This would give them both the time they needed to come to real decisions.
Life was so much more—deeper, harder, more complicated—than a wave of feeling that swept you away.
They hugged for a couple of minutes, standing together in the back room of the shop, their arms around each other. Then Jacob finally pulled back and kissed her gently. “I love you, Ria. A month apart isn’t going to change that.”
She wanted to believe him, but she wasn’t absolutely sure. It would hurt him if she tried to argue, so she didn’t. “I’ll be here when you’re back. And you need to promise to tell me the truth, no matter what it is. If you change your mind, promise you’ll tell me.”
He stared at her, achingly poignant. “I promise I’ll tell you the truth. And if I come back and you decide that I’m not what you want, that you’ll never be able to trust me enough to make a relationship work, then I promise I’ll accept it.”
“Thank you.” She stretched up to kiss him again, stroking his face with both hands for a few seconds, her fingers lingering on his long white scar. “Be safe. I know it’s a dangerous... dangerous job, so please be careful.” She dropped her hands and took a step back.
Jacob looked like he would reach for her again, but he resisted the impulse. His shoulders were stiff. His eyes were downcast. He murmured, “Goodbye, sweetheart.”
“Goodbye.”
She was about to break down, so she was relieved that Jacob didn’t extend the conversation any longer.
Madeline and Skye found her in the back room a few minutes later, and they stayed with her until she finally stopped crying.
Ten
THE MONTH PASSED LONG and slow.
For most of the time he was out on the fishing boat, Jacob was out of contact. There wasn’t any cell coverage out on the water, and while the boat could radio back to shore, actual phone calls were few and far between.
He had someone on shore touch base with her every few days with a quick email to confirm that he was still okay—a gesture she really appreciated—but she only talked to him once during the month, and that was only a brief, stilted conversation because the connection kept cutting out.
Most of the time, Ria tried to focus on work. Spend time with her friends. Madeline’s relationship was getting bumpy—she and Josh were having arguments, something they’d never really had before. And Skye had joined a dating app and was trying to date (without much success). Everyone in town asked her about Jacob in every conversation, as if they still assumed that the two of them were a done deal, despite the time and distance between them.
It never occurred to any of them that Jacob might not come back home after his fishing run was over.
It was a Friday afternoon, just over a month after Jacob had left, and Ria was trying not to wonder whether his trip was almost done. They’d just had a big order come in—from a minor movie star who’d heard about them on social media—so she needed to give the arrangement her full attention.
If they did a good job with this order, it could give them another wave of great publicity.
At the moment, that was far more important than whether Jacob was still going to love her and want a life with her when he finished his job.
“Hey,” Madeline said, coming into the back room with a torn piece of notebook paper. She always wrote out the drafts of her poems and messages longhand. “I’ve got something. Tell me if it’s as good as I think it is.”
Ria put down the pink rose she was about to place in the arrangement and took the piece of paper. She snickered on the second line and then kept giggling through the next several. But her laughing stopped at the end. She put a hand on her throat as she finished reading the poem.
“That’s beautiful,” she said, her voice cracking embarrassing. “It’s amazing. You are brilliant.”
“Are you seriously crying at the little poem?”
Ria sniffed. “No, I’m not crying. But it is a good poem.” She swiped a stray tear away.
Madeline laughed and put a loose arm around her in a short squeeze. “You’re just emotional lately. For obvious reasons. No word from Jacob yet?”
“Not yet. I guess he’s not done yet. He said there was never a firm date about the return, so it might last longer than we’re thinking.”
“Yeah. I’m sure he’ll call you just as soon as he can.”
“Yeah. I hope so.”
Madeline frowned. “You’re really worried, aren’t you?”
“Of course I am. Those fishing boats up there are really danger—”
“I know that. But that’s not what I mean. You’re really worried that he’s going to change his mind. That he’s not going to want to come back to you.”
Ria swallowed and turned back to her flowers. “I don’t know.”
“It’s never going to happen. Jacob was a boy before, and he made a huge mistake. But he loves you more than I’ve ever seen any man...” Madeline shook her head. “He’s not going to change his mind. He loves you so much, Ria. I can only imagine what it would feel like for a man to love you that way.”
Ria stiffened, immediately distracted by the note in Madeline’s voice. “Josh loves y—”
Madeline faced her. “I guess. I mean, I think he loves me as much as he’s able to...” She shook her head. “But he doesn’t love me like Jacob loves you. I could see it so clearly when I saw the two of you together last month. And when he left... because you needed him to, even though it was the last thing in the world he wanted to do... Josh would never do something that hard for me. I really don’t think he has it in him.”
Ria’s heart was fluttering wildly at what
