. A true lady never reveals her age.”
I snorted and looked down at my hands. “Sorry. That was … awkward. And inappropriate.”
“I’m forty-three.”
“Do your daughters live with you?”
“Both of them are at college. They visit a few times a year. But it would be hard for them to live with me.”
“Why?”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer to that question. Did he live with someone else—another woman? Was he a hoarder like Nana?
“It’s a little cramped on my boat.”
“Your … boat?”
“I live on a boat in the marina. Perfect for a single man. Not so much room for anyone else.”
Did I imagine it, or was he emphasizing the fact that no one else lived there? He’d also said he was single almost in the same breath. But maybe that was his way of telling me that he wasn’t interested in a relationship.
Well, that made two of us.
The twins returned, saving me from anything embarrassing that I might say, each sipping on a giant chocolate milkshake. But Alec didn’t seem to want saving, because he said, “Girls, do you mind giving us a few minutes?”
I nodded to them. “You’ve got your tablets, right?”
Without a word of protest, they settled onto the couches by the window, each with a milkshake in one hand and a tablet in the other. I faced Alec again, toying with the cardboard sleeve on my cup.
“You have questions?” Alec asked. “Shoot. I’m an open book.”
“I guess I’m just wondering, um, how old are your daughters?”
“Nineteen and twenty-one.”
Okay. Not terrible. I was closer in age to them than I was to Alec, but it wasn’t like Nadia and my dad.