Page 35 of The Romance Adventure

“He seems like a team player.”

“No, that would be Ryan.”

“Oh, right. He’s the football player.”

“Though, I guess you could say that everything we know, we learned from Chip.”

“Sounds like a larger-than-life kind of guy.”

“You got that right. But why am I telling you this, Strawberry Shortcake?”

My heart hiccups. He has a nickname for me. “I don’t know, Mr. McMuffin. Maybe you needed to talk instead of yell. Someone to listen so you didn’t stuff it all down, leaving it to fester.”

“I don’t need anyone, least of all you, telling me whether to talk, yell, or fester.”

“So surly,” I mutter as we continue down the sidewalk toward the resort. Of course, he has to keep a pace ahead of me.

When I catch up, I’m not sure if he’s talking to himself or me when he says, “I told myself I wouldn’t be back here anytime soon. This place has seen better days.”

“You speak like Coco Key personally offended you. Yes, it’s a noun, a place, but it’s not a person. In case you didn’t realize, it can’t act independently.”

“You’d be surprised.”

“Well, my sister opened Beans & Books, a combination coffee shop, bakery, and bookstore. And I’d say it’s going pretty well.”

“Fair enough. I was there earlier. But the rest of this place could stand to see some improvements.”

I pause and squint. “Were you in the room when I read the will? That was your grandfather’s request—to fix up the resort.”

“The place is beyond saving.”

“But you said yourself you haven’t been here in years. Have some hope.”

“That’s just it, Strawberry Shortcake. There’s no hope left here.”

The defeat behind Royal’s comment silences me.

An elderly man with leathery skin and walking with a cane approaches.

Royal clears the sidewalk so he can pass. “Surly? Only when I want to be,” he says like an afterthought.

“You should work on that.”

I smile at the man and am about to say a friendly greeting when he picks up his cane and shakes it at us.

“Don’t go digging up what’s long been dead and forgotten,” the man says.

“Digging? The last time I did that was in the sand when I was a kid.” Royal chuckles.

“You were a kid once? I thought you hatched, fully grown and fully surlified. You’re a certified surlified man.”

“That’s not a word or an expression.”

“Did you hear me? We don’t need trouble around here.” The man looks from me to Royal and then continues on his way.

I whisper, “That’s going to be you in twenty years.”

“How old do you think I am?”