The waiter had finished taking the order from a couple three tables down and now stood over Sid and Lucas. “Can I get you folks anything else?”
“I guess so,” Lucas said. “We’ll need to see a dessert menu.”
“Forget the menu, Goober. Bring one To Die For and one cheesecake.”
“Coming right up.”
Lucas leaned over the table and whispered, “Did you just call him Goober?”
Another waiter passed their table carrying a large plate of scallops. The scent made Sid’s mouth water. She’d have to talk Lucas into another date so she could order those. Her budget didn’t allow dinner at the marina anytime she wanted.
“Of course. Why?”
He whispered louder. “A bit insulting, don’t you think?”
Sid propped her elbows on the table. “That’s his name. We went to high school together. Don’t you remember him?”
Lucas jerked back, his gaze shooting toward where the waiter had disappeared into the kitchen. A second later his eyes opened wide. “That’s Goober McGruber?”
“The one and only. How could you forget that red hair?” Sid straightened her napkin. “Though I guess there’s less of it now.”
“Huh.” He shook his head. “Doesn’t anyone get off this island?”
Sid prickled. “There’s nothing wrong with this island. If you spent more time here you’d know that.”
Lucas snorted. “I grew up here, Sid. There’s nothing on this island.”
He had no idea how close he was to getting a bruised shin. “Then what are we sitting in? Where have we been working every day for the last week? And where did you get the best Key lime pie of your life?”
“I didn’t mean—”
“And what about your family? And my family, small as it may be. We have lives here, and friends, and it’s pretty shitty of you to dismiss us all as nothing.”
Goober returned with their desserts, but looked apologetic for interrupting what was clearly a heated discussion.
“The cheesecake goes to asshole over there,” Sid said, too frustrated with Lucas’s attitude to curb her speech. Curly would have scolded her for that one.
Lucas slid his empty plate to the edge of the table to make room for the new course, but remained silent. Sid did the same, allowing Goober to set down the new plate and pick up the empty ones.
“Will there be anything else? Coffee?”
“This is good, thanks.” Lucas smiled at Goober, then once he walked away, stared at Sid.
After several seconds, she cracked. “What?”
“I’m sorry.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
She looked for mocking in his hazel eyes but only found contrition. “Good.”
“Let me rephrase.”
Her eyes rolled so hard she nearly went dizzy.
“There is nothing
Sid slid a bite of her chocolate cake layered with chocolate mousse sitting on a crunchy chocolate cookie base—hence the name “To Die For”—into her mouth, and contemplated her reply as the sweetness soothed the bitterness brought on by the man across the table.
“You know, preppy,” she said, sliding another piece onto her fork, “for such a smart guy, you don’t know much of anything.”
Lucas coughed, nearly choking on his cheesecake. After wiping his mouth with his napkin, he said, “Excuse me?”
Another warm dose of chocolate heaven delayed her response. “By my calculations, you’ve been off this island, for the most part, for eleven years now.” It was eleven years, one month, and four days, but who was counting?
He leaned to the side, draping an arm over the back of his chair. “And?”
“A lot has changed around here.”
The man had the nerve to bust out laughing. Rearranging his napkin on his lap, he retrieved his fork, but before taking a bite, he pointed the utensil at Sid. “You’re funny. Nothing ever changes on this island. The natives still talk the way their ancestors did two hundred years ago—like they grew up in New England in the seventeen hundreds. They still tell the same stories, sitting in the same old rocking chairs, because making life sound interesting is the only way to keep the reality of how uninteresting it really is from putting everyone into a depression.”
Lucas shoveled a large bite of cheesecake into his blowhole as if that would add punctuation to the load of crap he’d just spewed.
Sid shook her head. “You’re wrong. And I’m going to prove it.”
“How?” Lucas mumbled around his cheesecake.
“I’m telling your mother you talked with your mouth full.” He smacked his free hand on the table, but she ignored him. “I bet I can show you a good time on this island. Several good times. And I don’t just mean sex, though that’s still on the table. For now.”
She dug into her cake again, enjoying watching Lucas gasp for air. Cheesecake must have gone down the wrong pipe. Once he appeared to be out of danger, she continued.
“We’ll start tonight. After dinner we’re going to the movies.”
The dessert down, Lucas leaned back and motioned for the waiter again. “There is no movie theater on Anchor Island.” He pulled a wallet from his inside coat pocket and drew out a gold credit card. Fancy ass.
“See? You’re wrong again.” Sid reached over and grabbed Lucas’s left wrist to see his watch. “Movie starts in twenty-five minutes. We’re good to go.”
Goober set the check on the table, then looked to Sid. “You want a to-go box for that, Sid?”
“I’ll have it done before you finish running pretty boy here’s credit card.”
Lucas sighed and slid the card into the guest check holder without saying a word. Goober deserved credit for remaining professional and ignoring his customers’ strange behavior. They would certainly be the winning odd couple of the night.
“Are you going to insist on playing out this charade? You and I both know there is no movie theater anywhere on this island.”
“Dude,” Sid said, slicing what was left of her cake into three large pieces. “When are you going to learn I don’t bluff? I wasn’t bluffing this morning. And I’m not bluffing now. I’ll prove to you there’s plenty of fun to be had on this island. With and without our clothes on.”
Lucas had no intention of having sex with Sid Navarro, no matter how often she insisted they would. Sex with Sid would only lead to unwanted complications. He was going back to Richmond. He would straighten out his career, and he would make partner.
And yet, he really wanted to have sex with Sid.
If someone had told him he’d be attracted to a hard-headed, dirty-mouthed, mentally unstable woman with a competitive streak and a body built for sin, he never would have believed them. Lucas liked good girls. He always had. Not that Sid was necessarily a bad girl. She just played one in his dreams.
Bottom line, Sid was not his type. He liked the girl next door. The woman who could throw a dinner party, schmooze with politicians, and go shopping with the other partners’ wives. Not that he had antiquated ideals about the fairer sex. Though maybe referring to them as the fairer sex didn’t make him sound all that progressive either.
Regardless, women could do it all and they had the right to do as much or as little as they wanted. He
