Page 24 of Midnight Clear

He nodded and led her to a park bench on the other side of the skating rink. The music wasn’t as loud there, and since the rink was closed there were fewer people and less chance of interruption.

“I’ve been thinking about the bookstore,” he said.

“Wait,” she said. “Let me go first. Please.”

“Okay,” he agreed.

“It’s just…this is hard for me, and I’d rather get it out.”

“It’s okay, Sophie. You can tell me anything. You can trust me.”

She sucked in a breath and held it there until her lungs burned because she knew she could trust him.

“I know I can,” she said. “You were right about the bookstore. About everything. I knew the moment I got notice from the city that I was fighting a losing battle. I would have had to win the lottery to be able to make all the necessary changes so I was up to code. I think I was hoping for a miracle, but I realized tonight that I couldn’t hold out any longer. It was stupid to throw away your offer so recklessly.”

She sipped her cider and felt the warmth trail all the way to her stomach. “It’s better that I somewhat have control of the situation. The shop is paid for, so if I sell it and my home I’d have a pretty good nest egg to try and figure some things out.”

“You’d sell your home?” he asked, feeling that there was something more she was trying to say.

“Yes,” she said. “I love having a bookstore. I’ve never imagined myself doing anything else. But maybe that’s a dream that’s not meant to be. And if so, Laurel Valley has just become too expensive to live. My mother said this might be my chance to discover dreams I never knew I wanted.”

“So you’re saying you’d sell your business and your house and just up and leave Laurel Valley?” he asked. He was trying to keep his voice even, but he knew he hadn’t been completely successful.

“I don’t see that I have a lot of choice,” she said.

“Don’t you?” he asked. “I’m hearing you say you’re going to give up everything you love and walk away. And when I say everything you love I’m including myself in that. You know it as well as I do that what we have is special. That it’s meant to last a lifetime. But you’re afraid.”

“I’m not afraid,” she said harshly.

“You are,” he said. “You’re afraid of what a future looks like where you’d have to depend on someone besides yourself. Because that’s what marriage and partnership is.”

“Marriage,” she said, her mouth dropping open.

Hank hadn’t meant to say that out loud, but now the cat was out of the bag.

“I know how important the bookstore is to you,” he said. “There’s a part of your family history that lives there. The good part of history. And I know holding on to that somehow balances the bad of who your father was. It’s how you’ve coped and I get that.

“When I first told you I wanted to buy the bookstore,” he said. “I’d looked at the books and I’d looked at profit/loss statements, and I read over the city’s demands. I looked at it as any businessman would. But I didn’t look at the heart of it. You’ve shown me the heart of that store and the heart of you over the past weeks. I understand it and I love you all the more for it.”

“Wha—” she started to say.

“I want to stand with you,” he said, cutting her off. “To fight with you and for you. The last thing I’d ever want to do is take away your heart. Which is why I believed if the two of us put our heads together, and O’Hara Construction stepped in, we could get everything up to code and replaced before the January deadline. We could certainly negotiate the terms of the deal to whatever suited you. And then after we took care of the business side of things I planned to ask you to marry me.

“But now you’re telling me you’re fine with selling your shop, your house, and leaving Laurel Valley to go off into the sunset to lick your wounds, not even seeming to care that I’ve laid out my entire soul for you to trample on and that you’d be taking my heart with you.”

Maybe he’d gone too far. But he’d never felt the level of hurt he was now experiencing.

“Wait a minute,” she said, coming to her feet. “So you’ve just been planning everything in your head and you’re dropping it all on me now? This is my entire life, and you’ve got it all worked out. I guess it’s all too complicated for me to get involved in. You were just going to wait until it was all settled and then you’d present it to me and expect me to be grateful? Oh, and then we can get married since you’ve got all my other problems worked out.”

“Soph,” Hank said, realizing there might have been some truth to what she was saying.

“No,” she said. “You talk about partnership, but this isn’t what partnership is to me. Where one person just takes care of everything and the other just goes along with it. I had enough confusion and worry and doubt tonight without this. Now I don’t know what to do. I need some time to think.”

“Soph,” he said again, but it was too late. She was already walking away.

ChapterTen

Hank staredout of the window in his father’s office, fascinated by the bony branches of the sycamore trees that surrounded his parents’ ranch. Twin Peaks jutted from behind the trees—snow covered and majestic—and pregnant gray clouds frothed low and ominous, seeping into the valleys. More snow would come before the next morning—Christmas morning.

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