He tried to focus on what Willow was saying.A candy store…“I don’t remember seeing that.”
“Darn. Probably closed. It’s hard for little stores like that to make it these days. It seems like the place where you were staying, the Emerald House, was doing well, though. The owner and his girlfriend look like they could be models for a Macy’s catalog. Those are some beautiful people.”
Despite his cloudy mood, which matched the San Francisco weather, Isaiah let out a short laugh. “There is something different about them, her especially. That whole place, really. Did you notice the tulips?”
“Yes! That was unbelievable. I thought that sort of thing only happened in movies. It looked like a dream. The tulips were popping out of every nook and cranny in the town as soon as I entered the city limits. I definitely don’t remember that happening the year I lived there.”
Isaiah’s mind flashed to the tulip festival and to Sofia’s quietly proud face as she showed him her finished display. He remembered her snarky comments whenever he reached for the wrong pair of earrings for a customer. He reached into his pocket and felt the belt buckle she’d crafted for him there. Instantly, he was full-body tired.
“You didn’t forget where the plates were, did you? We should probably get you in with a follow-up specialist here to make sure there aren’t any lasting effects from the memory loss.”
“What? Oh, no,” Isaiah said, realizing he must have missed her asking him to get plates for their dinner. He walked to the cabinet where he knew they were and grabbed two then took some chopsticks out of the silverware drawer. As his hand brushed the countertop, he pictured Sofia on New Year’s Eve, slicing and dicing in that stunning dress as she prepared the sandwich.
He quickly shook the image away and took the dishes to the table, where Willow immediately began to serve herself. “I was starving. That’s a long drive. I’m probably going to pass out right after dinner.”
Isaiah nodded and continued to half listen and give short replies as Willow chatted throughout their meal. Despite her comment about being tired, Willow could still talk nonstop. He smiled a little at that. At least one thing hadn’t changed.
After they finished eating and his sister went to bed, Isaiah changed into some comfortable shoes and left the apartment. He needed to clear his mind, and a green forest seemed like the only place to do it.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
SOFIA
Sofia awoke much earlier than she preferred the next morning, but she couldn’t go back to sleep. Her eyes were raw from crying and her body deeply exhausted.
She crawled out of bed on autopilot and went straight for the coffee maker. Once it was running, she went to the front window and peered outside, hoping her tulips would cheer her up. She squinted into the still-dark sky, trying to make sense of what she saw.
Her tulips and the entire yard, from her porch out to the street, were covered with a light dusting of snow.
Sofia let out a mirthless laugh. “I was right,” she said, wishing she could see the look on Isaiah’s face in reaction to the late-spring snow. But she cleared that from her mind like plucking a rotten tomato from the vine, turning her thoughts to the impacts. A freeze at that point would kill the tulips as well as the garden she’d given in and started early in her backyard.
It felt like a slap in the face. She’d been expecting the late snow—knew it was coming deep in her bones, even—yet she’d let herself dive in as if it weren’t. It was exactly what she’d done with Isaiah. And the consequences of both dives were going to haunt her.
After she finished her coffee, gulping down the hot drink too quickly, she went to her computer and pulled up her online store. Without more than a moment’s thought, she delisted her entire WanderLost collection. She didn’t want to make those designs anymore.
She flipped open her sketchbook, intent on planning a new line, but after nearly an hour, she hadn’t produced anything she liked. Tears welled in her eyes, and she ripped the page of scribbles out of her notebook and tossed it across the room.
I’m acting like a heartsick teenager, and I’m not going to let myself do that a second time.She took a deep breath then stood, got dressed, and slipped on her hiking boots.
Sofia parkedat the trailhead and began her hike, just as she had a few months before. She still didn’t like hiking. Isaiah hadn’t changed that. No, she was just letting off some steam, resetting all that had occurred since she’d been on the trail that New Year’s Eve.
It all felt a bit eerie to Sofia. There had been snow that New Year’s Eve, and despite the weeks of blooming tulips they’d had, there was snow on the ground again. For a second, it made her wonder if she’d dreamed the past few months, but that would be too easy.
What she’d had with Isaiah—whatever it was—couldn’t have hurt so much if it had all been a dream.No, I’m not letting my mind go there today. I’m a grown woman, these are different circumstances, and I am equipped to handle this.
She put her headphones in and turned on a podcast for women entrepreneurs. Despite what had happened with Isaiah, she had big goals, and that year, she was going to reach them.Her business was hers to build and to control, and no one could take that away.
The minutes passed quickly, and soon, she was hiking near the spot where she’d found Isaiah that cold day in December. As she walked by it, an icy prickle ran over her skin. She shivered.
What on earth was that?She shook her arms out and turned up the volume on her podcast, determined not to think about Isaiah again.
When she reached the vista point where her mom had always liked to stop and look out over the woods sloping down below, she paused her podcast. Not for the first time, she thought how nice it would be to have a bench there.
She made a mental note to look into making that happen. It could be a memorial for her mom, like she’d seen in parks. Even if Sofia did enact a new tradition of connecting with her mom through a candle-lit boat launched onto the river, other visitors who enjoyed hiking could remember her mom as they passed through the area and found an unexpected place to rest.
Her mind flashed to Isaiah then—to him gently tugging her into the woods that night by the river, to the feel of his lips on hers. As she turned away from the vista point, she allowed a single tear to slip down her face before lifting her chin and turning toward home.
Chapter Sixty
