“Because I’ve spent nine years on the man!” Madeline wasn’t a crier—not like Ria and Skye were—but her face contorted for a moment as she breathed raspily. “If I give up on him now... all those years, so much of my life, will be a waste.”
Ria hugged her friend with a sympathetic whimper. “They won’t have been a waste. You lived your life in those years. Look at everything you accomplished in that time. The relationship was just a small part of those years. And you don’t want to waste any more time on him, if you know he’s not going to make you happy.”
Madeline pulled away, her face composed in its typical way now. “I know. I need to. It just seems so... It’s going to be so hard and messy. And everyone in town loves him. They’ll think I’m a terrible person for...” She shook her head fiercely. “But I need to do it. I thought I loved him, and part of me probably always will, but it’s not the way I thought it was. And I know for damn sure he doesn’t love me the way I... I deserve.”
“Exactly. You deserve someone who loves you like...”
“Like Jacob loves you.”
Ria swallowed hard. “I hope so. Part of me really believes he does, but then I keep wondering if that’s a silly, romantic part. Not the realistic part. It happened really quickly before. That might not be enough of a foundation for...”
“Stop being ridiculous. You’ve known him all your life. You were as close as any two people I’ve ever known. It all came back really quickly, but you weren’t starting from nothing. You already had the foundation. You just need to trust that it’s real.”
“If he comes back and... and still wants what he wanted before, then I think I’ll believe him.”
“And he’s still what you want?” Madeline was looking at her sharply now.
Ria gave a bittersweet smile. “He’s always been what I wanted. I’m very sorry to have to admit it, but Azalea was right about me all along.”
LATER THAT AFTERNOON, Jacob parked his rental car in front of his grandfather’s old house, grabbed his bag, and headed inside.
No one in town was expecting him. He’d gotten back to shore two days ago and had immediately started packing up his stuff, saying goodbye to folks he knew up in Alaska, and arranging his flight back down to Virginia.
He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t called to tell Ria he was on his way. He kept coming up with flimsy excuses, but the truth was he was scared.
Terrified. That the time and distance had made it clear to Ria that she didn’t want him anymore. That she’d outgrown him. Moved on. That she’d be happier in life without him.
The past month had been hard—physically and emotionally—and the thing that had kept him going was that he’d be able to return to Ria soon. But now that it was happening, now that he was on his way, he was ridiculously frightened that all his hopes and dreams were built on nothing but sand.
So he hadn’t called her. And he’d stopped by the house first to check it out, put his stuff down, and clean up a little before he went to see her.
Maybe he was just stalling. If she was going to break his heart, he wasn’t in a hurry for that to happen.
He couldn’t help but wonder if he deserved to have his heart broken after the way he’d broken hers eight years ago.
“You’re home!”
The voice surprised him so much he dropped his bag on the living room floor. The house was mostly empty now, most of the furniture given or thrown away except the few pieces he’d decided to keep. He turned around to see Martha coming from the kitchen. “Hey there,” he said with a smile. “I didn’t expect you here.”
“Well, you’re paying me through the end of the month, so I figured I’d keep working on cleaning the place up. Might make it easier for you to sell.”
“Thank you,” he said, looking around. “It really looks great. Is that new paint?”
“Yes. Fitz did it. He was doing the repairs you asked him to make, and he said it would only take a day or two to paint the main rooms but it would help a lot when you got to selling, so I said he could do it. I hope I didn’t overstep—”
“No! Of course not. It looks great. You all did a fantastic job. Thank you so much.”
“Well, I don’t much like taking money for nothing, and Fitz said you paid him way too much, so we figured we’d keep working. I think it’s probably ready to be put on the market now, if that’s still what you want to do.” Her lined face wasn’t smiling, but it was gentle.
“Yes. Yes, I’m going to. It’s way too big for just me.”
“True, but maybe it won’t be just you for long. Maybe you’ll be wanting to start a family soon.”
Jacob blinked at that bland statement. “Oh. Um, yeah. I don’t know. Nothing’s been...”
“You are planning to stay, aren’t you?” For the first time, Martha looked worried. “Please don’t say you’re about to take off again.”
“No, no. I’m staying. No matter what happens, I’m staying. But I’m going to move into one of those apartments over the storefronts downtown. A smaller place will make much more sense for me. And if somewhere down the road, I end up... needing a bigger place... Anyway, that’s down the road. Maybe.”
“You don’t think she’s gonna tell you no, do you, young man?” Martha wasn’t a smiler, but the corners of her mouth were just barely turned up.
He swallowed hard, too stretched emotionally to hide his real feelings. “I honestly have no idea.”
“Well, go find her, Jacob. Do it right now. See what she
