Page 32 of Under Pressure
“What was that about?” Nancy handed him a few napkins. She must have grabbed them before following him out.
He shrugged. “I don’t know.” He had an idea, actually, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to share it with his grandpa’s friends.
“You obviously know one another,” Rosa said.
“It’s been a while,” he said, trying to be vague.
Nancy nodded. “You dated.” She said it like a point of fact, no questions about it.
A gleam sparked in Rosa’s eyes that Sean didn’t care for one iota.
He cleared his throat. “A decade ago. We were just kids. She broke up with me and we haven’t seen each other until now. And as you can see—” He signaled to his wet t-shirt. “Things didn’t end well.”
“She’s very beautiful, no?” Rosa asked.
Even more beautiful than he remembered. Back when he knew her, she still seemed to be figuring herself out—now, she was the fully realized version of who she was always meant to be. A strong, confident woman. Brave enough to jump off a fifty-foot cliff. A business owner of her dream shop. Boho chic, motorcycle gear, and soda. Yeah, everything about this was everything she’d dreamed about then. “Yes.”
Rosa grabbed Nancy’s arm in a death grip as she sucked in a breath, and the exhaustion that Sean had felt out on his boat this morning returned like a gale-force wind.
He rubbed at his eyes—he had one major problem to deal with now. “My presents are still in there.” He didnotwant to go back in.
“Don’t worry about that,” Nancy said. “We’ll take care of it.”
He gave her a grateful nod.
“What are you going to do now?” Rosa asked, fiddling with her cross pendant.
Sean glanced down the row of shops toward the bakery—he could smell the yeast of baking bread from here. “I guess I’m going to go get Harry and Walt’s Danishes and take ‘em to them, then head home and change.” He was also going to get himself aDanish or two . . . or three. Oh, wait! “I need to take you ladies back to The Palms.”
“Tell you what,” Nancy said. “You leave the keys, and we’ll take ourselves back.”
“And leave your mom’s gifts with yourabuelo.” Rosa smiled. “Sound good?”
“Thank you.” He kissed each woman on the cheek. “And tell Polly and Winnie thanks for the help.”
They shooed him off, and he kept a sly eye on them until they went back into Blue’s shop. As soon as they were out of sight, he all but darted for the bakery. Forget three, he needed a baker’s dozen.
4
Chapter 4
Blue
Dabbing her wet eyes on the bottom edge of her long, silky skirt, Blue forced herself to take deep breaths. It’d been years. Years since she’d cried. Nine years and six months, approximately. And it was over the same guy then that made her cry now.
Sean.
What was he doing here? In the little, nowhere town of Diamond Cove?
She’d lived here for six months, and Diamond Cove just wasn’t that big. If he lived here, why was she only seeing him now? She sat up straight, staring at her bloodshot eyes and botchy cheeks in the mirror. That was it! He must not live inDiamond Cove. That’s the only way she would’ve missed him. He must be visiting someone.
Blue let out a long breath. Okay, she didn’t need to panic. There was no way she just happened to move to the one place where her ex-boyfriend, the man who had torn her heart out and stomped on it, happened to live. Fate wouldn’t be that cruel to her. Not after everything she’d gone through in her life.
Her marquise, five-carat diamond engagement ring, twinkled at her under the flattering lighting she’d had installed in the dressing rooms to replace the ugly fluorescent, and she dropped her gaze to her hand. The ring felt heavy, not for the first time, and she slowly slid it off and stared at it. How had she ended up with a ring like this? The kind of ring she probably would’ve ended up with had she stayed in Chicago.
It brought her mind back to years ago, to the man she’d just spritzed and a different ring.
“You like that one?”
