“Yeah.”
“The umbrella?—”
“Still on us.”
“I noticed.”
We’re grinning at each other like idiots. My heart is pounding so hard I can feel it in my fingertips.
And that’s when I realize it.
Not like a lightning bolt. More like a sunrise—something that’s been building so gradually I didn’t notice until suddenly the whole sky was bright.
I love him.
I love this ridiculous man in his khaki pants and his too-pale ankles and his first-edition insecurities. I love the way he writes letters that warm my heart and the way he shows up at beaches in dress shoes because he forgot everything except wanting to see me. I love his velvet darkness phases and his margin-note worthy early work and the way he looks at me like I’m a story he wants to read forever.
I love him, and I need to tell him.
“Scott, I?—”
I stop.
Because over his shoulder, through a gap in the collapsed umbrella, I can see the boardwalk.
And standing on the boardwalk, frozen, staring directly at us, is David.
My ex-husband.
The man who told me I was too romantic, too impractical, too much.
And he just watched me kiss someone else.
“Jessica?” Scott must see something in my face. “What’s wrong?”
“David,” I manage. “David is here.”
Scott turns. Through the umbrella gap, we can both see him now—David in his pressed shorts and polo shirt, looking exactly like the Connecticut businessman he became after leaving me. He’s not moving. Just staring.
“What is he doing here?” Scott’s voice has gone hard.
“I don’t know. I?—”
We’re still tangled in the umbrella when Penelope Waters appears.
She’s approaching from the opposite direction, picking her way across the sand in wedge heels that are absolutely not beach-appropriate, and the smile on her face is the smile of a woman who has just discovered Christmas came early.
“Well, well, well.” Penelope stops directly in front of our umbrella disaster. “Isn’t this cozy?”
Scott and I scramble to untangle ourselves, which is significantly less graceful than either of us would prefer. I end up with sand in my hair and my book somewhere in the debris.
Penelope watches with undisguised delight.
“Penelope,” Scott says, his voice carefully neutral. “What a surprise.”
“Oh, the surprise is all mine.” She’s practically vibrating with satisfaction. “When I heard you’d personally purchased the bookstore building from Reed Development Corp, I couldn’t imagine what would possess you to pay such a premium for that little property.”
My heart stops.
