“We won’t interfere with your race, with your team. We’ll stay back and just cheer. We can congratulate you later. When you’re done celebrating with all your friends.”

“Okay,” he said doubtfully, smiling at her. “I do think of you, Charlie, Winnie and Mikhail as friends, however. But it won’t be much of a celebration, if one is even in order. I’ll be tired.”

“Charlie says you’re going to kick ass,” she said.

“I’ll give it my best. It’s my plan to have my best race this year. Then I’m going to have some downtime—a few months.”

“No training?”

“Just maintenance, not endurance training. I stay in shape, keep my times good, relax the OCD a little...”

“Oh, so there is some OCD,” she said, smiling.

“You think anyone could do this for a living without it? We’re driven. It’s kind of a survival thing, I think.” He just shook his head at her. “I’m glad you lost the fight. I’m glad you’re coming. It’s an awesome event, the weather is supposed to be great and the islands are so relaxing when you’re done killing yourself in the race.”

“Will it be relaxing before the race?”

“A little bit. I’ll train, but the main thing is to get my head in the game. That takes concentration and a good dose of serenity. Hawaii lends itself to that.” He grinned. “It would be all right for even nonracers to relax a little.”

“I’ll be working, of course.”

“Maybe if I’m lucky you’ll have a coffee break at some point.”

“Oh, I’m sure Charlie will completely dominate what little time you have after the race.”

“He’ll try,” Blake said. “One of these days you and I are going to spend a little time together. You know, just to get to know each other better.”

“If there’s anything about me you’d like to know, you only have to ask.”

“Let me think about that, then,” he said. “I have a feeling if we ever relax and talk, we’ll find out things about each other that surprise us both.”

“I can’t imagine what,” she said, completely sincerely. Lin Su thought she knew all she needed to know about Blake Smiley. He was a world-class athlete, a huge success in his world, a legitimate good guy and her son’s idol.

“I think eventually we’ll find out how much we have in common.”

Impossible! she thought. But she wouldn’t say so; that would be rude. “That will be interesting,” she said. “I’d better get to the shop. Grace needs a break.”

“If I don’t see you before, I’ll see you in Hawaii,” he said. “Have a good week.”

All the way across the beach she was thinking, Don’t read anything into that. He’s just charming, that’s all. Polite. Accommodating. Delightful.

And next she thought, I’d better do a little shopping for island wear.

* * *

Grace was looking forward to the weekend with great anticipation. Her mother and Winnie’s support crew would be gone to the great race in Kona and she would be alone with her husband for the first time in months. Troy and Grace hadn’t even managed a honeymoon. She was thinking about locking up the shop. There were no major events on her calendar and she could take phone orders from home. But she really didn’t dare. She was going to have to close the shop in two weeks to attend Ginger’s wedding on the Lacoumette farm up near Portland. And there would be a lot more closings in the next several months.

She was hard at work on a gorgeous arrangement for the resort in Bandon, one of her best customers. They had ordered four extra-large floral sculptures with large rock bases inside a clear glass oval bowl, calla lilies, orchids, birds-of-paradise, curly willow and a fine green fern that was almost like moss. They had a very big weekend coming up at the club. A large fall wedding was taking over one of the restaurants and they wanted to put two arrangements in their reception area and similar arrangements in the restaurant where the bride and groom would host over a hundred guests for a seven-course dinner.

A far cry from the way Grace had married Troy, on the beach with their neighbors present, as well as people from town who just felt like crashing the party. Most of the guests were barefoot within an hour.

The bell on the front door jingled and she stood, pasted a friendly smile on her face to greet her customer, then froze. “Mr. Germain,” she said, not feeling at all welcoming,

“Mrs. Headly,” he said, giving his head a nod. “Do you have a moment?”

“I sent you an email in response to your interview, Mr. Germain...”

“It was received,” he said.

There was no posturing or sniffing this time. Of course she had declined to hire him. His attitude just wouldn’t cut it here.

“You were very polite, thank you,” he said. “I wonder if you have time to talk?”

“The job is no longer available,” she said.

“Still...”

“Come back to the workroom,” she said, questioning her own judgment in this. She did not want to endure a lot of time with him. Plain and simple, he was a snooty pain in the ass. “Have a seat while I finish up. What’s on your mind?”

“Well, I wasn’t myself the day I came to interview with you and I’d like to apologize for that. I think I was...” He lifted his chin. “I was superior. I’ve been accused of that before.”

She tilted her head. “Oh, have you?”

“Once or twice,” he said. “Look, I’m an excellent florist. My shop was in demand. I had a great business.”

“But what did you tell me? The economy had you upside down?”

“The economy didn’t help but that wasn’t what went wrong. It was a number of issues that converged like...” He took a breath. “The perfect storm.”

She listened but he had stopped talking. “Apology accepted. Of course.”

“There I go, being vague again. I had a breakup. My partner was also my partner in the store. She’d been pilfering for some time, I learned. I guess in the big leagues we call it embezzling, but I couldn’t prove anything since she was doing the bookkeeping. It looked like we were losing money for the first time when in fact she was skimming. Taking money, cheating on me, the store, everything. She didn’t pay taxes that were due and left me a pot of bills that should’ve been paid.” He rubbed his shiny forehead. “And I had other things distracting me or I might’ve caught it. My mother was sick, my sister was in need, my profits had become low when they’d always been excellent. I really am a good florist. Then there were some medical bills in addition to taxes due...”