Page 107 of If Tomorrow Never Comes

“Okay. I’ll, um, see you Wednesday.”

She took several deep breaths, in through her nose and out through her mouth. Shaking, she stood and turned back to her apartment, struggling for a few seconds to unlock the door. As soon as it closed behind her, she sank back to the floor. She tucked her knees to her chest and stared blankly into her living room.

She remained there for several minutes, heart racing and mind spinning.It’s back. It has to be. I thought I was done with all this—the chemo, the weekly labs, the symptoms and side effects. And now I have to do this all again.Hot tears spilled over, and she wept until she had nothing left.

Drained and overwhelmed, she picked up her phone and dialed the first person that came to mind.

“Can I come over?”

Chapter Thirty-One

Jamie

“Dude. What’s wrong with you?”

Jamie looked up from the pots of yellow and orange chrysanthemums. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve been watering the same flowers for twenty minutes,” Ian said. “That pallet’s gonna have to go to the clearance section if you keep that up. Can’t sell plants with root rot.”

Jamie blinked and glanced down. Sure enough, water was spilling over the rims, the soil too saturated to absorb more. “Shit, sorry.” He switched off the sprayer and tossed the hose aside, wiping his hands on his jeans. “I guess I’m a little distracted.”

Ian crossed his arms and leaned against a table packed with ornamental cabbage. “You’ve been quiet all day. Everything okay?”

“Just a lot on my mind, I guess.” A nonanswer.

“Anything I can do to help?”

“Nah, but I appreciate it. Just some personal stuff I need to work through.”

Apart from his sister and mother, Ian was the only person Jamie’d told about Elliott. He didn’t know the whole story, though—just thatthey’d recently started dating—and despite his longstanding friendship with Ian, he didn’t want to get into the details right now.

Ian nodded. “Want to take a break? I could use some coffee and one of those chocolate croissants from Blythe’s.”

“Do you really want a croissant, or are you giving me an excuse to visit with my sister-slash-therapist?”

“Does it matter?”

“I guess not.” He clapped Ian on the shoulder, giving it a squeeze ofthanksas he passed. “Be back in a bit.”

Melt My Tart was only ten minutes from the nursery, and Jamie was lucky enough to snag a parallel spot right in front of the bakery. He’d come in the middle of the afternoon lull, and the café was empty, except for one of the college students Blythe had hired sitting at the counter.

“Hi, can I help you?”

“Yeah, is Blythe here?”

“Sure, hang on a sec.” She disappeared around the corner and returned with Blythe on her heels.

Blythe raised a brow. “Ian send you to pick up his afternoon coffee and pastry?”

“Jeez, does he come in here that often?”

“Almost every day.” She grabbed the tongs and bagged a croissant before turning to the coffee pots.

Jamie snorted. “I hope you charge him extra.”

“He’s your boss, brother. His coffee’s always free.”

“He was my friend first. You don’t need to do that.”

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