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“Sarah, is everything all right?”
She blinked. “Um, nothing. It’s fine. Just Jamie.”
“Is he being an ass again?”
Her chin trembled, and I realized she was on the verge of tears.
“Sarah, what is it?” I asked, alarmed. “What did he say?”
But she blinked rapidly now, looking up. “It’s fine,” she said. “Nothing I can’t handle. I’ll see you at the big meeting next week, okay?”
The Heartbreaker Trades’ inaugural meeting was set for Wednesday.
“Sarah are you sure—”
“Winona, seriously, don’t worry about me. I’m one hundred percent.” She smiled widely as if to prove it. If I hadn’t just seen what I’d seen, I’d have bought it, too. But I couldn’t argue, because she disconnected the call.
A little stunned, I shot Cher a message through the airplane’s phone to check up on Sarah for me.
There was nothing more I could do from here.
It was only after I was disembarking into the cool, sharp wind at St. John’s International Airport that I registered what Sarah had said. That she might know something about loving someone she couldn’t have.
Sal had booked not only all the transport and hotel for this trip, but a full itinerary, too, and somehow she’d gotten every spot I wanted to see.
Not somehow—Mitchell had obviously told her everything.
My hotel was an ornate Art Deco building right on the water, with violin music piping into the lobby. A man carrying my luggage all the way upstairs where I discovered I had the full penthouse suite.
Because of course I did.
I didn’t linger. My driver, a lovely old man called Joseph who held his belly when he laughed and talked just like my Uncle Vern used to, took me to all the places on the list, plus some extras I asked to see along the way. The rooming house Mama and I used to live in was gone, it was fancy offices now, but the library was still there. My favorite fish and chip shop stood just as I remembered, though it looked smaller by half.
Finally, we stopped at the cemetery outside town, where I stood, for the first time, at Mama’s grave. There were flowers there, fresh and crisp Lily of the Valley.
Mitchell.
Joseph had given me a wool blanket and a thermos of hot chocolate he said he’d been saving for this stop, after I was able to find my voice again I thanked him, and said he could come back to get me in a couple of hours.
I stayed there all afternoon.
And I told Mama everything.
I told her all about Quince Valley, about her sons Raylan and Calvin and how grown up they were now. How they’d come home for Thanksgiving just last weekend and did all the cooking for me, right down to the pie.
I told her I was going to see Uncle Vern tomorrow at his care home, and I told her one day, I’d tell her all about the man I’d met who brought me here.
“His name is Mitchell, Mama, and he’s one of the good ones. I just didn’t get to keep him, that was all.”
A wind whirled through the naked branches of the trees dotting the cemetery, and while I knew it was the season for it, I thought, for a moment, it was her.
It wasn’t until I was in the car going back into town that I cried.
After freshening up in the hotel, my last stop was a restaurant, down by the waterfront, with a view onto St. John’s Harbour. I’d put on a green dress I’d found hanging in the closet. Another one of Sal’s gifts; the color of Mitchell’s eyes.
My chest had gone tight when I tried it on, and I thought stupid thoughts like Mitchell never saw me in a dress. But I wore it anyway, feeling in some small part like he was here with me.
Just for tonight.
