Page 34 of Spotted at Lighthouse Bay
Oh no. She’d crossed a line.
He looked up, waving a hand. “Nah, I wouldn’t put it that way. A friend of mine asked for a favor. I was looking for a change, and here I am.”
If she’d touched on something she wasn’t supposed to, he didn’t give any hints about it for the rest of the meal.
Their food arrived and they feasted, laughing and talking over one another. By the end, she was stuffed, the sting of her blind date rejection long gone.
Addy sat back, pushing her plate away. “I have to say, getting into your circle of trust was worth the wait.”
He smiled a half smile, that dimple lighting up. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“What about you? I’ve talked your ear off.”
She rolled her eyes. “You know about me. Divorced. One daughter, Riley, the light of my life. Crazy mother. Angry older sister…”
He laughed. “You’re a professor?”
“I was. English as a second language. I studied German and Italian in college and was close to mastering Spanish as well. While you were trying to understand the world, I was a foolish young girl with dreams of living in Italy.”
“I love Italy. I’m sure there’s a lot about life the Italians could teach me. Did you ever get to live there?”
“Just one year, studying abroad in college. It was lovely. Then I met my husband and we settled in Canada. He didn’t like to travel, so –”
“What a chump. Is that why you divorced him?”
A laugh burst out of her. “We were married for nineteen years and no. We’d just grown apart. After the divorce, I was laid off from the university. I was…pretty lost, to be honest. Sheila convinced me to come to the island.”
“Lost.” He bowed his head. “Essentially, we’re in the same spot in life.”
She scrunched her forehead. “What do you mean?”
“Lost. Drifting at sea.”
He didn’t seem lost to her, but Addy wasn’t going to invalidate his reality. Not when he’d opened up like that. “I guess you could look at it that way. Except you’re much younger than I am.”
He lifted a shoulder. “Nah. What’s a couple of years between friends?”
“Friends.” She grinned. “I like that for us.”
He smiled. “Me too.”
Twelve
She was far too easy to talk to. Rick hadn’t meant to tell her all those things. Maybe one or two events from his past, buteverythingabout himself?
Yikes.
He normally didn’t get this far. People forced him to stop talking when they asked rude questions. “How many people have you shot?” or “What’s the worst thing you saw on the ambulance?”
They said it with a smile, too, like they were waiting to hear an exciting story, not one about the worst day of his life.
There was none of that from Adelaide. It was like talking to someone who’d known him all his life.
On the drive home, she was quiet. He thought she might be waiting for him to spill more secrets. He kept his mouth shut.
When they were almost at the house, she turned to him and said, “Thanks for the pity dinner.”
