Thomas is an effective man. Actually, what man that I do know in L.A. would even trouble to ask earlier than encroaching on one other man’s relationship? He could also be a bit odd, type of a misfit who tries too onerous, however at his core, Thomas Montrose is an upstanding citizen. He’s properly established. So far as I do know, the residents of Hallmark Seaside like and respect him.

And he’s simply the type of man who would deal with Lucy properly.

I ought to say no. That there’s nothing between us.

However I can’t. As an alternative I sit there, staring the person down. If I have been Superman along with his laser imaginative and prescient, Thomas can be a heaping pile of ash proper now (a bit gory, however that’s the path my ideas have turned).

And in my silence, Thomas sighs, nods. Holds out his hand. “I assumed as a lot. However I had to make certain.”

What? I didn’t say something. However in line with the flat line that Thomas’s grim lips are making, my silence stated one thing. I let him grip my hand, shake it, and let go, then watch him stroll away, palms in his pockets, head bent.

I blink. That wasn’t proper of me. I ought to have informed him the reality—however the fact stares me proper again within the face.

I don’t need another man to have Lucy Reynolds. To care for her. To spend small quiet moments together with her.

As a result of I like her.

Or, at the least, I might, if I let myself.

However there’s all of the stuff Dale simply informed me. The restaurant, my profession, in movement. Issues swirling and shifting. The pressures, constructing and mounting.

I can’t keep right here, can’t let issues disintegrate there. I’ve labored too onerous to achieve my goals to simply…give them up.

However someplace alongside the way in which, Lucy turned a part of that dream. And I don’t know tips on how to reconcile the 2 components. Possibly, although…possibly it’s potential to have each. Someway. Possibly I might take no matter time I’ve left right here in Hallmark Seaside and spend it with Lucy.

Spend them seeing if this factor between us might develop. If we might determine one thing out.

As a result of I’ve the sneaking suspicion that my sister was proper about regrets. In fact, I’ll by no means know for positive what Dad thought in these final minutes of his life flashing earlier than his eyes. However I do know that if I by no means discover what that is with Lucy, I’ll most likely remorse that each one of my life—irrespective of how profitable my life finally ends up being.

And I’ve to search out Lucy now and inform her how I really feel earlier than I lose the nerve.

twenty-two

LUCY

I really feel like loss of life.

Demise that’s been useless for some time. A looooong whereas. Demise simply mendacity right here, subsequent to the bathroom, festering and nasty.

Seems, my abdomen doesn’t like spicy tuna rolls. Or at the least, ones that should have had micro organism of some kind on them. As a result of for the final six hours, my abdomen hasn’t felt proper.

And for the final two, it’s been expelling each little bit of the whole lot I’ve eaten or drunk at this time. Possibly yesterday too, if that’s potential.

Ugh. Okay, Lord, take me now.

I press my brow towards the cool tile of the hallway toilet flooring. If somebody have been to stroll previous, they could assume I used to be merely doing yoga, as a result of I’m killing the kid’s pose right here with my knees tucked underneath my physique, my arms splayed out in entrance of me.

However no person else is right here proper now. Blake’s most likely nonetheless working, and Marilee is watching Ryder as a result of Jordan is operating an in a single day campout.

And that’s good, as a result of I wouldn’t need both of them seeing me like this.

My abdomen rumbles and heaves once more, and I sit up—my imaginative and prescient swimming earlier than me—and pressure my hair again earlier than hurling into the bathroom. Critically. How is there something left?

I can’t assist the tears that come as I ease myself again and lean my head towards the wall reverse the bathroom. Meals poisoning is severely the pits.

Once I first acquired residence from the spa day, I knew one thing was off, so I lay down on the sofa and fell asleep. However the sleep was fitful—filled with recollections from at this time, the well-meaning phrases of my buddies—and I wakened with my abdomen feeling simply as knotted and jumbled as my coronary heart.

And in between rounds of barfing, Kelsey’s phrases bang round in my mind: “When you actually really feel the way in which you do about Blake, then why are you letting him go so simply?”

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