“I want to. I do. It’s just—” She sighed, looking up at me. “I need to go to Chicago first. And then I’ll come back, and we’ll figure it out, okay?”
I didn’t like that she had to leave. I hated the uncertainty. We’d been living in this limbo state all summer, but now the days were running out.
“When are you leaving?” I asked.
“It’s all coming together quickly. I’ll leave tomorrow morning and be gone for two days, maybe three. If I’m down there I want to see my brother, too,” she said with a small smile.
We had today together. Would it be our last day before everything changed? How the fuck were we supposed to pretend like everything wasnormal.
“What’re you thinking?” I could see the emotion in her eyes, the pleading.
That I love you. That I’m terrified to lose you.“This is a lot, Juliette. That’s what I’m thinking. I don’t even know where to start. I get why you’re meeting with her—I do, and I will always support you—but doesn’t mean it doesn’t scare the shit out ofme. I don’t know what this means for us. If there’s even an us after the summer.”
“I know.” She closed her eyes. “I don’t know what it means, either, but I need to do this, for me, for my career. And then when I get back we’ll talk about what it means for us.” She let out a breath, opening her green eyes to look up at me. Green eyes that were usually so bright and filled with life, now dulled by sadness. “Trust me?”
Juliette was asking a lot of me, especially after what happened with Gretchen. I’d trusted the wrong woman before and gotten burned. But Juliette wasn’t my ex. She hadn’t given me reasons not to trust her.
I nodded slowly. “I trust you.”
I believed she’d come back. I just didn’t know how long she’d stay once she returned.
45
WESLEY
“Hey, Hal,”I called as I pushed open the door to the hardware store with my shoulder. “Wanted to check on you with the heat. I brought you some water and an iced coffee from Lily’s.” I lifted up the water jug in my right hand and the iced drink in my left.
The heatwave my mom had warned us about spiked today—just as the air conditioning at Lake Ridge was acting up, making it hotter than normal in the bar. I decided to close the bar until things cooled off and I was able to get a repair guy in. I assured my staff that even though the bar was closed, they would still get paid for their usual shifts—I didn’t want my decision to close to impact them.
No one argued with me, likely because they sensed how irritable I’d been since Juliette left this morning. You would have thought by how much I missed Juliette that she’d been gone for days. Nope. It’d only been five hours. Maybe six.
While my staff usually gave me a hard time, everyone was walking on eggshells around me, and I hated that. I didn’t want to be that type of boss.
I just had to get through today, tomorrow, and the day after. Three days. I could do that.
Hal, who was sitting by the front counter, looked up from today’s copy of the newspaper. He read theGolden Falls Gazetteevery day.
“Wesley,” he greeted, sitting up. “I didn’t expect to see you today, son.” He folded the newspaper and took off his glasses, setting both on the counter in front of him. “Well, don’t just stand there. At this rate, the iced coffee will be hot.” Hal waved me over.
I let out a chuckle, shaking my head. I set the water and iced coffee on the counter, my eyes focused down, then began tapping my fingers steadily. I could feel Hal watching me carefully, which didn’t help the tension in my shoulders.
Out of corner of my eye, Hal reached for the iced coffee, the plastic creaking as he swirled the straw around. He hummed as he took a sip. “This is great. Did Lily put all her fancy syrups in there?”
I swallowed and finally tore my gaze from the counter to look at Hal. “She did, yeah. Said it’s supposed to taste like a s’more.”
Hal took another sip. “You know what? That’s exactly what it tastes like.”
Silence filled the space between us again, and while Hal had started our conversation entertaining small talk, I knew it wouldn’t last long.
“You’re stalling. You’d do the same thing when you were a kid.” I heard the smile in Hal’s voice before I saw it. “There’s something on your mind, Wes. Spit it out.”
I ran my hand over my beard, silently cursing the hot stinging behind my eyes. I wasn’t someone who got emotional easily. Not that I had anything against it—it just wasn’t me.
But the thought of losing Juliette was unbearable. Like the walls were closing in on me, like my chest was too tight, like myheart was going to come out my throat. But my heart wasn’t in Golden Falls anymore. A five-foot-four brunette took it with her when she went to Chicago.
I cleared my throat. “Juliette is in Chicago for a few days, meeting with her boss about a potential job opportunity. She’ll be back soon, but…” I trailed off, hoping Hal would get the idea and cut me some slack. I thought wrong.
“But what?” he asked, nodding for me to keep going.
