Page 5 of The Story of Us
“How does that sound to you?” Dana smiled.
“That sounds great.” Count him in. He’d do pretty much anything for a real job with real benefits. Something that would let him settle down in a realhome. He had so many frequent flyer miles that he could’ve probably flown to the moon and back for free. First class.
“Good.” The matter all settled, Dana nodded.
Sawyer wished he shared her confidence that his presence in Waterford would make a legitimate difference in the council’s decision. What was he supposed to do—dust off his old letter jacket and remind all the locals that back in high school, he’d been crowned homecoming king? As marketing strategies went, it wasn’t exactly a solid one. Besides, shouldn’t his architectural plan be good enough to stand on its own merits?
But he’d make it work. Sawyer’s closest friend, Rick, still lived in their hometown, so at least he’d have a comfortable place to stay, plus a respected local business owner to vouch for him. Towns that had been on the map for a while weren’t always keen to roll out the welcome mat for real estate developers. Having Rick on his side couldn’t hurt.
Sawyer had his work cut out for him, hometown connections or not. He could do this, though. He had to. Living out of a suitcase and working on projects all over the country was beginning to wear on him. He’d spent the last three Christmases in three different cities, and he wasn’t sure he could even name them off the top of his head. He just needed to get to Waterford, convince the council to approve his plans for the redesign and then he could hightail it back to Portland.
Permanently.
Besides, it was only a few days out of his life. How hard could it be?
After breaking the news about the town council meeting to Aunt Anita, Jamie returned to True Love Books and did her best to put on a happy face. She unboxed the latest shipment of romance novels and put together a new Valentine’s Day display, complete with paper flowers she and Lucy had made one night while sharing a bottle of rosé. They’d used pages from vintage books to make the petals, and the end result was a dreamy bouquet of words, perfect to accompany the new selection of romantic reads.
Even Jane Eyre roses weren’t enough to make her forget about the blue flier tucked into the pocket of her dress, though. She kept taking it out and reading it again, just in case she’d missed some crucial detail.
None of this escaped Lucy’s notice, of course. The first few times Jamie succumbed to the urge to re-read the flier, Lucy didn’t say anything. She polished the glass cake stands on the bookshop’s café counter until they shone and busied herself with arranging pink-frosted cupcakes into a perfect pyramid, until she apparently could no longer hold her tongue.
“Maybe it won’t be that bad?” she ventured, peering over Jamie’s shoulder at the paper in her hand. Jamie had unfolded and refolded it so many times that it was beginning to look like bad origami. “I mean, the flier only says they’re discussing a project.”
Jamie turned to face Lucy and finally released the sigh she couldn’t hold in any longer. “This happened a few years ago in Tanner Falls. Some developers came in and said they were going to do some ‘improvements.’” Good grief, she was using air quotes.Caution: now entering full rant mode. “They wiped out all of the stores in the business district and then built them back up to look like something out of an H. G. Wells novel.”
Lucy’s eyes lit up. She’d always been a big fan ofThe Time Machine.Jamie sort of wished she had one of those, so she could go back to this morning and ignore her stack of mail entirely.
She held up a preemptive finger. “And not one of the cool ones.”
They weren’t talkingThe Time Machine. The developers had gone completelyWar of the Worldscrazy on poor Tanner Falls. It was almost unrecognizable. People who’d been in business for years no longer had a place in the trendy, new version of a town that no longer resembled itself.
“Well, if they do go forward with something like that, they at least have to buy you out.” Lucy gave her a tentative smile.
She had a point. Still, Jamie’s passion for her bookstore went way beyond the financial ramifications of being forced to close up shop. “But I’d still lose the store, and I’ve dreamed about owning this place since I worked here in high school. It’s the reason I fell in love with reading and writing and storytelling. I don’t want another store. I want True Love.”
This place had been a haven for Jamie, her own personal paradise, for as long as she could remember. She’d been just a little girl the first time she’d walked through True Love’s door, but the comfort of being surrounded by all those love stories was a feeling she’d never forget. Mr. Ogilvy, the prior owner, used to let her go there after school every day and read for hours. The first chapter book she’d finished, cover to cover, had been a beautifully illustrated hardback edition ofLittle Women. She could still remember the smell of its pages and the soothing weight of it in her hands, as if she’d been holding onto a whole new world of happy-ever-afters.
As soon as she’d turned sixteen, she’d begged Mr. Ogilvy for a job. She’d loved working at True Love so much back then, she would’ve done it for free.
Shestillwould, if not for pesky little details like her mortgage, groceries, utilities and Eliot’s premium cat food. Only the best for her favorite ginger! No offense to Prince Harry, always a close second.
“Come on.” Lucy took her by the wrist and began dragging her away from her Valentine’s display.
Jamie lost her grip on the blue flier, and it floated toward the floor. Eliot, ever vigilant, did a little butt wiggle and then pounced on it.
Jamie groaned in protest, but Lucy was relentless. She grabbed Jamie’s red coat and flung it at her, all the while maintaining a firm grip on her arm. “I know something that’s going to make you feel better.”
Doubtful…highlydoubtful.
But she didn’t have much of a choice, and honestly, Jamie was up for anything that might get her mind off of real estate developers, even if only for a minute or two. So she shrugged into her coat and let Lucy steer her toward the set of French doors at the back of the store that led to the courtyard behind True Love Books.
She breathed a little easier once they were outside. The courtyard was one of Jamie’s favorite places in all of Waterford, not only because it had been her own creation, but because at its center stood the oldest tree in the business district. The Oregon ash was over two hundred years old, with a trunk so thick that Jamie couldn’t even wrap her arms all the way around it. She’d been reading books beneath the shade of its branches since she’d first learned how to decipher words on a page—for so long that the tree had become a loving symbol. Not just of Waterford’s past, but of the promise of its future, as well.
That tree was timeless.
Jamie’s first order of business after she’d taken over True Love Books was to clear out the area around the old ash tree and make it into a wonderland of twinkle lights, lush potted ferns and cozy café tables. Ballet-pink roses from Anita’s Flowers decorated every surface, floating in glass bowls. The overall effect was like something out of a fairytale—just what Jamie had been hoping for.
“Is that Jason?” She peered through a cluster of greenery at an Asian man in his late twenties, sitting at one of the tables opposite a pretty young woman whose dark hair was twisted into stylish updo.
