Page 7 of Sweet Valentine
Patty’s already on her feet again, gathering the remaining candies. She’s already chattering away about the next stop on the scavenger hunt: Maple Grove. His thoughts remain stuck like gum to the same piece of candy.Foreveris too heavy; angrily, he thinks of how it has no business being stamped on a piece of candy.
Especially not at the behest of a broken man with a battered spirit, who can’t even tell if he’d meant it as a last resort—or if, deep down, it’s something he actually wants to say to Patty Sullivan. “Shall we?” She holds out her arm to him, the way he had done earlier that day.
Colton takes it, almost astounded he can walk with his stomach in such knots.
Chapter Four
PATTY
Patty’s reliefat seeing Maplewood Grove disappears the moment her eyes land on Jonah standing casually by the gazebo, his smile sharp and disarming. Of course, he shows up now, she thinks bitterly. He has a knack for appearing just when she’s beginning to regain her balance, always knocking her back down. Her stomach churns, and her heart tightens. Without realizing it, she tightens her grip on Colton’s arm, seeking an anchor as the familiar twinge of discomfort blooms in her chest.
“Patty,” Jonah greets, stepping directly into her path. His voice is smooth, casual, but his eyes flicker with something sharper when they land on Colton. “Didn’t expect to see you here for the Love Quest.” His smirk widens as his gaze lingers on Colton. “And with company, no less.”
Before Patty can reply, Colton shifts beside her, his shoulders tense as he steps slightly forward, placing himself just ahead of her. “Is there a problem here?” Colton’s voice is even, but the tension is unmistakable. His hand brushes against her arm, a silent reminder that she isn’t alone.
Jonah’s smirk doesn’t falter. “Just catching up with an old friend, Sheriff. Nothing wrong with that, right?”
Patty feels the weight of the unspoken challenge hanging between them. Colton’s jaw tightens, his eyes locked on Jonah. “Maybe you should move along,” he says, his voice calm but resolute.
Jonah chuckles, his gaze lingering on Patty longer than it should. “I guess we’ll catch up some other time.”
As he walks away, Patty’s heart pounds—not with the excitement Jonah once stirred, but with a creeping nausea that settles deep in her chest. The scars Jonah left behind are still there, hidden beneath her confident exterior. But now, here he is, with that same arrogant grin still lingering in her memory, threatening to disrupt the future she’s started to imagine with Colton.
Traversing the park, there’s no missing the amount of people filling it up. Townsfolk meant to be invested in the Love Quest that had brought them all here slip their way instead. A shock of red hair in the peripheral view tugs at her attention. Patty looks over just to find Betty Lou whispering in Olivia Parker’s ear again, the two of them peeking from beneath their lashes in a way that didn’t manage to pull off inconspicuousness. Now, Olivia’s arms hold a baby in them, swaddled in a butter-yellow blanket. The baby is the only one who manages to be discreet by a long shot.
Fabulous,Patty thinks sourly, her chest aching with a pang,an audience.
The way Jonah’s grin spreads would have made her heart skip a beat, once. Now it turns her stomach. “Patty,” he drawls smoothly. That pompous tone already has her jaw clenching. “Long time, no see, girl.”
“Jonah.” She keeps her tone even, battling the urge to look over her shoulder for prying eyes. As it is, she can feel them.They bore into her, from the back and then the sides too. Jonah claps his hands in front of her face, trying to jolt his attention back towards him. Like she hasn’t learned anything at all in the last few years. Colton’s presence beside her threatens to suffocate her.
Meanwhile Jonah doesn’t notice a single thing amiss. Either that, or he doesn’t care. Both sound too much like him. “Didn’t expect to see you doing the Love Quest after all,” he says. His limpid gray eyes flick between her and Colton. His tone is too casual when he claims, “I thought you’d be paired with me, you know.” His tone makes Patty’s hackles raise.
Her eyes narrow. “And why would I be paired with you?”
Jonah’s full mouth is smug as he steps closer. His voice drops, lowering, conspiratorially, like they were shaping a secret, the two of them. As if they shared anything at all these days besides all the ways he had turned the taste of others’ champagne sour in her mouth forever. “I asked the townsfolk to set it up. Maybe it’s the season, but I’ve been thinking about you, Patty. Figured this could be the perfect chance to… you know,” his tongue clicks against the roof of his mouth wetly, “connect again.”
Patty’s stomach threatens to crawl out of her gaping mouth. Hisgall.She’s about to snap—just blow, in every way she hasn’t let herself, being mature and conscientious. Mrs. Jarvis is lingering along the fence, holding her phone up to her ear convincingly enough muttering into it, except for how she’s holding it upside down, and clearly listening in. Her frustration builds.
Out of the corner of her eye, Patty checks on Colton. The sheriff stands rigid as a pole—all her work loosening him up undone now, and his body is back in a tense fold, exhausted. His face, unreadable again. There is a livewire pulled taut inside her. Jonah’s smarmy expression helps nothing. “Reconnect?”she echoes, choking on distaste. Her voice sharpens. Frustration burns the edges of her words like a letter burning to ashes. “You know, last time I checked, cheating on someone when they’re halfway around the world isn’texactlythe best way to build a healthy, loving, sustainable relationship. I could be wrong.” It took someone really knowing Patty to grasp how wrong she knew she was not.
This time, Jonah winces. Only briefly, unfortunately. His charm doesn’t falter for long. “That was years ago,” he insists. “Patty. People change. You have to grow with them.” Patty finds she doesn’t even have the words to begin to respond to that. It isn’t as though he listens in the first place.
“Jonah,” she tries. “This isn’t the time?—”
He just talks over her. “Look, IknowI messed up.” His voice softens—and Patty thinks it’s a scene from a movie she’s seen more than enough times to get sick of it. She can practically quote the lines before they pour: “I can’t stop thinking about you. About us. We should have another chance. Another try. We had something great once. Didn’t we?”
Patty swallows thickly. Whatever Jonah sees in her face, he takes leave to reach for her. His palm brushes her arm, making her stiffen. “I’ve changed, Patty. I’m not… C’mon, I’m not that guy anymore. I’m just stupid. I’m a stupid guy who did a stupid thing. I didn’t realize what I had until you were already gone.”
Like she’s taken a bullet to the chest, Patty recoils. “It’s not that simple,” she says forcefully, turning her voice charming. “You broke my heart. I’m supposed to—what, forget all that for a scavenger hunt on Valentine’s Day?”
For a moment, Patty feels a momentary soar of victory. She watches Joah’s face fall, the moment before his features turn determined. “I know, but maybe—” He doesn't finish. Colton’s voice cuts through the haze, deep and intense. “We should get moving,” he says succinctly. “We’re behind schedule.”
Startled by the switch in his tone, Patty whips towards Colton to find his jaw clenched and his eyes chilling. She doesn’t have to look around to confirm townsfolk are discussing him.
When Patty turns, so too does Jonah. He shoots Colton a lazy smile. “Sheriff,” Jonah says coolly. “Keeping tabs on civilians?”
Colton’s words are clipped as he replies, eyes hard, “Just doing my job. Keeping things in order.” It is a faraway dream already; a total departure from reality, all in her head. Panic flickers inside of her, the fickle flame. She feels her partner literally pull away from her. He mutters something, and Patty doesn’t even catch it before he’s scuttling to the side, away from her—and this, whatever Jonah is trying to pull.
