Page 61 of The Story of Us
The day progressed at what felt like a snail’s pace for Sawyer. Somehow, he managed to get some actual work done, even though his thoughts were elsewhere entirely. While he picked up newly executed contracts at the hobby shop and Kagan’s Bikes, he kept sneaking glances toward True Love Books, anxious to get business over with so he could don his red sweater and take Jamie on a proper Valentine date.
She’d said yes! He could hardly believe it. Yes, there would be challenges ahead. And yes, at tomorrow’s meeting, one of them would win and the other would lose. But that was just business. Jamie was more important to him than his career. He realized that now. He’d let her go once, and he wouldn’t make the same mistake again. They could make it work—somehow, some way. He knew they could.
But after he’d emailed the signed contracts to Dana and stopped by Rick’s house to change into proper date night attire, he arrived at True Love Books to find the sales counter empty. In the café section, Lucy was busy firing up the espresso machine and placing pink-frosted cupcakes on antique china plates for customers, but Jamie wasn’t in her usual spot at the register.
Strange.
He shot a questioning glance at Eliot, Jamie’s orange tabby, but got nothing but a blithemeowin response. The cat then proceeded to groom his whiskers, ignoring Sawyer altogether.
Also strange.
Eliot was ordinarily extremely friendly and social. Sawyer almost got the feeling that the cat was irritated at him for some reason, but no. That was impossible. Cats were just finicky like that sometimes, weren’t they?
Even so, a flicker of worry snaked through him. Something felt off. He lingered for a moment at the Valentine’s Day display on the round center table, waiting for Jamie. A heart-shaped wreath of deep red roses stood at the base of the cherry blossom tree—Anita’s doing, most likely. In front of it were two baskets, one labelledHarrisonand the other,Mary. A chalkboard message in a Tiffany blue frame told him toTake One (or another), so he chose a silver envelope from the Harrison pile. He flicked it nervously in his hand while he scanned the area, hoping for a glimpse of Jamie.
And then he saw her, perched on the edge of one of the white Queen Anne sofas in True Love’s cozy reading area. Except with her ramrod straight spine and dejected expression, she didn’t appear to feel cozy at all.
Sawyer’s gut tightened into a hard knot. He tucked the Harrison envelope into his pocket and strode toward her.
She looked up at him as he approached, and the sadness in her forget-me-not blue eyes just about killed him.
“What’s wrong?” he said.
“Your boss, Dana Sutton, was just here.” That was when Sawyer noticed the flat manila envelope in Jamie’s lap.
“Oh.” He sat down beside her. “Did she say something?”
Obviously, she had. He just wished he had the benefit of knowing what it had been.
“Nothing I didn’t already know.” Jamie gave him a tight, humorless smile. “It was just a timely reminder.”
“Of?”
“Of why you’re really here. To be your charming self and persuade everyone to sell.” Her voice went cold. “To persuademeto sell.”
She stood, gripping the envelope and stomping away from him.
He flew after her. “Jamie…”
What was happening?
Surely she didn’t think he’d been faking his feelings for her or that he’d asked her to dinner as some sort of bribe to accept the Ridley proposal. He wouldn’t dream of acting that way, and he thought—hoped—Jamie knew him well enough to know better than that.
He couldn’t stop dreaming about a future with her. Couldn’t she see that?
“You know, I can’t help but wonder.” She spun around to face him, and he noticed some of the fire in her eyes had already dimmed. In its place was something worse—pain. He’d hurt her, whether he’d meant to or not. “Have you just been humoring me this whole time? Or did you ever actually give Waterford a chance?”
“My being here is all about giving Waterford a chance.” That had been true from the very beginning, before he’d even known she owned True Love Books. Before he’d seen her standing atop that ladder like Juliet herself. “To help it thrive again the way I remember it used to.”
The numbers didn’t lie. If the town council didn’t take action, the business district would crumble, one boarded-up shopfront at a time. Sawyer wouldn’t be able to stand seeing that happen any more than Jamie would.
He blew out a breath. What could he possibly say to make her see what this place meant to him…whatshemeant to him? “I know you think I’m exaggerating my memories of this place to score points, but that’s not true. Waterford is where the best parts of my growing up took place, where my best friends are. Where I fell in love.”
Where he was falling in love again…here…now…
“In the past,” she said softly. Painfully.
“‘Past is prologue,’ Jamie.” If she wouldn’t listen to him, maybe she’d listen to the bard. “I know I left when we were kids, but I’m back now and I can’t stop thinking about you.”
