“It’s not me you should apologize to.”
He turned, looking Tonya in the eye. “That’s not going to happen. If I do that, she’ll hound me.”
“She’s an ex-girlfriend? But you said you didn’t date after you divorced Victoria.”
“I haven’t dated anyone in seven years,” he said.
Tonya narrowed her stare, then slowly her eyes grew wide. “You were cheating on Victoria,” she whispered. She took her cover-up and wrapped it around her body.
That spoke volumes.
So much for a great first date.
5
Tonya folded her arms across her middle and sank into the plush high-end vinyl cushions. She stared at the bright-blue sky. In the distance, one of the boats played an upbeat country music song. She resisted the urge to tap her toes while she waited for an explanation.
Five minutes passed.
Then ten.
It amazed her how he could sit in an uncomfortable silence and appear like he didn’t have a care in the world.
“Are we going to talk about what just happened?” she asked.
“Obviously, I’d rather not.” He pushed his sunglasses up his nose.
“You know I’m not a judgmental person.”
“You are when it comes to this.” He turned. “And I understand why. What Josh did to your sister was a dick move, and I’m very aware of how my actions affected my family.” He stuffed the strawberry container into the cooler and folded up his towel.
“I know your marriage wasn’t a good one and—”
“I don’t want to talk about this,” Foster said sharply. He leaned into the cockpit and turned the key before climbing to the bow and releasing the boat from the buoy.
She sighed. “We don’t have to leave.”
“I’m sorry, but this is one of the many reasons I didn’t want to do this.” He maneuvered the boat between other vessels as he left Paradise Bay and made his way into open waters. “This was a bad idea.”
“Wait a second.” She reached across his body, putting her hand over his, preventing him from pressing the throttle down. “I need you to be clear. Is dating in general a bad idea? Or are you just sour because we ran into Kathy?”
“Both,” he admitted. “Now, please drop it. I’m not in the mood.”
“I think you’re full of shit.” She lifted her legs and rested them on the side. “You’re avoiding where things were going so you’re using the fact that I got a little weirded out by something in your past that I didn’t know about, which by the way, if you gave me half a chance and let me, I might actually be understanding.”
“And maybe this has nothing to do with any of that and I just don’t want to talk about it and have come to the conclusion that it’s time this day ends.” He brought the boat to full speed.
She kept her focus on the shoreline and her tears to herself.
Better to find out sooner rather than later.
Hopefully, the tension would dissipate by the time they reached his dock, but it didn’t. If anything, it got worse. Foster had retreated so deeply inside himself that he wasn’t coming out anytime soon.
It had been a long time since she’d seen him like this and she didn’t like it.
“Let me take that.” Foster took the cooler from her hands and set it on the wood planks, helping her disembark.
She followed him up the path to the driveway. Opening the trunk of her car, she tossed her belongings in the back.
