She heard something that was either a cough or a rough laugh.
Theo had made mashed potatoes to go with the lobster—creamy, garlicky mashed potatoes—indisputable evidence that his offer to fix dinner was premeditated, since there hadn’t been any potatoes in the cottage that morning. What was his motivation for hanging around here? It definitely wasn’t altruistic.
She set the table, grabbed a sweatshirt against the draft coming in through the bay window, and helped carry the dishes in from the kitchen. “Did you really sweep out all those fireplaces?” he asked as they started to eat.
“I did.”
Something happened at the corner of his mouth as he filled her wineglass and lifted his own in a toast. “To good women everywhere.”
She wasn’t getting into an argument with him—not while she had a rosy red lobster and ramekin of warm butter in front of her, so she pretended she was alone.
They ate in silence. Only after she’d finished her last bite—a particularly sweet morsel from the tail—and dabbed at the smear of butter on her chin did she break it. “You made a deal with the devil, didn’t you? You traded your soul for the ability to cook.”
He dropped an empty claw into the shell bowl. “Plus being able to see through women’s clothes.”
Those imperial blue eyes had been designed for cynicism, and the sparks in the irises took her aback. She wadded up her napkin. “Too bad about that. There isn’t much around here that’s worth seeing.”
He ran his thumb across the edge of his wineglass, his eyes on her. “I wouldn’t say that.”
A jolt of sexual electricity zipped through her body. Her skin burned, and for a moment, it was as if she was fifteen all over again. It was the wine. She pushed her plate back from the edge of the table. “That’s right. The prettiest woman on the island is right under your roof. I forgot about Jaycie.”
He looked momentarily confused—a monumental fake-out on his part. She tightened her ponytail. “Don’t practice your sexual mojo on her, Theo. She’s lost her husband, she has a mute child, and—thanks to you—she has no job security.”
“I was never going to fire her. You knew that.”
She hadn’t known it at all, and she didn’t trust him. But then something occurred to her. “You won’t fire her as long as you can make me jump through hoops. Is that it?”
“I can’t believe you really swept out those fireplaces.” The slight lift of one indolent eyebrow said she’d been played for a sucker. “If she stayed in town instead of living at the house, she could come out a couple of times a week,” he said. “I can still do that, you know.”
“Where in town? A room in somebody’s house? That’s worse than what she has now.”
“It shouldn’t be a problem as long as I can work here.” He drained his wineglass. “And Jaycie’s kid will talk when she’s ready.”
“The great child psychologist has spoken.”
“Who better to recognize a troubled kid than me?”
She played at wide-eyed innocence. “But Livia isn’t a psychopath.”
You think just because I’m a bad guy, I don’t have feelings?
She’d definitely had too much wine because the voice belonged to Leo.
“I had some problems that summer. I acted out.”
His lack of emotion infuriated her, and she jumped up from the table. “You tried to kill me. If Jaycie hadn’t been walking on the beach that night, I would have drowned.”
“Do you think I don’t know that?” he said with an unsettling intensity.
She hated her own uncertainty about him. She should feel more threatened when they were together, but the only threat she felt came from confusion. Still, was that so different from being fifteen? She hadn’t wanted to believe she was in danger then, either. Not until she’d almost drowned.
“Tell me about Regan,” she said.
He balled his napkin and stood. “There’s no point.”
If he had been anybody else, compassion would have made her stop. But she needed to understand. “Regan was a good sailor,” she said. “Why would she take the boat out when she knew it was getting ready to storm? Why would she do that?”
He strode across the room and grabbed his jacket. “I don’t talk about Regan. Ever.”
Seconds later, he was out the door.
SHE FINISHED OFF THE LAST of the wine before she went to bed and awoke with a giant thirst and an even bigger headache. She didn’t want to go to Harp House today. Hadn’t Theo said he wouldn’t fire Jaycie? But she didn’t trust him. And even if he had meant it, Jaycie still needed help. Annie couldn’t abandon her.