Page 61 of Winter in Paradise
“Oh yeah? Really? I’d say you’re better than okay. I’d say you’re the coolest young lady on the whole island.” He winks at her. “And of course, the prettiest.”
Maia fist bumps him. “Facts.”
This makes Mick laugh. He turns to Ayers. “Yeah, I’d say she’s okay. Self-esteem fully intact.”
“What are you doing here?” Ayers asks. Without thinking about it, she finds herself rubbing Gordon’s sweet bucket head, and he closes his eyes in ecstasy. Gordon feels about Ayers the way Maia feels about Mick: pure devotion.
“Hangry,” Mick says. He devours his slice in three bites and reaches over to take what’s left of Ayers’s slice, and she lets him. “I have to be at work in an hour.”
Right, Ayers thinks. The only other people who eat at three thirty in the afternoon? Everyone in the restaurant business.
“So how was your date last night?” Mick asks.
“What date?” Maia asks Ayers.
“Friend of mine, Baker,” Ayers says. “We went to dinner.”
“I call shenanigans,” Mick says. “I swung by De’ Coal Pot. You weren’t there and you hadn’t been there. I asked.”
“We went somewhere else,” Ayers says.
“Where?” Mick says.
“Who’s Baker?” Maia asks. “Do I know him?”
“You don’t,” Ayers says. “He’s visiting.”
“He’s a tourist,” Mick says.
Maia tilts her head. “I thought you didn’t date tourists.”
“There’s an exception to every rule,” Ayers says.
“So you’re dating that guy, then?” Mick asks. “Seriously? He looks like… a banker.”
Ayers throws back what’s left of her wine. Oh, how she would love to order another, but she can’t. She has to drive all the way across the island to Scoops, and then drive home.
“He’s taking me to Caneel Bay tomorrow. The hotel. Overnight.”
Mick cocks an eyebrow. “Really? So he is a banker.”
“None of your business,” Ayers says.
“Are you jealous?” Maia asks Mick. “Do you still love Ayers?”
“Maia!” Ayers says.
“Yes,” Mick says. He turns to Colleen and orders a pizza—the pepperoni and ham, which Ayers could have predicted. Mick is a devout carnivore. “Yes, I do still love Ayers.”
“Mick, stop,” Ayers says.
“Do you really?” Maia asks.
“Yes, I do, really.”
“Oh,” Maia says. “I thought you broke up with her.”
“I did something wrong and Ayers broke up with me,” Mick says. “I made a huge mistake and I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. But just because I made that mistake doesn’t mean I don’t still love Ayers.”
