On Thursday night at six o’clock, Rafferty’s Raw Bar was chock-full of people. Outside, the skies had opened up with a cold rain that foreshadowed the arrival of autumn, so the diners who would normally have used the back deck were now waiting for tables in the main dining room.
The crowd was extra heavy tonight because this weekend was the Last Gasp of Summer Festival, when the yacht club hosted a charity regatta. Sailors from all over the South arrived in town for the races, giving the local economy one last boost before the summer ended.
Jessica scanned the mob, looking for Topher, but he hadn’t arrived yet. So she ducked into the entry vestibule and texted him.
Jessica: I’m at Rafferty’s. It’s a zoo here. Did you call ahead for a table?
She waited five minutes before a return text appeared.
Topher: No. I’ve been circling, looking for a parking spot.
Of course. Rafferty’s wasn’t far from Howland House, but he wouldn’t have walked in this rain. He would have gotten drenched trying to manage an umbrella and a cane at the same time.
Time for plan B. She went back to texting.
Jessica: Swing by the front. Do you like Chinese?
Topher: Chinese? You can get Chinese in Magnolia Harbor?
Jessica: Things have changed. Spicy or not?
Topher: Not.
Why did that surprise her? It seemed like a guy who had an eye patch and owned a yacht named Bachelor’s Delight should be down with super-spicy food. On the other hand, the letter-jacket boy of her memories probably liked his Chinese on the mild side.
And that, in a nutshell, was her problem. She couldn’t decide if Topher was the evil jerk she’d painted him to be or a good guy who’d taken a wrong turn on a twisty road.
If he hadn’t started the rumors about her, she couldn’t really hold him responsible for them, could she? And she couldn’t blame him more than anyone else for repeating gossip.
Maybe she should thank him for clueing her in to what people were really saying about her and Colton. Jeez Louise. Did people really think she’d been sent away to have Colton’s love child?
And were people still spreading that rumor? Or even worse, was that why everyone seemed so determined to see her and Colton together as a match? Were people trying to write a happy ending to a story that didn’t even exist?
She didn’t know. But it was doubly disturbing. And really, there was nothing she could do about this gossip. She’d discovered that years ago. The best you could do was ignore the lies people told.
So she decided not to raise the issue with Topher again. She’d let it go.
She dialed the number for Szechuan Garden, the Chinese carryout on Tulip Street, and ordered dumplings, moo shu pork, and beef fried rice. Then she opened her umbrella and stepped out into the downpour.
Topher pulled up a moment later in a brand-new black BMW X3, which was nothing short of her ideal car. But it sure wasn’t the sports car she’d expected him to drive.
She hopped into the passenger’s side and sucked in the new leather upholstery smell, which was pretty heady stuff until she laid eyes on Topher.
He wasn’t wearing a Hawaiian shirt. Tonight he looked like a refugee from Martha’s Vineyard in a blue oxford cloth shirt and a pair of Nantucket Reds. If they’d gone through with their plans to dine at Rafferty’s, he would have blended right in with the yacht club crowd who’d come for the sailboat races.
“Hi,” she said, drawing in a deep breath filled with leather and something else mysterious and spicy.
“So, Chinese?” he asked, lifting his right eyebrow just so.
“Uh, yeah, on Tulip Street.” She summarized what she’d ordered and was relieved to discover that he was a huge fan of moo shu pork.
“Does this place have a restaurant?”
“No,” she replied. “I was thinking we could take it back to my place and—” She bit off the rest of the sentence when she realized what her words sounded like.
She waited for him to say something snotty, but he remained steadfastly silent. Which only made her gaffe more embarrassing.
“What I meant to say,” she said after an interminable moment, “was that every restaurant in town is going to be jam-packed, especially in this rain. So I thought we could eat out on the porch while we talk about your house.”
She brought her hands together and interlaced her fingers, suddenly tense and unsure. She busied herself by watching his