Isabella didn’t look convinced, but she allowed him to settle her back in her high chair. She regarded him with a look of betrayal and once more held out her arms.
“Dinner first,” Seth told her, as Kelsey lifted a spoonful of carrots toward her.
Isabella batted the carrots away. Kelsey started to get up, but Seth put a hand on her shoulder. “Concentrate on getting that into her. I’ll clean up.”
Double-teaming Isabella, they finally managed to get her fed. Kelsey handed her a bottle and she leaned back, contented at last, her big eyes still following Seth every time he moved.
“Now, let’s get back to you,” Kelsey said, turning to Seth.
“Let’s not. I’ve got places to go and things to do.”
“You’re not staying for dinner?”
“Not tonight,” he said. He had no idea where he was going to eat, but it wouldn’t be here.
“Interesting,” Kelsey said. “Last night, MIA. Breakfast, MIA. And now out to dinner with no admitted destination. I think I’m detecting a pattern.”
“Whatever pattern you think you’re seeing, keep it to yourself. I’ve had about as much aggravation as I can take for one day,” he said as he walked out the back door.
“You do know it’s only because we care,” she called after him.
Yeah, he got that. But right this second, he could do with a little less caring and a lot more privacy.
* * *
Though Seth wanted nothing more than to head directly to Abby’s, if only because she would commiserate with him over the grief Kelsey had subjected him to just now, he talked himself out of it. If he kept showing up there, it would just add to the mountain of evidence people seemed to be gathering already that he and Abby were a couple.
Instead, he went to Flavors. It was another unseasonably warm night and ice cream held a lot more appeal than dinner. When he walked in the door, Mary greeted him with a smile.
“You just missed Abby,” she told him.
So, yet again, someone was assuming that would matter to him. It did, but did everybody have to hop on that particular bandwagon at once? It was starting to freak him out.
“Did she come in for more ice cream? I knew she’d be hooked.”
“Actually she came by because she’d heard the plan we’d devised to win over Sandra had backfired.”
Seth’s heart sank. “What plan was that?”
Mary filled him in as she scooped up his usual praline ice cream and handed him the cup. “It should have worked, too,” she lamented. “Those houses over in Naples were beautiful, everything we could possibly want to see out here.”
“Abby must have been disappointed,” he said.
Mary’s expression turned thoughtful. “Actually she seemed to take it better than I’d expected. I got the feeling she has something else up her sleeve. She didn’t say a word about it, but she left here looking pretty determined.” She gave him a sly look. “Maybe you should check it out. Could be she’s just good at hiding her feelings and would love a shoulder to cry on.”
Before Seth could say whether he’d drop in or not, Mary scooped some of the mango gelato into a carton and put on a lid. “Take this by. It’s on the house.”
With the pint container already filled, Seth couldn’t very well decline. Besides, this gave him the perfect excuse to do what he’d been wanting to do all day, anyway: see Abby again without having to acknowledge to anyone—even himself—that he couldn’t stay away. He might have acknowledged to himself that he was down for the count, but the whole blasted world didn’t have to know it.
“Yours is on the house, too,” Mary said, shooing him toward the door.
“You seem awfully anxious to see that Abby’s doing okay.”
“Truthfully, I’m worried she’ll get so sick of Sandra and the politics in this town that she’ll pack up and leave. That would be a crying shame, you know what I mean?”
Seth knew exactly what she meant, and the thought of Abby going anywhere before they could figure out where they were headed as a couple made his heart ache. He gave Mary a wave and left Flavors, determined to do everything in his power to keep Abby right here in Seaview Key.
* * *
Ever since she’d gotten home, Abby had been online researching how to get the Whittier home onto the National Register of Historic Places or even onto some Florida equivalent that would assure the home’s place in local history.
She didn’t have access to enough information to fill out any forms herself, but she printed out everything to pass along to Kyle and Mary. She’d just printed the last document, when Seth tapped on the front door, then held up a container of ice cream.
She beckoned for him to come in.
“You’re bringing bribes now? Didn’t you think I’d let you in if you came empty-handed?”
He laughed. “I was hoping that my charming self would be enough, but Mary had other ideas. She thought you might be feeling blue, so she sent more of that mango gelato you liked so much.”
Abby sighed. “Then I assume she told you what happened with Sandra and our grand scheme.”
Seth nodded. “Want me to scoop this up?”
She shook her head. “I’m good right now. Put it in the freezer for later, unless you want some.”
“I just had a double scoop of praline in a cup on the walk over here,” he admitted. “Dinner, as a matter of fact.”
She frowned at that. “That’s not exactly a healthy meal. I have some pasta I made with tomatoes and fresh basil. There’s plenty left over. Interested?”
“It sounds good, especially if you have grated Parmesan cheese.”
“Of course I do. And it’s fresh, too, not in one of those boxes.”
“What a woman!”
“Don’t get too excited. For someone who owned a restaurant, I have a surprisingly limited repertoire in
