I saw Marco in town talking to a couple of other men. Both of the men were kind, friendly people. One was Zeb Lowry, who used to be a corporate manager at a huge shoe company and burned out. The other was a businessman who flew in and out of Seattle to the island.

I ducked into my friend Callie’s shop. She sold women’s clothing. The shop is called Abracadabra Now You Will Be Pretty. It’s an odd name for a shop, but Callie says she has a grandmother who’s a witch and her mother thought her grandma might truly have witchly powers, so there it is. Abracadabra. Callie has bright red hair. She’s thirty-five.

“Hiding from someone?” she called out, and I made a face at her. “Ahh.” She sighed when she looked out the window. “I totally get it. I’m thinking about getting animals so I can go and visit him. I don’t even like animals—they get all slobbery and dirty and they poop—but every time I see him I can’t talk. It’s like my tongue gets all swelled up and I can’t blink and my bladder gets a little wiggly.”

“Your bladder gets wiggly?” That was bizarre.

“Yes. I don’t know why.” She sighed again.

“When your husband is around, you don’t get all wiggly if you see Marco, do you?”

“I try not to. But you know Ziggy. The man’s blind.”

“Only in one eye.”

“He’s dense.” She shrugged. “All men are dense, aren’t they? It’s like they’ve got wood in their brains. They see what they want to see and ignore the rest. They ignore facts they don’t like or can’t comprehend. When I look at Marco and my toes curl in, I think bedroom thoughts. Hey!” She snapped her fingers. “While you’re hiding here, can you see my future?”

“I can’t see the future.”

She went on as if I hadn’t spoken. “I want to know if Ziggy will ever have an affair.”

Ziggy loved Callie. I knew Callie loved Ziggy. I pretended to think about it. “No. Never.”

She clapped her hands. “Yes! I knew it.” Her brow furrowed. “Will I?”

I pretended to think again. “No. Never.”

“Hmm!” She looked proud of herself and irritated at the same time. “Okay. Fine. But darn it, too. I was hoping for a quick romance on a girls vacation or something. One seductive Frenchman for a week.”

“No, sorry. It’s not in your future.”

“Can you tell me another future?”

“No, I have to stick with the accurate ones. No affairs, no fun.”

I snuck out the back of Callie’s, but I couldn’t continue to avoid Marco when he came into my bookstore looking all handsome and studly in jeans and a black T-shirt about an hour later.

“Hi, Evie.”

“Hi, Marco.” You literally take my breath away.