Kissing. Hmm. What was that? Just a hazy blur. Steph had to reach far back in the mental files to remember.
“Whoa,” she whispered under her breath.
“Talk to him,” her mom said in a quiet voice, nudging Steph with an elbow. “He probably likes you, too.”
OK, time to nip this one in the bud. No matter how smoking hot he was, nor how long it had been since Steph’s body had been held against the opposite sex, she was not going to proposition a stranger walking down the street. She lowered her shades and turned to her mom.
“Yes, he’s hot. But let’s break this down. One, he doesn’t like me. He doesn’t know me. He’s walking down the street. That’s not an indication of his interest in me. That’s a sign of his direction. He probably has a meeting that way,” she said, waving her arm in the direction of the gorgeous businessman. “And two, even if he had been checking me out, which he was not, I’m not going to go race after some guy on the street and say, ‘Hi, you’re cute, want to go out?’ And three, I have no time in my life for men. And four, hello! Have you forgotten? Men are trouble.”
Her mom laughed loudly, with her straight, white teeth showing. It was nice to see her smile. “Fine, the last one might be true,” her mom said. “But don’t you think it’s time you ended the moratorium? It’s been a year.” She dropped a hand on Steph’s arm, squeezing gently.
More like two years, three months, and nine days.
“And it’s taken that long to erase the damage Duke did,” Steph said, then softened her gaze. “Thanks to you. None of what I’ve accomplished would have been possible without your help.”
Her mom waved a hand in the air, as if to say it was nothing. When, in fact, her mom’s wisdom, insight, and savvy had been everything. She’d saved Steph’s business from near ruin when Duke had slammed her professional reputation online after their breakup. “You know I’d do anything for you. Including encourage you to pick up hot men on the street,” she said with a wink, then gestured to the throngs of tourists and locals streaming by. “Let’s people watch.”
One of Steph’s favorite pastimes. As they sipped their beverages, they made up wild tales about the crazy getups they saw, from a man in spangly silver shorts to a woman with only a painted-on bikini—literally, it was made of paint. When the bill came, her mother grabbed it quickly.
“Mom, it’s my treat,” Steph said, trying to snatch it away, wanting to help out her mom.
Her mother held the check high in the air. “You’ll do no such thing.”
“Please,” she said, adopting a puppy smile and wide eyes. She wasn’t privy to the full state of her mother’s finances, but she knew they’d changed drastically since the split. After years of mostly being a stay-at-home parent, she’d returned to selling jewelry at craft fairs. Spending money, her mom had called it. Lack of alimony was another term that worked. Royally screwed fit, too.
Her mother shook her head and held the bill far out of reach. “It’s all mine. I had a good week at my table at the Miami Beach fair.”
“Next time it’s on me. I insist,” Steph said, since her business was growing again.
“We’ll see if I let you pay next time, too,” her mom said, handing the money to the waitress, then returning her focus to Steph. “Oh, I nearly forgot. I heard a little something about Eli and his nightclub business,” she said, her voice dripping with disdain as she mentioned her ex-husband.
Steph’s shoulders tightened, because these days her feelings for Eli were complicated. While she despised that he’d cheated on her mom and shredded her heart, the little girl in her couldn’t help still loving the only father she’d ever really known. Her own father died of a heart attack when she was three and Robert was four. That was why this internal tug-of-war hurt so much—it was a damn shame that Eli had been such a crummy husband, because he was never a lousy father. He’d been good to Steph her whole life. It was as if he were two men—the good dad she knew and the terrible husband her mother was more familiar with.
Steph raised an eyebrow. “What did you hear?”
“Andrew called. One of his former business partners.”
“This is the Andrew I did a dive tour for a few years back? Your old school friend?” Steph continued, making sure she was remembering the details.
Her mom adjusted her necklace and nodded. “Right. I introduced him to Eli when he needed someone with his skills, and I knew Andrew would be perfect. Anyway, Andrew has been trying to reach him, but he’s too busy in the Caymans with his new fiancée and his new club, Sapphire,” she said, narrowing her eyes as she breathed the name like it cost her something. “And I might as well have paid for that damn club. Because Andrew thinks Eli might have used money he stole from the business to start it up.”
Steph’s jaw dropped. That was taking underhanded to a whole new level. But Eli didn’t mess around when it came to his wants and wishes. The thought immediately hit her with a fresh wave of sadness. For a while, making Steph feel happy and loved had been part of those wishes. But that was a long time ago.
“Are you kidding me?” she asked her mom. If only it really were a bad joke.
Steph’s mom held her arms out wide. “That’s what they said. They’re looking into it and trying to figure out where the money the firm invested in a mysterious cocoa bean farm went,” she said, taking a final sip of her mojito.