Chapter 40
I return Mr. McNaught to Sunnyvale in time to board the minibus to Port Logan, then immediately begin my search for Reeve.
With West Lake being not much more than a crossroads of two main streets, and knowing Reeve isn’t at Lou’s counter chatting with Rosie, I’m left with only a handful of options for where he might be.
Out of options, I turn into the parking lot of Sunnyvale, where I silently curse the light blue Honda Civic parked in my usual spot. But as I make a quick U-turn and park near the dance hall, I catch a glimpse of silver just visible around the far corner of the building, and my heart stops.
I’m not entirely sure if I turn off my engine.
I definitely leave my doors unlocked as I unclick my seatbelt and sprint to the tall wooden doors, pulling them open and taking just a moment to let my eyes adjust to the dim interior light.
He’s sitting on the edge of the stage, feet dangling over the dance floor below, looking at his phone cradled in his hand.
“Hey,” I call out.
He looks up. “Jules! Are you okay?”
I consider the events of the last twenty-four hours. “I don’t know if I’d use the word okay yet, but I’m here.”
He slides off the edge of the stage to his feet. “I was going to tell you, Jules, I swear. I just ran out of time.”
“How long have you known?”
He shifts his weight as if he’s considering stepping closer but then stops and shoves his hands into his pockets. “I found out yesterday—a couple of hours before the party.”
I nod, and he takes a step closer. “Roy and I met back in the fall when Kitty passed away, but Sunnyvale wasn’t interested in selling, so I moved on.
Then, on the way home after meeting with you, Howard and I drove past the dance hall.
He asked about Sunnyvale. I explained they weren’t interested, but Howard…
well, he doesn’t like to hear the word no.
I guess he called Roy after we got back and offered him double what I had.
I found out with the rest of the team when he called a Saturday morning update meeting. ”
His words make sense. It wasn’t months of betrayal, only hours. “I was with you all night, Reeve. You could have pulled me aside. I should have heard it from you.”
He lets out a long breath. “I know. You are right. I just…Iwanted to fix things before I told you. I wanted to at least have a plan or an idea of what you could do. I have this friend. He’s a lawyer.
He’s trying to see if you could write some sort of clause into the sale to ensure they couldn’t touch Sunnyvale.
It’s unconventional, but Mansfield doesn’t want the retirement home if they can’t also get the dance hall with its water access.
He thinks it’s possible for the deal to still happen. You just need to—”
“It’s not going to happen,” I interrupt him. “I can’t. Even with that clause or whatever. I’ve decided I can’t go through with it.”
There’s a notable stillness in the room as he processes what I’ve said and I figure out what I want to say next. “I know this screws up your project,” I continue. “And now you’re going to have to tell Mansfield and your dad after he made that whole big speech, and I’m so, so sorry, but I can’t—”
“Jules,” Reeve interrupts. “I quit. Didn’t Zoe tell you?”
I freeze. “What?”
Reeve nods. “I handed in my resignation to Howard this morning.”
“Wait, why?”
He takes a tentative step toward me. “I didn’t want to be a part of it anymore, either. I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. The only parts of the job I enjoyed were when I had excuses to come up here and see you. So when I found out about Sunnyvale, that was it.”
I hear his words and process them. They’re just so very different from the narrative in my head that I have trouble fully grasping what he means.
“But you met with Roy like an hour ago. I saw you.”
Confusion crosses his brow. “You saw me? Why didn’t you…
” He shakes his head, and his expression clears.
“I came looking for you at work. I didn’t really have a plan, and I ran into Roy in the lobby.
When I saw him, it clicked that me just showing up might get you in trouble, so I chatted with him for a few minutes and then left. ”
It’s the simple, logical explanation Zoe promised, yet I still can’t get my head around it. “But you wanted that deal so badly. You really just walked away?”
“I wanted the deal to happen for you, Jules.”
He closes the final few steps so that his toes nearly touch mine.
“I have been thinking a lot about that night we first met,” he says.
“Not just meeting you, but the things we told each other, and I realized that that guy on the dock would look at my job at Mansfield and be horrified. He’d wonder what the hell happened—why I was telling myself I was happy when in truth, I gave up on my dreams.”
He reaches out, his hands framing my face. “But you hadn’t given up, and I wanted to do everything I could to help. A little redemption for those kids back on the dock.”
I swallow. “It’s not going to happen for me this year.
” I tell him the hard fact I’ve already come to accept.
“I’m not going to sell, so I won’t be able to get the money together in time.
” But as I say it, Reeve’s words from a moment ago blend with my mom’s, and I realize something I think I’ve known for a while.
“But I’m not ready to give up yet. I just need a new plan.
One that likely involves writing my GMAT a few more times and Saturday night shifts for the foreseeable future. ”
Reeve leans forward, pressing his forehead to mine. “What can I do?”
I shake my head. “I’m not sure yet. But for now you can kiss me. You’re the only thing I have figured out.”
He’s already bending down, his lips searching for mine like he had the same idea.
His arms wrap around my back, squeezing me tightly as I lay my head on his chest. My eyes roam the empty dance hall, thinking of Kitty and Knots. That very first night, they swayed together not too far from where we stand now, completely unaware of how their story was about to unfold.
“I wonder what those two kids on the dock would say if they could see us now.” I kick an empty beer bottle with the toe of my shoe and watch it roll away. “I’ll bet they never would have predicted this.”
Reeve leans away so he can look at me thoroughly. “Maybe not the abandoned dance hall part, but I think Dock Reeve would have hoped to be standing next to you.”
My heart flutters. “Really?”
Reeve cups the side of my face in his hand. “He fell pretty hard. Not as madly in love as he is right now, but he knew.”
My heart stops for a moment as I hold my breath, replaying the words in my head, sure that I must not have heard him correctly. “I’m sorry, but you need to back up a little and maybe drop the third person.”
“He fell hard?” Reeve offers, smiling like he wants me to say it.
“The part right after that.”
He reaches so that both hands now cradle my face, leaving no place for me to look other than into the deep brown of his eyes. “That I’m madly in love with you?”
I attempt to nod.
“It’s true,” he continues, the pads of his thumbs stroking my cheeks. “I love you, Jules. I wanted a future with you that night on the dock, but it’s only a fraction of what I feel now.”
My brain gets stuck on those three words—those beautiful words—repeating them over and over, but as much as I love to hear them, I want to say them even more.
“I think I spent the first half of our relationship waiting for you to realize it wasn’t what you wanted, and then the next half terrified you would,” I begin.
“I didn’t want to admit to myself that I loved you because if I did, there would be no going back.
But I want to tell you that now because even though I think we have a long love story ahead of us, I don’t want to wait until the last chapter for the happy ending. It should come now.”
I pull him to me, not bothering to linger this time. We kiss with that perfect, practiced tilt to our heads that says this isn’t our first kiss and the slow, savoring exploration that says we know there will be an entire lifetime before our last.
When we finally pull away, he keeps me close, pressing my cheek to his chest, nestled perfectly into that nook under his chin.
I stare at the dilapidated walls of the dance hall; its future is still so undefined.
“I wonder what will happen to this place.”
Reeve lifts his head, presumably to look around. “Do you have any idea what you will do with it now?”
I shake my head, stepping back to survey the whole room.
“Keep it on the market, I guess. Keep my fingers crossed that dance halls come suddenly back into fashion. Kitty’s estate paid the taxes for the next year, so at least I have some time.
” I take Reeve’s hand. “What do you say we get out of here?”
He adjusts his grip so his fingers lace with mine.
“Yeah. It will be dark soon.” We walk hand in hand to the big wooden doors, but just as we are about to step through, Reeve pauses and turns around.
“And I know it’s weird to say, but I’ve always gotten a feeling about this place. I think it might be a little haunted.”