“Is everything okay?” Sam asked after Stella had been quiet for a while, reading the message twice.
She put her phone back in her purse and smiled. “Yeah, it’s fine. I just lost a promotion at work.”
His mouth gaped, clearly unsure what to say. “I’m sorry. That’s terrible. You found out in a text message? That doesn’t seem very professional. What a horrible way to learn—”
“It’s fine,” Stella repeated, truly meaning it. “I don’t even care. I’ve been working for that promotion for over a year, and…I don’t even care. At all. Actually, I’m relieved.”
Sam’s expression was hesitant, not sure whether she was being honest or having a mental breakdown, and truthfully, Stella didn’t know herself. She should have been upset or angry or disappointed, at least, but she felt like a weight had been taken off of her shoulders. She felt like she was free.
Stella smiled at Sam and shoved the other half of her cannoli in her mouth. “I’m gwan kuwit.”
Sam chuckled. “I didn’t catch that.”
She swallowed and repeated, “I’m going to quit. Tomorrow.”
“Are you sure? I know we’ve made a lot of proclamations here tonight, but I won’t hold you to any of them, Stella. I don’t want you to make any rash decisions because of me. I’d hate it if you came to regret them.”
“This isn’t about you at all. Maybe you helped facilitate some of the revelations I’ve had the last few days, but I’m not making this decision for you. I’m doing it for me.” Stella walked her fingers across the fabric tablecloth as she thought, trying to find the right words. “It’s kind of like what you said about wanting me, but not needing me. About being content enough that you are happy, either way. Well, no matter what happens between us, I know I won’t regret quitting my job. It has never made me happy. Even the promotion wouldn’t have made me happy. I’m ready for a new adventure.”
Sam sat back, his lower lip pulled down and his chin dimpled in a look that told Stella he was impressed. “Well, Ms. Stella Pierce, do you have any idea what that adventure might be?”
“Long-term?” she asked. “Not a clue. But tonight? I’m hoping it includes a cannoli for the road and a decaf coconut brûlée latte from The Roast.”
Sam grabbed her hand from the table and leaned over to kiss her knuckles like a medieval knight. “That, I can do.”
18
Georgia was in the sitting room off the lobby when Stella got back to the inn that evening.
Stella and Sam had sat in his truck for a long time after she was supposed to go inside, talking about his childhood growing up on the rocky beaches outside Willow Beach, the time Stella took a toddler Jace to the public pool and they had to drain the entire pool after he pooped, and a thousand other little things that made up the fabric of their lives.
Then, for a while, they didn’t talk at all. Kissing took the place of conversation.
Stella practically floated into the inn, and she was so distracted that Georgia had to yell her name before she heard her.
“I take it you and Sam talked things through?” Georgia asked with a smirk.
“We did.” It felt like days since Stella had walked back to the inn, angry with Sam about having lied to her. Though, she remembered what Sam had said on the steps and realized not all of her questions were answered. “When Sam called you the first night I came into town, what did he say?”
Georgia’s eyes lit up, but she kept her expression neutral. “He said Drew was heading to the inn with a woman who’d had a hard day and that I should treat her well.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s all.”
“He didn’t tell you to take me anywhere specifically or try to set us up?” Stella asked. “Because you definitely tried to set us up. You and Alma pushed us together on the dance floor.”
Georgia set aside the book she was reading. “He didn’t have to ask. I’ve known Sam a long time, and I’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you.”
Stella’s heart warmed, the heat radiating out from her center, flooding her limbs.
“You may not have noticed him right away when we walked into the Duke Saloon that night, but I did,” Georgia said. “He sat up straighter, and try as he might, he couldn’t keep his eyes from straying towards where we were sitting. Plus, Sam has sent a lot of tourists my way who have broken down on the road, and never once has he called to tell me to take extra care of them. I knew there was something special about you, and he was right.”
It felt like a dream. Like a fairy tale. Stella couldn’t wrap her mind around the fact that all of this was real. That Sam was real.
She sat down on the sofa next to Georgia and let out a half sigh, half laugh.
“What?” Georgia squeezed her shoulder. “What are you thinking about?”
It had been a night for honesty, so Stella didn’t hold back. “I’m thinking you can’t fall for someone in four days. I’m thinking you can’t
