Page 46 of Sunset Tides
Rob looked down again, lost in thought. “I didn’t really fight with my parents.”
What a nerd. “What about your mom? You never talk about her.”
“My mom?” He smiled. “She’s a saint. She holds the family together when my dad is driving everyone crazy.”
“Another martyr.” Lucy let out a sigh. “Claire’s always been a martyr. It was the hotel that finally changed her. Not a ton, but it’s the only thing she’s ever done for herself, and she’s happy.”
“That’s good.” Rob returned to his seat and reopened his laptop. “So you agree that’s a no for the cruise ship?”
“Fine,” Lucy said flatly. “I don’t have any other ideas right now, though.”
“You’re going about it the wrong way,” he said. “What do you want your life to look like? How do you want to spend your time? What are you good at? What do you enjoy?”
She put her hands up. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. I’m not looking for you to restructure my life, Tony Robbins.”
He laughed. “I’m just saying you shouldn’t make decisions on a whim. You should have an end goal in mind. That way – ”
“I have lots of goals in mind.” She stood and walked over to his work station. He looked comically large, stooping over the little table she’d cleared for him. He always insisted it was comfortable. “Here’s a question.”
“What?”
“Why do you think Lillian’s boyfriend is refusing to visit her?”
Rob shrugged, his bicep within reach again. “What’d he say?”
“He said he’s too busy. I can tell Lillian is upset about it, but she doesn’t complain. She doesn’t want to leave the island yet.”
“Maybe he misses her,” Rob offered.
“Does he? Because in two weeks he’s going on a business trip for a month, and he made it sound like she needed to be back when he returned.”
“Maybe, since he travels so much for work, he doesn’t like to travel outside of that.”
Lucy rolled her eyes. “I’m not buying that either. I know for a fact he has a ton of airline miles. So why not spend some on his girlfriend instead of going to Vegas with his friends?”
“Let me guess,” Rob said, taking a deep breath. “You don’t like the guy.”
“I wouldn’t say that. I’m not big on judgment. They’ve been together for a long time, and it seemed like they were going to get married.”
“And you can’t stand him.”
“No. Honestly, I don’t know him. I’ve only hung out with him a couple of times, you know?”
“I see.” Rob nodded, hand on his chin like he was working on a difficult philosophical problem. “Has he always been like this?”
“I don’t know. Lillian never complained. She seemed happy – at least from afar. Now that I’m with her all the time, though, she doesn’t seem so content.”
He flashed a smile. “Here you go again, deciding how people should be happy.”
She laughed and lightly shoved him in the shoulder.
Wow, that was areallysoft shirt. That couldn’t be pure cotton. Unless it was some sort of special Egyptian cotton with a different weave…
“I’m just kidding,” he said. “I’m not trying to upset you.”
“I know.” She straightened. No more touching him. “I’d think that if you’re on the brink of getting engaged with someone, you should be bursting with excitement about spending your life with that person. Right? Lillian just doesn’t seem that way.”
“What does she seem like?”
