Chapter 13
Three days later,Jo was still reeling from the kiss she’d shared with Jack. It’d been the perfect end to a perfect day. She’d suspected he was going to kiss her again, that it would be incredible, but what she experienced with him was life-changing. She could see herself falling in love with him so deep and wide that she’d be ruined.
Any chance she might have for future romance would be gone with no hope of ever finding anyone that would hold her heart like Jack.
To say the thought scared her was an understatement. Not only did she have a life in New York, but if he was feeling anything remotely like she was, there was a possibility she could hurt him, and she couldn’t do that.
She hadn’t even had a chance to talk to him about it. To share her concerns… for him, of course.
He’d texted her the next morning, letting her know that one of his dad’s real estate clients had a pipe burst, and they’d just put the house on the market. The young family was trying to avoid foreclosure and they desperately needed the damage from it fixed. Because of the circumstances, Jack didn’t feel like he could decline the job.
Jo agreed, and in the meantime, it’d given her all the time in the world for her brain to play tennis with her emotions. One minute, she was sure leaving Wishing Well, and Jack, behind was the right thing the do.” Then, the next minute, guilt would hit, and she’d be reminded that she needed to stay and help her grandma. She ignored the little whispers about Jack—the way her heart ached at the thought of leaving him.
To keep herself busy, she’d decided to makeover the inside of the owner’s suite. The rooms needed a good deep cleaning and sprucing up with fresh paint. She’d started with the spare bedroom and would move to the bathroom once she was finished.
She’d run out of paint an hour ago, and she’d taken the opportunity to grab lunch while her grandma ran to the hardware store to buy more paint. Just as she took some sandwich meat out of the fridge, a knock came from the door.
Frozen midway, she wondered if it was Jack. No, he would have pushed open the door and said something.
Sitting the food down, she crossed the house and opened the front door, snarling. Craig. She went to slam the door in his face.
“Wait!”
“What, Craig?” she asked as she abruptly stopped.
He held up his hands. “I just want to talk.”
Her gaze drifted from his head to his toes. Typically, he was dressed in an expensive suit and nice shoes, but he’d chosen jeans and a polo shirt for his visit. She swept her hand up and then down. “If this is your way of getting me to let my guard down, it isn’t going to work. You’re never not working, even when you say you aren’t.”
His dedication and drive were the reason they’d drifted apart. “Honestly, I’m not.”
“Right,” she said and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Seriously, I just want to talk.” He held her gaze. “Please? We were friends at one point, remember?”
“That was before you cheated on me.”
He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Jo, you know as well as I do our relationship was over long before then. We just hadn’t made it official.”
Jo leveled her eyes at him. “We were going on a trip together when you got a text from another woman telling you she loved you. Were you planning on telling me we were over while we were traveling?”
“I’d ended things with her, and she couldn’t take a hint. I thought the trip would give us a chance to reconnect, see if there was still something there. Admit it, you were feeling the same way.”
She hated that he had a point. The rigid stance she’d held softened. With even the tiniest bit of introspection, she’d had the same thoughts about the trip. Her plan was to reevaluate their relationship after they returned home and decide then. With a sigh, she replied, “Fine. I agree.”
Instead of growing together as they grew up, they’d grown apart. Change was inevitable. That’s how things worked, but Craig had changed in ways that put a wedge between them. When they’d left together for New York, they’d had shared goals. For the most part. To go to college, get jobs, get married, and have a family.
Through college, those shared goals slowly changed, but Craig was the starkest. She hadn’t wanted to live together. By the end of the first year, he was pushing for them to move in together to save money. When he realized she wasn’t changing her mind, he quit pushing for that and moved to questioning her major.
Journalism was great. Having a dream was wonderful, but he wanted a retirement fund, a fat bank account, and to rub elbows with the rich and powerful. Of course, Jo wanted stability and things like that, too, but not at the expense of what made her happy. Money didn’t translate to contentedness, and that’s what she wanted most of all.
Once he graduated, he joined a firm known for its cutthroat practices. It wasn’t long until the sweet, small-town guy she’d fallen in love with had slowly morphed into a man that she struggled to like, let alone love. Dinner with him often left her wondering why she was still willing to even talk to him—reliable disappointment flitted through her mind. Nothing about Craig was risky at all.
Craig shot her a smile that would have once had her weak in the knees. Now, it was just a bow on a box full of nothing she wanted. “So, can we talk?”
“All right, but this house is not for sale,” she said as she swung the door wider.
Craig quickly pulled his hand free of his pocket and stepped inside. “I didn’t expect it to be.”
He followed her to the kitchen, and she continued getting the ingredients together to make lunch. “Would you like one?” She held up a slice of bread.
“No, I’m good,” he said and settled into a chair at the table. “So, how have you been? I have to say I was shocked you were here. You hate this place.”
That was such a strong word. Many of her memories were muddled together, and yet, that word didn’t seem to fit. Not really. “I don’t hate it.”
Craig scoffed. “I believe your exact words after we left were ‘I hate Wishing Well, and the only reason I’ll ever return is to visit my grandma.’ I may be paraphrasing, but the gist is there.”
Yeah, but now that she was actually examining things… like really examining them, she’d thought the town was boring. That’s why it’d been exciting planning a bed and breakfast with her grandma. They wanted to give people a place to stay and a reason to visit.
At the time, when she’d said that, he was on the verge of breaking up with her because he was going to New York, and he didn’t want her resenting him because she followed him to a place she would possibly hate. Up to that point, she’d tried to convince him to choose a school closer to home, but he was leaving. It was settled. Then she’d blurted that she would go with him. He’d pushed back. She’d had to be strong and convincing if she wanted to stay with him.
Life in Wishing Well had started rough, but Jo loved her grandma, and she loved living there. She’d had an equal amount of pushback about leaving from her grandma as well. Grandma knew Jo. Knew she loved the area. They had plans.
Undeterred, she’d insisted that she didn’t love Wishing Well. She did love her grandma, but she also knew she needed to stretch her wings. Grandma would love her no matter what she chose. She’d decided then and there she was leaving Wishing Well.
Jo stopped with the sandwich prep and rubbed the spot over her heart. Where had all that come from? Why was she remembering it now? As if it mattered. That was ten years ago. She’d left Texas, and she’d loved New York.
She shook the thoughts away. It wasn’t Craig. It was her. Her mom dumped her. That was the reason she’d needed to get out of Wishing Well. That was the reason she needed to return to New York, too. Her dream of becoming a photographer waited for her there, too.
“I was young, I was still dealing with my mom abandoning me, and I thought it was too small. I don’t think I ever hated it. I’ll say I didn’t know how to appreciate it back then.”
Jo plated her sandwich, grabbed a bag of chips, and took them to the table. “Tea?”
“Is it sweet?”
“This is Wishing Well, not New York City.”
“Is it syrup?”
With a snort, she shook her head. “No.”
He broke into laughter. “Then yeah, I’ll take some.”
Once she had their tea poured, she sat opposite him. “Why are you in town? I wasn’t the only one who hated Wishing Well.” She’d use his words just to keep the niggling thoughts at bay.
Craig held her gaze, and she could see his mind working. She knew that look. He was strategizing.
She was no longer even a little angry, and now, looking at him, there was nothing left except a fond remembrance of young love. She’d always love him, but she wasn’t in love with him.
She picked up her sandwich and took a bite while she waited for an answer.
“Honestly? My mom had mentioned how bad the house was and that Jack was working on it. I have a developer looking for land, and I thought your grandma might be getting it fixed up to put it on the market.”
“Then why were you such a jerk that day? Why did you threaten to kick my grandma out of her house.”
Running his fingers along the side of his tea glass, he flicked his gaze down to the table and back to her. “For a moment, I was jealous.”
Jo sat back. “What? Jealous? Why?”
“Really? Hello, Jack Turner.” Craig hadn’t exactly met Jack, but there were still girls talking about him and his picture was everywhere. Just the ghost of his presence was enough to turn the other guys green with envy.
“So, what about him?”
Rolling his eyes, Craig exhaled heavily. “I saw the way he was looking at you, and for a second, I lost my cool and got angry. I know I didn’t have any right to be angry, but that was the first time I saw you with another guy, and it threw me.”
It shouldn’t have made her happy that she’d made Craig jealous, but it did. He’d never really shown that emotion when they were dating. “We’re… “ What did she say? Friends? That sounded cliché. That’s what they were though, right? Her heart stuttered at the thought of just being friends with Jack. That tennis match needed a time-out. “We’re friends. He was a nice guy in high school, and nothing’s changed except his career goals.”
“I’ve never had a friend look at me the way he was looking at you.”
She took a sip of her tea and leaned back in her chair. Her feelings for Jack or his feelings for her weren’t up for discussion with Craig.
A strange look crossed Craig’s face. “I don”t blame you if you don”t want to talk about it. I was an idiot before, and I take responsibility for that.”
”You”re not wrong, and I appreciate that.”
Shaking his head, he chuckled. “I was, and I know I apologized before, but I am sorry. Sincerely sorry for hurting you and not being a man and just talking to you. I should have respected you enough to have the conversation, and for that, I was wrong.”
Wow. He actually sounded sincere. Maybe coming home was rubbing off on him too. “Thanks.” She paused a beat. “I’m sorry, too.”
“For what?”
“You were right. I’d known for a while that we were over, and I didn’t talk to you either. I should have. That was the problem. We stopped communicating long before we broke up.”
He huffed. “We had dinner at least once a week, and we talked.”
“Discussing work doesn’t keep or build a connection. We lost that.”
Silence filled the air while they seemed to digest the conversation.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Craig caught her gaze and held it. “So…have you seen anyone since we broke up?”
“It’s only been six months, so no, I’m not seeing anyone. Even if I wanted to, I’ve been too busy.”
“Any news on the photography front?”
“I—”
The front door opened, and two familiar female voices filtered into the kitchen.
Jo pushed away from the table and met her grandma and Bridget in the living room. “Bridget? What are you doing here?”
“Are you kidding me? You’ve been ignoring my calls, and Delia is about to have a stroke because I haven’t given her your schedule.”
“I know I’m sorry. I’ve just?—”
“What’s he doing here?” Her grandma and Bridget asked at the same time as Craig walked into the living room.
Jo looked from her grandma to Bridget. “He came to apologize… for everything.”
Her grandma eyed him. “So, you aren’t going to try to push me out of my home?”
“No, Mrs. Stewart, I’m not, and I apologize for even suggesting it.”
She grunted a response and stalked out of the living room, clearly unwilling to accept anything he had to say. Jo didn’t really blame her. He’d come out swinging, and she wasn’t going to easily forgive that.
Bridget crossed her arms over her chest. “Apologized, huh?”
“Yes, I apologized,” he replied. “I was stupid.”
“Well, at least we agree on that.” She pulled her shoulders back, lifting her nose in the air. “I guess you’ll be heading back to New York now?”
With a sigh, he shook his head. “No, I’m taking some time to visit with my folks. I am from here, remember?”
Her eyes narrowed a fraction. “Fine, but you better not mess with Jo while you’re here.”
He held up his hands in surrender. “I wouldn’t even think of doing such a thing.” He looked at Jo. “I think I’ll get going. See you around?”
Smiling, Jo nodded. “Sure. I’ll see you around.”
Bridget followed him with her gaze, slowly turning as he walked to the door and left. The second it was shut, she whipped around and stared at Jo. “An apology? He doesn’t apologize for anything. I don’t trust him.”
“I wouldn’t say I trust him,” Grandma said as she returned to the living room. “But the apology does help.”
Jo sheepishly toed the ground. “It does, and I believe him.”
“What?” Bridget’s voice rose an octave.
Turning, Jo strode to the kitchen with Bridget and her grandma on her heels. “We had a good talk. I believe him.”
“What about throwing me out of my house?” Grandma asked.
Jo returned to her seat. “He saw me with Jack and said he got jealous and handled it wrong.”
“And you really believe that?” Bridget sat next to her at the kitchen table. “Isn’t he the guy you said couldn’t be trusted? That he was always scheming?”
“Yes, but… maybe being here will remind him of who he was. For now, I’ll accept his apology and hope that’s the case.” She smiled and decided there needed to be a change of subject. “When did you get into town, Bridget?”
“Just a bit ago. I came straight from the airport.”
“I’m sorry I haven’t been answering the phone. I’ve been working on the house, and I was so tired at the end of the day, I didn’t have the brainpower to work on a schedule.”
“Well, Delia’s given me two days to come up with a schedule, or we’re both fired, so that’s why I’m here. You can’t ignore me if I’m standing in front of you.” She grinned.
Jo groaned and rubbed her forehead. “Great.” She blew out a puff of air. “Okay, well, let me finish my lunch, and we can hash it out while I paint.”
To say she wasn’t looking forward to it was an understatement.
She needed to talk to Delia again. There had to be a way to give them both what they wanted. Jo could write and take pictures. They didn’t have to be mutually exclusive, and she was less and less inclined to go along to get along with the hopes one day she’d get to do what she loved.
Spending Sunday taking photographs had reignited her passion. It’d made her realize just how much she missed that part of herself. Things couldn’t go on as they had. Her soul just couldn’t do it.
Hopefully, Delia would understand that.