CHAPTER 26 THE CHOICE AT CLOSING TIME
By March, the Book Nook was profitable.
Modestly.
Clara celebrated as if they had conquered Wall Street.
She brought cake.
Beth made a sign.
Maggie insisted on champagne-flavored cupcakes made without alcohol because, as she put it, “We are a respectable street.”
Clara did not ask.
The editing service had three regular clients.
The children’s clubs had waiting lists.
Online orders accounted for nearly twenty percent of sales.
The reading room calendar was booked six weeks ahead.
The shop worked.
Not effortlessly.
Not enormously.
But honestly.
One Friday at closing, Clara locked the front door and found Eli standing in the reading room.
He wore a jacket instead of work clothes.
“That is suspicious.”
“What?”
“You are dressed like dinner.”
“We have dinner reservations.”
“We do?”
“Yes.”
“When did this happen?”
“Tuesday.”
“You made plans without putting them on my calendar?”
“I enjoy danger.”
She smiled.
“Give me ten minutes.”
“No rush.”
Clara went upstairs, changed, and returned.
Eli was still in the reading room.
He had turned on only the two lamps June had chosen.
Clara stopped.
“Eli.”
He looked nervous.
Actually nervous.
She knew.
This time he knelt.
Clara covered her mouth.
He held a different ring.
New.
Simple.
Chosen for now, not recovered from then.
“Clara Bennett,” he said, “I loved you when we were young, but I am not asking you to marry the people we used to be.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I love the woman you are now. I love your lists, your arguments, your terrible coffee, your courage, your faith, and the way you are learning to stay when truth gets hard.”
She laughed through tears.
“I don’t promise an easy life. I promise I will tell you the truth. I will listen. I will not make your choices for you. I will pray with you. I will build with you, wherever God leads us.”
Clara was crying openly now.
“Will you marry me?”
She did not think about New York.
Charlotte.
Her parents.
The old ring.
The developer.
She thought about the man in front of her and the God who had been faithful through every road.
“Yes.”
Eli’s eyes closed briefly.
“Yes?”
“Yes.”
He stood and slipped the ring onto her finger.
It fit.
Clara laughed.
“You measured.”
“Of course.”
“How?”
“Anna.”
“Traitor.”
“She was delighted.”
Clara wrapped her arms around him.
They kissed beneath the reading-room lamps.
Then the front door rattled.
Clara laughed into his shoulder.
“No.”
Noah’s face appeared through the glass.
Behind him stood Anna, Maggie, Diane—who had apparently flown in without telling Clara—Beth, Reverend Hale, Walter, Mr. Soto, and half the people Clara knew.
Eli looked guilty.
“You planned this?”
“Dinner reservations.”
“Liar.”
He unlocked the door.
The shop filled with cheers.
Noah ran to Clara.
“Did you say yes?”
She held up her hand.
His grin was enormous.
Maggie hugged her.
Diane cried.
Walter announced that he had known since September.
Nobody believed him.
Reverend Hale prayed over them before the cake was cut.
He thanked God for redemption, patience, forgiveness, and new beginnings built on truth.
Clara held Eli’s hand.
At the end, everyone said amen.
Clara looked around the reading room.
Aunt June was absent.
And yet her love was everywhere.
Not controlling the moment.
Not deciding it.
Simply part of the road that led there.
At closing time, Clara had made another choice.
This one did not feel like staying instead of leaving.
It felt like walking forward.