Page 28 of Sea Glass Serenade

“Hey, I’m not even the one who invented pink sparkly tennis shoes.” Julia smiled, although internally she was feeling confused and surprised that that had been all he wanted to say to her. “I’m happy to. I think I had just as much fun shopping for shoes for Macey as she did.”

“Well, I wanted to let you know how much it meant to me. You can think of this lunch as a thank-you from me.”

“You don’t need to do that.” She smiled at him, but her confusion only grew. Why had Cooper seemed troubled earlier?Had he just been tired? And why did he feel the need to take her out to lunch to thank her for going shoe shopping with Macey?

Their food arrived, and for the rest of the meal, they continued to make small talk about all the little details of their lives. Cooper never once brought up anything serious, and Julia concluded that he didn’t have anything else he wanted to talk with her about.

I don’t understand it,she thought, as she finished the last bite of her crispy BLT.I feel silly for spending all morning worrying, but he really did sound so serious about wanting to talk.

They finished their meal, and Cooper glanced at his watch and said he needed to go. She walked him to the door and kissed him goodbye on the sidewalk. As she watched him walk back toward his workplace, she felt another surge of affection for him, and she reminded herself that soon, she needed to tell him how she felt about him. Their lunch that day hadn’t felt like the right time because he’d said he wanted to speak with her about something and it had made her so nervous.

She shook her head as she went back inside The Lighthouse Grill, still feeling confused, but glad that it had been nothing to worry about after all.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Dean squinted and leaned his head forward a little as a wave of dizziness swept over him. Around him, the sounds of his auto repair shop filled the air. His employees were making banging sounds as they hit metal tools against metal parts, and whirring sounds as they used electric tools. The noise felt overwhelming to him all of a sudden, and he closed his eyes fully for a moment, wondering why the repair shop was suddenly striking him as a stressful place to be.

He thought to himself that maybe he should have stayed home from work that day. He’d woken up feeling weak and lightheaded, but he’d told himself that it would get better as he started to move around more. He didn’t want to miss another day of work, especially because they were starting to get behind on their repairs, something his shop had never done before.

He opened his eyes again, telling himself that he just needed to steel himself and keep working. He picked up a power tool and turned it on, getting ready to deep clean the inside of the rusty brakes he was working on.

In the next moment, his hand dropped the tool. It was as if he suddenly didn’t have the strength to grip it anymore. The sharpedge of the tool glanced off his other hand as it fell, cutting the side of his thumb badly.

The tool landed on the floor with a clatter, and Dean stared down at his thumb in shock as blood started to run across his hand.

“You okay, boss?” called Steve, one of his employees.

Dean registered that sounds of machinery in the shop all stopped as his employees hurried toward him in concern. His head buzzed and he felt as though he might pass out. He covered his thumb with his other hand in a feeble attempt to stop the bleeding.

“What happened?” Steve asked, appearing at his elbow.

Dean shook his head. “I—my hand got weak all of a sudden, and I dropped that.”

The tool was still whirring at Dean’s feet. Steve crouched down and turned it off, then stood up again, looking at Dean with concern.

“How bad is that cut?” asked Sam.

“Not bad. I don’t think I’ll need stitches or anything.” Dean forced a smile, even though his hand was throbbing with pain.

“I’ll go tell Vivian,” Steve said. “That worries me, what you said about your hand getting weak.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Dean said, feeling his heart thump as he thought about how he still hadn’t told his family about his diagnosis.

“I’ll just run down to The Lighthouse Grill and let her know, if she’s there,” Steve said, peeling off his grease-covered work gloves. “If she’s not there, one of your sisters will be I’m sure.”

“Steve—” Dean started to protest, but Steve slipped out the door in the next instant.

“Hey, boss, how about you go clean off your hand and then sit down for a while, okay?” Sam was frowning with concern. “You look kind of pale. I’m worried you might pass out.”

Dean nodded, realizing that he was feeling even more lightheaded than before. He didn’t want to pass out—and he especially didn’t want to pass out in a room that was tightly packed with sharp tools and large metal objects.

He walked over to the office, and while Sam didn’t accompany him, Dean felt the eyes of all his employees on him as he went. He ducked inside the bathroom, where he washed out his cut and bandaged it.

As he was stepping out of the bathroom, he heard the voices of his mother and sisters. His eyebrows lifted as he stepped out of the office, surprised that they could get there that quickly, but sure enough, Julia, Alexis, and Vivian were all walking inside the shop, slightly out of breath as if they’d run there.

“Dean!” Alexis cried as soon as she saw him. She rushed to his side. “Steve told us that you dropped a tool and cut yourself. Are you okay?”

Dean held up his bandaged hand. “I’m fine.” He forced a smile. “It’s not that deep of a cut at all.”

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