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His dedication and drive were the reason they’d drifted apart. “Honestly, I’m not.”
“Right,” she said and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Seriously, I just want to talk.” He held her gaze. “Please? We were friends at one point, remember?”
“That was before you cheated on me.”
He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Jo, you know as well as I do our relationship was over long before then. We just hadn’t made it official.”
Jo leveled her eyes at him. “We were going on a trip together when you got a text from another woman telling you she loved you. Were you planning on telling me we were over while we were traveling?”
“I’d ended things with her, and she couldn’t take a hint. I thought the trip would give us a chance to reconnect, see if there was still something there. Admit it, you were feeling the same way.”
She hated that he had a point. The rigid stance she’d held softened. With even the tiniest bit of introspection, she’d had the same thoughts about the trip. Her plan was to reevaluate their relationship after they returned home and decide then. With a sigh, she replied, “Fine. I agree.”
Instead of growing together as they grew up, they’d grown apart. Change was inevitable. That’s how things worked, but Craig had changed in ways that put a wedge between them. When they’d left together for New York, they’d had shared goals. For the most part. To go to college, get jobs, get married, and have a family.
Through college, those shared goals slowly changed, but Craig was the starkest. She hadn’t wanted to live together. By the end of the first year, he was pushing for them to move in together to save money. When he realized she wasn’t changing her mind, he quit pushing for that and moved to questioning her major.
Journalism was great. Having a dream was wonderful, but he wanted a retirement fund, a fat bank account, and to rub elbows with the rich and powerful. Of course, Jo wanted stability and things like that, too, but not at the expense of what made her happy. Money didn’t translate to contentedness, and that’s what she wanted most of all.
Once he graduated, he joined a firm known for its cutthroat practices. It wasn’t long until the sweet, small-town guy she’d fallen in love with had slowly morphed into a man that she struggled to like, let alone love. Dinner with him often left her wondering why she was still willing to even talk to him—reliable disappointment flitted through her mind. Nothing about Craig was risky at all.
Craig shot her a smile that would have once had her weak in the knees. Now, it was just a bow on a box full of nothing she wanted. “So, can we talk?”
“All right, but this house is not for sale,” she said as she swung the door wider.
Craig quickly pulled his hand free of his pocket and stepped inside. “I didn’t expect it to be.”
He followed her to the kitchen, and she continued getting the ingredients together to make lunch. “Would you like one?” She held up a slice of bread.
“No, I’m good,” he said and settled into a chair at the table. “So, how have you been? I have to say I was shocked you were here. You hate this place.”
That was such a strong word. Many of her memories were muddled together, and yet, that word didn’t seem to fit. Not really. “I don’t hate it.”
Craig scoffed. “I believe your exact words after we left were ‘I hate Wishing Well, and the only reason I’ll ever return is to visit my grandma.’ I may be paraphrasing, but the gist is there.”
Yeah, but now that she was actually examining things… like really examining them, she’d thought the town was boring. That’s why it’d been exciting planning a bed and breakfast with her grandma. They wanted to give people a place to stay and a reason to visit.
At the time, when she’d said that, he was on the verge of breaking up with her because he was going to New York, and he didn’t want her resenting him because she followed him to a place she would possibly hate. Up to that point, she’d tried to convince him to choose a school closer to home, but he was leaving. It was settled. Then she’d blurted that she would go with him. He’d pushed back. She’d had to be strong and convincing if she wanted to stay with him.
Life in Wishing Well had started rough, but Jo loved her grandma, and she loved living there. She’d had an equal amount of pushback about leaving from her grandma as well. Grandma knew Jo. Knew she loved the area. They had plans.
Undeterred, she’d insisted that she didn’t love Wishing Well. She did love her grandma, but she also knew she needed to stretch her wings. Grandma would love her no matter what she chose. She’d decided then and there she was leaving Wishing Well.
Jo stopped with the sandwich prep and rubbed the spot over her heart. Where had all that come from? Why was she remembering it now? As if it mattered. That was ten years ago. She’d left Texas, and she’d loved New York.
She shook the thoughts away. It wasn’t Craig. It was her. Her mom dumped her. That was the reason she’d needed to get out of Wishing Well. That was the reason she needed to return to New York, too. Her dream of becoming a photographer waited for her there, too.
“I was young, I was still dealing with my mom abandoning me, and I thought it was too small. I don’t think I ever hated it. I’ll say I didn’t know how to appreciate it back then.”
Jo plated her sandwich, grabbed a bag of chips, and took them to the table. “Tea?”
“Is it sweet?”
“This is Wishing Well, not New York City.”
“Is it syrup?”
