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I felt tears spring to my eyes. “Yes. So much.”
He cupped my cheek. “Then I think you’re wrong, sis. You know exactly what to do.”
“But what if—”
“Savannah, no. No what-ifs. You love him. And if he loves you back the way I think he does, then you’ve got nothing to worry about. You remember what Gramma always used to say?”
Thinking of Gramma made it harder not to cry. I missed her so much. “Love forgives.”
“Yep. If you and Chris really love each other, you can always find a way.”
“Dinner’s ready,” Nicole called from the kitchen.
I felt hungry for the first time in days.
We mostly talked about the wedding over dinner, though Sean made it very clear that Nicole had been pretty unhappy about the scene he described to her outside the Sparks. She seemed pleased with the way he’d apologized, at least.
While I was there, she showed me pictures of the dresses and gave me the date for the fitting, and I enjoyed being distracted from my own problems for a while.
When I left, Sean hugged me and kissed the top of my head. “See you later,” he said. “I’ll stop by the bookstore tomorrow morning to see you.”
“I really am okay, you know. You don’t have to keep checking on me.”
“Hey, can’t a guy come visit his little sister just because?” He waved me off with a smile, and I went to the grocery store. I hoped he did start coming just because. I missed that sort of thing and looked forward to seeing him more often after the wedding.
Before I went to sleep that night, I stared at my phone, debating whether to send Chris a message or not. I wanted to apologize again, tell him I missed him, try to salvage things if I could, even though part of me thought he’d be better off if I left him alone and we went back to being acquaintances who rarely spoke.
Thinking that threatened to make me cry, so I did what I often do when I can’t make a decision. I did nothing. I put my phone on the nightstand and tried my hardest to sleep, hoping the answer would present itself in the morning.
* * *
Morning came without any answers, but also with me missing Chris even more. I didn’t know how much longer I could stand not talking to him, but I still had no idea what to say or how to tell him how I felt.
I was dressed and had another hour before I needed to be at the store, so I kept scrolling through our old text messages, letting myself try to feel as happy as I did when we were sending them back and forth.
When my phone rang, my heart flip-flopped with the hope that it would be Chris. It was Grampa calling from the store.
“Savannah? I need you to come in early today.”
“Are you okay?” I thought about his pale face when he’d fallen off the ladder weeks ago. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong, I just need to get some things done before we open today, and I can’t do it alone. When can you get here?”
I still felt like something was wrong, despite what he said. “I can leave now.”
“Good. See you soon.”
He hung up before I could ask any more questions.
I hurried out to my car to head for the store, wracking my brain on the drive about what he could be talking about. We wouldn’t let him lift heavy boxes, and the books from upstairs had all been transferred already. Maybe he’d found some boxes we’d missed and wanted the books put on display.
As I turned into the square, the front of the store caught my eye. Multi-colored balloons decorated the front, with a huge banner that said, “Grand Opening.”
Grand opening?
A few people on the street peeked through the glass as they walked by, clearly interested in what was happening. When I went inside, Grampa came out of the office. “That was fast.” He took my hand and led me into the store.
“What’s going on? Why is there a grand—” I gasped as we turned the corner.
