The woman rolled her eyes and winked at Regan. Regan smiled and walked out of the room. Time marches on, she thought. That woman looked so settled. It was hard to imagine she was the type who ever wanted to go to a rock concert.

Regan went back to the master bedroom, and looked over the trunk again. I’m glad this is mine. If Cleo wants it back, I’ll give it to her. Regan went into the hall. Several people passed her on the way to the other rooms.

She went downstairs and out the door. Luckily there was still a good crowd of people. Not everyone had left in a huff. The girls were busy collecting money. One security guard was standing by the gate, checking people’s bags as they were leaving. “You have to talk to Jody” was the response when people tried to haggle over prices.

Then she saw him. Mr. Invertebrate! He had a fish tank at his feet, and two goldfish bowls probably won years ago at an arcade on the boardwalk in his hands. He was waiting to pay. Kit should see this, Regan thought. She’d never let me hear the end of it. Regan started to turn away, hoping he wouldn’t see her.

Too late.

“Regan?”

Here we go, Regan thought. She turned back to him. “Winston? Oh, hi.” She walked over. “How are you?”

Winston stared down at her, a disapproving look on his face. He was tall and wiry, his sun-streaked hair falling onto his forehead. “I know you were trying to avoid me.”

“No I wasn’t.”

“Yes you were, and your friend didn’t like me.”

Regan’s mouth formed an O and she started shaking her head. “No, she liked you, Winston, I’m sure she did.”

“If she liked me, she would have called me back. I left her three messages. It’s okay. I’m over it.”

“I think the problem was that she had been dating this other guy she liked but it didn’t work out, and you know, she wasn’t quite ready,” Regan hastened to explain, then cleared her throat. “I see you found a few things you like,” she said, changing the subject.

“Uh-huh. I’m off this week so of course I was at the beach. I saw the plane fly overhead announcing the sale. It was hot so I figured, why not? I wanted to get something of Cleo Paradise’s to give to my sister but there’s nothing left. Luckily, I found these,” he said, holding up the fishbowls, “so it wasn’t a wasted trip.”

“Oh, great,” Regan said with far too much enthusiasm. “It’s a shame you didn’t get anything of Cleo’s but the people at the front of the line made a beeline for her stuff. Whoosh!” Regan laughed.

“My mother always said, the early bird catches the worm.”

Are worms invertebrates? Regan wondered.