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Zoe opened her mouth. All the mumbo-jumbo accountant-drone speak she’d managed to summon to the tip of her tongue while talking to him earlier that morning was right there, ready to come spilling out again.
But she closed her mouth.
She turned, looking back across the waiting room at her mom eyeing the clock, her brother and sister fighting over a couple of Werther’s.
Her Devin, who was holding his cards close to his chest, literally. But figuratively, he was staring right at her with all of them right there for the entire world to see.
Sudden certainty filled her chest.
“Zoe?” Brad asked. “You still there?”
“Yeah, Brad.” She gripped the phone more tightly. “I’m right here.”
Still holding eye contact with Devin across the space, she took a couple of deep breaths.
Every time she’d discussed her job search with him, he’d asked her questions she hadn’t been ready to answer. Questions about what she wanted, what she loved, what had motivated her to go down the roads she’d chosen. She’d answered the best she could, but deep down, she’d known that she’d been hiding the truth, both from him and from herself.
She didn’t care about some big corporate accounting job. She didn’t want to go to Atlanta or Charlotte or Savannah.
She wanted to be here. With him. Working with Arthur and Clay and just living her life. Not the one her mother had charted out for her the second she’d been born.
She may be a dreamer, just like her mom said, but her head wasn’t in the clouds. Her feet were firmly planted on the ground, and she was ready to stand tall.
“I’m sorry, Brad,” she said. “But I’ve decided not to pursue this opportunity after all.”
As she said the words, the rightness of them sank into her bones. There’d be consequences to this decision, but she was prepared to face them.
If Devin could stand up to Han for her, then Zoe could stand up to her mom. She could fight for her own happiness—and for a chance at a future for the both of them, here in Blue Cedar Falls, where they belonged.
“How is he?” Zoe practically bounced to her feet as Han and Lian returned to the waiting room after getting to go in and see Uncle Arthur in person.
“He’s good,” Han assured her.
“If already getting annoyed at Mom.” Lian rolled her eyes.
Zoe could only imagine. She’d spent enough sick days at home with her mom—and her delightful bedside manner—to empathize.
“Can we…?” Devin asked, standing and gesturing toward the door. Zoe’s mom had wrestled her way back to sit with Uncle Arthur the second he got out of recovery, but outside of her, they were only letting folks in one or two people at a time.
Han nodded. He reached for his jacket. “I should go check on the restaurant.”
Thank goodness they had employees who could open the place.
“Call if you need anything,” Devin told him.
“Will do.” Han looked to Lian. “You want to stay or go?”
“I’ll stay awhile.” She tipped her head toward the door before sinking into one of the seats near where Zoe and Devin had been sitting. “Go on.”
As he pulled out his keys, Han paused for a moment. “Hey, Zo?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks.” His gaze met hers, and it wasn’t as if it was the first time he’d made eye contact with her since he’d found out about her and Devin, but there was something different about the way he regarded her. Like he was acknowledging her as an equal and not some kid sister he had to protect. “Mom told me how you held things together this afternoon, when I was off picking up Lian.”
Zoe smiled. “No problem.”
Han nodded, new respect in his eyes, and it was too much to hope that he’d start letting the rest of his family help carry some of the responsibility he was always lugging around with him. But a girl could dream, right?
