Page 93 of Dandelion Sighs

“Yes,” I said again. A hot tear rolled down my cheek. The man declared his love for me. He practically begged me to marry him. But he didn’t mean it.

What if he did?

I chewed on my lower lip. “Do you think he really loves me?”

“I don’t know.”

I dropped my head out of my hand, barely catching myself before I thunked the desktop. Mom would’ve asked me how Jasper could not love me. But I needed honesty.

“Okay, let me ask you some questions. Let me shut the door so Will knows not to interrupt me.” Muffled movement came over the line. “Now. First, let me ask you about selling. Do you want to?”

“I don’t want the stress anymore.”

“That’s not a yes.”

“It’s not a no.”

“Touché. What would you do without it?”

I reclined in my chair, phone to my ear. My stomach cramped. What would I do? “I could take the money and fund another business.”

“And what would that be?”

I didn’t answer. What would I do if I could do anything? It wasn’t like I’d been stifled. “I don’t know.”

“You’d have enough money to have some time to think about it.”

That’d be a first.

“But the resort would be gone,” she added.

A stabbing pain shot through my chest. “Yeah.”

“What about Jasper? Has he lied to you before?”

I thought back to all our time together. My throat grew thick and it was hard to swallow. My vision got blurry. He told me he’d do something, and he’d done it. Over and over again. When he’d asked me to marry him the first time, he’d been honest about why. When he stood in the doorway of my office and announced he wanted to date me, he did. “No.”

“Then do you think he’s lying about loving you?”

“No. I don’t know,” I said hoarsely. “He’s a really good guy.”

“I think you do know.” She talked to me like she had when I told her I wanted to drop out of college. I had known what I wanted to do, but had resisted because of my dad. “I think you’re afraid, and that’s what this is all about.”

“I’m terrified.” Again.

“Well, that’s a good first step.” She made a clicking sound like she was thinking. “You have to figure out if you’re too scared to keep going, and if you’re too scared to take a chance on a guy who sounds like he might be the real deal after a bunch of fakers.”

I closed my eyes. “It’s never worked out before.”

“You’re thinking too hard. Do you know what Will does?”

“Sell insurance.” What did her husband have to do with this?

“Do you know what he did before he sold insurance? He hosted sales masterminds and it went belly-up. Before that? He was a DJ. Before that, I guess his lawn care business didn’t exactly fail. He graduated high school.”

I faintly recalled her telling me about his endeavors and how he wanted to be his own boss.

“You know what he didn’t do?” she asked.