Broderick was still laughing when we reached the dining hall and found a table, but thankfully he let the matter drop. Meanwhile, I was suffering from hot flashes.
For dinner we had the option of quinoa and avocado salad or a superfood soup medley, so I concentrated on making my selection. I opted for the quinoa with a side of hummus and raw veggies. Rick got the same and we chowed down in tense silence.
Well, I was tense. He was smirking.
I was still annoyed with him for teasing me about Sean when a familiar shadow fell over our table.
“Mind if I sit?” he asked and Rick glanced up. I focused intently on my food, ignoring the blooming heat low in my belly.
“Seat’s not taken.” Rick shrugged, motioning to the chair then holding out his hand when Sean was seated. “I’m Broderick, and you must be Sean.”
“That’s right. I take it my reputation precedes me.”
“Something like that,” Rick replied in a friendly manner.
The chair next to mine moved as Sean adjusted himself, his knee knocking mine under the table. Stupid long-legged oaf. I crunched away on my salad, silent as a mouse, while Rick initiated conversation with Sean. He just wasn’t the sort of bloke to sit in awkward silences. Broderick could find something to talk about with anyone, from your grandmother to the man who came to clean the windows of your house.
“When did you arrive?”
“Just this morning,” Sean answered. “I’m really loving the setting. It’s very beautiful.”
I glanced at him now, wondering if his statement was true. Sean didn’t strike me as the type to appreciate the beauty of nature. Or maybe I was just being cynical, allowing the way he made me feel and how easily he could push my buttons, to cloud my judgment. Maybe my loyalty to my brother was interfering with how I saw him.
“It’s definitely pretty. We’ve been here for almost a week, haven’t we, Luce?” Rick kicked my leg under the table. “I don’t think either one of us wants to leave.”
I glanced between the two of them before realizing I was taking forever to answer. “No, um, no, we don’t want to leave.”
The sentence came out sounding odd and stilted. Sean smiled like I was cute and something reluctantly warmed within me. He rested his elbow on the back of my chair, his arm touching against my shoulder. I could tell he was looking at me but I concentrated on my food, unable to meet his gaze.
I was relieved when two of Rick’s lady friends came to join us, introducing themselves as Cindy and Lisa.
“It’s so nice to see another male face around,” said Lisa with what I thought might be a hint of flirtation. “You don’t get many men coming to places like this.”
“I like to think I’m comfortable enough in my masculinity to know when I need to take some time out, get back to basics and all that,” said Sean.
“It really is important,” Lisa nodded enthusiastically. “We’re all so bogged down by obligations and technology these days that we forget to breathe and just . . . be.”
“You took the words right out of my mouth,” Sean agreed.
God, he was such a schmooze.
Now Cindy joined in. “One of my favorite Deepak Chopra quotes says, ‘In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.’ I feel like I can truly be still in a place like this.”
“Do you know, I’ve never heard that one before,” said Sean before turning his head to me. “Do you try to keep stillness inside of you, too, Lucy?”
He was trying to embarrass me, but I wouldn’t let him succeed. Instead I came up with a subtle put-down. “I’m more of a Gandhi girl myself. I particularly liked it when he said, ‘You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.’” I smiled at him while bringing a carrot stick to my mouth and taking a bite.
Sean’s eyes gleamed like I’d just baited him to a challenge he was happy to accept. Perhaps I’d bitten off more than I could chew – literally and figuratively.
“Ah, we can all benefit from getting a little dirty every once in a while,” he quipped and Lisa chortled. Yes, chortled. I cast my eyes to Rick and his face said it all, hey, you dug your own hole with that one.
Sean moved so it wasn’t just his elbow resting on the back of my chair now, but the entire length of his arm. His heat sent a bolt of electricity shooting right through me and I shifted in place, unsure how I felt about his closeness. His cologne was nice, that was a positive, but he was starting to make me feel penned in, that was a negative. He hadn’t said anything mean yet, that was another positive. Man, were Sean Cassidy’s positives actually outweighing his negatives?