His Southern Sweetheart

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Tell your grandmother who I am.”

Brows drawn together, Amelia sighed and walked down the hall to her grandmother’s door. “Grandmamma, open up.”

“What do you want?” Helen barked instead of really asking.

“Grandmamma, why do you have the door locked?”

“Because you got strange men in my house at all times of the night,” said Helen, opening her door just a crack.

Something about this situation seemed familiar. Nate tugged the hairs of his goatee and grinned, remembering his first night with Amelia and her former boss. The humor rising from his gut ceased at the memory. Today, they’d spent time touring the town. He wanted to be the one to take her around and show her all the changes and entice her into staying.

Amelia huffed, blowing a lock of her hair out of her eyes, and pushed away from Helen’s door, taking Nate’s hand in hers. Nate wanted more than anything to take her upstairs into her bedroom, but he stood still.

Amelia glanced upward. “Everything okay?”

The moonlight spilling in from the kitchen window framed her face with a halo. Nate pulled his hands from hers to cup her face. “Everything will be perfect if you agree to go away with me next weekend.”

“What?” Amelia’s voice echoed through the halls. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“As ever.”

“Will Natalia be there?”

Nate shrugged his shoulders, knowing good and well she might. “I don’t know.”

“Will the folks from the school shooting be there?”

“Some of them,” answered Nate, pressing his lips as he thought of his cousin in Orlando. Marisol Torres refused to ever step foot on the island again.

“What do you think of me doing a human interest story?” Amelia pressed on.

“Absolutely not.”

Amelia’s lips twisted to the left. “Well, who’s going to be there?”

“Um,” Nate hummed and pressed his lips against Amelia’s. “Me?”

“Can I think about it?”

Trying to contain his disappointment, Nate smiled and brushed his thumb across her bottom lip. “I suppose that’s better than a no. May I see you tomorrow?”

“Sorry.” Amelia shook her head back and forth. “I’ve got to go over some footage with Lexi tomorrow and then we’re heading down to Tallahassee to scout out some clients.”

Nate’s heart raced with excitement. He bit the inside of his cheek to contain himself. “Well, all right then.” He sighed, feigning disappointment. “Let me know when the two of you return. Maybe we can get together for dinner.”

“Maybe,” Amelia said, taking his hands and walking him to the door.

“Still better than a no.” Nate kissed her once more before exiting the Marlow household and jumping down the porch stairs. His plan of getting Amelia to stay was working.

Chapter 11

“I’m so embarrassed for you.” Kimber Reyes gave a droll eye roll at her uncle before covering her face with embarrassment after Nate flipped a burger and gave a spin in front of the brick grill by the pool in the backyard of the Reyes home. A bright orange flame hissed out of the iron grates.

Glad she’d decided to come today, Amelia hid her giggle behind a feigned cough into the crook of her arm at the interaction between uncle and niece. Her arms smelled like a combination of strawberries and peaches from the gallons of ice cream she’d made up this morning and had chilling in the deep freezer.

“Traitor,” said Nate over his shoulder where Amelia stretched out on a lawn chair.