“You were surprised?”
“Very much so. It seemed … too soon. But I got caught up in his enthusiasm and said yes and we started planning the wedding. For a while, everything seemed perfect.”
Daniel nodded, his expression serious. “What happened?”
A tremble went through her. “The building we worked in has three floors and our agency was on the third floor. The elevators were slow, so instead of waiting for them, people often used the side stairs when they were heading out.
“A week before the wedding, I was working late at the office, trying to finish a project that needed to be wrapped before we left for our honeymoon. Everyone else had gone home. I heard people talking on the side stairs, which made me a little nervous. I wanted to see who was there, but I didn’t want to make my presence known, so I went to the stairs and quietly opened the door and….”
“What did you see?”
“I saw my fiancé and a woman who worked with us. His arms were around her, her arms were around him, and they were kissing.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
“I was completely shocked.”
“What did you do?”
“I almost backed away without saying anything. They hadn’t seen me. I could have done that. I even took a step back. But then something inside me saidno. I stopped. And instead of running away, I cleared my throat — loudly.”
“And they…?”
“Jumped.” She took another breath. “Long story short, that was the end of me and him. He tried to get me back by telling me that he and our coworker had been seeing each other casually forover a year but what they had didn’t mean anything and I was the only woman he loved and….”
Daniel shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
Emotion welled up within her as the pain of the moment returned, but she pushed it back. “When I realized I couldn’t stand being in the same office as him, I quit my job and came back to Heartsprings Valley and started working with Mom and Dad at the bookstore.”
“You needed a break. A change of scenery.”
“I needed to recover and lick my wounds.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For me, the hardest part wasn’t discovering that he was a cheat —though that was hard, don’t get me wrong. What shook me most was realizing that I couldn’t trust my own ability to see what was going on. I was blind to the truththat my charming fiancé had been cheating on me the entire time we were together.”
Daniel shook his head. “My wife and her ex snuck around behind my back for months without me knowing. When I finally found out, I started questioning myself and my judgment. I wondered what else I wasn’t seeing.”
“Exactly.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“I’m sorry, too,” she said with a sigh. “And I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to let it go and move ahead without letting it weigh me down.”
“Is that where you are now?” he asked, his eyes full of sympathy.
It felt good to be sharing this with him. “I think so. I hope so.”
“Good. You deserve to be happy.”
She was about to tell him he deserved the same when her phone buzzed.
She pulled it out of her jeans pocket and, after a quick glance, brought it to her ear. “Hey, Nancy.”
“Penny, I’m so sorry,” Nancy said, her voice hoarse. “I won’t be able to do my shift today.”
Oh, dear —Nancy sounded awful. “You sound like you caught something.”
