Page 58 of Tempting the Heart

I ignored the last part. “Isn’t it called Milo’s?”

“Yup.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I do still believe your dad could benefit from more physical therapy.”

“It wasn’t just to get me on a date?”

She snickered. “I do have some ethics. If the other happened, then hey. Lucky me.”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry. Had it been any other time, any other place…”

“No. I get ya.” Her shoulders slouched as she reached for my hand across the table and smiled at me, right when I noticed a guy I hadn’t seen for decades.

“Bryce,” I said through the window as if he could hear me. He kept walking with something that kind of resembled a dog, but when it looked at me, the thing had no teeth.

“Ah, Bryce and Herman. I swear that Bryce has nothing else to do in the day other than head to the post office.” Bethany laughed and shook her head. “I don’t know what he expects to arrive in the mail, but he goes more than once a day.”

“Man, it’s like strolling down memory lane coming back here. Bryce looks the same.” I watched him walk down the sidewalk until he was out of view. “So, Herman is his dog?”

She chuckled. “If you can call it that. It’s a Doberman-ish pooch, but the poor thing has no teeth, so his jaw just sinks in. Well, you saw it.”

I laughed, shaking my head. No matter how much I wanted to hate this place or feel like I no longer felt connected here, it was impossible.

Marigold Island had its claws dug deep in me, and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.

Bethany smiled and shook her head. “May I ask why you don’t just try things out with Mae? I know it’s none of my business, but I don’t understand the… logic… or lack thereof.”

“Sure. It’s simple. I don’t plan on moving here, and she doesn’t plan on moving away from here, so…”

She looked stunned. “Logistics? That’s it?”

“That’s a big thing. Mae just opened up her own business. It would be asinine to think of her moving away from here, and you’ve met my dad. Would you want to live near him?”

Bethany let out a slow breath and reached for the wine glass. “You’ve been crushing on Mae Evans for two decades.”

“Something like that.”

“And rather than see where it goes, you stop it before it has a chance to go anywhere.”

I nodded. “Right. What’s so weird about that? It’s the right thing to do.”

She ran her fingertip along the rim of her wine glass and shook her head. “And why again? Logistics? There’s more to it than that.”

“It’s a big part of it.”

“Really.” Bethany nodded and looked outside. She didn’t sound convinced.

I shifted in my chair. “Of course there’s more to it. If things go south, I don’t want to lose her brother as my best friend.”

“Yet if things go well, you’ll have your best friend as family.”

I narrowed my eyes on Bethany. “Are your sure you didn’t get a Ph.D. in psychology rather than physiology?”

She grinned. “I just don’t believe you.”

“You barely know me.” I chuckled, shaking my head. “What did Shirley go filling your head with about me?”

Bethany smiled. “Not much at all. These are all my own observations.”

“Well, this is the weirdest almost-date I’ve ever had.”

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