The Story Of Us

by Teri Wilson

  It was also proving to be quite good for business. By noon, they’d already topped the store’s all-time record for sales in a single day, and they still had hours to go. Jamie could finally breathe a little easier. She couldn’t imagine being forced to close True Love’s doors—not after the way they’d been able to bring the community together over the past couple of weeks. Even better, all the new foot traffic in the store seemed to be spilling over into the other shops in the business district. The town council had to vote against Ridley tomorrow. They just had to.

  It still wasn’t a done deal, obviously, but Jamie felt confident enough about the fate of True Love that sometime in the afternoon, she started thinking less and less about the Ridley project and more and more about her date with Sawyer later that evening. She let herself dream and imagine what it might feel like to be Sawyer’s Valentine again. Just like yesterday…

  Only better.

  Maybe Shakespeare had been onto something when he’d written past is prologue. Jamie hoped so…she hoped so with her whole heart.

  She darted to the back of the store to unzip her garment bag and hang up the dress she planned on changing into before Sawyer came to escort her to dinner. The fabric was blush pink, and the dress had a full, dreamy ballerina skirt with delicate silk chiffon pleats. She planned on pairing it with tights and her favorite kitten heels. In the meantime, she still had an hour or so to go in her skinny jeans and lavender cable-knit sweater.

  She pushed up her sleeves and returned to the sales floor, but her steps slowed when she spotted a familiar woman with a glossy blond bob checking out the Valentine’s-themed display.

  Jamie squinted. Was that Dana Sutton from Ridley?

  No, it couldn’t be.

  What would Sawyer’s boss be doing in True Love Books, lifting one of Harrison’s letters from the basket and turning it over to examine the red wax seal?

  Jamie glanced at Eliot, who meowed loudly, as if to confirm her suspicions. Ridley Development was right here in the building.

  If ever there was a moment to face things head-on, it was now. Jamie nodded at her cat, squared her shoulders and marched right up to Dana as if she were any other customer instead of Sawyer’s supervisor and all-around enemy of history and the written word.

  “Ms. Sutton, right?” Jamie said, flashing a smile. After all, maybe this visit meant good news. Maybe Ridley was withdrawing its development proposal.

  “Hello, Ms. Vaughn.” Dana returned the unopened gray envelope in her hands to the basket.

  Eliot flicked his tail and hopped down from the table.

  Okay, then. Jamie would apparently be handling this conversation on her own. “Well, this is a surprise. What brings you in?”

  “I thought I would stop by on my way to the festival.” Dana nodded as she glanced around the bustling bookshop. “I have to say, Ms. Vaughn, generating that article was a deft move. The love letters are popular as well.”

  So far, so good. “Thank you.”

  Dana’s polite smile faded. “But by now, you must realize it’s a losing battle.”

  Jamie felt the words as if they were a physical blow to her chest. Still…the other woman couldn’t be correct. Business was booming—and the effect it was bound to have on the other businesses was sure to prove that the business district could revitalize itself all on its own.

  “Oh, no. Not at all.” She gestured toward the crush of people in line for cupcakes and then at the sitting area, where an impromptu book club was poring over the latest Hallmark romance novel. “I mean, look around.”

  Dana’s expression remained unnervingly stoic. “Yes, you’re quite busy. But yours is only one store—”

  “—that’s bringing a lot of foot traffic into the business district.” Jamie felt her own smile hardening into place as a terrible sense of dread burrowed deep in the pit of her stomach.

  “For now.” Dana shrugged a slender, elegant shoulder. Everything about her was perfectly polished, utterly cold. “But what about after Valentine’s Day? When the lure of love goes away?”

  Jamie shook her head. “Oh, the lure of love never goes away.”

  Of this, she was certain. Nothing was more powerful than love. It was the most universal emotion in the human experience. It transcended Valentine’s Day because every day of the year, everyone wanted to be loved and to love in return—even people who tried to protect their hearts by enacting silly policies like a romantic hiatus.

  Jamie knew firsthand all about that kind of secret longing. But she also knew that love was about more than romance. It was about community and family and friendship—it was even about pets. Anyone could experience love, with or without a significant other. Jamie had been heartbroken when Sawyer left for Columbia, but she’d never felt unloved. Not for a minute. She’d had her parents, Aunt Anita and her friends. She’d had True Love.

  And now she had Lucy and Rick and Eliot, too. She might even have Sawyer again…

  But something about Dana’s presence was making that feel less and less likely.

  “I suppose not.” Dana glanced at the branches of the cherry tree in the center of the store, dripping with old Valentine’s cards. Then she aimed a pointed look at Jamie. “But the emphasis brought on by this holiday will.”

  “Valentine’s Day is one of the best days of the year, and you don’t have to be in a relationship to enjoy it.” Jamie hoped Dana realized that. Surely she had someone in her life she could share a heart-shaped box of chocolates with—if not a boyfriend or husband, then maybe a mother, an aunt, a BFF. Possibly the stylist responsible for maintaining her hair’s razor-sharp ends?

  Dana nodded slowly. “But in the end, Waterford’s Council is going to vote to go forward with the Ridley Property and Sawyer’s redesign. He’s already persuaded three more stores to support the plan, including Kagan’s Bikes. Which puts us at the tipping point.”

  Jamie nodded—at least she thought she did. She couldn’t actually tell because a cold numbness had taken over her body.

  Three more businesses had signed contracts with Ridley?

  She knew she shouldn’t be surprised. Of course Sawyer had been working behind the scenes to build public support so he could get his re-design approved. It was his job, the entire reason he’d returned to Waterford. And it wasn’t as if he’d been going about it in secret. She’d seen the coffee cart. She’d been standing with him when he’d been called over to the pizzeria. She’d even seen him schmoozing with Beth from the hobby shop last night at the festival.

  The news came as a shock, all the same. And as Dana’s announcement spun in her head on constant repeat, Jamie’s thoughts kept snagging on the same word over and over.

  He’s already persuaded three more stores to support the plan…

  Jamie’s chest tightened, and she felt like she couldn’t breathe.

  Persuaded.

  How had she been so stupid? Did she have to get hit in the head with a flying book to understand what had been going on the past two weeks?

  “Persuade.” She nodded. “Right.”

  She’d been thinking that Jane Austen’s Persuasion had been a sign, some kind of magical literary promise that Sawyer might be her Captain Wentworth—that they might be destined to be together, despite all evidence to the contrary.

  That book had been trying to tell her something, all right. It had been a warning sign. Disaster approaching! Sawyer O’Dell has come to back to close your bookshop! Any fool could have seen it.

  The worst part of all was that Jamie had seen the warning signs. She’d just stopped paying attention to them somewhere along the way, choosing to believe she could have her bookstore and Sawyer—true love, in all its forms.

  “I almost forgot that’s why he’s here,” she said flatly.

  Dana lifted her chin. “Well, that’s not the real issue.”

  “What is?”
Jamie was almost afraid of the answer.

  “Your future. If…when…the council decides to go ahead with the vote, and if you remain a holdout, they could evoke eminent domain and take your property for the benefit of the community. Which means they’ll likely pay a far lower price than what we’re offering now. You have a window of opportunity, Ms. Vaughn. But it’s shrinking.” Dana pulled a manila envelope from her designer handbag. “This is our final offer.”

  The envelope practically burned Jamie’s fingertips. She couldn’t even look at it.

  “Your store is lovely.” Dana looked around again, smiling at the books and the flowers and the Valentines that decorated practically every surface. “I can see why you’re fighting for it. Perhaps you can use the money from the sale to recreate it elsewhere.”

  “It wouldn’t be the same.” Jamie shook her head.

  She couldn’t fathom trying to build True Love again from scratch. Part of what made it so special was its history.

  “I know. And I am truly sorry.” Dana’s expression turned bittersweet, and for the first time, Jamie got the feeling that Dana really understood what True Love meant to her.

  But it was too little, too late.

  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 blithe meow in 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 labelled Harrison and the other, Mary. A chalkboard message in a Tiffany blue frame told him to Take 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 persuade me to 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…what she meant 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.”

  He swallowed around the sudden thickness in his throat. He’d said it—he’d told her how he felt, had been achingly honest. He just hoped he hadn’t waited until it was too late.

  “See, I don’t know what’s real and what’s just you doing what you need to do to get the job so you can walk away.” Her voice trembled, and her eyes shimmered with unshed tears. “Again.”

  Sawyer shook his head. They’d already been through this, hadn’t they? “I didn’t walk away. We agreed.”

  He couldn’t help but think she was searching for reasons to push him away so they wouldn’t have to deal with the fallout from the town council vote tomorrow. She was giving up, throwing in the towel, before they’d even had a chance.

  “No.” She pointed at him, and her hand trembled. “You made that decision for both of us.”

  He felt sick. “I never saw it like that.”

  “You know what? Past isn’t prologue. It’s past. Just like True Love will be soon.” She gestured toward their surroundings—her beloved books, the pink tree, the handwritten Valentines tied to its branches with smooth satin ribbons. The thought of Waterford without True Love was almost inconceivable. But he’d been the one to make that call, and now he’d have to pay for that decision. “And maybe that’s where we should stay, too.”

  No.

  The price was too high. “Jamie…”

  She shook her head and smiled at him, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “No, it’s okay. I’m not even mad. You’re doing what you need to do, and I respect that.”

  He just stood there, at
a complete loss. He wanted Jamie’s respect, yes. But he also wanted more. So much more.

  He wanted to hold her hand and walk around the duck pond again. He wanted to take her on a picnic and let her lie down on the cool grass while he read aloud from one of her favorite novels. He wanted to kiss her in the moonlight in that beautiful courtyard beneath the branches of the old oak tree.

  “I’m going to pass on dinner tonight.” She took a deep breath and met his gaze, but it felt like she was looking right through him. “It was good to see you again.”

  Was.

  They were over.

  So this is it, Sawyer thought, glancing down at the envelope in her hand. He’d done what he came to Waterford to do. The town council vote would go forward, and the Ridley project would be approved. He’d won, and in the process, he’d lost the only thing that mattered.

  True love.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Sawyer left the bookshop in a daze, unsure where he should go or what he should do. The Valentine’s dinner was off, and Rick’s house wasn’t exactly an option either. Rick was still walking on air, thrilled to be with Lucy after two years of unrequited love. Sawyer didn’t want to rain on his parade.

  So for now…

  Well, for now he felt more like brooding and walking in the rain like one of the tormented heroes in the books Jamie loved so much. Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, or maybe Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice—both world-class brooders.

  Sawyer bowed his head against the wind as he made his way down the cobblestone streets of the business district. For once, he had no interest in studying the architectural details of the historic buildings, so he buried his hands in the pockets of his brandy-colored leather jacket and kept his focus on the ground.

  But he paused when the fingertips of his right hand made contact with something small and square. It was the envelope he’d taken from the Valentine’s display at True Love Books. He’d forgotten all about it.