It wasn’t until after she left The Love Shack that the doubts and worries would crowd in, sitting like an extra passenger in her car on the ride home. Maybe that was why she worked so late, and babysat so often for Darcy—because if she stayed busy enough, she wouldn’t have to think. Think about how she pretended everything was fine between her and Zach. That this ongoing engagement wasn’t really a procrastination of the inevitable. That she’d been unhappy for a long, long time, and the only solution was to end it before she ended up in a wedding gown and the web between them became a hundred times more complicated. Zach had strolled in a little before eight, almost late as usual, for his set at The Love Shack. He and his band The Outsiders played The Love Shack on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and some Sunday nights, from eight to close. That was where she had met him—when he’d gotten off the ferry one day, strolled into The Love Shack with his guitar and that lopsided smile, and gotten hired to play on the spot, mostly because the regular musician hadn’t shown up.
