Page 54 of The Story of Us
“Why can’t we figure this out?” he asked without tearing his attention away from Jamie. The pink in her cheeks corresponded beautifully with the bright red hue of her vintage swing coat, and her blond hair whipped in the wind, swirling around her head in a golden halo.
“Oh, we figured it out.” Rick followed Sawyer’s gaze as he stirred. Then he shot a glance in Lucy’s direction that could only be described as lovesick. “We just need to act on it.”
Chapter Sixteen
Jamie’s booth at the Fireand Ice Festival had never been so busy. She and Lucy had started passing out the copies of Mary and Harrison’s correspondence as soon as the festival opened, and within an hour, word had spread.
The True Love booth had attracted a definite crowd as anxious customers, already primed by the chatter they’d overheard, couldn’t wait to get their hands on the love letters. Sometimes they’d stop to unfold the pages and read them right there. Invariably, holders of the Mary letter would then try to trade it with someone for a copy of the Harrison letter and vice versa. The store was going to be packed tomorrow when Jamie made the final letter available to Valentine’s shoppers. She felt giddy just thinking about it.
It was official: Mary and Harrison’s letters were a hit!
Jamie beamed as she handed out more and more pink and gray envelopes. She and Lucy kept exchanging delighted glances as their piles of letters grew smaller. Behind them, the trellis backdrop that Lucy and Rick had set up shone with twinkle lights just the like ones in the courtyard behind True Love Books. Pink blossoms from Anita’s Flowers were tucked into every available nook and cranny, making their booth a fragrant explosion of color, much like a Valentine’s bouquet. There were books too, of course. Piles and piles of them, from classics likeWuthering HeightsandRomeo and Julietto modern romantic comedy novels with brightly hued, animated covers. For reasons she didn’t want to examine too closely, her heart gave a little squeeze every time she glanced down at the hardback copy ofPersuasion, right at the top of the heap.
The situation with Sawyer was the absolute last thing she should be thinking about—especially now, when saving True Love suddenly didn’t feel so impossible. But she and Lucy had been so busy that they’d barely had time to discuss the uncomfortable surprise meeting of Jamie’s exes. Naturally, it was the first thing Lucy wanted to hear about during their first quiet moment.
“For a woman on a ‘romantic hiatus,’ you have a lot of guy issues,” she said as Jamie passed a pink envelope to a little girl with blond braids and a pink and turquoise puffer jacket.
“Oh, I know!” Jamie was well aware of the irony of her current situation. She could have probably written a thesis on it—if she’d had the spare time lately to write anything at all, which she hadn’t. “I mean, Lucy…it was like one of those fantasies where the ex shows up, groveling because they made such a huge mistake.”
“I know that fantasy.” Lucy pointed an envelope at her for emphasis.
“And Matt is such a good guy. Right?” She’d almost forgotten what a kind and generous person he was. There were reasons she’d dated Matt for as long as she had, even if she’d never had that fluttery, butterflies-in-her-tummy kind of feeling from him. Maybe butterflies were overrated, though. Weren’t they basically just glorified moths? “You know, for so long I wondered if I just should have gone with him, but my life is here. Although, even that’s up in the air now.”
The town council vote on the proposed Ridley project was still slated for Valentine’s Day, the day after tomorrow. True Love was running out of time.
Lucy smiled at another pair of customers, handed them each a letter, and then swiveled back toward Jamie. “What about Sawyer? Was hesuperjealous when Matt swooped in?”
“I was too numb to tell.” Even thinking about the extreme awkwardness of the moment made her cringe. “Just distract me with Quentin talk, please.”
“Thereisno more Quentin.” Lucy sighed.
Jamie felt herself frown. “Already?”
“No spark. I’d hoped, but…” Lucy shrugged as her voice trailed off. She slipped around to the front of the booth to straighten their signage but stopped in her tracks at the sound of Rick laughing from across the crowded town square.
A line of people had formed at the booth for his restaurant, and Rick was busy scooping up plates of pasta. Once Lucy had spotted him, she couldn’t seem to tear her gaze away. Jamie watched, dumbfounded, as her bestie’s expression seemed to transform into an exact replica of the heart-eyes emoji.
Her mouth fell open in shock. “What wasthat?”
Lucy’s face went as red as a Valentine. “What was what?”
“That look.” Jamie’s gaze flitted briefly to the bistro booth and back again. “AtRick.”
“A look?” Lucy blinked. “At Rick?”
She could deny it all night long, but Jamie had seen it. Lucy looked like she’d been ready to share a single strand of spaghetti with him,Lady and the Trampstyle. “Do you like him? And don’t say ‘yeah, he’s my friend,’ because you know what I mean.”
Lucy bit her lip and stared silently for a prolonged moment, beforefinallycaving and admitting the truth. “I’ve liked Rick since the first moment I saw him.”
Jamie gasped. How had she not known that Lucy had liked Rick all along? After all those months of listening to Rick wax poetic about Lucy. All those crazy schemes of his, trying to get her to notice him…
This was unbelievable. Lucy had liked him all along! Rick was going to flip.
Should she tell Lucy that Rick was head over heels in love with her? All this secret, unrequited love stuff was just crazy. On the other hand, Rick should be the one to tell Lucy how he felt, shouldn’t he?
He should. Definitely. But keeping it inside wassohard. Jamie clamped her hands over her mouth to keep herself from blurting out the truth.
Lucy shook her head and sighed again. “Quentin could not compare.”
