Page 84 of The Friendly Fall

“I’m going to let you handle this,” Granny mutters, shaking her head at me. “If you need backup though, just holler.”

The sight of Devon is not a welcome one, and I feel absolutely nothing as he walks toward me, his face a mess with emotions. I stare at him with the most unwelcome look on my face, wondering why in the world he’s even here.

“Hey,” he says cooly, though I swear his lip trembles.

It’s not a good look on him.

“Why are you here, Devon?” I demand. “I told you, I’m over this. Idon’twant to be with you.” I have no problem being blunt this go-around. I need to go find Nick and make everything right.

“Eliza, why won’t you just hear me out?” he begins, folding his arms across his chest. “I know that you say you’re over it, but it was only a few months ago that you were basically begging me to marry you, and it just … I don’t know. Once you quit reaching out,I realized how much I miss you being around. Our apartment feels …empty.”

“Get a dog,” I snap, glaring. “I’m not going back to Chicago.”

“Don’t be childish, Liz,” he snips right back at me. “You know the opportunities in this town are minimal. You can dosomuch more with your life. You don’t belong in some deadbeat town.”

“It’s not a deadbeat town. Ilikethis town. In fact…” I pause, glancing back to my granny’s house. “Ilovethis town. For the first time in my life, I actually feel like I belong somewhere. It’s taken me nearly thirty years to figure it out, but I finally did. And I think the whole problem is that I spent the last eight years trying to be whateveryouwanted me to be.”

“Don’t say that,” he urges. “Ineverasked you to change who you are.”

“No, I guess not directly,” I huff, my shoulders dropping. “But you said it in all the ways that you told me I wasn’t doing enough orbeingenough. And honestly, I think the truth is … we were never meant to be.”

His brows shoot up. “You don’t even sound like the same person.”

“Maybe because I’m not,” I say softly. “People change, and when I stopped worrying about losingus, I finally found me. I also found the right person for me too.”

“That guy back at the hardware store? The one in the pictures?” Devon looks unamused. “You can’t be serious. I mean, he’s a niceguy … but come on, I know you only put those pictures with him on your page so I’d see them.”

I laugh, shaking my head. “Are you kidding me? Noteverythingis about you, Devon. I put those up to help grow my photography business, and quite frankly, I don’t even care what you think about them. My life doesn’t revolve around you anymore. I’m over us. There isnous, actually.”

He stands there, quiet for a few moments. “I…” His voice trails off, and the hurt on his face tugs at my heartstrings for a split second. Not because I still love him, but because I think for the first time, he actually understands that we’re over. “I’m just … I’m sorry, Eliza.”

I raise my brows, taken by surprise. “I don’t know why you’re apologizing.”

“Because I messed it up for us, I guess. I didn’t know what I had until it was gone, and now you’re in love with someone else. It sucks.”

I nod. “It does, but you’ll find your person when the timing is right … and I hope you don’t let that opportunity pass you by.”

“Yeah,” he says, glancing down at a black box in his hand that I didn’t even realize was there. “I guess I just saw those pictures and had a moment of rash insanity. I know that we’re not ever going to work. We’re just … too different.”

I shrug. “At least we figured it out before that.” I gesture to the ring box. If he had shown up with that thing a few months ago, I would’ve been elated and ran right back to Chicago to be with him, but…

Today, I felt nothing when I saw it.

“I hope I didn’t screw things up for you,” Devon says, meeting my gaze. “I had no idea that you were in love with the guy—and I probably did more damage than good at the store … which is probably why he sent me running all over the town.”

“What?” I blink, trying to understand.

“The guy at the hardware store—the one in the pictures—he gave me directions to get here and instead of sending me the most direct way, he sent me on a wild goose chase. I don’t think there was even any construction to avoid.”

I can’t help but laugh, thinking of Nick doing that…

However, it fades quickly as I put everything together in my head.

Oh my gosh.

“I have to go,” I say quickly, spinning around andrunningto the workshop. I don’t care that Devon is still standing there, gawking at me like I’m crazy. I burst through the workshop door and grab the letter I wrote to Nick.

I have no idea what Nick saw to make him think that I was getting back with Devon, but Ihaveto fix this.

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