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Joe looked down at him. “Look who’s calling who little.”
“Grandpa, we should go inside.” Ella grabbed Vinny’s arm, but he shook her off.
“You go inside. Nobody calls my grandbabies delinquents and gets away with it.”
“What are you going to do? Throw down with Joe?” she asked, annoyance lacing her words.
“The only thing going down is him,” Vinny scoffed.
“You think so?” Joe demanded, and this time Ella moved between the two of them.
“You two are too damn old to be fighting. You’ll break a hip. Now you.” She pointed to Vinny. “Go inside.” Vinny went to argue, but Ella, like a radiant warrior, stood her ground. She met his disapproval with a potent stare.
Vinny swatted his hand and let out a defeated sigh. “Fine. Not worth my time anyway,” he grumbled.
“And you,” Ella said to Joe. “Go back on your side of the boardwalk.”
Joe grumbled as well but listened. His lip curled as he turned and made his way back to his restaurant.
“That was interesting,” Lucas said as he watched their grandfathers move to their respected sides. Once Joe disappeared into the Lobster House, he turned back to Ella. “I can’t believe you’re here. Small world, huh?” He never would have guessed in a million years the beautiful stranger on the bus was the granddaughter of his grandfather’s sworn enemy.
Their lives were intertwined before they’d even met.
Ella crossed her arms over her chest and wouldn’t meet his eyes. “You should be heading back to your side as well.”
“What?” Lucas asked. It was like a swift kick to the gut. He had been dreaming about seeing her again, watching her smile, listening to her laugh. “Why don’t we go grab a coffee? Or let me walk you home later.”
“That’s not a good idea.”
“Why not?”
She motioned to where the scene had just played out. “You heard all of that, didn’t you?”
“Kind of hard not to, but I don’t know what that has to do with us.”
“It has everything to do with us.”
His head flinched back slightly. “How?” he asked.
He knew when a girl wasn’t interested and when to walk away, but this was different. They’d texted all night, shared their love of black jelly beans, and flirted on that bus ride. She wouldn’t push him away.
“If I knew who you were…” she said, her words faltering.
“What? You wouldn’t have let me sit next to you? Shared my jelly beans with me?”
“No,” she said so matter-of-factly it made him stumble back.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“It’s the truth. Our families…there’s a lot of bad blood. So as ridiculous as it is, if I knew who you were then I never would’ve spoken to you.”
“In that case,” he said, reaching out, and using his finger to urge her to look at him. “I’m happy you didn’t know.”
Her eyes widened, so many emotions running through the dark irises that he couldn’t quite decipher what they were. Her eyebrows pulled down in the middle, and she took a deep breath before stepping back from his touch.
“I’m sorry. I have to go.” She walked away then stopped when she got to the door. She met his gaze, and he felt it in every inch of his body. “It was nice while it lasted,” she said. “Goodbye, Lucas.”
And just like that she disappeared into the restaurant, and with disappointment weighing him down, he dragged himself back to his side of the boardwalk.
