Page 41 of Choosing Happily Ever After

“But, Hope, that’s—”

“No.” She shook her head and looked at her feet. “I need you to go. This is all hard enough.”

She refused to look up. She refused to meet his eyes because she knew exactly what she would see there and she knew it would break her resolve. “Please,” she said quietly. “Just go.” Hope waited until she could hear his footsteps and then finally the closing of the door as he left.

It was only then that she let the tears she was only barely holding back slide down her face. She didn’t know whether she’d made the right decision or not. But she knew if she’d let him, Levi would have declared his loyalty to her, despite whatever it was he dreamed of doing. He would put his whole life on hold for her, and as much as she wanted him by her side, she would never be able to look at him and not feel bad for what he’d chosen because of her.

She wasn’t sure how long she stood there, letting the sadness fill her, threatening to break her. But finally, when her sister pulled her into a hug, she didn’t resist, but let herself melt into Faith’s embrace and cry.

ChapterTwelve

Faith

Faith should have been thrilledthat they had two whole weeks without any weddings to worry about. And she might have been if she wasn’t so worried about her sister. Hope had hardly left her room in the two days since Levi had come over and more or less ambushed her in the kitchen, demanding answers. And yes, Faith did feel a little bad about that, but not really. Hope owed him the truth. And even if it had broken his heart, it was probably for the best that he knew what was really going on.

Faith had also secretly hoped that it would make Hope feel better or at least talking to Levi directly to his face would make her change her mind on…well, everything. But she’d underestimated her sister’s stubbornness.

And of course, Hope’s falling out with Levi also meant that he was no longer helping out at the ranch. As far as Faith was concerned, that might be the biggest problem with her sister’s decision. At least in the short term, because Hope had decided that a reprieve in hosting actual weddings was a good opportunity for Faith to take inventory of everything they had in the storage shed.

It was a job that she was absolutely positive wouldn’t have been assigned if Levi were around. Or even if it was, at least he’d be there to help her out. As it was, the assignment was definitely not helping her feel any better about the entire wedding business. Quite the opposite. The sheer quantity of supplies that Hope had acquired was insane. Even more mind-boggling was the apparent organizational system that her sister had. Which, from what Faith could tell, wasn’t really much of a system at all.

She stood with her hands on her hips, staring at the shelves where the chair covers were held, and shook her head. There appeared to be about ten different shades of blue in there. With a deep sigh, Faith reached for one and tugged, pulling it free from the stack, only narrowly avoiding the rest of the fabric from tumbling down.

“Now, is this royal blue or peacock blue?” She held the material at arm’s length before tossing it to the side and reaching for another one. This time she didn’t have the same luck, and the entire shelf of blue chair covers toppled down at her.

Faith muttered a string of curses as she extracted herself from the sea of blue that covered her feet. “Screw this.” She turned and walked away from the mess and out the door of the storage shed into the spring sunshine.

It was way too beautiful of a day to be spent inside that dingy little shed anyway.

And that’s exactly what she’d tell her sister—if she asked. Faith glanced toward the house as she made her way to Hope’s SUV parked in the yard. The curtains to her sister’s room were still closed. No doubt she was still up there, poring over the artificial insemination information in an effort to convince herself that she was doing the right thing. Either way, Hope wasn’t likely to notice if Faith took off.

Besides, it’s not like she was her boss.

Well, not really anyway.

Faith found a parking spot just off Main Street and was just putting the vehicle in park when her cell phone chirped with an incoming message.

Talk to me, Faith. I miss you.

Faith shook her head and pressed her lips together.

Noah had texted her almost every day since she’d left. The messages had all been different. Some long, telling her about things at the office, and the cases she used to be assigned to. Some short, with just an emoji or little message. And then there’d been ones more like this one. With a short, but pointed message.

She hadn’t replied to any of them.

Faith stuck her phone into her purse and slipped from the vehicle. She knew she was being cowardly, and she knew that Noah deserved better from her. But the problem was, she didn’t know what exactly it was that Noah deserved from her. She’d been honest from the beginning. She didn’tdorelationships. She never wanted one with him. Not with anyone. It wasn’t her fault he’d gotten attached. It wasn’t her fault that he’d ignored everything she’d said and tried to make her into something she wasn’t. She couldn’t be responsible for that. Because the truth was, she’d never misled Noah. She’d always known that it was only one thing she wanted from him.

Liar.

Faith pulled her purse higher on her shoulder and wound her way through the parking lot to the front of the hardware store, pushing the little voice in the back of her head down. She didn’t have time to think about how Noah may or may not be handling her absence. She had her sister to worry about. And like it or not, she also had Ever After Ranch to worry about. And that needed to be her priority.

She worked her way through the aisles of the hardware store, collecting the items she’d been looking for. Faith had no idea how long she would be working with Hope at the ranch, but something told her it was going to be longer than she’d originally expected. And if that was the case, she was going to change a few things. At least the things that were going to help her stay organized.

Equipped with a stack of large plastic totes all with colored lids and a label maker, fifteen minutes later, Faith pushed her way outside, balancing the totes in front of her. A little too late, she realized she probably should have taken the cart because she couldn’t see anything, but it seemed like more work to go back into the store than to just manage and get back to the car.

Of course, that was easier said than done when a moment later, Faith ran smack into something—or as it turned out, someone—and her carefully balanced stack of totes tumbled to the ground.

“Shit.” She instantly dropped to her knees to try to collect her things. “Are you okay?” She threw the question over her shoulder without looking up.

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