Chapter Twenty-Four
The Fourth of July dawned clear and warm, promising a hot day and the perfect night for fireworks. Jax got up earlier than
usual—something she’d been doing for the past few days. She wasn’t sleeping well since Marcus had walked out on their conversation.
She’d done her best not to think about what had gone wrong between them but it was impossible to ignore the sense of unease
that dogged her. It was almost as if she’d forgotten something important and couldn’t remember what it was. She alternated
between being pissed at him and being sad with herself. The former made sense but the latter confused her. So they weren’t
dating anymore. Big whoop. Only it felt like a big whoop to her.
She opened her door and was surprised to find Huckleberry waiting for her. He meowed a greeting and rubbed against her.
“Is this actual love or are you hungry?” she asked the cat as she scooped him up into her arms. He pressed his head against
her chin and purred. His tiny kitty toes made biscuits on her shoulder.
“Thank you for being there for Ramon,” she murmured. “Don’t let him run away again. And don’t you think about leaving, either.”
Because now he was part of the family. No one had come forward to claim him. Along with his new collar, he had a pet license
and current shots.
She set him down and went to the second floor to greet Ramon. After both pets were fed, she went into the store and started
her day. In celebration of the holiday she replaced all the books in the front window display, collecting enough red, white
and blue books to create an American flag.
A little after eight Ryleigh showed up with breakfast sandwiches and coffee.
Jax hugged her in appreciation. “I haven’t done any grocery shopping this week,” she said. “I feel like I can’t keep up and
I’m not sure why.”
They sat at one of the tables in the empty coffee bar. The store was dark and quiet. When they opened at ten, it would be
busy and noisy but for now Jax enjoyed the solitude.
“I knew today would be a scramble,” Ryleigh told her. “You’re still coming to the picnic on the beach, aren’t you?”
“I’ll be there.”
Every year she and her kids spent the afternoon of the Fourth on the beach. While Harris had been playing baseball, it had
just been the three of them, Ryleigh, and some friends from the neighborhood. Once he’d retired, he’d joined in. Since the
divorce, they’d made a point of keeping up the tradition. Harris and her children would stay with their friends to watch the
fireworks on the beach while she would return to the store. She could see the show from the widow’s walk just fine and while
the noise didn’t usually bother Ramon, she wanted to be close, just in case. Then the kids would join her for their traditional
bookstore sleepover.
“You okay?” Ryleigh asked.
“Fine, why?”
Her sister studied her. “There’s something. You look sad. Is it Ramon? Is he acting up?”
“No, he’s great. It’s nothing.”
Ryleigh ate her sandwich and waited. Jax sighed.
“Marcus broke up with me.”
She paused, waiting for a reaction. Ryleigh continued to watch her.
“You don’t have anything to say?” Jax demanded. “The guy I’ve been seeing dumped me and you’re silent?”
“There’s more to what happened. I’m waiting for you to say the rest of it.”
Jax shifted uneasily. “There isn’t anything. We were talking and then he said he was done and he left. I haven’t seen him
since.”
“Uh-huh.” Her sister reached for her latte. “I’m not buying it. Marcus is crazy about you. From everything you’ve said he’s
generous, kind, funny and easy to be with. He’s not a player, so he was looking to get involved. There’s no way he just walked
out. So what did you do?”
“Why does it have to be me? Maybe we were wrong about him. Maybe he’s secretly a jerk.”
“Is he?”
“No.” She picked up her coffee. “He’s not.”
Ryleigh finished her sandwich. “I’ve got all the time in the world. Technically you’re my boss for the summer but we both
know you’d never fire me, so I can be right here for most of the day. I would like to get to the beach and hang out with everyone
at some point, but otherwise, I’m available.”
Which translated into her pointing out that she wasn’t going anywhere, so Jax could talk now or she could talk later, but
she would be talking.
“He asked if I could see myself falling in love with him.”
Her sister winced. “You didn’t take the question well.”
“It’s a stupid question. Who asks that? It was basically a setup and that’s not my fault. Yes, we’ve been hanging out and stuff, but we’ve only been on one date. You don’t ask someone that out of the blue. It’s not right and, as I said, none of this is my fault.”
“Wow, so it really went badly.”
Jax hung her head. “I laughed, said of course not, that I wasn’t interested in falling in love, and that was pretty much it.”
“I’m sorry.”
“That he was such a jerk? Me, too.”
“I’m sorry you can’t see yourself loving him.” Ryleigh shook her head. “No. I’m sorry you can’t see yourself loving anyone.
That’s really sad. The kids are going to grow up and leave. Then what? You’ll live your life in that apartment upstairs, with
a bird and a cat for your family.”
Jax stared at her. “What are you talking about? I have you and Mom and Dad and my friends.”
“We all have lives of our own. I’m hoping to have a family of my own someday. Who do you have?” She waved her hand. “I’m talking
about a life partner. Don’t you want that? Don’t you want more than what you have?”
Jax didn’t like how this conversation was going. “Hey, I’m not broken. I’m just fine. Not wanting to be with Marcus is a personal
decision, by the way. I decided.”
“I thought you did want to be with him. He dumped you, not the other way around.”
“Oh, right.” She pushed around her half-eaten sandwich.
“Did you like him?”
“Very much. He was easy to be with and he always came through. I could trust him. Not like Harris, who bolts whenever it gets
hard. Even when we were first together, I always knew I was going to have to be the strong one. The one in control. I couldn’t
depend on him to—”
She pressed her lips together. Was that true? Had she known that about her ex? And if so, why had she married him? Why did she think it was okay to be with someone she couldn’t trust to be a true partner?
“You’ve always been independent,” Ryleigh said quietly. “You’ve always taken care of me and everyone around you. You’re in
charge—here at the store, in your marriage. You don’t let yourself be vulnerable.”
Which all sounded okay but Jax had a feeling there was a gut punch just around the corner.
“I think you’re afraid to be in love.”
“I’m not. I love you. I love the kids. I love Ramon.”
Ryleigh rolled her eyes. “You know I mean in love with a man. You’ve never taken the risk. Because loving someone means putting
it all out there. You basically cut yourself open and expose every corner, then hope they still want you when they know the
truth.”
“There’s a visual.”
“That’s why you lost Marcus. You won’t be vulnerable. You’d rather be alone.”
Jax didn’t like the sound of that, but she also wasn’t willing to say her sister was wrong. “I have to sit with this for a
while. Let’s change the subject. What’s new with you?”
“I have a second interview and if they hire me, they want me to start in August.”
Jax stared at her sister, willing herself not to react. Every cell in her body screamed that Ryleigh wasn’t allowed to leave.
That it was too horrible to think about, that it was wrong and selfish for her to go and . . .
And it was selfish to expect her to stay because Jax needed her and hated change and didn’t want to not have her best friend
right there.
“You’re going to get the job,” she said quietly. “They’re not idiots. They’ll snap you up like a frog with a fly.”
“Ugh. Really?”
Jax managed a smile. “Not my best work, but you get the point. It’s our morning for weird analogies. Okay, so when’s the interview?”
“Next week.”
“Say they make an offer by next Friday, that gives you, what, four or five weeks to pull it all together? I can help with
the packing and we can put your condo on the rental section of Port Palmas Talks. It’s a great place, so you’ll get a tenant quickly. Unless you’re selling, which would be a complication but would give
you money to buy something down—”
Ryleigh stood and walked around the table, then tugged Jax to her feet.
“Thank you,” she whispered as they hugged. “I know you don’t mean a word of it, but thank you.”
“I love you.”
“Love you more.”
Jax was grateful to escape the store later that afternoon to hang out with friends and family. She’d been struggling to pretend
to be perfectly fine when her world was crashing in around her. Yes, she was so proud of herself for how she reacted to Ryleigh’s
announcement of a second interview. She’d been supportive and strong and, as her sister had pointed out, she’d been lying
about all of it, but so what? She’d done the right thing and she would keep doing it.
But Ryleigh was going to be leaving—a thought that depressed her and made her want to protest to whatever powers that be who
refused to give her sister the perfect guy so she would stay where she belonged: right here in town!
Almost worse . . . okay not worse, but still bad, the person she found herself wanting to talk to was Marcus.
She felt like he understood her dilemma and could cut right to the heart of it.
He had a clarifying view and offered great advice, only she couldn’t talk to him because apparently if she wasn’t in love with him this very second, he wasn’t interested and . . .
She sighed as she left the store and headed for the beach. Okay, maybe that wasn’t exactly accurate. He hadn’t asked her to
be in love with him, he’d asked if she could see herself in love with him in the future.
She crossed the street and made her way to the beach. The traffic was insane as people struggled to find parking. It was hot