Although she was a massive fan of his music, she’d known Matt too long to be starstruck around him. Unfortunately, his good looks still left her in need of a giant fan to cool herself off.
“Hey, Liv.” His lips formed the sexiest smile she’d ever seen. Honestly, it should be illegal for a person to have a smile like that. “Yeah, I’m alone.” Removing his baseball cap, he stuck it into the pocket of his jeans and raked his fingers through his dark hair.
She doubted he’d remain alone long. The man’s name was linked with a different woman’s every month. Actually, not long ago, pictures of him with a pretty brunette had been all over social media. In some, there had also been a baby. She didn’t know if it was true, but some magazines were claiming the baby was Matt’s secret love child. To her knowledge, he had neither confirmed nor denied the rumor, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to ask him. Talk about invading someone’s privacy.
“Do you want to eat in here or outside?”
After several days of rain, the weather gods had decided to gift Maine with a perfect late-spring day. If she were a customer at Ocean View Grill, she’d sit outside and soak up the sunshine.
“Inside today.”
Somehow, she’d known he’d say that.
“Follow me.”
Unlike some celebrities, Matt didn’t intentionally call attention to himself. At least, he never did when he came to town.
“When did you get here?” Liv didn’t need to look behind her to know he was following her toward the back corner booth. It provided the most privacy, especially at night when they lowered the overhead lights and lit candles on the tables.
“Saturday afternoon.” Matt slid into the booth, and it didn’t go unnoticed that he picked the side facing away from the dining room.
Liv handed him a menu and then removed the other place settings. “How long are you here for?”
Matt shrugged. “I’m not sure. Maybe for the summer. Definitely until July.”
If he was going to be here that long, would the woman and baby he’d been seen with be joining him? Or were they already here but off doing something else? Then again, he may have already moved on to someone new. While she was curious, it wasn’t any of her business. Moreover, although she considered him more than an acquaintance—he’d stayed at her parents’ house while in college and had seen her wearing pj’s—they weren’t close friends either.
“Does Owen know you’re here?”
Matt shook his head and opened his menu. “No. I almost stopped by to see him when I drove through Massachusetts, but I thought he’d be at work.”
“He and Jenny will probably be up this weekend. They bought a house here over the winter, and they come up almost every weekend to work on it.” The place was a total fixer-upper, but it had been in her brother and sister-in-law’s price range, and neither minded doing the work.
“He told me they were thinking about doing that. I didn’t know they found anything.”
Liv’s cell phone vibrated in her pocket. Maybe the text was from her dad, letting her know the rumor wasn’t true. Unfortunately, she couldn’t check while standing there.
“Can I get you something to drink while you look over the menu?”
“Just a seltzer water with lime for now.”
With a nod, she turned and pulled out her phone.
Emma: I saw the driver of the Ferrari go inside.
Didn’t her friend have flowers to cut and bouquets to arrange or something?
Emma: Is it anyone worth stopping in to see?
Emma was a great friend. She was also a flirt and a celebrity junkie. Whenever a well-known actor or musician visited the town, she went a little crazy. To date, she’d managed to take photos with Mia Troy, Anderson Brady, and Mark Walden. If Liv told Emma who was sitting in the corner booth now, she’d suddenly need a meal and close the flower shop so she could cross the street.
Liv hated to lie, but considering Matt had sat facing away from potential customers, he didn’t want to draw attention his way. Besides, everyone deserved a chance to eat in peace, no matter what they did for a living or how famous they were.
Liv: I don’t recognize him.
A frowning face popped up on the screen, followed by another text.
Emma: Any news from your dad?
