Hot Mess

I frowned. “You never get a break?”

“Nope. It’s just me.”

“But what about her mom?”

Theo sighed, shaking his head. “She died when Ari was eighteen months old. She made a bad call and drove after a night out. Hit a tree headfirst and died about two weeks later.”

Holy shit.

“I’m so sorry,” I replied softly.

“Why? You didn’t make her get in the car. We weren’t on the best of terms anyway, but it wasn’t the first time she’d done it. I was already fighting for custody of Ari because I didn’t trust her not to do with her in the car.”

“That’s how my parents died, too.”

“A drunk driver? Them?”

I shook my head. “Someone plowed into their car at an intersection several years ago. They died pretty much straight away.”

“I’m sorry.”

“People suck,” I said. “They don’t care about what they do to others.”

“True. I guess the only consolation with Freya is that she only hurt a tree. And herself, of course.”

“That’s not really true though, is it? Because it hurt you and it hurt Ari. Now she has to grow up without a mom around. It’s just selfish.”

“Well, you won’t find any arguments here. I agree with you. Anyway, that’s just the way it is for us. She has a lot of wonderful female influences in her life, and for that, I’m thankful.”

I nodded, and we spent a few minutes walking in silence. Theo kept us on the dirt track that lined the beach, one that was too small for a car, and I realized this was a walking path to the diner.

No wonder he said it wasn’t far.

“I have to ask. How did you end up here?”

“Huh?” He peered over at me. “In America? Or here specifically?”

“Either.”

He laughed. “My dad is American. He went to Oxford for college after he graduated here and met my mum. He got a job at the university after that and married her then. My grandparents on her side had a lot of property in the UK, and when they died, it all fell to them. I think I was fifteen when they decided to sell up and move to America.”

“Ouch. I bet that was rough.”

“I went from one year of school left to three. Yeah, that was shit.”

Dipping my head, I laughed.

“So they sold all the houses and came here, where my Dad’s family owned the beach house. They invested the money into building more like it, and here we are.”

“Where are they now?”

“Back in England. They come back every winter and spend six months here, so I get a little more time then, but I don’t like to impose on them. They split their time between Creek Keys and Key West.”

“And you own all the houses?”

“Yep. Dad was going to sign over fifty percent of the properties to me, but Mum told him that they were all mine, or none of them. The one at the far end—not the one you’re in, the one we passed a few minutes ago—is actually the only one they still own, but they pay me to maintain it.”

“That’s pretty cool. Are they full all year round? The houses?”

“For the most part. I’ve cycled renovations on them all so one is done at a time—or not done, in the case of yours.”

“That leaky bath because of the bloody plumber, right?” I grinned.

Theo chuckled, leading me to some rocky steps. “That bloody plumber indeed. He’s supposed to be coming this week, so I’ll let you know on that.”

“Good to know.”

“Here. These last few are rough.” He went ahead of me and stopped at the top, then held his hand out for me.

Welp.

I put my hand in his, hoping he didn’t notice the shiver that darted up my arm and left all my hairs standing on end. Carefully, I made it to the top and slipped my hand away before I did something stupid.

If he noticed, he didn’t let on. Instead, we walked the few feet to the diner’s front door, and Theo held it open for me to step inside. With a grateful smile, I entered the diner. I was immediately hit by the rich scent of all different types of food, and my stomach rumbled.

I flattened my hand against it. Thankfully, it was too noisy for Theo to have heard, but it did confirm that a small packet of Doritos was not enough for dinner.

A large one, however…

“Well, if it ain’t my favorite person and my new favorite person here, havin’ themselves a dinner date!” Charity bustled over to us, and before either of us could open our mouths to tell her it wasn’t a date, she grabbed two menus and motioned for us to follow her.

Great.

Now she thought it was a date.

Now everyone would think this was a date.

“Here you are,” she said, taking us to the same table I’d sat at when I arrived in Creek Keys. “Y’all sit and I’ll be right back to take your drink orders in a second.”