Page 53 of At The Coffee Shop of Curiosities
Denying him his love of the water?
I didn’t want to be the cause of his heartbreak. Been there, done that when he’d come back to town on leave the summer after my freshman year of college. He’d heard the news that I wasn’t returning to school. At that point, however, no one had knownwhy.
He’d told me how much he’d missed me. How much he loved me. He wanted me to leave with him, to join him in Florida, where he’d been stationed. He talked of getting married, of starting a family.
I’d had to tell him the truth.
I’dhadto.
He’d been stunned by the news. Heartbreak had glittered in his ocean eyes like shattered glass.
And yet… he said that a baby didn’t change how he felt. He still wanted to marry me. That he’d adopt my baby. Love him like his own.
But Noah hadn’t been the reason I couldn’t marry Donovan.
The old memories brought tears to my eyes. I blinked them away as the van rolled to a stop feet from me. Donovan shut off the engine and pushed open the door. “Fancy meeting you here.”
I held up the trash bag. “The glamorous life of managing a coffee shop.”
“I think you do more than manage it, Maggie.”
Managing summed up my job description perfectly, but I didn’t want to debate it with him, not with that troublesome wind blowing. I tossed the trash in the dumpster and faced him.
He eyed my chest. “Nice shirt.”
I felt a blush rising as I glanced down.HE’S NOT SELLINGwas printed on my T-shirt. “My craft room comes in really handy once in a while. What brings you by?”
The wind tousled his hair, and in the early-morning light, I noticed a few sparkling silver strands standing upright amid the soft brown waves. I wanted to reach out and smooth them.
“A proposition: you, me, and an antique mall. What do you say?”
Antique mall? I tipped my head, intrigued. “Go on.”
He took another step closer to me. “I heard about a new antique market that opened this week near Daphne. Thought you might like to go with me on Sunday to check it out. You have the day off, right?”
I did—the coffee shop was closed on Sundays. But my schedule was still full. I had a garden club get-together that afternoon, then a Butterfly Fest meeting in the evening.
But an antique mall might be worth playing hooky for, something I’d never once done in my whole life. The thought of possibly finding a bauble to add to the Curiosity Corner made my blood hum with happiness and anticipation.
Donovan jammed his hands in his pockets and rocked on his heels. He didn’t take his eyes off mine as he sweetened the deal. “The mall is eighty thousand square feet. Hasfive hundredbooths.”
My knees turned to jelly just thinking about all the possible treasures.
However, as I looked at Donovan, into his hopeful eyes, I gave myself a good mental shake, rattling loose my senses, which had seized up.
I needed to keep my head about me. There might be five hundred booths, yes, but Daphne was also a good hour and a half away. We’d likely have to stop to get something to eat while we were out, or risk getting hangry. Also, it would just be him and me. Me and him. Alone. All day.
My palms started to sweat, because I wanted to go. Not just because an antique mall was my idea of heaven but because spending all day with Donovan suddenly sounded a little like heaven, too.
But no.No.
I had to let him go.
I had to.
Guilty heat infused my face. “Sorry, Donovan.” I practically choked on the words. “I have a couple of meetings on Sunday.”
“You can’t skip them?”
