Page 42 of Changing Tides

Sebastian has a stack of legs, but he also has fried oysters, scallops, peel-and-eat shrimp, mac ’n’ cheese, coleslaw, and a handful of hush puppies.

Amiya eyes his feast. “That’s a lot of food there, big boy.”

“I have a big appetite.”

“Hope you’ll have room for ice cream,” she mutters.

We leave Leia with them, and Amiya and I go grab an assortment of deep-fried delicacies for ourselves.

By the time we make it back to our seats, Leia has destroyed one of the plates in front of her.

All three of the men are staring at her in a mix of admiration and disbelief as she continues to crack and rip apart the crab legs with ease. Snatching the sweet meat from its shell and using her fingers to dip it into the butter and slurp it between her lips.

“Ready for another round, I see,” Amiya says as she sets her plate down and returns to the crab legs station.

For the next hour and a half, we keep the waitress busy, removing platters of empty shells and replacing the bowls of butter as Sebastian goes head-to-head with my little one.

She’s faster and more efficient at gleaning the meat from its casing and finishes her fourth plate before he has made it through his third.

“How’s that chowder?” Parker asks me when he catches me practically licking the bowl.

“Hated it,” I state.

He chuckles.

My phone chimes, and I ignore it, but Amiya wipes her hands on a napkin and reaches into my purse.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“You have a message. You might have gotten a match,” she says.

“A match?” Anson asks.

“Yeah, on the dating app. We uploaded her profile this morning,” she answers as she taps on my screen.

I snatch it from her fingers.

“Hey,” she whines.

“You know the rules. No phones at dinner,” I whisper-yell.

“A dating app, huh?” Anson quips.

“It’s stupid. I don’t know why I let her talk me into it. I probably won’t even get matched,” I mumble.

Sebastian grunts, “I bet every guy around here will swipe right on you.”

Amiya looks at me and winks. “I know they will,” she agrees, then studies him. “What about you? Are you on any apps?” she inquires.

He looks at her and grins a sexy grin. “Nope. I prefer meeting women the old-fashioned way.”

“Drunk and desperate?” she asks in mock sincerity.

Anson snorts mid-drink and chokes. Leia reaches over and starts pounding on his back with her tiny fists, leaving greasy prints on his T-shirt.

I put my phone away, and the conversation thankfully shifts from my dating status to the contest at hand.

“I concede,” Sebastian finally says as he lays his mallet in the middle of the table and pushes his plate to the side.

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