31. Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-One
Eliza
Why didn’t he wave at me? Why was he at the house? Did he see the workbench? Or worse … the letter?
My heart is pounding as I pull into the driveway, and everything feels even more panicky as I see Granny standing on the front porch, looking upset.
“What happened?” I demand, jumping out of the truck before I even kill the engine. “Was Nick just here?”
She nods. “He’s really upset, Eliza. I think he thinks you’re getting back with Devon.”
“What?” I don’t understand in the slightest. “Why would he think that? I don’t … I told Devon that I don’t want to be with him—ever. It’s so over between us. I don’t even have any feelings for him … I’m in love with Nick.” It’s the first time that I’ve admitted my feelings for Nick out loud, and Granny’s face softens.
“Well, you’re going to have to talk to him. Somehow, wires have gotten crisscrossed, and I don’t know why or how.”
The sound of a Mercedes engine behind me answers all of my questions—mostly. I look on at Devon’s Mercedes with nothing but pure anger.
Did he talk to Nick?
“I’m going to let you handle this,” Granny mutters, shaking her head at me. “If you need backup though, just holler.”
The sight of Devon is not a welcome one, and I feel absolutely nothing as he walks toward me, his face a mess with emotions. I stare at him with the most unwelcome look on my face, wondering why in the world he’s even here.
“Hey,” he says cooly, though I swear his lip trembles.
It’s not a good look on him.
“Why are you here, Devon?” I demand. “I told you, I’m over this. I don’t want to be with you.” I have no problem being blunt this go-around. I need to go find Nick and make everything right.
“Eliza, why won’t you just hear me out?” he begins, folding his arms across his chest. “I know that you say you’re over it, but it was only a few months ago that you were basically begging me to marry you, and it just … I don’t know. Once you quit reaching out, I realized how much I miss you being around. Our apartment feels … empty. ”
“Get a dog,” I snap, glaring. “I’m not going back to Chicago.”
“Don’t be childish, Liz,” he snips right back at me. “You know the opportunities in this town are minimal. You can do so much more with your life. You don’t belong in some deadbeat town.”
“It’s not a deadbeat town. I like this town. In fact…” I pause, glancing back to my granny’s house. “I love this town. For the first time in my life, I actually feel like I belong somewhere. It’s taken me nearly thirty years to figure it out, but I finally did. And I think the whole problem is that I spent the last eight years trying to be whatever you wanted me to be.”
“Don’t say that,” he urges. “I never asked you to change who you are.”
“No, I guess not directly,” I huff, my shoulders dropping. “But you said it in all the ways that you told me I wasn’t doing enough or being enough. And honestly, I think the truth is … we were never meant to be.”
His brows shoot up. “You don’t even sound like the same person.”
“Maybe because I’m not,” I say softly. “People change, and when I stopped worrying about losing us , I finally found me. I also found the right person for me too.”
“That guy back at the hardware store? The one in the pictures?” Devon looks unamused. “You can’t be serious. I mean, he’s a nice guy … but come on, I know you only put those pictures with him on your page so I’d see them.”
I laugh, shaking my head. “Are you kidding me? Not everything is about you, Devon. I put those up to help grow my photography business, and quite frankly, I don’t even care what you think about them. My life doesn’t revolve around you anymore. I’m over us. There is no us, actually.”
He stands there, quiet for a few moments. “I…” His voice trails off, and the hurt on his face tugs at my heartstrings for a split second. Not because I still love him, but because I think for the first time, he actually understands that we’re over. “I’m just … I’m sorry, Eliza.”
I raise my brows, taken by surprise. “I don’t know why you’re apologizing.”
“Because I messed it up for us, I guess. I didn’t know what I had until it was gone, and now you’re in love with someone else. It sucks.”
I nod. “It does, but you’ll find your person when the timing is right … and I hope you don’t let that opportunity pass you by.”
“Yeah,” he says, glancing down at a black box in his hand that I didn’t even realize was there. “I guess I just saw those pictures and had a moment of rash insanity. I know that we’re not ever going to work. We’re just … too different.”
I shrug. “At least we figured it out before that.” I gesture to the ring box. If he had shown up with that thing a few months ago, I would’ve been elated and ran right back to Chicago to be with him, but …
Today, I felt nothing when I saw it.
“I hope I didn’t screw things up for you,” Devon says, meeting my gaze. “I had no idea that you were in love with the guy—and I probably did more damage than good at the store … which is probably why he sent me running all over the town.”
“What?” I blink, trying to understand.
“The guy at the hardware store—the one in the pictures—he gave me directions to get here and instead of sending me the most direct way, he sent me on a wild goose chase. I don’t think there was even any construction to avoid.”
I can’t help but laugh, thinking of Nick doing that…
However, it fades quickly as I put everything together in my head.
Oh my gosh.
“I have to go,” I say quickly, spinning around and running to the workshop. I don’t care that Devon is still standing there, gawking at me like I’m crazy. I burst through the workshop door and grab the letter I wrote to Nick.
I have no idea what Nick saw to make him think that I was getting back with Devon, but I have to fix this.
Heart pounding, I run from the workshop, brushing past a confused Devon as I rip the door open to the truck.
“Good luck,” he calls, opening his own car door.
“You too,” I say, giving him—and my past—one last wave goodbye .
I put the truck in reverse, tires flinging snow all over Devon’s car. In any other scenario, I probably would’ve laughed, but right now, all I can think about is making things right with Nick.
Because seeing Devon only made things that much clearer…
Nick’s the only one for me.
I drive a little too fast down the street, and it’s then that I realize I have no idea where the heck I’m supposed to go. Is he back at the hardware store? For some reason, I sincerely doubt it—but then again, that’s the only place I can think of at the moment. I speed across town, turning the radio up in hopes that it will calm my anxiety…
It doesn’t work.
My heart is in my throat as I throw the truck in park and jump out, leaving the engine running. I don’t care if someone jumps in and steals it. The open sign is lit up at the store, and I rip the door open, the bells jangling obnoxiously.
“Eliza?” Martha looks concerned as I rush in. I’m short of breath, and I’m pretty sure that I look like a mess. I was shooting a couple in a snowy field earlier today and it left me windblown.
“Where’s Nick?” I barely manage to pant.
“Um…” She picks up a note from the counter. “He said that he was going to talk to you. This note says that he’ll be back later.”
Of course he was going to talk to me.
My heart squeezes with hurt. Was he coming to tell me his feelings before Devon got there? Or was it just for some sort of warning before Devon arrived? I don’t have an answer, but it doesn’t matter. Whatever the reason, I still need to tell him how I feel.
“Is everything okay?”
I shake my head, fighting back the urge to cry. “No, it’s not. I need to find him. Would he be at his house, maybe?”
Martha’s face fills with sympathy. “I don’t know … I’m not sure where he’d be. But I hope everything’s okay between the two of you … I know things have been off for a while.”
I nod, blinking back the tears. “Yeah, it’s my fault, and I need to tell him … I need to tell him how I feel before it’s too late.”
“I can try and call him for you?” Martha pulls out her cell phone.
“Okay,” I say, ignoring the urge to rush right out of the store and keep looking for him. But in truth, I can’t think of where he’d go—other than home.
“He’s not answering,” she says softly.
I shake my head and pull my own phone out of my pocket. I open up a text thread to him, and furiously type out a message.
Me : Where are you? We need to talk.
I hit the send button, watching as the blue message says that it’s been delivered. Within moments, it flashes that it’s been read. My heart jumps as the three dots pop up on the screen.
Come on, Nick. Please let me talk to you.
However, as quickly as they’re there, they disappear.
“Ugh,” I mutter, feeling a rush of defeat pulse through my body.
Why are you shutting me out like this ?
“You know, maybe he just needs a little space. I’m sure he’ll come around, and you can talk to him then,” Martha says, catching my attention from my phone.
“I don’t want to wait anymore,” I reply, my voice soft. “I don’t want to wait at all. I need him to know the truth about everything.”
She nods, a smile tugging at her thin lips. “Maybe try Botner Creek. I don’t know if that’s where he’ll be, but it’s worth a shot.”
Of course!
I nearly facepalm myself as I remember him saying the spot by the creek was one of his favorite places to go. “Thank you!”
“You’ll need four-wheel drive to get down there this time of year,” Martha says cautiously. “It can get pretty treacherous and slick, especially with the snow on the ground.”
I nod, my stomach knotting up at the thought of trying to maneuver the manual transmission truck through that kind of terrain. For a moment, I consider just calling it off, and sending Nick a text to meet me back at Granny’s when he’s ready to talk.
That would be a lot easier…
Maybe even safer.
“I’ll be fine,” I say, brushing away the thought. “I can do it.”