Page 63 of The Story of Us
Always.
Sawyer could have written the letter himself. He felt the same way about Jamie as Harrison had about Mary. He and Jamie had been separated by more than just miles—they’d been separated by time. More than a decade. Still, he’d always held her in his heart—so deeply that he hadn’t been able to have a real relationship with anyone else. He understood that now. He hadn’t been able to fall in love because he wasalreadyin love. With Jamie.
But if their love was true, wouldn’t it somehow find a way?
Could it still?
Sawyer’s jaw clenched. He closed his eyes for moment and wondered if he’d been a fool to believe that he and Jamie could somehow overcome the obstacle of the Ridley project.
He wanted to believe love would find a way. He just didn’t know how. But then…
He opened his eyes and lifted his gaze skyward, and he saw the tree—the beautiful old oak that Harrison and Mary had so painstakingly crafted their bookstore around—and it seemed like a sign.
If Harrison and Mary could build around the tree, couldn’t he do the same? Couldn’t he build something new while preserving history at the same time?
He sat for a moment, thinking about all the hours he’d put into the architectural plans for Ridley—starting over completely after his first proposal was rejected. He and Dana had spent months debating every single detail. The town council had already seen the drawings, the PowerPoint presentation and the scale model he’d spent weeks putting together. Scrapping everything now and starting over from scratch would be crazy, if not impossible. The council meeting was scheduled for tomorrow!
It just couldn’t be done.
But Harrison’s letter came back to him, again and again.
As long as you continue to believe in me, believe inus, I know we can overcome any obstacle, no matter how great.
Sawyer believed in Jamie, and he believed in their future. So he grabbed a paper napkin and a pen from his messenger bag and started sketching.
He drew for hours, barely noticing when the crowd around him grew thin. One napkin turned into two, then two into four, until he’d come up with a rough sketch of the entire business district, stitched together on coffee shop paper goods.
It could work.Maybe. But he was going to need to pack up and head back to Rick’s house so he could have access to his laptop and electronic drawing tablet.
He drained his cup and stood, because he also needed something else—a heaping dose of caffeine. He had a long night ahead of him.
At closing time, Jamie tucked Eliot into his purple kitty carrier, locked up and headed home without a backward glance. She didn’t run her fingertips over the rows of books on the shelves like she sometimes did, silently wishing them goodnight, nor did she polish the big jade leaves of the waterfall orchids like Anita had taught her to do. She didn’t even pack up the pretty chiffon dress and kitten heels she’d planned on wearing out to dinner with Sawyer.
For once, she just wanted to get away—to leave True Love Books and go someplace else. Or maybe she needed practice walking away from the place she loved more than anywhere else on earth. Because like it or not, that’s what she was going to have to do. She’d tried her best to save her shop, but she no longer had a choice. Come tomorrow, she was going to be forced to sign the contract with Ridley. If she didn’t, she’d be left with nothing—not even enough money to rebuild.
It was nauseating. Thinking about it made her physically ill, so once she got home, she decided to skip dinner. Instead, she burrowed beneath a pile of blankets on the sofa with Eliot and her computer.
Fighting for True Love had left her little to no time for writing, but a day or two ago, she’d been struck with sudden inspiration and had started something new, something unlike anything she’d written before. She couldn’t get Mary and Harrison out of her head. Their love letters were so tender, so special. How amazing would it be if she could write a romance novel based on their love story?
Eliot stretched out beside her to meticulously groom his front legs as she opened her laptop to read the notes she’d typed up when the idea for the new manuscript first struck her.
The Story of Us
Novel idea
Mary and Harris
Point of view? Maybe switch between?
Life story? Love story?
Jamie’s hands hovered over the keyboard, but she couldn’t bring herself to actually type anything, even though deep in her heart she knew that this was it—this was the story she wanted to tell.
But right now, it just hurt too much. She couldn’t do it, because somewhere along the way, she’d started thinking of Mary and Harrison as reflections of her and Sawyer. Reading their letters had been like looking in a mirror.
And now, she’d probably see Sawyer tomorrow for the last time—right at the moment when she lost everything that mattered most to her. This time, it was her choice to end things between them, even if it was one she’d never wanted to make. At least she hadn’t simply waited around for him to leave her again. She’d made the difficult choice, the right choice to protect herself. To protect her heart.
And you ended up heartbroken anyway.
