“By the way, your ‘true love’ prediction for this summer was way off,” she said.

Maud smiled, glancing at her phone and then back at Gemma.

“In what way?”

“Well, for one thing, I was dating a guy here who turned out to be using me for my family money. And Sanjay, my photographer friend, the one who came with us to the Boatslip? He’s the one I actually care about. But he’s with someone else now. So, sorry to say but you were wrong.”

Maud smiled, a twinkle in her eyes.

“The summer’s not over yet.”

Later that morning, the Barroses called a family meeting, summoning everyone to Manny and Lidia’s. It wasn’t unusual for them, but Celeste didn’t have the energy today.

“You go and just fill me in,” Celeste told Jack. She said she needed to keep the store open, but truly, she was just too upset over the conversation with her sister to deal with whatever the Barroses wanted to discuss.

She didn’t know what upset her more: Elodie’s lie about the diamond, or the fact that a piece of the cursed item remained in the family, like a floating cancer cell just waiting to metastasize.

Part of her confidence in moving ahead with the wedding planning was based on the ring being sold. If the cursed diamond was gone, it reasoned that the curse, too, was gone. Plus, the star alignment looked positive, and Maud’s tarot reading didn’t show any signs for alarm. But now, a major piece of her calculations had been false.

She stepped outside the store. A few customers milled around, but traffic had dwindled. It was too perfect a beach day for people to spend time indoors shopping.

I need a sign, she thought, looking up at the sky. Is marriage the right next step?

By the time Jack returned home, she had all but forgotten about the meeting.

“Hey,” he said, walking in with those quick strides of his, eyes bright.

“So what was that all about?” she said.

“Here’s the deal,” Jack said, his face particularly animated. “Marco is expanding the business—the oyster farm. He’s going to become a licensed reseller.”

“What does that mean? Isn’t that what he’s doing now?”

“No. He’s a wholesaler. He can’t sell directly to restaurants. Now he could get a much higher price, and even sell direct to consumers at farmer’s markets.”

“Well, good for him.” She didn’t know why the family needed to call everyone over to announce that, but that was the Barros way.

“The thing is he can’t just snap his fingers and become a licensed reseller. He’s gotta get approved. They need a mechanically refrigerated vehicle, a walk-in refrigerator on-site, new sinks, stainless steel tables. Minimally, it’s an eighty-thousand-dollar investment to convert the business.”

“That’s a lot.”