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I stare after him, stuck on the Sofie-sized place no longer in his heart.
But he’s not done.
“I don’t need to go down memory lane. I lived there, dissected every sentence you ever said to me, wondering if I’d made it all up in my head, where I went left and you went right, how I was so off base that I didn’t evenrealizeyou never loved me back. Hell, you didn’t even care enough about me as afriendto tell me goodbye in person.”
He draws in his bottom lip with his teeth and when it slides out, he smiles, but it just breaks my heart more.
“I meant it when I said we can pretend the other doesn’t exist.” His voice is low and raspy, but I hear every word.
He opens the door and numbly, I walk toward it. When I reach him, I stop and look up at him. He looks somewhere over my shoulder.
“I lied about so much, but I never ever lied about loving you,” I say simply. Saying it out loud has my heart rate skipping beats.
His eyes flicker toward mine, a crease forming between his eyebrows.
“I guess your love for me wasn’t enough then,” he says.
His jaw tics, and for the first time, his anger gives me hope that he still feels something.
“My love for you was everything,” I tell him. “It kept me moving forward, kept me from falling apart…” I clear my throat and lift my shoulders, gaining a little bit of courage. “My love for you is what made me think I could make Landmark my home again.”
His hand lands on his hip as his frown deepens even more. “I think you should go.”
“Okay.” I nod slightly and move toward the door. “But Theo?”
He eyes me warily.
“I’m not going anywhere this time, and there’s no way I could ever pretend you don’t exist.”
I leave before I do something stupid. He asked me to go, and I want to respect his wishes.
But now that I know I won’t be wrecking a relationship—Amy who?—everything has changed.
I’ve let the past define my fears.
Now, it’s time I put the past to rest.
* * *
The next morning after my chores, I change into something cute and less dusty and drive over to Happy Cow. The place is busy, but when Mar, short for Mary but do notevercall her Mary, sees me, she takes off her apron and comes around the counter, arms open wide.
“I’d heard you were in town, but I didn’t believe it since I haven’t seen you,” she says, hugging me hard.
“I’m sorry I haven’t been in before now,” I say when we pull away. “I haven’t been anywhere really…well, The Pink Ski once…but I’ve been busy and just…finding my feet.”
“Lar, look who’s here,” she calls out.
She squeezes me again and heads back around the counter to help Lar, short for Larry but donotcall him Larry.
As soon as he’s free, his voice booms. “Sofie, welcome back. Wow, it’s good to see you.”
I feel like a terrible person for hiding out so long.
“It’s so good to see you guys,” I say, smiling at them and the customers who shift to the other end of the counter to wait for their things. “And you’ll be seeing a lot more of me. I’m back to stay.”
“We’re so sorry about your dad,” Lar says gravely. “He looked fit as ever, never would’ve dreamed his heart would go.”
Mar backhands his chest and gives him a pointed look. “She doesn’t want to talk about that.”
