Her light brown hair was down and floating around her shoulders, her makeup minimal.

  To him she was the classic girl next door he’d always been drawn to but yet he’d married the hot chick that wanted to party.

  Somewhere he went wrong and wasn’t sure how that happened.

  “I’d only be able to pull it off if I was tied down and forced to do it,” she said.

  “You do have some jewelry on,” he said. “From work?”

  “Poppy likes to pimp the products,” she said.

  “Poppy is the middle sister that has all the accessories?” he asked. “Is that shirt from work?”

  “Yes,” she said. “They don’t do a lot of T-shirts, but they did these last summer for a work picnic and gave them to everyone.” She turned and lifted her hair and he saw the name Blossoms in script in tiny letters between the shoulders. “There were all sorts of colors and sizes.”

  “And you went for blue?”

  “I’m not into bright colors,” she said. “The necklace is one of Rose’s signature pieces. The ring, Daisy made this for me for Christmas. It’s a dahlia. You know, for my name.”

  “Daisy?” he asked. “I didn’t check into too many people there. How many have a flower name?”

  She laughed as they walked to his SUV.

  “A lot. Don’t get me wrong, there are more that don’t, but it seems as if it’s a lot. You know the three owners and then me and my sisters. There is also Violet who works with Jasmine in the flower shop. Heather works out at the greenhouses with Jasmine too and she runs the herbal line. She has a science background. Daisy makes jewelry with Rose. The last of the employees was just recently hired. Sage Mancini. She is doing a lot of the marketing. Sage is Violet’s sister-in-law.”

  “Do they hire a lot of family there?” he asked. “Aside from you and your sisters?”

  “I think it just happens,” she said. “They hire who they think is the best candidate and the fact there are flower names helps the situation. Everyone is kind of connected now though through more than work.”

  “Tell me about it,” he said, starting the SUV and pulling out. They only had about fifteen minutes or so to get to their destination. Nothing was really far here.

  “Let’s see if I can figure this out. Lily’s husband Zane’s best friend is engaged to Heather. Luke is a State Trooper. Zane and Luke served together in the Army.

  He made a mental note of that. He knew Zane was a Ranger. “Who else?”

  “You know Ivy is dating Brooks Scarsdale and Luke and Brooks are stationed out of the same location.”

  He wasn’t aware of that, but it wasn’t something he needed to be. “You said Sage and Violet are sisters-in-law.”

  “Yes. Trace Mancini is a New York Times Bestselling mystery writer. Not sure if you’ve heard of T. Manning. That’s him.”

  “I have,” he said. He read a lot to pass the time. Sometimes he shook his head over the idiotic things written and others he was impressed with how accurate they were.

  Trace’s were good.

  “Trace also served in the Army. Luke had crossed paths with him, but Zane hadn’t. Trace was here doing research on his story. Part of that research led to the discovery of the hit-and-run driver that killed the Bloom sisters’ mother years ago. That is how Trace and Violet met.”

  “Small world,” he said.

  “You don’t know the half of it. But for now, that is part of it. I mean Heather and Daisy were roommates and are best friends.”

  “Were roommates?” he asked.

  “Heather and Luke are getting married and live together. Daisy is engaged. Oh. That is another one. So Heather got into a serious accident last year. Luke was the one who rescued her from a burning car and Theo James who is a surgeon was on the scene too. Daisy is engaged to Theo. You could guess they met when Daisy visited Heather in the hospital.”

  His head was spinning. “I’m good with facts and piecing things together and yet this is almost out of a scripted play.”

  She laughed. “Crazy, huh? Anyway, that is about it. I mean, look at us. You’re here doing work in regards to my old job in Chicago and now we are on our second date.”

  “Good point,” he said. “Did your sisters grill you like you thought they would?”

  She’d mentioned how Ivy made sure she was dressed better than if she was going to work and that they’d want to know how the date turned out.

  “They showed up together around seven yesterday morning. Both of them had to work some and came to gang up on me and get details first.”

  “What did you tell them?” he asked. “Guess we should be on the same page.”

  “Not much. They still don’t know what you do for a living. I’ve been skirting that as much as I can. I told them some of the things we talked about on our date. They were more interested in if there’d be another date.”

  “And there is,” he said. “Did you tell them?”

  He’d turned his head to look at her and saw the blush fill her face.

  “Ivy was being a pain. She said she’d blow my phone up until I texted you and she was.”

  “So you only contacted me because of your sister?” he asked. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

  “No,” she said. “Don’t think that at all. I told you Friday night I was interested in another date. Sometimes I need a little push. Then I worried it was too soon to reach out.”

  “Not too soon,” he said.

  He wondered if she’d told her sisters that he’d been divorced.

  Her stance on it told him that might be the case.

  “I’m not a clingy person. I worried that you’d think that by me contacting you too early. I know you had some issues with this in the past.”

  “My ex wasn’t clingy like you think,” he said.

  “Can I ask how she was?” she asked.

  “During the day when she was at work, I didn’t hear from her. Even if she was out with friends I didn’t either. It was when she was home alone and thought I should be there with her. That is when she’d text me. If I didn’t reply she didn’t care that much.”

  At least he didn’t think she did. Or she said she didn’t.

  Keri always said she understood that when he was working outside of normal hours he was obviously busy.

  “But when you weren’t working is when she wanted full attention?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Sorry about that.”

  He snorted. “Again, nothing for you to feel sorry about.”

  “I want to say I get it, but I know I don’t. I can only relate it to living with Ivy. She’s a bit needy. No, I’m not going down that path. She used to be a bit needy. When we were kids she always had to be doing something and had to be entertained. When I moved here I worried the same would happen.”

  “Did it?”

  “In the beginning it was annoying that she wanted to go out all the time, but I’d say no and she’d find someone else. If we were in the house together, she’d want to watch the same shows or talk. Being new at my job, I had things I was working out after hours. Or I just needed to unwind. To me that is reading a book or listening to music. Maybe zoning out with some stupid show. I think we just need to be a bum in our jammies and fuzzy slippers when we want. Like a mental health day of sorts.”

  “Thanks for that,” he said.

  “For what?” she asked. “I should thank you for not being horrified that I might walk around in flannel pajamas and big elephant slippers on the weekend.”

  He laughed. Laughed so hard he wasn’t sure the last time he’d done it.

  “Seriously?”

  He turned to look at her and saw her face was red. “My slippers are donkeys.”

  “Donkeys,” he said, laughing even more.

  “There is a family story behind it.”

  “I have to hear this,” he said.

  They pulled into the Mystic Seaport Museum and he shut the SUV off.

  “I’m always telling Ivy to get back up on the horse if you fall off. Don’t sit around and pout or wallow. She’s afraid of horses. When I was a kid, my brother Mark wanted to ride a donkey in the village. He got on it and then tried to convince me it wouldn’t make me sick to ride it. I got on it and then it threw me. Not badly, but I fell off. Ivy screamed and it terrified her. She says that is why she’s afraid of horses. But she picks on me because she said I never got back on the donkey.”

  “I’m not sure I would have either,” he said.

  “Last year for Christmas she gave me the donkey slippers. Our little private joke.”

  “And you like having that with your siblings even if you don’t want to admit it, right?”

  “I do,” she said and got out of his vehicle. He’d let that go for now.

  “Have you been here before?” he asked.

  “No. I’ve wanted to come. I almost came alone, but I was settling into life here last summer and fall. It’s not somewhere I wanted to come in the winter. Ivy isn’t into history much. She didn’t like school. These are things we weren’t taught since we didn’t have a traditional American education.”

  “I guess I take things like this for granted,” he said.

  “Most do. But I’m glad you were interested in doing it. Is it because I brought it up?”

  “Yes,” he said. “But I do want to know more about the area I’m living in. It’s rich in history and I should know, don’t you think?”

  “I think it, but not everyone does.”

  “I do,” he said. He grabbed her hand and just ran his finger over the top and then dropped it away.

  He wasn’t one for holding hands. Not even as a kid.

  Besides, with their height difference, it wouldn’t be comfortable for either of them.

  Not that he cared all that much about comfort.

  He’d given up on those feelings a long time ago.

  Hours later they’d walked through every boat, every house, they read all the signs and details.

  He found it more interesting than he’d thought he would and got a good sense of the type of person Dahlia was.

  She valued hard work, family, and commitment.

  All the things he did in life too.

  Not that he’d tell his mother what he’d discovered, but he had to say, he was looking forward to a third date when this one hadn’t even finished.

  11

  CHANCE MEETINGS

  “I’m starving,” Dahlia said.

  “We missed lunch. Sorry about that. I got lost in what we were seeing and reading. I didn’t think we’d spend so much time doing it all.”

  “Me neither,” she said. “I didn’t even notice I was hungry until now.”

  She looked at her watch and saw it was three.

  “We can get a late lunch, early dinner if you want,” he said. “Unless you’ve got plans.”

  “No plans,” she said. “That sounds good.”

  “Tell me where to go. You know more than me.”

  “Not that much,” she said. “But if you don’t mind we aren’t that far from Mona’s. It’s Jasmine’s mother-in-law’s restaurant at Wesley’s marina.”

  She knew she might be risking it going there, but she’d had such a good time and they were close to Mona’s. The food was delicious and he had asked her all the places to go for a good meal.

  “That works,” he said.

  “They have takeout too,” she said. “You know, when you don’t want to cook.”

  “That would be every night,” he said. “I don’t do much cooking at all unless it’s warming something up or breakfast food.”

  “Do you know how to cook and just don’t want to?” she asked.

  “I can do the basics. It does come down to just not wanting to do it. I cook once or twice a week. I’m trying to do it more since it’s not like there are as many places to get food here.”

  “Not like a bigger city,” she said. “In Chicago I walked to the market a few times a week and bought what I needed or wanted. Here, you don’t see it much. You go to the grocery store and load up.”

  “I’m learning that. I think they find it odd I’m in there so many times picking up a few items.”

  She laughed. “That was me too. It’s just a different way of living here. I go once a week. Ivy goes too. We both pick things up and plan as best as we can.”

  Ivy wasn’t home much, but Dahlia always made enough if her sister wanted to be home or could heat it up.

  It all worked out.

  Plus it was cheaper than buying prepared food or picking it up on the way home.

  “I plan so much in my life that things like food just weren’t it.”

  “Let me guess, you drove by someplace on the way home and ran in?”

  “Pretty much,” he said. “Or my ex had food made or in the house. One of those things I didn’t think of.”

  “Do you expect a woman to do that for you?”

  She had to know this going in.

  She’d watched her mother slave over the house and family her whole life.

  Her mother never complained, but it was not something Dahlia would ever do.

  To her a relationship went two ways. Everyone had to chip in at different points.

  “No,” he said. “She was home and liked to cook. I like to eat. It worked for us. But if she was out with friends or for work and didn’t do anything, I figured it out on my own. I can do my own laundry and clean and grocery shop. My mother made sure of it.”

  He was grinning when he said it.

  “My mother did too,” she said. “Though Ivy always felt the boys got away with not doing things we did. They had to do other things I wouldn’t want. I understand that in life.”

  She gave him the directions to Mona’s and they were there in less than ten minutes and walking inside.

  “Dahlia,” Mona said, standing at the hostess table. She knew that would be the case too. “And who is this?”

  “This is Hugh Crosby,” she said. She figured Mona wouldn’t give Jasmine the last name and it seemed her sisters didn’t catch it. She expected Ivy would have looked into Hugh if she had because her sister was that way. Or at least Ivy would have typed his name into the internet. “Hugh, this is Mona Wright. Hugh knows your relationship to Jasmine.”

  “Jasmine never said a word about you dating someone,” Mona said.

  That was something at least. The fact the first date happened on Friday meant that no one at work had been up to see her in her office either.

  Poppy would be the first, she knew. She was guessing Tuesday she’d get that visit since it’d be the first day back after the holiday.

  “It’s only the second date,” Hugh said. “And nice to meet you. I’ve heard good things about your restaurant and am thrilled to know you have takeout.”

  “Hugh doesn’t like to cook. Maybe he’ll become a regular.”

  “We like to hear that,” Mona said. “Do you want to sit out on the patio? It’s a beautiful day and slow right now in the hours between the lunch and dinner crowd. Makes me think you planned it that way.”

  She hadn’t, but if she put more thought into it, she might have.

  “The patio sounds great,” she said, getting Hugh’s nod.

  “No worries,” Mona said, putting the menus down. “Wesley isn’t here today. They are home. Wesley is opening the pool.”

  “Great,” she said. “Can’t wait to use that once it warms up more.”

  Mona left them alone.

  “You like to swim?” he asked.

  “I do. Wesley lives across from the ocean, but he’s got a pool in the backyard.”

  “Bet his boat is here and not there,” he said.

  “Actually,” she said. “He doesn’t own a boat.”

  “Huh?” he asked.

  “It’s a long story.” They placed their drink and food orders quickly and she told him about how Wesley ended up in Mystic and why he bought the marina.

  “That’s interesting,” he said.

  “Yeah,” she said. “Jasmine and he would have never met if Mona wasn’t the one that wanted to retire from law and open a restaurant and wedding venue. Mona forced Wesley to sit in on that meeting with Jasmine and Lily to talk about flowers.”

  “Seems like a lot of chance meetings go on around here,” he said.

  “Looks that way, doesn’t it?”

  She never expected it to be that way for her and was glad Ivy hadn’t brought it up. No reason her baby sister would when no one knew how she and Hugh really met.

  “So your sisters know about today’s date?” he asked.

  He was grinning at her. No suit today, just jeans, a T-shirt and sneakers. She realized he had some big biceps that she hadn’t noticed before.

  She wasn’t used to dating men that were big and in good shape and her hormones were telling her how much she appreciated the sight.

  With his short dark hair and dark eyes, there was an air of mystery around him that she found exciting and sexy when she always wanted to know everything she could about a situation.

  Damn Ivy for getting in her head about wanting to see Hugh naked and it seemed every time she looked at him or a part of his body she flushed or her body had a few little shocks running through it.

  Not a bad feeling. It told her she was still a woman and not so dull and boring or jaded from Shawn.

  “They do,” she said.

  “My mother called me yesterday,” he said.

  “Oh,” she said.

  “She worries about me,” he said. “Wants to make sure I’m not sitting alone by myself or working myself to death.”

  He was still smiling and she found he was so much different than the man that knocked on her door and tried to keep his voice lower and his face businesslike.

  “I think that is a parent’s job. Did you tell her that you weren’t just working or sitting around the house?”

  She wasn’t sure where he was going with this.

  If he told his mother that he went on a date she might feel that he was more vested than she thought.

  Dahlia didn’t want to get ahead of herself just yet. He was new to the area, he’d said it enough. It was the first person he’d dated after his divorce.