Page 117 of Falling for the Grinchy Bad Boy

Up until a few weeks ago, he was still in the funk she left him in. Now that she was back, she was going to ruin him. Again. That was not okay.

“Don’t let that witch win,” Aunt Victoria continued fiercely. “Don’t give her the satisfaction of destroying something good just because she can’t stand to see Cooper happy.”

“That’s not really up to me,” I said quietly. “It’s up to Cooper. He has to decide what he wants, who he wants. I can’t make that choice for him.”

“You’re right,” Victoria agreed. “But you can decide whether you’re going to trust him enough to let him make that choice, or whether you’re going to run away before he gets the chance.”

I stared into my ice cream, considering her words. Part of me knew she was right. Part of me recognized that fleeing was exactly what Lynn wanted me to do. But another part of me, the part that had been hurt too many times, just wanted to retreat to safety.

“I’ll finish the festival,” I said finally. “I made a commitment to this town, and I’m going to see it through. But after that…” I trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

“After that, what?” Aunt Victoria prompted gently.

“After that, I think I need to look for work out of town again. There are too many old memories here, too much history. Maybe it was a mistake to think I could come back and build something new.”

The admission hurt to say out loud, but it also felt like relief. I tried to make Calton Hill work, tried to build a life here, but maybe some things were better left in the past.

“Oh, sweetheart,” Victoria said softly, pulling me into a hug. “I understand why you’re scared. I understand why running away feels safer. But please don’t make any permanent decisions while you’re this hurt and confused.”

“I’m not confused,” I said, though even as I said it, I knew it wasn’t entirely true. “I’m tired. I’m tired of fighting for something that shouldn’t be this hard.”

“Sometimes the best things are the hardest to fight for,” she replied. “But I won’t push you. Just promise me you’ll take some time to think about it before you make any final decisions.”

I nodded, though I wasn’t sure how much thinking was going to change my mind. The humiliation of tonight felt too fresh, too raw. The idea of facing Cooper again, of having that conversation we’d promised to have, filled me with dread.

Maybe some people were meant to find love in small towns, to build lives surrounded by community and history and the kind of deep roots that went back generations. But maybe I wasn’t one of those people. Maybe I was meant for the anonymity of the city and the kind of life where your personal business stayed personal. Your mistakes didn’t become everyone else’s entertainment.

“I’m going to bed,” I said. “Thank you for making sure the market wrapped up okay. And thank you for listening.”

“Always,” she replied, kissing my forehead. “Try to get some sleep. Things might look different in the morning.”

I put the liquor back in the kitchen and the ice cream in the freezer. Before I walked out of the kitchen, I grabbed the bottle and took a long drink. I should have got some tequila. I wanted to knock myself out. Unfortunately, I would have to deal with what I had.

As I climbed the stairs to my childhood bedroom, I wondered if she was right. Would morning bring clarity, or just more of the same confusion and heartache?

Outside my window, Calton Hill was quiet and peaceful, blanketed in snow and twinkling with Christmas lights all around the neighborhood. It looked like a postcard. It looked like the kind of place where love stories were supposed to have happy endings.

But maybe not all love stories were meant to end happily. Maybe some were just meant to teach you something about yourself before you moved on to whatever came next.

I fell asleep thinking about job applications and apartment searches in distant cities. There was an odd comfort at the thought of starting over somewhere no one knew my name or my history.

It felt like giving up, but sometimes giving up was just another word for self-preservation. Cooper wasn’t ready. He needed to figure out his situation with Lynn.

He wasn’t ready and maybe I wasn’t either. It was better to leave things alone as they were before there was any real damage. Maybe in another five years we would be ready. Assuming Lynn didn’t convince him to actually marry her. It was out of my hands. I was going to sit back and let the universe do what the universe did.