Page 65 of The Story of Us
Fortunately, Anita had hired extra help for the day so she remained her perfectly unruffled self, the perpetual calm in the center of Jamie’s storm. Anita took one look at her, then led her to a stool behind the front counter and held both her hands while Jamie poured her heart out. She told her aunt everything about the day before, from the pretty pink dress and the anticipation surrounding her dinner with Sawyer to the confrontation with Dana Sutton, and the realization that she’d let herself forget what Sawyer had come to town to do.
“I knew it. I could feel Sawyer slipping back into my heart and I should’ve stopped it immediately.” She sliced a hand through the air, as if it would have been just that simple to cut off her emotions. In a perfect world, it would. In a perfect world, her bookstore wouldn’t be in danger, either.
Anita reached to tuck a lock of Jamie’s hair behind her ear and then cupped her face. Her hands smelled like roses and baby’s breath—like Valentine’s Day itself. “No, you shouldn’t have. Never stop love. Just because you love someone and it doesn’t work out doesn’t mean there isn’t value in the experience.” She released Jamie’s face and shrugged one shoulder. “Even the dentist.”
“Matt,” Jamie said flatly.
It would have been so easy to convince herself that Matt was the right choice for her, especially now that True Love was on the brink of closing its doors. He’d been ready to share his life with her, and he was a good man.
But he wasn’t Sawyer.
“Matt.” Anita nodded and gave Jamie a tender smile. “I mean, you learned something from him, didn’t you?”
She had. She’d learned she wanted to hold out for herwowinstead of settling for something that just wasn’t right—but look where that decision had gotten her. “I don’t want to look back. At least not with Matt. But, is that all there was between me and Sawyer? The past?”
Maybe she was just confused, lured by the sweeping feeling of nostalgia that had come over her when he’d walked into True Love Books after so many years. He’d come back into her life in almost exactly the same spot where they’d first met, the bookshelf wherefantasymet theclassics. But maybe the notion that they belonged together after so much time apartwasthe fantasy.
Her throat grew thick. Falling in love with Sawyer again hadn’t felt like a fantasy—it had feltreal. It had felt true. But everything had gotten so complicated that she wasn’t sure what to believe anymore.
“I’ve seen how you two look at each othernow, and there’s no doubt about how you feel.” Anita’s smile grew wide. “And I think it’s always been there. That’s how it is with true loves.”
She made things sound so simple when, in fact, they were anything but. True love was about fate and destiny. It was about invisible forces bringing two people together in a way that couldn’t be stopped. If what they’d found was true love then it should be easier than this, shouldn’t it?
“Here I am, about to lose this bookstore that I practically grew up in—where he and Imet—where I have put my heart and soul.” She let out a shuddering breath. “All for a project that he is a part of. How can that be true love?”
Jamie shook her head and thought about the first thing Sawyer said to her when he came back to Waterford.
But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
He’d quoted Shakespeare.Romeo and Juliet, specifically. It had seemed so lovely at the time, so romantic, even with his inaccurate balcony reference. She’d been so swept off her feet by those infamous words that she’d forgotten thatRomeo and Julietdidn’t end in happily ever after. It was a tragedy.
No matter what happened with the Ridley project, there was no happy ending to be found here. Not when one of them would be in for a major disappointment. That didn’t sound like a romance to Jamie, and it definitely didn’t sound like true love.
But as Aunt Anita was quick to remind her, she and Sawyer weren’t characters in a book. They were living, breathing people, and the real world didn’t always play by literature’s rules. That’s what made it real instead of make-believe, fact versus fiction.
“True love doesn’t have to be perfect,” she said. “It just has to be true.”
Just a few hours later, Jamie took a seat beside Rick, Lucy and Aunt Anita at the town council meeting. She’d moved through the remainder of the day in a daze, smiling at customers and wrapping Valentine’s Day gifts in shiny red paper, trying not to think too hard about what Anita had said earlier.
True love didn’t have to be perfect. What did that mean, exactly? Was she supposed to pretend that Sawyer didn’t have anything to do with the demise of her business? She wasn’t sure she could.
Even if Jamie somehow managed to close her bookshop’s doors and let herself keep falling in love with Sawyer, there was always the chance that one day, her grief would rear its ugly head at some unexpected, wholly inappropriate moment. Like maybe one day she and Sawyer would take a fabulous vacation and just as they reached the top of the Eiffel Tower, Jamie would turn to him and wail, “How could you do it? How could you make me give up True Love?”
It would be awkward to say the least. Awkward, and very much possible. Jamie was used to wearing her heart on her sleeve, not repressing her feelings. She’d always considered that to be a good thing, but now she wasn’t so sure.
No,she decided the second Sawyer walked into the room and took his place next to Dana beside the lectern.It’s definitely a bad thing.Her face went instantly hot, and she was certain every person within a five-mile radius could tell she was hopelessly in love with Sawyer O’Dell.
Emphasis onhopeless.
She forced herself to look away, focusing instead on the crowd assembled for the meeting. Every single shopkeeper from the business district was in attendance—Olga from the dance studio, Beth from the hobby shop, Chuck from the pizzeria, along with his dad. So many others, too. A long conference table had been set up along one of the side walls, where members of the town council sat facing forward. Eric was situated right in the center with a gavel in his hand and a microphone stand in front of him.
Everything looked so official. It was impossible not to feel at least a little bit intimidated. Before she could stop herself, Jamie glanced at Sawyer in search of comfort. Big mistake, obviously. Huge. His warm brown eyes looked as soft as velvet and as soon as their gazes locked, Jamie found it impossible to look away.
True love doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be true.
Her heart beat impossibly hard.
“Whenever you’re ready,” Eric said into the microphone, prompting Dana to step up to the lectern and begin the presentation.
