Page 16 of The Story of Us
Jamie’s entire body quivered with indignation. She crossed her arms as aggressively as she could. “Yourdesigns?”
He glanced at Anita and then back at Jamie, wincing. “Yeah…”
And then, much to Jamie’s annoyance, he fled. He beat a hasty path to the head of the room and started chatting with Dana and Councilman Eric while gesturing to the spaceship model.
Correction:hisspaceship model.
“Are you all right?” Anita rested gentle fingertips on Jamie’s elbow.
She wasn’t all right. She wasn’t fine anymore, either. Far from it.
How could she have been so blind? She really should have seen this coming. She’d asked Sawyer point-blank why he was in Waterford, and he’d never answered the question. He wasn’t a Jane Austen hero at all. He could recite all the Shakespeare he wanted, but that didn’t mean Jamie knew him anymore. He was practically a stranger.
Sawyer laughed at something the councilman said and Jamie glared at him. “I guess we’ll find out.”
Chapter Five
An hour later, Jamie wasback at True Love, sipping a latte so beautiful that it was more of a work of art than a simple coffee drink.
Either Aunt Anita had given Lucy a heads up about the Sawyer situation or her best friend intuition was simply really spot-on, because the moment Jamie crossed the threshold, Lucy was ready and waiting with a giant latte cup in each hand. Each of the drinks was topped with a perfect heart swirled into the foam—a feat that had taken Lucyweeksto perfect once Jamie had invested in a gorgeous stainless-steel espresso maker for the store. Now True Love sold more coffee drinks than the diner down the street.
People liked romance. They liked hearts swirled into their foam and visiting a shop that was as much a love letter to the community as it was a bookstore. But all of that would change if Sawyer got his way.
Jamie sipped her latte and pored over the details of the proposed Ridley project on her iPad while Lucy rang up customers. She’d been right to be worried about the plans for the redesign. The model of the spaceship building was slated to be the new centerpiece of Waterford’s business district, and Ridley wanted to put it on the exact corner that True Love currently occupied.
“There you go. Enjoy!” Lucy said as she handed another of her frothy lattes to a customer, along with one of Rick’s decorated sugar cookies.
“I knew it,” Jamie said once the door shut behind the customer. “They’re wiping out all of the stores.”
She placed the iPad on the sales counter and turned it so Lucy could get a proper view of the architectural plans.
Lucy swept crumbs from the countertop and glanced at the tablet.
“Just like Tanner Falls,” Jamie said for added emphasis.
“Really?” Lucy pulled a face.
“Yep. And Sawyer is a part of it.” Abigpart. Huge. As in, he was the literal architect of her worst nightmare. “I cannot believe he didn’t tell me.”
Lucy tilted her head, thinly veiled amusement dancing in her eyes. “How long did you two date?”
Jamie wasn’t entirely sure how to answer that question. Until he’d broken up with her and left Waterford, it seemed as if Sawyer had always been a part of her life. “Well, we met in the eighth grade but didn’t start dating until our sophomore year.”
Lucy’s gaze narrowed. “Were you Prom Queen and King?”
“He was king.” Sawyer had always been the popular one. Jamie, not so much. “I was the girl who stayed late in the library, focusing on my books and studies.”
Lucy laughed. “Of course you were.”
“Yeah, you would think those differences would’ve driven us apart, especially being so young. But…” Her heart gave a bittersweet tug. “That wasn’t until after graduation.”
“What happened?”
Jamie took a deep breath. “Well, right before he left for college, he came to me to give me this big speech about how we were way too young to be so serious, especially with him going off to Columbia and me staying here at Reed. You know, we had our ‘whole futures to consider.’ We broke up. And that was that.”
Thatwasn’tthat. Not exactly. She’d not-so-casually left out the part about being a heartbroken mess for the whole summer after that painful conversation.
Sawyer had been the love of her life back then. In the years since, she’d never come close to loving someone that way. Not Matt, not anyone. Sometimes she thought Sawyer O’Dell wasstillthe love of her life.
