But shhh! she had to keep the secret for everyone else.

So she was good at keeping quiet and she continued the practice as she ducked into her car, turned the key, then slipped it into reverse.

Not putting voice to her questions for Finn didn’t make them disappear, though. Just as wishing her memories of him to a cobwebbed shelf in the back corner of her brain didn’t immediately send them there either.

But the fact that he didn’t appear the least bit affected by her presence-or their past-should make the banishments not far off. Just, say, five minutes away.

Before that could happen, though, a knock on her driver’s door window made her jump. The one-eyed pirate who was moments from being out of her mind forever was giving her another expressionless look from his one dark eye.

Bailey unrolled the window, trying to appear as if she’d already forgotten who he was and what they’d once meant to each other.

It certainly appeared as if he had.

“Yes?” she asked. “Did you want something?”

“Just checking.”

She frowned at him. “Checking for what?”

“That you’re still into skipping good-byes.” And then he turned, leaving without another word.

She put the pedal to the metal and got out of there as quick as she could too.

Her palm smacked the steering wheel as she drove off. He had to do it, didn’t he? Just when she was sure she could parlay his disinterest into her own, he had to make that little crack.

God, she hoped it was a wear-her-heels-down day at the store. Not just because they needed the business, but because without that, she was lost. Without a steady stream of spending customers, it was a damn certainty she wasn’t going to be able to think of anything or anyone but Finn.

Finn Jacobson stalked back into his grandmother’s kitchen, pissed off at himself for making that last remark-almost as pissed off as he was at Bailey. The fact that he was feeling anything toward her at all made his back teeth grind and the bones around his missing eye ache like a bitch.