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“Why? Because I’m a hole-in-the-wall bookshop who doesn’t have the money to fight back?”
“Love, I would reverse this if I could, but we’d stand to lose millions,” Wes pleaded, needing her to understand.
Her lips turned into a sour grin. “I might not have millions on the line, but I have my dream on the line.” Her face was stark with emotion. “And my heart in your hands.” She closed the distance and intertwined their fingers. “I know that for you, everything is about the bottom line, and I know you should choose love every time, but I’m tired of being the only one choosing love. You taught me that.”
“And it’s true. You deserve to have someone who gives you everything. I promise I will make this up to you.”
“Or you can move the event to the night of the grand opening, after mine.” And damn, the emotion in her eyes finally spilled over her lashes. It shattered his chest and punctured his heart, which felt as if it were made of ice.
“The board would have my ass.”
“Well, we wouldn’t want to disappoint the board.”
“Love,” he whispered, because he knew he was losing her. He knew the minute she dropped his hand that she was gone. Out of his life.
“I promised myself a long time ago that my partner would love me as much as I loved them. So the perfect meet-cutes, the funny tropes, the rising tension—none of it matters. All that matters is what happens in the next few seconds. Do you love me enough to walk away from the event, because I love you enough to walk away from mine.” And he could see the conviction in her eyes. All he had to do was say he chose love and she’d change her signing. “I love you enough to cancel my contract, cancel my signing, and pick you over anything else.”
“It’s out of my hands,” he said.
A quiet sob escaped her lips. “Then so is my heart. I love you so much, but I can’t be with someone who can’t prioritize my love over a contract.” She went up on her toes and gave his cheek a chaste kiss. “Goodbye, Wes. And good luck with your opening.”
Chapter 30
the grand gesture
Summer hadn’t had many lonely days recently, not since Wes had come into her life. But last night had been hell. He’d come and collected his things, which she’d boxed up and put on the porch so she wouldn’t have to see him. In fact, she’d been dodging him since the breakup. Avoiding his calls, texts, visits to the store, flower deliveries. He’d even sent a hundred heart balloons to her shop which had beenGuide-worthy but too little too late. They were over, a fact that had spread like wildfire through the town.
Summer rolled over in her tiny bed, which seemed gigantic now that she was sleeping alone again. It was cold too. And a reminder of what she’d lost.
Her store had seen more customers than she knew what to do with, but they’d sold very few books. They were there to check in on her. Which was sweet and very embarrassing. A good chunk of them had also come to cancel their orders for Sloan’s new book.
It was the first sign of the new normal. The second sign was when the property tax bill came in and was double last year’s because of the appreciation due to the new behemoth store next door. The third sign was when a real-estate agent—Mable’s niece—had approached her to say that if she ever decided to sell, to please give her a call.
Even her most loyal customers knew it was game over.
Autumn and Cleo hadn’t left her alone, hovering around her like she was a fragile snowflake falling in the dead of summer. Even her parents and auntie and uncle had flown out from Florida. But instead of being there for her big event, they were there for moral support.
Wes had been right when he’d told her that love was fiction, because if it were the amazing, magical thing she’d thought it would be, it wouldn’t hurt this much. Right?
The rest of her family had made it work, so maybe she was defunct. She was a mirror twin, meaning her heart was on the wrong side of her body. Maybe she had been destined to be loveless from birth. Not that she wasn’t loved by her friends and family, but she wanted the everlasting, romantic kind of love. And she’d found it, then lost it.
Maybe love wasn’t enough. At least not for everyone. Because she’d put everything into Wes, and he’d chosen a piece of paper over her. Then again, he’d always been honest with her that when it came to his life it was all about the bottom line. Which meant her worth was beneath a signature on a piece of paper.
And the last sign was when the music started thumping next door at BookLand’s version of Burning Man. She had avoided looking out the window, but curiosity won out and she nearly yelped at what she saw. When she woke up at six, there were people sitting in lawn chairs at the entrance to BookLand. By noon the line had grown around the block. And by four the line had nearly doubled around and ran the length of both sides of the streets.
That was when Cleo sent her up to her room for the day. When she’d looked around the shop and spotted not a single customer, she’d obliged. Her dad tried to teach her to knit. Her, her auntie, and her mom made lasagna from scratch, and Autumn took her shopping to buy a new dress for the signing and podcast because apparently, they were still happening.
Autumn had told Randy that she would not host the event and that her loyalties lay with her sister, and she even went on a sex ban in support of Summer. By the time her family was done distracting her she was exhausted, so she turned in early just so she could breathe.
That night there was a tap on her bedroom door. She rolled back over to check her phone. It was nearly midnight so she decided to ignore it. But the tapper wouldn’t stop tapping.
“Ugh! Come in,” she grumbled. It wasn’t like she was sleeping. Even her ear plugs couldn’t keep out the thumping bass from BookLand’s Mardi Gras.
“Did I wake you?” her dad asked quietly, as if he hadn’t just tapped himself onto her shit list.
“How can anyone sleep through this?”
“Your mom. This doesn’t even match my snoring.”