Chesapeake Blue Read Online Free PDF

wasn't even close. Nice to meet you, Drusilla Whitcomb Banks." He held out a hand. "I'm Seth Quinn."
    Seth Quinn. She laid her hand in his automatically and did her own rapid readjustment. Not a face she'd seen around town, she realized, but one she'd seen in a magazine. No housepainter, despite the old jeans and faded shirt, but an artist. The local boy who'd become the toast of Europe.
    "I admire your work," she told him.
    "Thanks. I admire yours. And I'm probably keeping you from it. I'm going to make it worth your while. I've got some ladies to impress. You can help me out."
    "Ladies? Plural?"
    "Yeah. Three, no four," he corrected, thinking of Aubrey.
    "It's a wonder you have time to paint, Mr. Quinn."
    "Seth. I manage."
    "I bet you do." Certain types of men always managed. "Cut flowers, arrangements or plants?"
    "Ah… cut flowers, in a nice box. More romantic, right? Let me think." He calculated route and time, and decided he'd drop by to see Sybill first. "Number one is sophisticated, chic, intellectual and practical-minded, with a soft-gooey center. Roses, I guess."
    "If you want to be predictable."
    He looked back at Dru. "Let's be unpredictable."
    "Just a moment. I have something in the back you should like." Something out here I like, he thought as she turned toward the rear door. He gave his heart a little pat.
    Phillip, Seth thought as he wandered the shop, would approve of the classic, clean lines of that ripening, peach-colored suit she wore. Ethan, he imagined, would wonder how to give her a hand with all the work that must go into running the place. And Cam… well, Cam would take one long look at her and grin. Seth supposed he had bits of all three of them inside him. She came back carrying an armload of streamlined and exotic flowers with waxy blooms the color of eggplant.
    "Calla lilies," she told him. "Elegant, simple, classy and in this color spectacular."
    "You nailed her."
    She set them in a cone-shaped holding vase. "Next?"
    "Warm, old-fashioned in the best possible way." Just thinking of Grace made him smile. "Simple in the same way. Sweet but not sappy, and with a spine of steel."
    "Tulips," she said and walked to a clear-fronted, refrigerated cabinet. "In this rather tender pink. A quiet flower that's sturdier than it looks," she added as she brought them over for him to see.
    "Bingo. You're good."
    "Yes, I am." She was enjoying herself now—not just for the sale, but for the game of it. This was the reason she'd opened the shop. "Number three?"
    Aubrey, he thought. How to describe Aubrey. "Young, fresh, fun. Tough and unstintingly loyal."
    "Hold on." With the image in mind, Dru breezed into the back again. And came out with a clutch of sunflowers with faces as wide as a dessert plate.
    "Jesus, they're perfect. You're in the right business, Drusilla."
    It was, she thought, the finest of compliments. "No point in being in the wrong one. And since you're about to break my record for single walk-in sales, it's Dru."
    "Nice."
    "And the fourth lucky woman?"
    "Bold, beautiful, smart and sexy. With a heart like…" Anna's heart, he thought. "With a heart beyond description. The most amazing woman I've ever known."
    "And apparently you know quite a few. One minute." Again, she went into the back. He was admiring the sunflowers when Dru came back with Asiatic lilies in triumphant scarlet.
    "Oh man. They're so Anna." He reached out to touch one of the vivid red petals. "So completely Anna. You've just made me a hero."
    "Happy to oblige. I'll box them, and tie ribbons on each that coordinate with the color of the flowers inside. Can you keep them straight?"
    "I think I can handle it."
    "Cards are included. You can pick what you like from the rack on the counter."
    "I won't need cards." He watched her fit water-filled nipples on the end of the stems. No wedding ring, he noted. He'd have painted her regardless, but if she'd been married it would have put an end to the rest of his plans.
    "What flower are