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“Coffee. A macchiato, to be exact.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever had one,” she said, taking it from him.
“It’s espresso at the top and cream on the bottom.”
She took a sip and her eyes popped open. “Oh, yeah. There’s the espresso.”
“I think the cream is the reward.”
“So it punches me awake and then I get a sweet treat at the end? I think I like this.” She smiled and took another sip. “Thank you for getting it for me.”
“You were right,” Mandy said. “Something new is good for her.”
His chest loosened. That had been dumb luck, but he would take any point in his favor.
Chapter Nine
Amelia
As she got to the bottom of the cup, Amelia knew she would be ordering a macchiato from now on.
With the caffeine and her medication in her system, she felt wide awake. She thanked Daniel one more time before looking around to see if her mom was still lingering in the living room of the condo. Usually, on vacation, her mom wanted to adventure, even if they’d stayed on Folly Beach many times.
It wasn’t like her to stay in, but Amelia had seen it before when her mother’s mental health was on a downward trajectory.
“Is everything okay?” Daniel asked. She’d been staring at the door of her parents’ room, thinking of all the ways things could go wrong while he was here.
And apparently, he’d noticed.
She bit her lip, wondering what to say. The last time she’d told a significant other of her mom’s diagnosis of bipolar disorder, Andrew had thought her mom was . . . crazy.
And Amelia hated that word.
“Yeah, everything is good. Want to go swimming?”
Daniel blinked at the change of subject, but he didn’t call her out on it. “Sure.”
“All right, let’s get changed.”
As he walked away, Amelia realized what she’d offered. Swimming meant getting into her next-to-nothing two-piece swimsuit.
As much as she would love to be secure about her body, she found it hard not to look at herself and see things she wished were different. Her weight fluctuations had caused stretch marks on her belly. Her thighs rubbed when she walked. Her boobs were just a bit smaller than she’d like.
Amelia was well aware that she didn’t look anything like his ex. And sure, this was for show, but Andrew proclaimed that it wasn’t possible for men not to let it show when they were disgusted by a woman they didn’t like to look at. It was why she had dieted for so long before leaving him for good.
She walked to their room. Daniel came out of the bathroom wearing a T-shirt and his swim shorts. She tried not to let her emotions show on her face as she pulled out her swimsuit and went to the bathroom.
Her best bet would be not to overthink this, but that wasn’t something she was good at. Her brain operated like a well-oiled machine when it had something bad to spiral over, and once the spiral began, it often thought of too many things all at once. She tried her best to ignore the whispers of doubt as she pulled it on, but it didn’t work.
She cursed when she realized she didn’t have her cover-up. She waited a moment, content to braid her frizzy hair, hoping he would leave the room so she could run out and grab it. It was only delaying the inevitable, but she’d rather have his reaction be in public where, in theory, he’d school his expression.
Eventually, he did leave, and she ran out, throwing her cover-up on before following behind him.
He was applying sunscreen on his toned arms. This was a bad time for her to notice, but she couldn’t help it. As he lathered on the cream, she could see every curve of muscle on his arms. Where else was he toned?
And was she going to be able to keep it together long enough to see it?
Amelia tore her eyes away, determined not to make things weirder than they already were.
