Chapter 19
Saturday morning sun broke through the drawn curtains in Chloe’s second story bedroom at the LaRue’s sprawling estate.
Making sports equipment gave them a generous life.
She’d been so tired last night she’d turned off her phone and gone to bed after dinner.
She’d never been good with jet lag, and this trip seemed to be making her more weary than usual.
Sometime in the night she dreamed of Sam.
He was drifting farther and farther away, and she couldn’t quite reach him.
Now in the light of day, she realized her heart had been speaking to her in the night.
What was she to do about Sam? Would he move to France?
No, no. He had a job with the Raiders. He had his dreams and she had hers.
They’d talked once, but she’d been so excited about the café he didn’t say much.
Though he’d texted he loved all the pictures she’d sent him.
Still, where were they in their love affair?
They’d confessed their love, but Chloe had made it clear she wasn’t ready to move on.
Yet. Maybe the café was the reason. That her heart was still connected to Jean-Marc and she knew he’d not said his final words.
Knew they still had unfinished business.
Literally. Knew she had to resolve feeling like the Black Widow of Hearts Bend.
Reaching for her phone, she saw a flurry of texts from Robin.
Robin: White Chocolate Cookies and Cream Cookie. It’s the new TCFC. Ruby might have told everyone it was Sam Hardy’s own recipe and his favorite cookie.
Oh Ruby, you rascal. So, Haven’s had their new TCFC. Good for Laura Kate. And if they’d found the next big cookie hit without Chloe, wasn’t that a sign that she was no longer needed at Haven’s? That she was free to accept Jean-Marc’s gift?
The next message was from Sam. Her heart grew a protective shell as the words sank in.
A long, singular message in which he once again called things off.
Hope you’re having fun in France… Go for it…
I’m off to meet with the Raiders next week…
Guess we’re both pursuing our dreams… Wish you all the best… Honest.
Her tears collected as she read the message over and over, sad and angry, hurt, yet wondering if he wasn’t just ripping off the bandage and saying what needed to be said.
Despite their affection for one another, their love, their destinies had taken dramatically different turns.
In the cozy safety of Hearts Bend, it was easy to pretend they could be the boy and girl next door, the all-American couple who’d secretly loved each other all through high school. But that wasn’t their reality, was it?
The café surprise couldn’t have come at a better time.
Mom was nearing the end of her treatments.
Laura Kate had invented the W4C. The town council had saved Haven’s from Donut Heaven.
While she had to get back to France as soon as possible—she and Albert were meeting with an architect about the café remodel—she’d take time in Hearts Bend to make sure everything was shipshape before she moved here.
Back to France. A wave of wonder washed over her. Was she actually going backward? Would she sink into a world of grief again, working the café without Jean-Marc?
Chloe fell back on her bed, tears slipping down her cheeks. “Sam, I needed to talk to you, but you broke up with me in a text. Again.”
She tossed her phone to the floor, buried her face in her pillow, and cried.
An hour later, showered and dressed, her questions and sorrow in check, Chloe followed the aroma of coffee and croissants to the LaRues’ kitchen.
She paused to give Fezzik, their Great Dane, a rub behind the ears.
He sighed and settled back onto his giant pillow bed.
At the coffee bar, she poured herself a cup and set a buttery pastry on a plate.
“Bonjour,” she said with her best smile.
“What troubles you, Chloe?” Albert saw right through her. Jean-Marc had been the same. She could hide nothing from him.
“The man I love, the one I told you about, sent me a text.”
“I don’t like the sound of this story, ma chére,” Vivienne said, stretching her hand out to Chloe.
“He says I should follow my dream as he’s following his.
” Tears she’d been determined to hold in surfaced and spilled over.
“I was so excited, I didn’t think what it meant for us.
I suppose in the romance of it all I thought he’d say, ‘Forget the football championship, I’ll move to France.
’” She laughed softly and reached for the tissue Vivienne offered.
“I miss him, but I guess I have to move on. After all, we’ve only really been back in touch for a few months. How can true love bloom in two months?”
“True love blooms the moment it finds the right sun, Chloe.” Albert was the poet of the LaRue clan. “I knew the moment I set eyes on Vivienne.”
“I, however, did not know, and he chased me for two years.”
“Ah, two of the most heartbreaking, joyous, très chaotique years of my life.” Albert blew a kiss at his wife who pretended to accept it and place it to her chest.
“Chloe, you must follow your heart,” Vivienne said. “Poor darling, Jean-Marc’s surprise has broken your heart again.”
“To be honest, Vivienne,” Chloe said, “I’ve never felt more loved. But yes, Sam’s message hurt more than I expected. I guess I didn’t know how much I loved him until right now.”
Suddenly, the sunlight shifted through the windows and a ray of golden light washed over Chloe and she settled into an unusual peace. The answer would come. She must believe.
Albert folded his paper and set it aside. “Shall we still meet with the architect? If so, I must change. We’ll leave in an hour.”
“I’ll be ready to go when you say.” So this was it. Meet the architect and Chloe was in, all in.
Albert had just set his coffee cup in the dishwasher when the doorbell chimes played through the house. After a moment, the maid appeared.
“For you, mademoiselle.” She nodded at Chloe. “Visiteur.”
“A visitor? For me?” Chloe pushed away from the table with a glance at her in-laws. “Albert, is the architect coming here?”
“No, we are to meet at his office.”
Chloe went through the arched kitchen doorway toward the grand room and stopped cold when she saw the handsome, broad, American footballer Sam Hardy. He looked sheepish, unsure, and like he’d sat up all night on a long flight from Nashville.
“Surprise,” he said quietly, his humble posture the antithesis of his player persona.
“Wha—what are you doing here?” Chloe reached for the nearest chair to support her trembling legs.
“I came to see you. Got the last seat on a flight from Nashville to New York, New York to Paris. No first class. Middle seat all the way. Last row, over the engine.”
Chloe touched her fingers to her lips as a quivering laugh escaped. “Six-foot-four, bad knee Sam Hardy crunched up in the middle seat of an overnight flight. You had to be miserable.”
“I was and it had nothing to do with the seat.” He stepped toward her. “I ached in here.” He touched his chest. “I had to see you. There I was, working the W4C rush—that’s our new cookie sensation, by the way—”
“Robin texted. Way to go, Laura Kate.”
“And all I knew was that you weren’t there.
Then Ruby had to pummel me with her advice when we were all exhausted, sitting around after we closed, and I knew…
I love you, Chloe. I can’t be a Raider quarterback without you.
That stupid Super Bowl ring will collect dust. But you and I will never collect dust. I’ll make sure of it. ”
“You texted I should take the café, follow my dream.”
“We both know I’m an idiot when it comes to texting. I’m sorry. I was assuming, just like I did with my parents, which has a new and happy ending, and—”
“You’re talking to your dad?”
“And my mom. We’re not one big happy family again, but I know the truth.
I’d been wrong for fifteen years and, Chloe, I don’t want to be wrong for another fifteen years.
The only ring I want is your ring. Our ring.
” Right in the LaRues’ living room, Sam dropped to one knee and pulled a ring from his jeans pocket.
“There’s still no twinkle lights and no string quartet.
And I’m probably a jerk doing this in Jean-Marc’s parents’ house—”
Chloe choked back a sob.
“But I’m on one knee and I have a ring. Marry me, please, right here, right now. Be my wife.”
Chloe bubbled then with a laugh before the tears took over. “Yes, yes, I’ll marry you.” She flew into his arms, knocking him down before he could stand. They tumbled over the thick carpet patterned with a French pastoral scene. “I love you, Sam. I love you.”
“I didn’t have time to get a ring, but this is for now—” Sam slipped his college national championship ring onto her finger. “Ruby was right, it was dusty and tarnished. I never wear it. Chloe, please hear me. I’m committed to you. Not my career, not my dreams. It’s you and me from now on.”
His kiss was rich and full, passionate and unashamed to be holding her on the floor of her former husband’s parents’ home. He was in, all in—she felt it in his beating heart under the palm of her hand.
Fezzik gave a low growl and Chloe looked up from Sam’s embrace. “Hush, Fezzik. He’s a good one.”
They stood and the giant dog gave a sniff before returning to his bed. As she led Sam to meet Albert and Vivienne, Sam’s hand rested on the small of her back. But when Chloe turned to him, he was reaching to shake Albert’s hand.
She smiled. The hand she’d felt belonged to God, her approving Father.