Page 46 of Cocky Tech God

A bird. A woman. I chuckled to myself because I’d never heard her say that before. But she wasn’t wrong.

I looked her straight in the eyes. “And why would I be concerned about a bird?”

The bartender put a glass of amber liquid on the rocks in front of her. My guess was scotch because I recalled that’s what she drank when we had our fling last summer.

“There’s no shame in…getting tired of the playboy routine.”

I narrowed my gaze, and the heat of needing to defend myself rose from my toes. But wait… This whole time I’d been with Lucia, I hadn’t even looked at another woman. I’d been consumed with Lucia and her world. And to be honest, I couldn’t fathom what would happen when I was on my flight back to New York.

I didn’t want us to end here in Grand Cayman. I wanted us to continue in our hometown. Not only that, but I wanted to date her. No one else.

Shit. This was not part of the deal I had with not just Lucia, but also with myself.

“Is that what happened to you?”

Calista’s gaze dropped, her top teeth biting into her bottom lip for a moment. “I reckon it did. Yeah.”

So, there we were. Two players having a conversation about the one thing we’d wanted to avoid.

“But you’re ahead of me.”

I sat back, confused about her statement. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve been in love and married. You know how to commit. I’ve never had any of that. Now, the only thing I want to do is commit. And with Joy in my life, I can’t imagine being free anymore. I don’t want to be.”

My past as a young married man came back in a flash. I was in love with Anais, and I didn’t want to ever be without her. We had a relationship that was more caring than I had ever known. Not that my parents weren’t caring, they just didn’t look at each other the way I knew Anais and I looked at each other. My heart palpitated. It was the way I had started to look at Lucia.

“And Joy’s father?” I’d never inquired about the father, and she’d never offered to tell me.

“I was inseminated. So, there isn’t a known father.” She shrugged. “But I want someone to be that for her.”

I reached out to touch her hand. The quiver of her chin made my heart wrench. “Some amazing guy will be the one for you and Joy. I know it.”

“And I know some amazing woman will be the one for you.” A sly smile broke through her face. “I think there already is. And you know what I say to that?”

“What?” I was hanging on her every word as if she had some wisdom that I needed to know.

“Don’t let her get away.”

When I finished my drink, I said goodbye to Calista. I needed some time alone to think. Figure out my next move. How was I supposed to approach Lucia about making our relationship official when I didn’t know if she ever wanted to speak to me again for listening in on her conversation? Nothing seemed simple anymore.

I found myself walking onto the sand and into the sweet, saturated air. It was thick and hugging me. It reminded me that I had some of my best times on this island. This was where I’d met my Anais. She was from this place, and she would always be here to greet me in some way.

I recalled a conversation we’d had before she died during a deep-sea diving job for oil exploration out in the Gulf Coast. She’d said, ‘I just want you to be happy, Hansy. Be happy.’ The conversation was about me starting a business after graduate school, but I knew she meant it in every aspect of my life.

I sighed into the night, closing my eyes for a moment.

“Hansen...” The voice came from behind me, but I didn’t have to turn around to know who it was.

“Are you still mad at me?” I turned and met the eyes of the woman I didn’t expect to want more from. She held an iPad in one hand.

She dropped her gaze for a moment. The moonlight made her eyes glitter. “Yes.”

“Can I buy you a drink? Some food? A yacht?” My heart raced. My stab at humor didn’t come off as I’d hoped.

She pursed her lips, not taking her eyes off me. “Let’s snag a seat at the patio, have a drink and see where it goes.”

“Okay, let’s.” This was a small win, but one that I was more excited about than when I’d closed on my biggest client. I wanted things to be okay between Lucia and me.