“The address of your business is on your trailer—Bluffton—and Mrs.Miller mentioned you were only staying for the summer. So are you having your home remodeled, or are you in between places?”
“None of the above.”
She waited, but he didn’t add anything. “Okay, I guess youdon’t want to talk about that. But as your future wedding date, is that something I should know? If not, that’s fine. I’m not one to pry.”
He grunted, or maybe it was a huff. “I just needed a little distance from home.”
“Because...”
“There’s some... tension.”
“Like in the family?”
“In the business. In the family.”
“All of the above, huh? I guess they sort of go together, don’t they? That’s gotta be hard. So you moved out to the island to get away a bit, but you can still get your work done. That’s handy. And you can’t really beat the view. So this tension...”
“Oh my gosh,” he muttered.
“I’m just wondering if I should have a little prepping on all this. Will it come up at the wedding? I shouldn’t be caught off guard. I want to be a good date.”
“If there’s something you need to know, I’ll tell you. What did Ms.Stapleton say when you asked her about the book?”
She decided to let him change the subject but tucked away that information to use later—maybe even in her book. “Well, at first I approached her and just told her I’d found the book in my Little Library—thought she’d recognize our common bond, you know—and told her I’d like to return it to its original owner. I wasn’t going to give her more information than she needed to know. I mean, what if she claimed it was her book and her diamond? So I asked if she might remember who’d donated the book and then she asked why. I told her there was something in the book that made me think the owner had donated it on accident.”
“And she asked what that was.”
“I see you know Ms. Stapleton pretty well. So I went ahead and told her about finding an engagement ring. I didn’t show it to her—it’s a big diamond—but she just made a prune face and said she didn’t ‘rightly recall,’ and I could tell she was holding out on me, but accusing her of lying wasn’t going to help. So I just told her how sad it was, how some wonderful guy must be so distraught over losing that ring, and how his girl would be deprived of the romantic proposal he’d planned.”
“She didn’t care.”
“She didn’t care! I mean, really. How bitter can you be?”
“She’s not a trusting woman and she doesn’t know you.”
“Exactly! But she knows you, so what’s your game plan?”
“I gotta stop by my apartment, then we’ll head over to the church.”
“That doesn’t sound like a game plan.”
He raised a brow. “Trust me.”
***
Sam scanned the church parking lot as he pulled alongside the street, careful to keep his trailer out of the way. Apparently the church was having a full-on rummage sale, so there were quite a few browsers. He didn’t see any family members, just a few people he knew from the church, working the sale. Word would definitely get back to his family that he’d been in town—it wasn’t a very big church. Oh well.
He stepped from the truck and met Sadie around the other side. Despite her pestering, he had to admit he admired her determination. Some people would’ve sold the ring and pocketed the money. That idea never seemed to occur to Sadie.
Plus she hadn’t seemed to mind riding in his work truck. Hadn’t complained about the smell or poor suspension or rolled-down windows. Maybe she wasn’t that bad.
There was Ms.Stapleton, a pale blue outfit hanging from her short, sturdy frame. Her white hair was cropped and winged, and there was that ever-present pair of readers perched where she could peer at you over top of them with those close-set eyes.
Sadie set her sunglasses in place. “Would it be better if she didn’t know you were with me since she already turned me away?”
“Doesn’t matter.” He headed toward the librarian, who stood by the table with the cashbox, standing guard over it and her books like an eagle over a nest. “Let me do the talking.”
“Sure thing. Whatever you say.”
