He waited a beat before turning and smiling at Kate and Will on their scooters. “There’s double the fun.” He winked at the twins.
“Not today,” Elizabeth said grimly, shouldering her purse. “Mr. Will here received a yellow card at preschool and got himself sent home today.”
“I didn’t mean to head-butt Tommy,” Will protested.
“What’s this?” Rhett bent down. “You attacked a kid?” He wasn’t exactly Uncle Rhett to these kids, but he did his best to play a friendly role.
“We were playing dinosaurs.” Kate jammed a finger up her nose and unself-consciously mined for gold. “He was a T-rex. I was a triceratops.”
“Can’t argue that logic,” he said.
“Stop.” Elizabeth laughed. “You’re encouraging them.”
Pepper glanced over and slowly raised a hand.
Elizabeth waved back before giving him the side eye. “What was that about?”
“Nothing. A wave is a universal form of greeting,” he replied peevishly.
“I know that, you donkey. But there’s more to that story. You two have met?”
“She’s my neighbor,” he said as casually as possible, trying not to make a deal out of it, forcing his eyes off of Pepper.
A frown marred the space between her sweeping brows. Elizabeth wasn’t on Lou Ellen’s level of mind reading, but still did a damn good job. “Thereissomething.”
“Leave it, Birdie.” He didn’t use his old nickname for her much these days. Only when he wanted to make sure he had her full attention.
“Hear what she did earlier?”
He didn’t take another breath until he realized the answer wasn’thim.
He shook his head.
“You look different.” She lowered her chin, giving him a solid once-over. “Happy. It’s a good look on you. One I haven’t seen in a long time.”
“Yeah, well, work’s going well.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “So is sailing.”
She narrowed her eyes. He’d clearly set off her bullshit meter. “That’s not what I’m talking about, and you know it.”
“Heard Chez Louis had a good write-up in the AJC.”
“Yes, the newspaper came out. That was a big food critic too. Very exciting.” Elizabeth’s husband, Jean-Luc, owned the local French restaurant named for his father. After calling off the wedding, she’d returned to Everland a year later, engaged to and pregnant by a handsome chef from St. Barts.
The first time he’d seem them together, he’d known in an instant that it was different. He and Birdie never traded secret hungry stares, crackling the air with unspoken tension. He’d proposed too young and felt honor bound to see the deed through. Stay true to his commitment. Birdie wanted to be adored, not merely respected. When he was too stubborn to hear reason, she fled.
At first he’d fed himself the usual lines. Good guys finish last. She was a commitment-phobe. He’d thrown himself a pity party night after night with his good friend Captain Morgan. Until a better friend intervened. Beau was the one who dragged him down to Buccaneers Marina and talked him into splitting the cost of a boat.
Sometimes it sucked living in the same town as his ex-fiancé and first love. On lonely days it sucked a lot. But that wasn’t her fault, and when she applied to be Everland’s marketing manager in Beau’s office, she’d called him first.
“I won’t do it if you mind,” she’d said.
“You’ve been married almost five years and have two kids with a great guy. If I minded, I’d be an asshole and you should ignore me.”
“You are a good guy,” Birdie had said. “One of the best.”
Pepper glanced back again. He didn’t like her expression. Her smile was trying too hard to be relaxed. She kept touching her hair in that nervous way.
“Poor thing had a heck of a start to her morning, bless her heart,” Birdie broke into his thoughts.
