“Well, one time, I got our parents to participate. It almost started a full-on war in the house.”
“Where did you learn to be so mischievous?”
“My dad was like that when he was younger. I guess that it comes from him, but he was a bit more serious as we got older.”
“Probably realized that you were gonna cause enough trouble for the both of you.”
“You’re probably right about that. Very wise, Lila. What about you? Is there something you just know comes from your Nana?”
“Stubborn as a mule,” she answered with a nod. Mason continued to massage her feet as she went one. “Determined and bossy.”
“Stubborn is right. If it wasn’t for Bobbie, I don’t think I would be sitting on your couch massaging your feet.”
“That’s probably true,” she teased. “But really, deep down, I did want to hire you. Not because you’re hot or anything. Actually, that worked against you.”
He balked. “What?”
“Well, the fact that you were so charming and cute made me want to keep you at arm’s length.”
“Of all the backward things to think!” he chuckled. “You’re a funny one, Lila Ford. You really are. I bet you were a straight-up heartbreaker in this town.”
She shook her head. “No way. I was super intense, and I worked at the diner after school and on weekends. By that time, my grandparents needed the help, and I knew I would be leaving them in the lurch to go to college.”
“What did you study?”
“I’ve got a bachelor's in business management, but I ended up using it for a museum’s benefit. It was fun work. It’s where I met…" She stopped short.
“It’s okay to talk about what happened, Lila.”
“Well, I don’t like thinking about it.”
“I get that.”
He seemed to drop it, but Lila decided that if Mason knew how she was hurt, maybe he wouldn’t do it to her again.
“I met Erik at the museum. He was a curator. I knew that I would never be able to bring him to Half Moon Key. There aren’t very many jobs here for art directors and curators. But I thought it would be okay until my grandfather died. When I came back here to help Nana with the funeral and to run the diner while she took some time off, I knew Erik wouldn’t want to move here.”
“Did you give him that chance?”
“I did. Eventually.”
“How did that work out?”
“I asked him to move here with me because I had to take over the diner.”
Mason was quiet for a little while. “You know you told him you had already made a decision, right? You didn’t even warn the guy. You came out here to help out, and the next thing he knew, you were moving back home.”
“He had to know it was going to happen.”
“How could he if you never told him?”
Lila sighed. “Fair point. I guess I didn’t think of it like that.”
“That’s probably what Nana meant when she said you were always one foot out the door. She knows you. She raised you, right? She knew you didn’t think of Erik as the future you wanted if you didn’t consider him in your plan.”
“This is the weirdest conversation to have with a guy I was straddling a second ago.”
“These are exactly the conversations you should have with the man you’re dating. It’s part of it, Lila. Of course, I don’t know from personal experience. It’s what I’ve seen.”