Page 64 of A Brambleberry Summer

What had she done? With all her heart, she wished she could go downstairs, knock on his door and tell Wyattshewas the one lying now.

I do not have feelings for you. It is impossible. You are the brother of my friend and you are my tenant who will be leaving soon. That is all you are to me, Wyatt.

None of those words were true, of course. Or at least not the whole truth. She cared about Wyatt, more than any man she had ever known. She was falling in love with him. Here in the quiet solitude of her apartment, she could admit the truth.

She realized now that she had started to fall for him the first time she met Carrie’s brother with the sad eyes and the adorable little boy.

How could she not love him? He was everything good and kind she admired in a man. He was a loving father, a loyal brother, a dedicated detective. An honorable man.

That was the very reason she had no choice but to push him away. Wyatt deserved a woman with no demons. Someone courageous and good.

If he knew the truth about her and her choices, he would quickly see how wrong he was about her.

The walls of the house did not embrace her with comfort, as they usually did.

Somehow, it felt cold and even sad. For some ridiculous reason, Rosa felt as if she had faced some sort of test and she had failed spectacularly.

It was a silly feeling, she knew. Houses could not be sad.

Fiona lifted her head suddenly and gazed off at nothing, then whimpered for no reason. Rosa frowned. There was no such thing as ghosts, either. And absolutely no reason for her to feel guilty, as if she had failed Abigail somehow.

“I had to push him away,” she said aloud, though she wasn’t sure just who she was trying to convince. Fiona, Abigail or herself. “Someday he will see that I was right. He will be glad I at least could see that we cannot be together.”

Fiona huffed out a breath while Abigail said nothing, of course.

As for Rosa, her heart felt as if it was going to crack apart. She knew it would not. She had been through hard things before—she would figure out a way to survive this.

In a short time, he and his son would be moving out of Brambleberry House and back to their own home. As before, she would only see them occasionally. Maybe on the street, maybe at some town celebration. Maybe even at a party with Joe and Carrie. She could be polite and even friendly.

Wyatt did not ever need to know about these cracks in her heart, or how hard she found it to think about moving forward with her life without him, and without Logan.

Chapter Fourteen

Somehow, she wasn’t sure exactly how, Rosa made it through most of the next week without seeing either Logan or Wyatt.

They seemed to leave early in the morning and come back late at night. She could only guess they were hard at work on the part of renovations Wyatt was handling on their house and getting it ready for their move back.

This guess was confirmed when she came home for lunch one day and found a note tucked into her door.

Repairs to the house are done, the note said in bold, scrawling handwriting.We will be moving out tomorrow.Wyatt.

Rosa had to catch her breath as pain sliced through her at the brusque, clipped note and at the message it contained.

Tomorrow. A week earlier than he had planned. He must have spent every available moment trying to finish things in his eagerness to get out of her house and her life.

She returned to the store with a heavy heart but a sense of relief, as well. She could not begin to put back together the pieces of her life when he was living two floors below her.

Even when she did not see him or Logan, she was still constantly aware they were both so close and yet completely out of her reach.

When she walked into the store, she found Jen laughing at something with a customer. The change in her friend was remarkable. She looked bright and pretty and happy, a far cry from the withdrawn, frightened woman she had been when she first came to Cannon Beach.

Jen finished ringing up the customer with a genuine smile Rosa once had feared she would not see again.

“You are in a good mood,” she said.

“Yes. I heard from the online graduate program I’ve been in touch with. I’ve been accepted for fall semester and they’re offering a financial-aid package that will cover almost the whole tuition.”

“That’s terrific! Oh, Jen. I’m so happy for you. How will you juggle teaching, graduate school and Addie at the same time?”

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