Page 12 of Must Have Been Love

She grabs Ayda, who still has a crayon in her stubby fist, and hugs her tight. “You monster, you were supposed to be in the grocery store. I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

Ayda shrugs and goes back to her coloring.

“You must think I’m a terrible person,” the woman says, giving me a rueful smile. “I’m Autumn, by the way.” She holds out her hand and I shake it. “You must be Skyler. You’re the talk of the town.”

“In a good way, I hope.”

She wrinkles her nose, but is clearly too polite to tell me the truth.

“You can’t keep running off like this,” she tells Ayda. “Your dad will kill me. Do you want him to hire a full-time nanny?” she asks.

Ayda looks like she couldn’t give a damn.

Autumn takes a breath. “Honestly, I’m usually better at taking care of her than this. I just got distracted by a call from a client. They wanted me to check something and when I turned around she was gone. I’ve had half of Liberty out looking for her.” She looks around the bar. “Damn, this place looks sad.”

“It needs a bit of work,” I agree.

“And then you’re selling it, right?”

“I’m not sure,” I tell her, her question reminding me of Mr. Sexy-But-Angry from yesterday. “I’m still thinking about what to do.”

A smile pulls at her lips as she looks at me, and I realize just how pretty she is. “That would be amazing,” she says. “There aren’t enough women my age on the island. I’m so bored here. Do you know I even thought about joining the knitting circle? But they refused to let me in because I can’t knit.”

“Knitters can be very territorial,” I say solemnly and she laughs. Then she catches sight of my tattoo.

“That’s so pretty,” she says. “I’ve always wanted a tattoo. But my brothers would have a meltdown if I did.” She tips her head to the side, as though a thought has just occurred to her. “Maybe I should. Did it hurt?” she asks.

“Like hell,” I admit.

“And how about your lip piercing?” she asks, her eyes on my mouth.

“That didn’t hurt at all,” I say. “The tattoo took hours though. The worst part was needing to use the bathroom when he was doing the intricate parts.”

“You’ve put me off.” She ruffles Ayda’s hair. “Okay, miss, you’ve been bothering this nice lady long enough. We should head home.”

Ayda carries on coloring.

“You can take the book with if you’d like,” I tell the little girl. “I don’t really need it.”

Ayda slides off the stool, her little feet landing on the wooden floor with a thud. She has the book in her hands, but instead of heading out, she walks around the counter and opens the drawer, putting it back in.

“Honestly,” I tell her. “It’s yours.”

She shakes her head and I look at Autumn.

“She’s stubborn,” Autumn tells me. “Just like her dad. And she has plenty of coloring books at home, it’ll be fine.”

“Okay then.”

Autumn clasps her hands together. I notice a stunning engagement ring and gold band on her wedding finger. “Hey, would you like to… I don’t know… meet up some time?” she asks me. “We could get coffee or something.”

It’s weird, but I can see how much effort it’s taken for her to say that. Like she’s not used to asking.

“I’d like that,” I tell her truthfully. Because I’m already feeling pretty lonely too.

“Great. Let me take your number.” She pulls her phone out of her pocket. But before I can give her my number, the door to the bar flies open once more.

For an abandoned building, it sure gets a lot of unannounced visitors. I open my mouth to tell the interloper we’re closed until I see who it is.

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