Jamie could feel his heart begin to beat faster in anticipation of seeing her again. How would she react? Surely she would not slam a door in his face when she knew how hard it was to get to this place?
He was here on official business, but if that was completely true, his heart would not be beating nearly out of his chest at the thought of seeing her.
He got out of his car and was blasted by early-summer heat. He hurried across the sidewalk and opened the door of her store.
A bell rang when the door opened. The store should have felt dark after the bright sunlight of outside, but it didn’t. He had expected he might feel closed in by shelves of books, but instead the space felt open, cheery, light-filled and wonderfully cool.
He could see Jessica’s touch everywhere: in the beautiful little nook that the store had probably taken its name from, which was filled with colorful pillows, in the sunflower-yellow wall hung with framed posters for favorite children’s books: Where the Wild Things Are, Love You Forever, Goodnight Moon.
A well-loved copy of Are You My Mother? was open on its spine on one of the pillows. He scanned the space and saw only four people: a mother with two children, and a middle-aged man flicking through the newspaper selection.
No Jessica. In fact, there was no evidence that anyone was employed here. He walked around and looked at hand-lettered signs on the walls.
We can book you without an arrest.
Odds are we’re your favorite bookie.
Caught you read-handed.
We’re all about buy the book.
Then a door opened, and he held his breath, then let it go again when an elderly woman came out from an office area and set some books on the service counter. He craned his neck to see into the office, but she frowned at him and closed the door.
He walked over to the counter. “I’m looking for Jessica Winton.”
The woman lowered half-glasses to the tip of her nose and regarded him silently for a long moment. “She’s not here. She left early. She’s been leaving quite early every day since she came back from New York City.”
She said this in a faintly accusing tone, as if she could read where he came from, from a mile away. As if Jessica had returned to them changed, and she saw that as his fault. Had she returned changed?
Reading way too much into it, he told himself sternly. He was here on business. He couldn’t very well ask where she lived, could he? Or maybe he could, since it felt like the pretense of business, not that he could afford any more pretense around Jessica!
“When will she be back?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
Did he look as deflated as he felt? Because the woman’s expression inexplicably softened, and she pushed her glasses back up on her nose.
“You could try the Falls,” she said. “I’ve seen her going up that way several times.”
Small towns, where everyone knew what everyone else was doing and weren’t afraid to share it, either. What if a stranger was seeking Jessica for nefarious purposes? He wanted to say something to the woman about revealing her boss’s whereabouts, but Jamie reminded himself, as he exited the store back into the heat, that Jessica had not appreciated his feeling protective of her.
The Falls. She had told him that was where she went for answers. What answer did she seek since she had returned to this place?
Swatting at mosquitos, it occurred to Jamie that he was in her home territory this time. It might be that he was the one needing protection. Weren’t there bears around here? His shoes didn’t seem particularly well suited to this activity either. How far were the Falls?
He heard them before he saw them, a roar in the distance that grew louder and louder until he could see mist in the air. He came around a final twist in the pathway and stopped short.
Jessica was sitting on a large, flat rock, facing the Falls. Her eyes were closed and her face was lifted to the mist that fell around her. Her knees were drawn up to her and her arms were wrapped around them. She had on a sleeveless white tank top, belted khaki shorts and sturdy hiking boots. In the time she had been back here, her skin had become sun-kissed and was the warm golden brown of a loaf of bread fresh from the oven. Her hair was in a braid that hung over one shoulder.
She did not look like the same woman as he had spent time with in New York: she seemed more natural, completely at home with herself, more stunningly beautiful, if that was possible.
She must have sensed she was no longer alone, because she dropped her head, opened her eyes and turned to look at him.
For one moment, in her eyes, he saw surprise, followed by unbridled joy.
He was aware a man could live for such a look from a woman.
But then the look was gone, so quickly he wondered if it was a trick of light and mist, an illusion created by the rainbows that danced in the air around her.
“Hello, Jessica,” he said, having to raise his voice to be heard over the thunder of the Falls.
She slid off the rock, brushed off the seat of her shorts and faced him, her arms crossed over her chest.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded, the look a man could live for gone completely from her beautiful face.
Jessica could not take her eyes off Jamie. He was out of his element, and impossibly it made him even more gorgeous! That beautifully cut suit, the jacket hooked over his shoulder with his thumb, made him look like a model ready for a photo shoot in a rugged location. His hair was falling sexily over one eye, and he looked as confident as he had on the streets of New York.
She had been coming here for answers since
