Southbound Page 10

  I stepped out of my bedroom to find Aspen sitting at the bar in the kitchen, helping herself to breakfast.

  “I didn’t feel like having anything too heavy, or going to a restaurant again,” she said almost apologetically.

  “Plus, you’re not sure if your ex is out there waiting to ambush you again?” I asked with raised eyebrows.

  Aspen smiled wryly.

  “Only like two percent that,” she half-protested.

  “I’ll help myself too, then,” I told her easily, opening the fridge to throw something together. I grabbed some fruit and found granola in the cabinet, poured myself some of the coffee Aspen had made, and sat down.

  “Do you still want to help me try and find the spot?” Aspen asked.

  I nodded as I ate a bite of grapefruit.

  “Absolutely,” I replied. “I do need to run a quick errand before we head out today, but we can use that as a starting point for getting out there.”

  Roscoe came out of my bedroom and I chuckled at his disappointment on finding out that we weren’t eating anything he might want a share of.

  “Oh? What’s the errand?” Aspen asked.

  “I’m just finalizing a business deal,” I said. “Before I left town, I’d started the process of buying some property on the island, and now I’m finally able to finish it up.”

  Aspen’s eyes widened slightly and she looked at me thoughtfully for a moment.

  “Big spender, eh?” Aspen gestured around the house idly. “This place isn’t enough for you?”

  “I like to keep my investments diverse,” I said with a chuckle.

  Aspen looked at me steadily again and I wondered what was on her mind.

  “Something wrong with that?” I asked.

  “I’m just curious, I guess,” Aspen replied. “I don’t think you told me much about how you got to be such a high roller.”

  I thought about that. I tended to avoid telling people about my career too much--or about my net worth, those kinds of things. In addition to being raised that it was tacky to talk about money, I’d found that people looked at me differently when they knew how much of it I had. But Aspen had to know me at least a little bit; after a few days of staying with me, her impression of me had to be fairly firmly set--didn’t it?

  “I got in on online casinos,” I explained. “Typical start-up story, happened to get lucky with my concept, knew enough about coding to save money on the work. I made some good choices and grew it up, and now I sort of sit back and invest.”

  Aspen nodded slowly.

  “I guess I’ve never really thought about those kinds of things being… well, an option,” she admitted.

  “With the right skill set, a decent idea, and a hell of a lot of luck, you can go far,” I told her playfully.

  “Ah, see--I’m disqualified on two counts,” Aspen countered.

  “Which two?” I frowned, curious about how she’d evaluated herself.

  “I am not skilled to do anything other than writing or editing--maybe research,” she replied. “And I have no idea even what I want to do with my life, much less a business.”

  “You still have luck going for you though,” I pointed out.

  She thought about that for a couple of seconds before nodding her agreement.

  “Considering that completely by chance my trip went from disaster to fun all because some really nice rich guy decided he wanted to be helpful, I am definitely lucky,” she said.

  “Some really nice rich guy?” I raised an eyebrow at that. “I’m not sure how I feel about just being ‘some really nice rich guy.’”

  Aspen giggled, and I thought about how we’d ended up the night before.

  We’d gone over her grandmother’s journal and I’d started to form some ideas of where we could search, to find the places that she talked about.

  Ultimately, once she’d accomplished what she came to Key West to do, she’d probably find a reason to leave--there was nothing tying her to the island beyond curiosity and a sense of duty. So there was a part of me that, while I wanted to help, I didn’t want to help her too much, or too quickly. I didn’t want her to have reason to leave soon.

  I had gone to bed questioning that feeling. I’d felt something toward Aspen from the beginning, but I didn’t know if it was right for me to feel anything other than friendliness. I’d given her a room that I hadn’t used in so long--years--and I’d avoided checking on her in that room for the same reason that I wasn’t sure how to feel about liking her so much. It felt like betrayal. It felt like I was almost cheating. You can’t cheat on someone who isn’t even here anymore, I’d reminded myself.

  But things had gotten intense right as we’d come back to the house, reeling a bit--the drinks had been stronger than I had thought. Aspen had been lit by the security light on the front porch--just enough to give a golden glow to her--and I’d wanted more than anything in the world in that moment to kiss her. But I’d stopped myself, not just because of the woman I was still being true to, even after all this time, but because I knew that kissing Aspen while we were both tipsy would be a mistake. Not only that, her asshole ex had been here earlier in the day. Better to keep things light, casual, and friendly between us.

  “Some really nice rich guy who helped me tell off my stupid ex,” Aspen said, correcting herself. “A really, really nice guy in general.”

  Roscoe thumped his tail on the ground as if he wanted to agree with her, and I smiled at both of them.

  “So we’ll swing by my lawyer’s office, I’ll sign the paperwork, and then we can get started on your scavenger hunt--how does that sound?”

  “It sounds really good,” she said.

  “Let me guess: you already have a list of places you want to look for so we can cross-reference?”

  Aspen blushed slightly at my accurate guess and opened her purse, taking out her journal.

  “I want to save the big spot for later,” she explained, flipping through the pages. “Because I think it’ll be easier for us to find after I’ve placed it amongst all the other stuff she talks about--all the other places.”

  I nodded and accepted the journal from her, absently patting Roscoe while I read over the descriptions she’d transcribed.

  I cleaned up our breakfast dishes while Aspen got Roscoe ready to ride with us in the car, and I thought again about how much it was like being with the woman I’d lost; so much of what I’d been missing of the woman I’d loved for so long was just the normal, everyday routine of doing things together, of having a companion. It added something that I hadn’t even thought about until it showed up again.

  I pushed that out of my mind and we all got into my car to head over to Scott’s office.

  “So, tell me more about this purchase,” Aspen said as we waited at the light for the turn onto the main drag of Whitehead.

  “You might have noticed that a lot of the real estate around here changes hands a lot,” I explained. “I’ve bought a piece of property that’s been standing sort of idle for a while now.”

  “Idle, huh?” Aspen looked as if she didn’t quite believe me on that.

  “It isn’t being developed, and while it’s state-owned, the state of Florida isn’t doing anything with it, either,” I explained.

  Aspen still looked a little doubtful.

  “I guess I just don’t understand,” she said, shrugging. “I mean--don’t get me wrong--I have nothing against people buying whatever they want and can afford. It just seems a shame.”

  “Why?” I pulled into the tiny parking lot next to Scott’s office building and looked at Aspen.

  “Well, think about how hard it’s been for me to track some of the places down that Grandma knew so well,” she pointed out. “A lot of that is because real estate ‘changes hands a lot’ around here, like you said.”

  “That’s a point,” I agreed.

  “I guess there’s a part of me that sort of...doesn’t like it just because all the stuff my Grandma knew and loved is going away. It’s
selfish of me, I guess,” she said.

  “Not that selfish, and not all of it is going away,” I countered. “A lot of people buy up properties in order to restore them--especially in the really historic areas.”

  Aspen nodded slowly. “So, are you going to restore whatever property you’re buying?”

  I shrugged. “It’s a bit beyond restoring,” I pointed out. “And I have clearance to do whatever I want with it--Florida doesn’t even want it anymore.”

  “So, you’re going to change it,” Aspen surmised.

  “I guess I am,” I said. I looked through the windshield and saw Scott at the doorway to the building. “Do you want to come in with me, or hang with Roscoe in the car?”

  I had the car’s air conditioner going, and was going to leave it that way. Roscoe had water, too, in the back, so there was no chance of him overheating while I went inside.

  “I’ll stay out here, I think,” Aspen said.

  I nodded. “Be back in a few--this shouldn’t take very long.”

  I got out of the car and left everything on for Aspen and Roscoe to entertain themselves, and walked toward the building.

  “So that’s the girl everyone’s talking about seeing you with,” Scott said as I approached.

  I rolled my eyes. “Everyone wants her to be my next girlfriend, but I’m not in the market,” I explained. “Let’s get these papers signed so I can head out.”

  “If she’s not your girlfriend-to-be, what’s going on? If you don’t mind me asking,” Scott asked, leading me to his office.

  “I’m just helping her out,” I explained. “Her grandmother passed away, and she’s here on a pilgrimage, you could say. She’s run into a bunch of trouble, so I just want to help her make it go smoothly.”

  “That’s the kind of thing that starts it out,” Scott countered, and I stepped into his office. “You get to wanting to help a girl, things get friendly--then they get more than friendly.”

  I shook my head. “She’s not on the market either,” I told him firmly. I kept the disappointment out of my voice. “Just broke up with her boyfriend a while back, he was cheating on her.”

  “Sounds like if she didn’t have bad luck she’d have no luck at all,” Scott mused.

  I grinned. “Well, hopefully finding a nice guy to help her get her mission completed will turn things around. Now show me this paperwork.”

  Scott took a folder out of his desk drawer, and I was glad at least to see that it was thinner than the other ones I’d had from him in the past few months.

  “Deed of sale, all that nonsense,” Scott said.

  I nodded and opened up the folder, ready to go ahead and take care of the final details. I couldn’t quite shake what Aspen had said about being sad about things changing hands, things changing from what her grandmother had known about the island. Things change, I reminded myself. Besides which, once she’s done here, she’ll just go back to wherever she’s from. Or she’ll move on. Why put any stock in her opinion? But I knew all the same that I did.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Aspen

  “Why don’t we take a break for lunch,” Gage suggested after we’d looked around for a few of the locations I wanted to find before I really looked for the spot where Grandma and Grandpa had met. It was actually going a bit easier, since Gage could remember in most cases who had owned certain properties--an antique shop, or a house, things like that--before they’d been bought or changed. We were getting closer to the spot, I knew we were; but I also kind of wanted to make sure Brad had left before I committed to finding the exact spot. I didn’t want to risk running into him when I was there--or having to deal with him again when I was finally, fully laying my grandmother to rest.

  “Where should we go? What’s good in this part of town?” I looked around.

  “We’re not far from Harpoon Harry’s,” Gage said. “It’s a classic in its own right.”

  I grinned. “It definitely sounds like one.”

  “And if you’re not too tired to walk a bit farther, we could go to Two Friends,” he suggested. “That way we can bring Roscoe with us--it’s outdoor dining. Shaded, thank god.”

  “That is perfect, then,” I said.

  “It’s also one of the few places from the real, old, historic era of Key West,” Gage explained, as we headed in that direction. “Opened as a saloon in the 1880s.”

  “Oh!” I frowned as I thought for a moment. “You know, I think I remember Grandma mentioning it maybe once in the journals.”

  “It’s a great place to go,” Gage said. “Great food, mostly seafood. Solid.”

  I nodded and Roscoe happily walked between us to the restaurant. I couldn’t help myself; I kept looking for Brad, trying to spot him. I couldn’t shake the feeling that if he was going to go to all the trouble of coming to Key West to try and convince me to take him back, he wasn’t going to go away just because I told him off.

  We got to the restaurant before the lunch rush, and the waitress was happy to seat us with Roscoe outside. “It’s getting to be a hot day,” she pointed out in a friendly, bantering way. “Good day to take an afternoon nap.”

  “That does sound good,” Gage said, after she’d left us with menus. “Unless you really want to get to the rest of the places we were talking about?”

  “I guess I can hold off a bit,” I said. “I don’t really want to be tromping around Key West in the middle of the day when it’s already this hot.”

  I ordered a mai tai and Gage got one of the restaurant’s signature bloody marys, and we chatted about what we’d seen so far that day while we decided on what we’d eat.

  “I’ll go halves with you on an order of their broiled oysters,” Gage suggested. “They’re amazing, but I want room for a proper main.”

  “I could go for that,” I said. I ordered the Key West sampler to go with my share of the oysters, and Gage got the broiled mahi-mahi filet.

  I thought about what had happened the night before, after I’d told Brad off, when we’d gone over everything we could in the journals I’d brought with me. We’d finished up dinner, and we were tipsy, heading back to his place on foot. And I’d felt something. For the first time since I’d found Brad having sex with someone I’d thought was my friend, since I’d started dealing with Grandma being so sick, and then her dying.

  I’d been so attracted to Gage that it had startled me.

  Of course, it wasn’t a complete surprise. I couldn’t lie to myself like that. It wasn’t like I hadn’t felt any kind of attraction toward Gage before. But I’d been so mired in all my other feelings that I hadn’t let myself think about it. Seeing him defending me to Brad, and thinking about his willingness to help me out in any way he could--without any of the kind of strings attached that I was expecting--mingled with my tipsy brain to make me want, more than anything, to kiss him.

  But he’d give me a polite, friendly brush-off just when I’d thought that things were going in that direction, playfully telling me to take my time heading up to the guest room, so I wouldn’t hurt my half-drunk self on the stairs. And yet, this morning, things had felt so comfortable, so friendly between us again. What was that about?

  As we dug into the oysters and sipped our drinks, I thought about how to approach the topic. “So, you know about my big bad ex,” I said cautiously. “I’m curious why a good-looking guy, who has lots of money, and could probably have his pick of women, is single.”

  Gage looked at me for a moment and I was scared I’d overstepped.

  “I mean, if you’re comfortable talking about it,” I said, feeling myself blush.

  “It’s a long story,” he said finally.

  I smiled at him, raising my glass a bit. “We have a good bit of time,” I pointed out. “And it doesn’t seem fair for you to know about me when I don’t know almost anything about you. But only if you want to share.”

  “I guess that’s a good point,” he said with a chuckle. He looked around the restaurant and I wondered what made him so
reluctant to talk. “And anyway, everyone here knows about the situation--it’s why everyone’s excited to see me walking around with you.”

  “I’d noticed that,” I said with a little smile. “I mean, I’m assuming it isn’t just that you’re a bachelor at heart or something.”

  “I’m...I’m actually a widower,” he said quickly. He sipped his drink twice and set it down. “I don’t like to talk about it much, because I guess it just feels wrong somehow.”

  “Wrong how?” I frowned.

  “People want to make it about me, if I talk about it,” Gage said. “And it isn’t--not really.”

  “I mean, it kind of is,” I pointed out. “You’re the one who lost someone.”

  “You just lost your grandma,” Gage countered. “How much do you enjoy people making you talk about it?”

  “I concede the point,” I said.

  “We got married when I was twenty-eight,” Gage explained. “But I knew her back in high school. Leah was...well, she was my first love. Corny as that sounds. I put off marrying her for a while because I wanted to have the kind of money it would take to give her the life she deserved to have.”

  “I’m sure that she probably told you more than once that she wanted a life with you, regardless of whether it was the one you thought she deserved,” I mused.

  Gage grinned, his eyes sad.

  “She said exactly that,” he said. “My online casino was finally starting to take off, and we got married.” He took a deep breath. “Six months later, she got hit by a drunk driver.” He closed his eyes and swallowed hard. “We’d just found out that she was pregnant, about three weeks before.”

  “Oh god,” I said quietly. “That must have…”

  “Damn near killed me, yeah,” Gage said, opening his eyes and smiling again, sadly. “So, I decided that I wasn’t going to let myself go down that road again--that I’d had my ‘one’ so to speak, and I was just going to focus on my work. And about a month after she died, someone bought up my casino, made me a billionaire and...well…”

  “Here you are,” I finished for him.

  “Pretty much, yeah,” he said. “Sorry it’s not a great story--it sounds so ridiculous to me now.”