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“It’s just … not the right time.”

And I hated to admit how long I held on to those words. That we’d find our right time eventually. That something or someone wouldn’t always be in our way. I was still waiting.

4

Savannah

Present

Sasha knocked once on my open office door. “Amelia?”

I looked up from the recent donation email I’d received from the Foster Foundation, a foster charity that my boutique worked with. I’d made promises all those years ago as Miss Georgia and meant all of them. The first thing I did when I started Ballentine was reach back out to the charity and figure out a donation schedule. I’d been active in the community ever since.

“Hey, Sasha, you should see this email,” I said with a bright smile.

She walked around the desk and read over my shoulder. “Oh my God, Amelia! You’re being recognized as Philanthropist of the Year for Foster Foundation, and they’re going to hold a ball in your honor.”

I laughed. “I can’t believe it. I knew we’d been helping, but I didn’t know it was this much.”

“You’re incredible.”

“I’ll have to design a new dress.”

“Hell yes!”

I was still beaming when I remembered Sasha must have been here for a reason. “Was there a problem? How is the new cashier?”

Sasha handled a lot of the day-to-day stuff for Ballentine. She was the best manager that I’d ever had. She was definitely in need of a promotion and raise. Especially if everything worked out with a new boutique in Charleston.

“New cashier is great. She already had retail experience. But that’s not why I’m here.”

My stomach sank. Oh. Oh, I knew what was coming. “He’s here again?”

Sasha nodded. “Like clockwork.”

Every day for the last ten days, Ash had shown up at the boutique. Most days, he asked me to lunch and then left when I turned him down. Wednesday, he’d left lemon bars from Back in the Day Bakery. The next Monday, he’d brought me a giant sweet tea from a local coffee shop. I was half-worried that he’d keep bringing me all of my favorite things until I said yes to lunch. Not that I planned to after the shit that had gone down last year.

“Will you tell him that I’m not free for lunch?”

Sasha shot me a look. “You are free for lunch.”

“Yeah, but he doesn’t need to know that.”

“Or you could just talk to him.”

I sighed. “I have talked to him, and since when are you giving relationship advice?”

“Since my boss isn’t seeing sense.”

I couldn’t help it. I laughed. “Is that so?”

Sasha sank into her hip and flipped her rainbow hair over her shoulder. “For one, have you seen that man? He is gorgeous. Two, he has shown up every single day to ask you out. That’s so romantic.”

“Or creepy.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’d be creepy if you didn’t know him and he wasn’t a friend and you weren’t totally into him.”

“I’m not,” I lied.

“You’re not a good liar, Amelia. Everyone with eyes can see you’re into him. You used to go to lunch with him for years. Even when he was with someone else. Now that you’re both single, you’re not going to give him the time of day? What did he do to you?”

It wasn’t so much what he’d done as what he hadn’t done. Years of what he hadn’t done. Until it had all hit a fever pitch a year earlier. I didn’t know how to come back from it. I’d loved him for so long, and I’d finally given up. How much more could I handle?

When I didn’t respond, Sasha sighed. “Fine. But at least talk to him. I’m not telling him no again.”

Then, she strode out.

Well, she was right. I didn’t pay her to deal with my relationship issues. This was on me. I’d have to respond to the email from Foster Foundation afterward.

Despite myself, I pulled up the camera on my phone and checked my makeup, reapplying a bit of red lipstick and flattening my dark hair. I spritzed some Chanel No. 5 on my wrists and neck, internally yelled at myself for caring at all, and then forced myself to walk out of my office.

Ash was at the cash register, charming Sasha with a smile. He was in a charcoal suit today with a pink button-up and navy tie. That pink shirt was probably my favorite, and he knew it. Damn.

As soon as I came out of the back, his eyes shot over to me. They crawled down my figure and then back to my eyes. He straightened with a smile. “Hey.”

I swallowed. “Hi.”

The boutique was busy, as it was every lunch break. The last thing I wanted was a crowd of gossipmongers listening in on this conversation. I gestured for Ash to follow me out onto Broughton Street.

“You look lovely,” he told me once outside.

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