That anybody who’d done business with Daniel would do such a thing she doubted highly. Then she froze. Daniel! Once he found out, he would be enraged. And his parents, they’d be devastated. Clearly they didn’t know; otherwise Sabrina would have seen their behavior change.
She glanced at the date of the article. It had appeared the day the newspaper hadn’t shown up. Coincidence? She didn’t want to speculate.
But she needed to speak to Daniel this instant.
In the kitchen, she found only Raffaela. Sabrina’s stomach lurched at the thought of Daniel’s mother reading the article. What would Raffaela think of her?
“Raffaela, have you seen Daniel?”
“He left about half an hour ago to go pick up the place cards from the printer. He’ll be back soon.” Raffaela smiled.
“Thanks. May I borrow your car?”
“Sure, cara. The keys are on the side table in the hallway.”
As calmly as she could, Sabrina left the kitchen. Maybe it was best that she and Daniel had this conversation away from the house where his parents couldn’t overhear them.
12
“Good afternoon, how may I help you?” the older, pudgy man said as he pushed his thick glasses back up his nose and stared directly at Daniel. His eyes looked huge behind the thick lenses, suggesting that his eyesight was extremely poor.
Mr. Peats of Peats’ Printing was looking his age: at seventy-five he should be retired and taking it more slowly but Daniel knew from his mother that Peats’ only son had never shown any interest in the business, and his grandchildren showed none either. Eventually, once Mr. Peats couldn’t do the work anymore, another beloved local shop would disappear. It was sad, really.
“Daniel Sinclair.” Though he’d known the shopkeeper for over thirty years, Daniel doubted that the man recognized him. “I’m here to pick up some wedding place cards I ordered a couple of weeks ago. I received a call that they were ready to be picked up.”
“Ah yes. Of course.” Mr. Peats nodded and shuffled through a stack of papers on the counter.
Daniel waited patiently, not wanting to cause the old man any stress while he searched for the correct order form.
Finally he pulled out a piece of paper and held it close to his eyes. “Ah yes, the Sinclair wedding. I’ve got it in the back.”
He turned around and walked through the door behind the counter, closing it behind him.
Figuring that Mr. Peats would take a while, Daniel pulled his cell phone from his pocket and checked for any messages. After he’d fired Frances, he’d called a temp agency to fill the vacant position until he could hire a more permanent replacement. Though he had advised the temporary assistant that he was on vacation and should only be disturbed in absolute emergencies, he had received a few emails from her already, asking about how to handle various issues that had come up. Daniel scrolled through his messages, but there were no new ones.
Behind him, he heard the door open and glanced over his shoulder. He stilled.
“Eve?”
Eve McCall, his old high school girlfriend, breezed into the shop, wearing white Capri pants and a tank top that showed off her narrow waist and her perfect breasts.
“Daniel!” Her eyes widened in surprise and her face lit up as she walked toward him, smiling. “What a surprise!”
“I was just thinking the same thing. What’re you doing here?”
“I had some business cards printed, and I’m here to pick them up.”
Daniel cast a glance back to the door through which Mr. Peats had disappeared, hoping for the shop’s owner to return soon. “Business cards?” he asked politely, though he wasn’t really interested in Eve’s answer.
“Yes, I’m starting my own little business.”
“Congratulations! I hope it’s a great success.”
She didn’t seem to mind that he didn’t ask more details about her new business. “Thank you. And you, what are you here for?”
“Place cards for the wedding.”
“Oh.” Eve frowned then quickly pasted her smile back on her face, nodding sympathetically. “You’re still going through with it then?”
Daniel sucked in a sharp breath. “Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Well, it’s just, you know, after that article in the paper, I assumed that—”
“You assumed what, Eve?” he interrupted, though his voice remained even and calm. He wouldn’t show her how the mentioning of the article riled him up. “That I wasn’t going to marry Sabrina? She’s the love of my life. Nothing will stop me from marrying her.”