“I wasn’t planning on it,” Paula said. She’d never been to it before. It was one of those snooty events held at the most expensive country club on the island and unless you were a member or good friend of a member, you didn’t make the cut for that guest list.

“You really should go sometime. It’s a fabulous event. Well, nice seeing you.” She sauntered off and Paula was left feeling grumpy and out of sorts. She didn’t care about not going to the event, but she was disappointed to learn that David might be attending it with Missy. He hadn’t mentioned that they were seeing each other, but then again, why would he? And it made sense since they had shared history and were both single. She thought he had better taste than that, though.

After all the anticipation for the Taste of the Town event, the following week felt anti-climactic and oddly quiet. Paula supposed she was missing David’s presence, too. She’d grown used to having him right down the hall and bouncing ideas off of him. But she was slowly getting used to doing that with her grandfather and Hallie and Nick instead. And surprisingly, even her Aunt Vivian. Now that she had a defined job, and the stress from her financial mess was resolved, her aunt had thrown herself into her work and was doing a good job. Better than anyone expected, and she seemed to be thriving and enjoying it.

Aunt Vivian also happened to overhear the exchange with Missy.

“She’s a bit of a witch, isn’t she? My guess is she hasn’t heard boo from David, otherwise why would she be asking you if you’d heard from him?”

Paula laughed. “That’s a good point.” Though she wouldn’t put it past Missy to ask just to see if she could get a rise out of Paula and to make sure she knew that Missy and David had plans. But, like her aunt said, if things were solid between them, she wouldn’t care or be fishing for information. She hoped that was the case. Missy really didn’t seem to be David’s type. Or at least Paula didn’t think she was right for him. Who knew what David actually thought?

David was miserable in Kansas City. He felt like a fish out of water there, for one thing. It was just so different from New York and Boston. But, more than anything, it wasn’t Nantucket, and he was surprised by how much he missed being at The Whitley. Well, more accurately how much he missed being around Paula. Even though there hadn’t been anything romantic with them, he missed her presence, missed discussing business ideas with her, having lunch together, and chatting about nothing in particular.