Mark left the cafe and headed to Beachside Bookshop. He pushed inside and saw Collette was sitting in a corner, surrounded by kids. He glanced over at a sign saying story hour. Ah, he’d come at the wrong time.
She looked up, smiled, and waved. He browsed around the shop but didn’t want to bother her. He wandered out to the courtyard and had some tea. A few other customers came out, but no one he knew. Not that he knew very many people in town.
The story hour broke up and he waited for the crowd of mothers and kids to leave. Right as he was walking up to say hi to Collette, the worker at the desk—he thought Collette had said her name was Jody—called out, “Collette, can you come help Mr. Hamilton? He heard there’s a new book out with photos of Florida’s old hotels. And The Cabot Hotel is supposed to be in it.”
Collette hurried over to the desk.
He picked out a magazine to buy. He couldn’t just lurk around the shop all day and buy nothing. He went over to check out, but Collette and Mr. Hamilton had disappeared into the back of the shop. After paying for the magazine, he couldn’t think of a reason to hang around any longer—you know, except to see Collette—but he’d already been here over an hour.
He slipped outside, disappointed that he hadn’t had a chance to talk to Collette. But really, she was working. He shouldn’t be bothering her.
He wandered around town a bit, went in and out of a few stores, and ended up buying a Moonbeam Bay t-shirt. It would remind him of the place after he left.
After he left.
He was no longer in any hurry to return to Summerville. Now that was a huge change, wasn’t it? When did that happen? Slowly over the last week?
After he returned to his cottage, he downloaded another book by Rob Bentley and sat out on his porch, listening to it. Soon his mind wandered, back to contemplating why he wasn’t eager to return home, and he shut off the audiobook. He stood up and stretched.
If he was honest—and he wasn’t sure he was ready to be—he knew why he wasn’t eager to leave. Collette. One hundred percent it was Collette. He enjoyed getting to know her. His pulse quickened when he saw her and the smile she always had at the ready. The way he could talk to her about everything. Well, almost anything.
His thoughts popped back to the way Ethan had just nonchalantly mentioned he was dyslexic. How did a person get to that stage? Where they could just blurt that out. Don’t tell anyone. They’ll know you’re not smart. His mother’s voice bounced around his mind.
He frowned. It wasn’t really that he wasn’t smart. He just had a disability that made some things harder for him.
Keep saying that, Mark, and maybe someday you’ll believe it.
Collette was sorry she’d been so busy and had missed getting a chance to talk to Mark when he was in the shop. She’d looked for him after Delbert Hamilton left, but Jody said Mark was gone. Why had he left without at least chatting with her a bit? She must have been wrong when she thought he was getting ready to kiss her last night. Because he would have stayed to talk to her, right? If he was interested in her in that way?
You don’t date someone who you don’t know where you stand with them. Her golden rule. Had she not learned her lesson? But did he even want to date her? She ignored her disappointment and confusion as a steady stream of customers came to the shop.
She closed the store that night and wandered outside. She didn’t feel like eating alone upstairs in her apartment. Deciding dinner at Jimmy’s on the Wharf was a good plan, she headed in that direction. She’d be eating alone, but at least surrounded by people. She couldn’t face the loneliness she felt in her apartment these days.
The wharf was filled with people milling around on this Saturday night. Wandering in and out of shops. Sipping coffee at one of the many sitting areas. She walked to the end of the wharf and into Jimmy’s.
“Hi, Collette,” Aspen said. “You meeting Mark here?”
“No, just me.”
“Oh, because he’s here. I just sat him at a table by the railing.”
“Just one,” she repeated. She was not going to intrude on Mark. Suggest they eat together. Besides, he hadn’t stayed to talk to her at her shop today, had he?
Aspen led her through the inside dining and out to the deck. Mark saw her and waved. “Collette, want to join me?” he called out.
Yes, she wanted to join him. There was nothing she wanted more right at this minute. A spontaneous smile spread across her face. Aspen led her to Mark’s table and set the menu down. “I’ll have your server come right over for your drink orders.”
“This is a nice surprise,” Mark said.
And was that a welcoming smile on his face? He did seem pleased to see her, didn’t he? Why was she feeling so insecure? It didn’t sound like he was avoiding her. Why was she so uneasy regarding if he wanted to spend time with her or not?
But she knew the answer to that. She never wanted to be involved with someone and not know where she stood. She’d learned that lesson years ago and didn’t plan on making the same mistake again. But was she doing that with Mark? Making a mistake? She didn’t really know what they were. Acquaintances? Friends? Just some random kind-of strangers who kept running into each other?
Had he been getting ready to kiss her last night?
“It is a nice surprise,” she finally answered as she sat down on the chair across from him. It was almost like fate was playing with them. Throwing them together again and again, no matter what promises she made to herself.