Or maybe that would’ve made her feel even more uncomfortable? Now that he wanted to make up for being rude, he didn’t know how much was too much.

“I hope you like seafood,” he said cheerfully as he got into the driver’s seat.

“Very much, yes.”

“Great,” he said, forcing a smile. He hadn’t said the word “great” as many times in the last six months as he had in the last six minutes. He needed to pull it together.

It wasn’t a long drive to the restaurant, and embarrassingly, the place was nearly empty when they got there. There was no need for Chip to brag about knowing the owner – the hostess seated them immediately at a table overlooking the water.

Claire sat down and pulled her phone from her purse before frowning.

“Is everything okay?” he asked.

She nodded quickly, throwing it back into her purse. “Yes, everything’s fine. I just realized that my phone’s dead again.”

“Is it broken?” He shifted in his seat. It wouldn’t be easy to replace it if so. Living on an island had many perks, but buying new electronics wasn’t one of them.

“No, nothing like that,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s a silly thing, really, but it didn’t charge last night.”

He leaned forward. “You mean at the hotel? Did you lose power in your room?”

“No, it was –” She stopped herself. “I don’t want to complain. I stayed in the Sunshine Suite, and it was lovely, and the view was wonderful, and….”

“Please,” he said, trying to soften his voice. “I want to hear.”

She waved a hand. “It’s just that the electrical socket was loose, and I didn’t notice, so the charger fell out. I marked it down as one of my potential improvements, which I now realize are silly.”

“That’s not silly.” Chip shook his head. “Not at all. That’s an easy fix, too.”

She smiled.

Chip kept talking. “I can see if they have a charger here. If you’re waiting on a call, I –”

“No, it’s okay.” Claire cleared her throat. “I’m sorry that I was so distracted earlier today. And I know that words don’t mean much, but I’m not normally like this.”

“Of course not,” he said.

She smiled. “My goal was to give you my full attention, and from now on, I will.”

Her graciousness only made him feel like more of a jerk. Chip had a reputation for being tough. Someone had to be, especially since Steve was overly kind to everyone. Chip wasn’t afraid to enforce rules, or to be the bad guy.

Usually, it worked well, but this time, he’d gone too far.

“You are completely fine,” he said. “I’m just – well, I don’t come from a hospitality background either.”

“It seems like you really care about the hotel,” Claire said.