Chapter 26
It wasn’t that Juliet officially declared that they would remain in Bluebell Cove for the foreseeable future.
Like anything worthwhile, it happened organically, with Theo’s restaurant reopening that first week of August to incredible acclaim, and Theo asking Juliet to come on as his manager and social media strategist and “first taste tester.”
Juliet hadn’t heard a thing from any of her fashion friends all summer, and she hadn’t heard a peep from a single person she’d applied to for jobs.
After Theo asked her to sign on as manager, she sat alone in the dining room of his restaurant, watching as a healthy August storm formed over the Atlantic and boiled the water beneath it.
She tried to picture herself back in Manhattan in a month.
She tried to imagine herself going to interviews and living in the living room of that apartment in Greenwich and trying and failing to keep track of Danica.
She imagined calling her sisters infrequently and losing any traction they’d recently gained in their relationships.
She imagined not seeing Theo every day, and this made her wince most of all.
The day after he asked her, Juliet woke up and made herself and Danica a big, healthy breakfast of eggs and turkey sausage and Greek yogurt with strawberries.
Danica, who’d begun reading Wuthering Heights along with Mary via their online book club, tried to read at the table, at least until Juliet asked her to stop and talk for a second.
Danica closed the book and looked at her mother expectantly.
At that moment, Juliet saw her daughter for who she was, now that they’d left the city for more than two months.
Somehow, she looked brighter and more confident.
She was wearing less black and less makeup.
She’d recently brushed her hair. Juliet couldn’t say when the change had happened.
But her guess was that it was around the time after she’d driven her home from the police station in Bangor.
Things had changed after Juliet had begun opening up to her daughter. The biggest change of all, Juliet felt, was that Danica felt okay about opening up to her back.
It was a beautiful and unforgettable thing.
“How would you feel,” Juliet began, her heart pumping, “about staying in Bluebell Cove a little bit longer?”
Danica smiled. “It’s funny,” she said. “I was so worried you were going to ask me that back in June. I dreaded it. And then, I started complaining to some guy on the internet about it, only to figure out he lives across the cove from us.” Danica gestured wildly toward where, Juliet knew, Chris lived with his mother and stepdad.
Chris had recently become a new figure in their lives.
He’d come for a few dinners. He’d dined at the restaurant.
Juliet still wasn’t sure whether she wanted to trust him, but even she had to admit that he seemed like a good guy.
He seemed to genuinely care about Danica.
Juliet had never managed to fall in love with the person who cared about her, in return.
How had Danica figured that out at such a young age?
She was a miracle child. Someday soon, she’d be a miracle adult, making her mark on the world.
When Juliet didn’t say anything, Danica put down her fork and said, “I’ve been thinking about the, um, stealing thing.
Well, I’ve been talking to Monica about it.
” Monica was Danica’s therapist, whom Juliet had found for her after the shoplifting incident.
“I don’t know exactly why I did it, but I’m more conscious of my feelings around it.
If that makes sense? I think I’m analyzing my triggers.
By Chris, he makes me calm, you know? He makes me analyze my thoughts and see whether any of them are useful.
If they’re hurting me, I’m learning to throw them out. ”
Juliet crossed her arms over her chest. She’d never been good at controlling her own feelings and thoughts. She’d been at the mercy of the fashion world, of her own aches and egos, of her father’s venomous rage. But she’d never felt really “behind the wheel” of her own life.
“I get it,” Danica said then, kindly. “You want to help Theo at the restaurant.”
“I do,” Juliet said, surprising herself with how desperately she felt this.
“Then you owe it to yourself to give it a try,” Danica said.
On the walk to the restaurant later that afternoon, Juliet felt flabbergasted at her daughter’s adult-minded insights.
It made her wonder what people had heard when Juliet had opened her mouth as a teenager.
She felt sure she hadn’t sounded like a savant.
She’d probably sounded like an arrogant idiot, sure that she owned the world, or would own it soon.
Why had Callie loved Juliet so much? Juliet stopped short at the front door of the restaurant, her thoughts reeling.
Callie loved me because love was simpler back then, Juliet thought to herself.
But she wasn’t sure if that was so. Juliet had always loved Callie, but her love for Callie was complicated, just as Callie’s love for her had been complicated.
Just because she’d died didn’t mean all that complication fell away.
Just then, Theo peered through the window and spotted Juliet, standing there, waiting to come in.
He opened the door, delivering a radiant and handsome smile that pulled Juliet out of herself.
She had a strange thought. She wanted to see Theo every day for the rest of her life.
But she wasn’t sure how she could make that happen.
They were friends who’d been through too much.
“We’re going to do it,” she told him now, throwing her arms around him. “We’re going to stay in Bluebell Cove.”
When their hug broke, Juliet forced herself to look him in the eye. She found that he was crying, too, as though the thought of losing her and losing what they’d built together had frightened him that much. He pressed a napkin against his cheek to clean himself up.
“Ever since you came back,” he breathed, “I’ve been preparing to let you go.”
“Not this time,” Juliet stammered. She didn’t add "not ever" because forever was too long a time to promise.
* * *
In the months that followed the reopening of Theo’s restaurant, Juliet and Danica dug their heels into Bluebell Cove.
Danica began her freshman year of high school at Bluebell Cove High, alongside her boyfriend Chris (who was one year older than her), and soon shot up to the number-one spot on the academic roster, beating out even the smartest Bluebell Cove kids in math and science and literature.
When Juliet ever did talk to Alvin on the phone, he gushed about how good his daughter’s grades were, only for Juliet to remind him that Danica was doing this all on her own.
“She doesn’t need anyone else,” she said proudly.
But what she meant was she doesn’t need you.
Bit by bit, Theo became an important member of the Harper family.
Because he and Juliet were working so closely together at the restaurant, she invited him to every family function, and the Harper sisters and their partners began to fall in love with him all over again.
Sometimes Juliet felt her heart balloon with jealousy even though she suspected they loved him more than they loved her.
But of course, every night before she left Ivy’s or Celia’s place, they scooped her into a hug and reminded her of how much she meant to them. “We’re so glad you’re still here,” Celia said over and over again, only for Ivy to echo it. “We’re so glad you’re back for good.”
Just as Theo and Juliet had promised Calvin Parish and the rest of the city council, the restaurant was ready and beautifully decorated for the Christmas Festival.
When the snow began to fall from roiling dark clouds and lights were carefully hung across Bluebell Cove, Theo and Juliet attacked the restaurant with similar zeal, hanging mistletoe, decorating grand Christmas trees, and posting flyers highlighting the restaurant’s involvement in the Christmas Festival.
Often, Theo said how much he didn’t care about all that.
But when a woman named Nellie Strong bought another restaurant across town and began to decorate the place to high heaven, Theo went out and bought even more Christmas decorations, seemingly out of some kind of rage.
Juliet eventually found out what had happened between Nellie and Theo, and the thought of it made her laugh.
“To think, that talentless woman thought she could beat you at the restaurant game?” she said.
Of course, she’d tried Nellie’s food at the new place down the road.
It was nothing compared to what Theo could make in his kitchen.
It was nothing compared to the magic she so often taste-tested when he was experimenting.
Oh, goodness. So often, she caught herself thinking about Theo, about his cooking, about the dynamic story that had led them all the way here, to the final month of this glorious year they’d spent together.
Perhaps because she was daydreaming, or perhaps she was up to her ears in chaos about the approaching Christmas Festival, Juliet did not notice that she approached Theo under a pocket of mistletoe, hanging over the same kitchen door he’d smacked her with all the way back in July.
She didn’t notice till the heat between herself and Theo intensified, and she followed his gaze to the mistletoe above them. She nearly fainted.
But when Theo pressed a kiss on her lips, the world outside the restaurant stopped spinning. The Atlantic Ocean stopped thrashing. Even the snow seemed to stop falling.
Theo cupped her chin with his hand and gazed into her eyes. Neither of them knew what to say. But they could feel their story, rushing out beyond them, into the next year and the one after that. All they had to do was let it unspool and trust the love in their hearts.