“It is, but the increased sales volume and margins will let us earn that back within a year.”

“You mean Marco and Olivia. They can earn it back in a year.”

“He’s offered us a chance to go in with him. Tito, too.”

Celeste leaned forward, hands planted on the counter. He couldn’t be serious.

“Why would we put money into Marco’s oyster farm?”

“Well, it would become partly our oyster farm. And because this is a business that could be profitable enough in a few years to let us really plan our retirement.”

Celeste couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“I have zero interest in investing in an oyster farm.”

“Why not? My family has always earned a living off of the water, and Marco’s done a great job taking it to the next level. It’s incredibly generous of him to open it up to us.”

“We have our own business to invest in,” she said, sweeping open her arm.

“There’s no way to grow this business—no amount of money will make it more scalable. We’ve only seen it shrink over the past few summers. We’re getting older, Celeste. We need to think about security. Stability.”

It was all too much. He wanted to get married, get involved in an oyster farm. It was clearly a midlife crisis.

Or maybe it was the curse.

“I’m not ready,” she said to Jack.

“Well, now’s the time. Marco says that—”

“I mean, I’m not ready to get married.”

He froze. His face turned red—something she’d never seen before in his olive-toned complexion. It was alarming.

Without another word, he walked to the stairs.

She looked around the store, making certain there weren’t any customers she hadn’t noticed. Then she closed the front doors and put out her Went to the Beach sign. Heart pounding, she rushed up to their bedroom, where she found him piling clothes into his suitcase.

“Jack. What are you doing?”

“I’m going to Manny and Lidia’s.”

“What? Jack, no. Don’t do that. We need to work this out.”

“I don’t see what there is to work out.”

“I love you. And you love me, for one thing.”

“Well, maybe that one thing isn’t enough. Because you’ve been pushing back for years against the idea of marriage, and I always thought time would fix it. But now I know it won’t.”

“There’s nothing to fix. We’re happy together.”

He looked at her sadly. “I’m not, Celeste. For me, something is missing. I want you to be my family. I want to make it official. I don’t understand why you don’t want that, too. But you don’t. And I have to accept it.”

“I’m sure we can find a way to work through this,” she said slowly.