by Teri Wilson
What was happening? Did he really think this was some grand reunion? They hadn’t even spoken in more than six months.
Which is still waaaay more recently than you and Sawyer managed before he came back.
Oh, yeah. Sawyer. He was still right there, witnessing this mortifying turn of events.
“Um, sorry.” Jamie shook her head and motioned back and forth between her two exes. “Matt Van Horn, this is Sawyer O’Dell.”
Sawyer extended his hand and Matt looked him up and down before shaking it. “Ah. The Sawyer.”
“I’m sure there are others out there,” Sawyer said—a valiant attempt at humor, although his smile looked more than a little strained around the edges.
His gaze lingered on Matt for a second before turning back toward Jamie and muttering under his breath. “Is this…are you all right?”
Jamie nodded. “Thanks. I’m good.”
As good as a girl could be under these very bizarre and wholly confusing circumstances.
She reached for her umbrella, a clear hint for Sawyer to disappear so she could deal with Matt. “And thank you for walking me home.”
And for the almost-kiss.
Although, maybe it had been fate that Matt had shown up when he did. Kissing Sawyer had never been part of the plan.
“Yeah,” Sawyer said succinctly.
Then he gave Matt a curt nod and made his way down the steps without so much as a backward glance.
Jamie’s stomach clenched. She tried to tell herself this was all for the best, but her inner voice wasn’t very convincing.
She turned toward Matt and took a deep breath. Focus. But her attention darted toward Sawyer one last time to see if he was watching.
He wasn’t. All she caught sight of was the back of his perfectly coifed head. So she swiveled to face Matt once again, gesturing at the door. “Do you want to come in?”
He grinned. “That’d be great.”
She reached for the doorknob. “Okay.”
So not okay. She was supposed to be kissing Sawyer right now.
Maybe…
Probably…
Definitely.
Although was kissing him right now really such a smart idea?
Obviously not. She should probably be grateful to Matt for interrupting that inappropriate moment. But for some strange reason, she could barely muster a smile for him.
So she refrained from any outward display of emotion once she’d ushered him inside the house and opted instead to fix him a cup of herbal tea. Earl Grey—it had always been Matt’s favorite.
“Thanks.” He warmed his hands on the steaming mug as he sat at her kitchen table, looking completely comfortable…as if he belonged there.
Did he belong there?
Jamie sat down opposite him and decided to get straight to the point. “So what are you doing here, Matt?”
He let out a little laugh. “You were always direct.”
“It saves time.” Time she should be spending trying to save her bookstore instead of having a tea party with her recent ex—or almost kissing her not-so-recent one. “Which I don’t have a lot of right now. There’s a lot going on.”
Matt nodded. “I read your article in the paper about the bookstore.”
“You did?” Ah, now the recent run-ins with Karen Van Horn made more sense. She’d obviously filled her son in on the recent happenings with Ridley Development. She’d probably even told Matt that Sawyer was back in town.
“The second I saw your face in the photo…” He set down his mug and sighed. “I just got hit with the biggest wave of regret. I miss you, Jamie.”
This was it—the big moment she’d been dreaming about since love had walked out the door and left her behind. He was saying everything she’d longed to hear.
Except every time she’d imagined being on the receiving end of those words, they’d been coming out Sawyer’s mouth. Not Matt’s.
She blinked. “Just all of a sudden?”
“No, it’s always been a struggle,” he said, and the gleam in his dark eyes was so earnest that Jamie had to look away. Matt cleared his throat. “Are they tearing down the bookstore?”
“I don’t know. I hope not.” It was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it? It was also the sole reason she was better off sitting across her kitchen table from Matt Van Horn than sharing an umbrella with Sawyer O’Dell.
“If it were to close…” Matt’s voice drifted off and his gaze grew soft. Here it comes. “Would you be open to moving back to Texas with me?”
She should have been thrilled. Matt’s return was the perfect fantasy of the heartbroken—the ex coming back to beg for another chance. How many times had she dreamed of Sawyer doing this exact thing after he’d left for Columbia? She’d just always thought a moment like this would make her feel happier than she did right then.
Matt pressed on. “You could come to Austin and start your own bookstore there.”
Problem: Matt wasn’t Sawyer.
But in a way, neither was Sawyer. He’d changed.
“Oh. Um.” She shook her head. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t even consider moving to Texas, not when she was still fighting for her bookshop. Just talking about re-opening True Love in Austin felt like giving up, and she wasn’t ready to throw in the towel. “Matt.”
“We had something, Jamie. I let that get away once. I’d be a fool not to try again.” There they were again—those perfect, perfect words. “Would you think about it?”
Deep down, she knew she should tell him no. She didn’t want to think about getting back together with Matt or moving clear across the country. Thinking about those things would mean giving up on True Love, and on the Waterford she’d always known and loved. And she couldn’t do that…not yet.
But he’d done the one thing Sawyer had never been able to do—he’d come back and told her he’d made a mistake. That he’d like another chance with her. What more could she want?
Maybe it was time to stop living in the past and grab hold of what life had to offer. Here…now….in the present. Nothing had actually changed between her and Sawyer. He wasn’t back in Waterford to stay. He was still trying to close down True Love, and she was still determined to save it.
Matt, on the other hand, had come all this way and put his heart on the line.
For true love.
For me.
He wasn’t pressing for an answer, only a promise to think about what he’d just offered. She could do that. She probably should. Clearly, she wasn’t thinking straight if she’d just nearly kissed Sawyer, so she nodded even though she felt like crying.
How could she say no?
Sawyer spent the next day forcing himself to forget about almost kissing Jamie Vaughn. He tried everything. He buried himself in work, sketching and re-sketching his designs for Ridley, even though they were pretty much perfect already. He added a tree here and there and even spent half an hour varying blades of grass from one shade of green to the next.
When that didn’t take his mind off things, he took off with his messenger bag slung over his shoulder and went door to door again, schmoozing business owners. His heart wasn’t in it, though. He could barely concentrate on what anyone said. He’d nod and smile and do his best to say something charming, but all the while he kept seeing Matt in his head.
Matt, of Matt & Jamie.
Matt the dentist, who was supposed to be in Texas.
Matt, who’d come charging back into town to win Jamie back.
Admittedly, Sawyer couldn’t know that for sure, but he had a definite feeling. Matt just had that look about him—the confident stance, the puppy dog eyes, the overeager smile. He’d definitely been on a mission, and it didn’t seem to have anything to do with flossing or brushing twice a day. The man hadn’t even seemed to care that he’d stumbled upon a priv
ate moment between Sawyer and Jamie. He’d simply swooped in on his white horse and taken over.
The horse had been metaphorical, of course. And Jamie hadn’t exactly seemed thrilled at his sudden reappearance. She’d seemed more stunned than anything.
But Sawyer hadn’t heard a word from her all day, and that didn’t bode well.
He could have called her, obviously. Better yet, he could have stopped by True Love while he was out and about, pounding the pavement of the business district. He very nearly did. He just wasn’t sure what he could possibly say, because it was too late to tell her the things that mattered most of all.
I have feelings for you, Jamie.
I always have, and I always will.
He couldn’t tell her how he felt now. If he did, she’d think he was only doing so because he felt threatened by Matt.
Which he most definitely did.
But Matt had nothing to do with how much Jamie meant to Sawyer. Despite his best attempts at denial, he’d known he was still in love with her the minute he’d seen her standing up on that ladder in True Love. His very own Juliet, incorrect balcony references notwithstanding.
He should have told her sooner. He should have spelled it out in arugula leaves right there on the floor of Rick’s Trattoria, but how could he? All she saw when she looked at him was the man who’d broken her heart, and he’d rolled back into town to do it all over again. As far as Jamie was concerned, he was the enemy of True Love…both literally and figuratively.
They’d been so close, though.
So close to reclaiming what they’d once had. So close to finding their way back to each other, despite all the complications of the Ridley project and time and distance. So close to sealing their feelings with a kiss.
And now…
Sawyer had no idea what to do.
A gentleman in his position would probably step aside and let Jamie find happiness with Matt the dentist. Sawyer couldn’t promise Jamie a happy ending—in fact, a happy ending seemed all but impossible. In the end, one of them would win and the other would lose. It wasn’t exactly the stuff of fairy tales.
He didn’t think he could do it, though. He’d already walked away from Jamie once. How could he possibly do it again?
You won’t have a choice once the Ridley project is approved.
True. And he was getting closer by the day. Shop owners had been changing their minds, one by one.
So Sawyer gritted his teeth and did his best to get through the day until Rick finally dragged him out of the house to the opening night of the Fire and Ice Festival.
Sawyer had never seen the business district so crowded before. A large banner hung over the town square welcoming people to Waterford’s premier Valentine’s event, and people of all ages milled about, strolling from booth to booth or pausing to enjoy street performers—fire jugglers and ice sculptors shaping huge chunks of ice into hearts or cupids. There was even a small skating rink, packed with ice skaters spinning round and round. Food vendors beneath red and white awnings sold any and all varieties of Valentine’s treats: red velvet cupcakes, candy hearts, iced cookies, wine.
And chocolate everything. Sawyer’s stomach growled as they passed a booth selling bourbon chocolate pound cake, but Rick didn’t seem to notice.
“That must have been tough, him showing up like that,” Rick said. Oh, great. They were going to talk about Matt the dentist again. “Or are we still pretending that your feelings for Jamie are platonic?”
Sawyer shook his head. He couldn’t lie to his closest friend any more that he could continue lying to himself. “No. No, she’s still my kerpow.”
“Are you going to tell her that?” Rick’s gaze narrowed in an over-exaggerated fashion. “Directly?”
Sawyer couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, throwing my own words back at me, I see.”
Rick’s dimples flashed. “It’s really satisfying.”
Point taken. Sawyer had somehow become equally as pathetic as Rick in the romance department. It wasn’t pretty.
He rolled his shoulders and straightened his spine. They had to do something. “Rick, we are two smart, talented—”
“Yeah!” Rick yelled as they approached the booth for his restaurant, currently being manned by his sous chef.
“—successful men,” Sawyer finished, reaching for a baguette from the tray of bread situated next to a pasta dish heating over an open flame.
“You forgot handsome.” Rick gave the pasta a stir.
He was right. Rick the Romancer had the handsome part down pat, and objectively speaking, Sawyer knew he himself wasn’t terrible-looking.
And yet here they were, standing on one side of the Fire and Ice Festival grounds while Jamie and Lucy worked the True Love Books booth clear on the opposite side of town square. Sawyer could still see Jamie, though, smiling at customers and handing out pink and gray envelopes. He wondered what was inside. Valentines, probably. After all, that was why the town had turned out—to celebrate the most romantic time of the year.
“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 Fire and 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 like Wuthering Heights and Romeo and Juliet to 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 of Persuasion, 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 he super jealous 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.”
“There is no 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 was that?”
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. “At Rick.”
“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 Tramp style. “Do you like him? And don’t say ‘yeah, he’s my friend,’ because you know what I mean.”