“Isn’t Bootleg Pete’s where your friends meet for drinks on Thursday nights?” he asked. She raised a brow, prompting him to add, “I overheard you and your cousin Sophie talking about it last night at the diner.”
“That’s the place.”
“You plan on going tomorrow night?”
Girls’ Night, as Sophie called it, had always seemed like a silly waste of time, but Annie could use a night out with Sophie and her friends. Maybe they could give her tips on how to break up with Walter since Bridget’s idea of doing it over dinner hadn’t exactly worked out.
“As a matter of fact, I am going to go.” Then, before she chickened out, she added, “Since you’ll still be in town tomorrow, if you find yourself bored and looking for something to do, you should check it out. Thursday nights are two for one, plus there’s karaoke, so it’ll be hopping. At least, hopping for Old Explorer’s Bay.” She held her breath, waiting for his reaction to her impromptu invitation.
“Karaoke, huh? You any good?”
“Come join us and maybe you’ll find out. Don’t worry, I won’t let Sophie or any of her friends hit on you. I’ll tell them to be on their best behavior, and if anyone thinks they recognize you, we’ll swear to the death that your real name is Roy Rogers.”
He laughed. “I just might take you up on that.” Up ahead, a local fast-food place with a flashing marquee sign caught their attention. “You hungry?”
“Famished.”
He pulled into the restaurant, and they ordered burgers and shakes from the drive-up window, then Sam parked the car to face the ocean, giving them a postcard view of the water. They ate as they watched the waves crash onto the shoreline, the idyllic scene interrupted only occasionally by a lone seashell collector or a jogger.
Annie slurped down her shake.
“Careful or you’ll get a brain freeze,” Sam warned.
“Too late.” She sat back in the seat, too stuffed to move.
“Want to walk it off?” Sam pointed toward the beach.
“Tempting, but I should probably get back to work.”
“But you haven’t made the sale yet.” He grinned boyishly, revealing a dimple on his right cheek. She tried not to be charmed, but it was too late. Like every other woman in America, she’d been smitten by the television version of Sam DeLuca. But in person? Smitten didn’t begin to describe what she was feeling. She could seriously find herself in like with this man.
She looked back at the beach. Crystal-clear blue sky. Eighty degrees. Low humidity. It was more than just tempting. May in Florida usually meant sweltering pre-summertime temperatures, but today felt more springlike. They wouldn’t see another day this nice until October. She’d cleared her desk off this morning, and she never took time off. So why not?
They took off their shoes and made their way along the beach, where the cold water from the Atlantic Ocean rolled onto the shore to hit their feet. “Tell me more about this smart sister of yours. Becks, right?”
Sam pulled his cell phone from the back pocket of his jeans and scrolled through his texts. “I’m happy to report that she and Mom are currently on a guided tour of Georgia Tech.”
“Where you’re hoping she’ll go to college?”
“Or Tulane. Either one is fine with me.” He slipped the phone back into his pocket.
Annie remembered something else from their conversation last night. “You said you made a deal with her. If she applied to college, then you’d apply to be on Single Gal. Why was that an issue? Doesn’t she want to go to college?”
“She wants to take a gap year first.” His tone told her exactly what he thought of that plan.
“And you don’t think that’s a good idea?”
“She just turned eighteen. She wouldn’t know a good idea if it came up and introduced itself.” He paused. “I take that back. Becks is great. Very mature for her age. But in this instance, I think I know what’s best for her.”
“I wish I’d taken a gap year.” She bent down and retrieved a pretty-looking shell, admired it for a few seconds, then dropped it back on the sand. “I would have loved to travel or done some volunteer work. But once you go to school and graduate, you get caught up in the whole grad school or job search thing, and the fun stuff gets put on the back burner.”
“Maybe if you’d taken that gap year, you’d have never gone to college. You could have gotten derailed. You can always travel or do volunteer work later. Look at you. You have an MBA from the University of Chicago. Don’t tell me you have any regrets about that.”
“Don’t get me started on regrets,” she said.
“Is this about that whole unfortunate incident thing?”
Annie stopped walking and whipped around to face him. “How do you know about that?”
Sam froze, like he wasn’t sure what to say next. She had a sudden urge to rip off his sunglasses so that she could see the expression in his eyes. He regrouped quickly. “You told me last night,” he said. “At the diner.”
“No, I didn’t. I told you that at one time I worked for a Fortune 500 company but that I didn’t want to talk about it.”
Sam shoved a hand through his hair. “You probably won’t like this. Rudy, that’s the clerk at The Conquistador Inn, mentioned something about a boyfriend who might have taken off to Madrid and left you high and dry.”
Annie moaned. “Oh God.”
“I asked him about fishing boat rentals, and he gave me your cousin’s business card. When I saw the last name was Esposito, I told him I’d driven by a dealership with the same last name, and he volunteered the information about you.”
“I just bet he did. Rudy Garcia is this town’s biggest gossip. And it wasn’t Madrid. It was London. In a nutshell, I left a really great job to follow my boyfriend, Russell, to a different continent, where he dumped me a couple of weeks later, leaving me jobless, which resulted in my becoming the town’s much-beloved object of pity.”
“So that’s how you ended up working for your dad?”
“My grandmother likes to call it ‘Annie’s Unfortunate Incident.’ I just had no idea that the rest of the town called it that too.”
He went quiet. “Annie—”
“Please don’t say I’m better off without Russell. I know that. And I know I have to break up with Walter. And … I also know it’s time to move on and get another job.”
“How’s your family going to feel about that?”
“Honestly? I think they’ll be thrilled. Not the part about me leaving town. They’ll miss me, and I’ll miss them like crazy, but it’s way past time to get on with my life. The dealership is in great shape, and now that Frank Jr. is on board full time, my dad can go back to doing my job. Or hire another accountant whenever he wants to retire.” She tried for a cheerful smile. “But enough about me. Let’s talk about your famous grandfather.”
“What about him?” Sam asked cautiously.
“I had no idea who Cyrus Byrd was until I watched that Good Morning, USA interview of yours. So I googled him. He was quite a character. It must be awesome being his grandson.” When Sam didn’t say anything, she continued. “I also did a little internet snooping on Big B Gas and Oil, and it’s not just your typical oil company. You’re doing more than just token funding for research on alternative energy sources, and your employees have one of the best compensation packets in the corporate world.”