“Your boyfriend came by my office,” said Howard Deerfield.

  Boyfriend? “An?”

  Ronnie’s father only raised an eyebrow at her. “Daryl Sterne. Who’s An?”

  “Never mind him. What did Daryl want?”

  “It seems he’s decided against engineering and is going to be an architect like your dear old dad. He spoke to me about interning next summer.”

  “It will be convenient for his father to have someone in-house for that,” observed her mother. “He won’t have to give you his business.” Patty Deerfield then turned to her daughter. “So you and Daryl aren’t together anymore?”

  “No, Mom. I guess we aren’t.” She wasn’t sure whether her mother was disappointed.

  “Can’t expect high school romances to st,” said her dad.

  Patty smiled. “It wasn’t really much of a romance from what I could see.”

  “And now we get the summer romance, eh?” Ronnie was feeling distinctly uncomfortable with the direction this was going.

  “With a surfer boy, yet,” said her mom. “He is a surfer, right? I saw the surfboard racks on his car.”

  “Yes, Mom, a surfer. He’s a friend of Joey and—and we only went out the once and it wasn’t really a date.” Ronnie couldn’t think of any good way to continue so she stopped abruptly there.

  “Of course not, dear,” said her mother. “You are working again tomorrow?”

  “All the rest of the week. The st week.”

  “Hate to see a business go, especially a book store—”

  “And good people like the Brookses,” interjected her mom.

  “Yes, to be sure. But that building really was an eyesore. It’s one piece of the old Naples I won’t miss.”

  “Maybe someone will hire you to design its repcement,” said Ronnie.

  “One can only hope.”

  The next morning, Tuesday, she was back at Brooks Books and Looks. The store was beginning to look bare as they consolidated their stock and removed the empty shelves. Forty and fifty per cent signs were taped up here and there.

  It was almost as bare of customers. “We’ll lower the prices once more tomorrow,” said Stuart Brooks. “That will be the st time.”

  “Everything at one-third,” added Suellen.

  “We’d better mark it thirty-three per cent. One-third might confuse people.”

  Thirty-three might confuse the cashier, thought Ronnie. Not that she had great hopes much more merchandise would go out the door.

  It was mid-afternoon when Daryl entered the shop. He was dressed in polo shirt and pid shorts, and carried a bag from The Record Bar, over on the other side of Fifth. “I see you’re not digging footers today,” Ronnie commented, before he could say anything. She had felt it best to speak first.

  He let out a self-conscious chuckle. “No, I have the day off. Back at it tomorrow.” Then, what he had probably come in to say. “I should have let you know I was out of town this past week. Up in Talhassee, arranging some things, and it ran into the weekend.”

  “College?”

  “Yeah.”

  “My dad said you’d changed your major.”

  “Uh-huh. Not that it matters much at this point. Anyway, sorry I didn’t let you know. I should have.”

  Yes, he probably should. That didn’t matter much either. “I don’t think we’ll be going out anymore, Daryl,” she said and hurried to add, “We both knew it was going to happen in a month or two.”

  “Oh. I suppose so.” There wasn’t much to read in his expression. “Are you, um—no, that’s none of my business.”

  What was he trying to say? Or not to say? Oh, of course. “Yes, I guess maybe I am seeing someone else.” In honesty, she wasn’t sure she was at all, nor how An might see things. “An Wesolowski.”

  That did bring a reaction. Surprise, maybe it was. Maybe even disbelief. “He’s a friend of my brother,” she said, though there was no reason, and it was only sort-of true. Why was she expining herself? She’d resolved not to when this happened.

  “I’ve been in some csses with An. He’s smart. Really smart, but he doesn’t like to let anyone know.”

  Daryl was smart too. Ronnie had always known that. He’d made it into advanced csses that were beyond her. “He does seem self-contained,” she ventured.

  “In his own dream world a lot of the time. Reads constantly.”

  Ronnie started to giggle, unable to keep herself from it. “I think you know more about my new boyfriend than I do!” She immediately sobered, though, on letting the word ‘boyfriend’ out, and rushed to change the subject.

  “James Summerlin invited a bunch of us to watch the Fourth of July fireworks from his house and said we could bring people along so now you’re invited too. And you can bring someone if you want.”

  Daryl frowned. “Summerlin? Like the attorney?”

  She hadn’t been thinking. Daryl didn’t know any of the Summerlins. “Yes, that’s the family. Jam, I mean James, is a, uh, friend of Joey.”

  “I guess you have a lot of friends I don’t know about.” He gave her an almost accusatory look, but then chuckled. “And I suppose I have just as many you don’t. We never really shared much, did we?” She cautiously shook her head.

  “Who knows? Maybe I will get there. I’ll see you, Ronnie.” With that he was out of the door. And without buying anything.