Katie shook her head. “You know the more I think about things, the more I’m convinced that Julie’s leaving here wasn’t about following her dreams. I think she was running away from the possibility of being judged.”
Caleb frowned. “By who? If she was pregnant, don’t you think her family would’ve supported her?”
“I’m sure you all would have. But you weren’t here and your parents were in the process of moving to New Mexico. I wonder…”
“What?”
“I’m not sure what Hunter was thinking back then. He was older than Julie. That was one of the things that made him appealing. You know, the mysterious older bad boy of Sweet.”
He rolled his eyes. “Ten years isn’t all that much of an age difference in relationships.”
“Maybe not now. But back then, Julie was a scared seventeen-year-old. She was in love with a man who was going through his own trials, for lack of a better word. Hunter has changed a lot.”
“Haven’t we all?”
She nodded. “But Hunter was different. I’m not sure that Julie wanted to have the life that she could’ve had with Hunter back then. He’s much more grounded now and loves what he does. Quite frankly, I’m surprised he never married because the girls down at the bank talk a lot about him.”
Caleb frowned. “Oh, really.”
Katie looked up at him and chuckled. “There you go getting all jealous again as if any of that matters to me.”
“Katie Dobbs, you’re driving me crazy. I’m standing here in front of you wondering if there’s anything that I can do to keep you in Sweet. And then I’m wondering at the same time if I even have a right to ask you to stay here.”
“Is that what you want? You want me to stay?”
“I want you to want to be with me. I want to be with you. I cannot be some chain that keeps you here so that you wake up ten years from now and realize you’ve given up on a dream you’ve had since you were kid. I was kinda hoping that I’d be your dream.” He kicked his boot on the hardwood floors he’d just purchased countless rolls of paper to protect. Then he shook his head and grunted.
“I’m trying to be real and keep things in perspective. I love this town. Even when my family moved, I stayed. I guess part of me hoped that Julie would come home to Sweet, too. That’s why I didn’t follow my parents to New Mexico. But Sweet is part of me. I’m dug in. I want you to stay. But I want you to stay for the right reasons. I can’t be that reason even though I want to be.”
She looked up at Caleb and he saw emotion shining in her eyes. She did feel something. It wasn’t just him thinking and overthinking every moment that they’d shared together.
“On that first night I caught you in the church, you said you had a dream to make that chapel into something beautiful. To transform it into something you could be proud of. And that mattered to me. It wasn’t just about Julie and what you knew about Julie. I was transformed by you and your dream. And it’s become my dream.”
She started to object, but he raised his hand to keep her quiet.
“I’m sorry I made you doubt how I see you, and how I feel about you. And I know that’s something that you wondered and I’m sorry for that. But you mean a lot to me.”
“I feel the same way.”
He nodded. Nothing more needed to be said about that. “What do you want to do? Take me out of this completely. Take everything I just said to you and pretend that that’s not part of the equation. Because it isn’t. Are you going to sell the property to this Hollywood guy, or do you want to see this through?”
She laughed. “And have everyone in town angry with me for selling out to an investor who will probably put up a big condo and triple his money even at the price he’d be paying me?”
“If you get the money, pay your brother back, and leave, you won’t be here to listen to what the people in town are saying. You’d just be living your life.”
“Now it sounds like you’re trying to talk me into leaving.”
He shook his head. “Trying to be fair. Trying not to be that overbearing guy who lays down the law and tries to make you be what I want you to be. I like what I see in you. I don’t have to change anything. I’m in love with you, Katie. I’m sure of it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
He wanted to reach for her, but he held back. She hadn’t said she loved him. He wasn’t sure why he’d expected she would automatically, and suddenly that made him crazy inside wondering what she was thinking.
“I don’t know what to say,” she finally said.
Disappointment filled him. “Then don’t say anything.”
“Why is it that you never left Sweet, Caleb? I mean, I know you went into the military and you were gone for years. I know you saw a whole lot more than I’ll ever see in my life. But you came back here anyway. Wasn’t there anything out there that appealed to you? You never thought that your life could be more…”
“More than living in a small town and living a small life?”
She shook her head. “That’s not what I’m saying.”
“Yes, you are. And I’m okay with that. I don’t have to have a big bank account or rub elbows with a Hollywood guy. I made peace with that the day I drove back into Sweet. Because I missed it. I missed the people. I missed the quiet after all that action overseas. I missed
