Page 67 of The Story of Us
She walked slowly to the podium, and both Sawyer and Dana stepped aside to give her some space at the lectern. She wanted to get this right—neededto get it right. There were so many emotions tumbling around inside her, she didn’t quite trust herself to speak without breaking down.
But she had to. Sawyer had done the impossible. He’d paved a way toward a future…for both of them and for Waterford. There was no way she could let the meeting adjourn until she let the council, and the town itself, know how she felt.
“Hi. As most of you know, I have been leading the opposition to the redesign. To me, there is a magic to the history of this place.” She held her arms out, encompassing everyone in the room. “In the story of us.”
A muscle in Sawyer’s jaw visibly tensed, and Jamie realized he was nervous.
So she fixed her gaze with his and said, “However, that doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice our future. And after looking at Mr. O’Dell’snewdesigns, I believe he’s found a way to bridge the divide. For which I am profoundly grateful.”
Her voice broke, and something inside her broke along with it. She was so tired of fighting… All this time, she’d thought she had been fighting for True Love, and in a way she had been, but she’d also been fighting against it—against the feelings she had for Sawyer, her one true love. She couldn’t do it anymore. She was ready to concede.
Her heart raced, and this time, when butterflies took flight in her tummy, she welcomed them. “So for what it’s worth, theredesign from Ridley has my full support.”
Everyone clapped. Someone let out a loud whoop, which Jamie suspected came from Rick.
“Clearly, your support is worth a great deal, Ms. Vaughn,” Eric said, picking up his gavel again. “If there are no objections, we would like to table the discussion until next week. But, as for me, I agree with Ms. Vaughn. I like it.”
The gavel came down, and just like that, true love won.
The second Eric banged his gavel, Sawyer was swept up in a wave of congratulations and effusive gratitude. Beth insisted on taking half a dozen selfies with him so she could scrapbook the moment at the next craft class at her hobby store. Chuck and his father said they wanted him to be the first person to toss a pizza up in the air in the special window display. Olga even promised him free ballet lessons. At long last, all of Waterford welcomed him back with open arms.
It felt good—better than he ever could have imagined. He wanted to stay and soak it all up, but he couldn’t help craning his neck and peering over heads in search of Jamie. They needed to talk, obviously. She’d thrown her public support behind the proposal, and he was pretty sure she might be willing to go on that Valentine’s dinner date with him now, but she was nowhere to be seen. She seemed to have vanished into thin air once the meeting had adjourned.
He tried to not panic. He’d find her. He’d search every square inch of Waterford looking for her if he had to, but there was still one more very important detail to be settled first.
He felt a hand land on his shoulder as he wrapped up a conversation with a few members of the town council and turned to find Dana waiting to speak with him. Good. He wouldn’t be able to face Jamie until he got this out of the way.
“Sawyer, congratulations. I feel confident that we’ll be welcoming you to Ridley Properties very soon,” she said.
They were the words Sawyer had been waiting to hear for months.Years, actually. A permanent job at Ridley would give him the security and stability he’d been searching for all his adult life. No more living out of a suitcase, no more moving from one town to the next every few years as he’d done when he’d been a child. Living in Portland full-time was everything he’d wanted.
But now he wanted something different, something more.
“Thank you, Dana. Thank you for everything, especially all your support tonight.” He’d been sort of stunned when she’d agreed to present the revised plan, especially on such short notice—which made rejecting a job at Ridley all the more difficult. “But…”
Her eyebrows rose. “But?”
In all the time Sawyer had known Dana, she’d always seemed entirely calm and collected. Nothing and no one caught her by surprise, but apparently, he just had. She blinked slowly at him as if waiting for him to tell her he’d misspoken.
He took a deep breath and did his best to explain. “You said that one of the things you liked about my work was my ability to anticipate the client’s needs.”
She pasted on a smile. “Which you just demonstrated.”
“But I think that it’s time for me to listen to my own needs. And I need to makea home, a real home.” He wanted it all—the house, the white picket fence—and Jamie Vaughn…ifshe would have him. Either way, this was where he belonged. It always had been, and it always would be. “And I would like it to be in Waterford.”
Dana let out a huge breath and shook her head, visibly relieved. “And you think that prevents you from working at Ridley?”
He narrowed his gaze at her. “Doesn’t it?”
“Sawyer, you just pulled off a tremendous success that goes far beyond your talent for architecture. I’m not letting you go that easily. You want to be in Waterford?” She waved a hand at the people still milling about the town hall.Hispeople.Histown. “Fine.”
Sawyer didn’t know what to say. He just stared at her, dumbfounded. He’d been ready to give up everything to build a life in Waterford…to stay. And now Dana was telling him he might not have to give up anything at all. It seemed too good to be true.
“You have to be here while the project goes forward, anyway. Afterward, we’ll renegotiate. And I anticipate that it will go very well.” She gave him a rare, broad smile. Coming from Dana, it was all the assurance he needed. “For both of us.”
Then she patted his shoulder and walked away, finally leaving him free to find Jamie—except he still couldn’t catch a glimpse of her angelic smile or her halo of blond waves anywhere. He thought for certain she’d be busy chatting with her aunt or Lucy and Rick, who’d been making googly eyes at each other for two days straight, but the three of them stood off to the side together, watching him in a way that gave him pause.
He tucked his hands into the pockets of his suit jacket and strolled over to them, taking the bait. “Where’s Jamie?”
