As that tourist left, he started ringing up yet another sale, when he realized the woman was studying him intently.
“You’re the new football coach, aren’t you?” she said.
“Aidan Mitchell,” he confirmed.
“I’m Pamela Hobbs. My son is the team quarterback. He’ll be a senior next year, so his father and I are expecting great things from him.”
“I’m still getting to know the players,” Aidan told her, wise enough to word his response carefully. “We’re a long way from settling how next fall’s team will shape up, but Coach Gentry definitely told me about your son. I’m looking forward to seeing him in action. I hope to get in a couple of scrimmages before school’s out.”
She frowned at his response. “Surely you’re not considering making any changes to the roster.”
Aidan saw the minefield. “It’s much too early to say.”
She looked as if she was about to argue, but instead she gave a tug to her tight, scoop-neck T-shirt to display even more cleavage before fluffing her perfectly highlighted chestnut hair. Holding his gaze, she suggested, “Perhaps we could have a drink and discuss this further.”
He bit back a smile. “Sorry. As you can see, I’m busy.”
She frowned at that. “You’re not working here, are you?”
“I’m helping out a friend.”
“Well, I’m sure she won’t mind if you take care of something that is related to your job as the coach.”
“She might not, but I do. I made a commitment. Besides, any decisions I make about next year’s team will be based on what I see on the field.”
She drew herself up, her expression hardening. “Then I imagine my husband will want to have a chat with you Tuesday morning.”
Aidan nodded, keeping his expression pleasant. “I’ll look forward to it.”
As much as he didn’t want to get into it with any player’s father, the prospect of tangling with a mother who was so obviously on the prowl was a whole lot less appealing.
* * *
Even though Pet Style was supposed to close at six, it was after seven by the time the last customer left. Liz’s feet ached and she was even more exhausted by having to keep a smile plastered on her face, especially with a couple of customers who’d been rude and demanding. She’d also been out of sorts since she’d noticed Pamela Hobbs, a notorious flirt, flaunting her ample chest in Aidan’s face.
“I noticed you made a conquest earlier,” she said in what she hoped was her most casual, disinterested tone as she turned the lock on the door and put the closed sign in the window.
Aidan glanced up curiously from the display he’d started straightening. “What are you talking about?”
“Pamela Hobbs,” she said. “I should probably warn you, though, that she’s married, but has a reputation for not paying much attention to that fact.”
A slow grin spread across Aidan’s face. “Thanks for the heads-up, but I knew exactly who she was and what she was after, which is why I turned down her invitation to leave here and go out for a drink.” He gave her a wink. “Thanks for giving me the perfect excuse.”
Liz wasn’t sure if she was more impressed by his intuitiveness or appalled by Pamela’s lack of discretion. “Does that happen a lot?” she asked. “Women coming on to you?”
“When I played pro football, it happened all the time,” he said in a way that suggested he was more bewildered than pleased by it. “Since I’ve been coaching less than a week, this is a first that a mom has tried to assure her son’s spot on the team by offering herself up as an incentive.” He held her gaze. “And just so you know, I wouldn’t have been interested even if I hadn’t known she was married. She’s not my type.”
Liz couldn’t seem to keep herself from asking, “What is your type?”
“I’ll let you know when I figure it out, but definitely someone a whole lot less obvious than Pamela Hobbs.”
“You’ve never been in a serious relationship?”
“Define serious.”
“One you thought might lead to marriage,” she said at once.
He shook his head. “I’ve had a couple of long-term relationships, but in college I was too focused on making it into the National Football League. Once I was drafted, I was determined to put all my energy into getting better. Anything too serious would have been a distraction. The women I knew got tired of waiting around.”
“You don’t sound terribly distraught over that,” she noted.
“Which tells me I wasn’t that serious about any of them,” he said. “I was certainly sad to end things with a couple of them, but I wasn’t ready to make the commitment they wanted.” He shrugged. “Then my mom got sick, I had a career-ending injury and I didn’t have a lot of time to think about anything else.”
“Is your mother better now?”
A deep sadness darkened his eyes as he shook his head. “She lost her battle with cancer last summer.”
“Oh, Aidan, I’m so sorry.”
“Me, too.”
“And your father?”
He seemed to still at the question. Avoiding her gaze, he shrugged. “Never knew him. And before you ask, there were no siblings.”
Liz couldn’t imagine what that was like. She might not have the perfect family, but she’d grown up with two loving parents and a couple of sisters who could get on her last nerve, but whom she adored. None of them had understood it when she’d chosen to move away from Charlotte, North Carolina. They’d wanted her to stay close, where they could support her, but what they’d seen as genuine caring to her had felt a lot like smothering. She’d needed to make a clean break to start over.
She realized Aidan was watching her intently.
“Where’d you go just then?” he asked. “You looked sad.”
“I was just trying to imagine what your life must have been like with only your mom around,” she said.
He laughed. “If you’d ever met my mom, you wouldn’t look so distraught. She was amazing. She worked hard and she turned every day into an adventure. She loved New York, so whenever she was off we took advantage of all the city has to offer. We spent hours at the Museum of Natural History or the Botanical Garden or just walking through Central Park with her pointing out every tree and flower until I’d memorized their Latin names.”
“Sounds as if she would have loved Chesapeake Shores and the way people here care about the environment. I’ll bet she and Thomas O’Brien would have been kindred spirits.”
Aidan looked startled by the comment, but he nodded slowly. “You’re absolutely right,” he said, that faraway expression back in his eyes. “She would have loved it here.”
Not for the first time, Liz got the impression that there were things Aidan wasn’t revealing, some part of the story of his past that he was keeping to himself. Still, it wasn’t in her nature to pry, especially not when whatever it was seemed to make him so sad. She understood all too well that there were things people needed to keep private. She had plenty of demons of her own carefully locked away.
“Not to change the subject,” she said lightly. “But I am absolutely starving yet again, and you must be, too, since you never did have time to finish