Page 21 of Hidden Vows (Love in Ashford Falls #3)

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JUDE

The bell above the door sounds as I step into the disheveled bookstore. My eyes immediately roam the cluttered space, searching for a head of sandy blonde hair, one that belongs to the woman I’ve always loved.

“I come bearing coffee,” I announce into the store.

It’s comical how quickly two heads pop up from behind piles of boxes and books in the back of the store from those four simple words.

“My hero!” Ava practically sprints around the boxes in front of her, springing to grab one of the cups from the carrier in my hands. “I know I should be holding a grudge against you on Abbey’s behalf, but I have to be honest; you’re making it very difficult,” she whispers so Abbey can’t hear.

I chuckle, appreciating Ava’s honesty. I like a person who isn’t afraid to speak their mind, but knowing she’s the person standing by Gage’s side makes me like her even more. Even if I’ve only known her for a little while, I can see how perfect she is for him.

“You think Abbey will forgive me if I keep going down this path?” I ask just as quietly, appreciating I might have an ally in my fight to win Abbey back .

“Hmm.” Ava shifts to stand beside me to better see Abbey, still packing the box she was working on before I entered the store.

“Keep supporting her and trying to be her friend, and I think you might be able to accomplish your goal.” She pats my shoulder before turning for the door and calling over her shoulder, “I’ll be right back!

I’m just going to return that call from Benny real quick. ”

Abbey looks up but doesn’t get the words out before the bell above the door rings again, this time with Ava’s departure.

Her eyes move to mine, and the hesitation I’ve grown accustomed to seeing in them is gone.

Instead, I find a genuine smile gracing her lips and a softness in her eyes I haven’t seen since before I left all those years ago.

“Coffee?” I have to force the word through the lump in my throat as I lift the holder in the air. Maybe that conversation at Ava’s birthday party was more significant than I thought.

“Yeah. That’d be great.” I don’t even try to fight the smile at her words.

We meet in the middle of the store, our fingers brushing as Abbey takes the cup from my hand.

The simple touch has both of us freezing.

I know I felt the spark all the way to my toes, and from the stunned look on Abbey’s face, so did she.

It’s not the first time we’ve touched since I returned home but this touch feels different.

I can’t stop myself from stepping further into her space, but that movement shakes something in Abbey—her eyes leave mine as she steps away from me, moving back toward the boxes she was packing moments earlier.

“Thanks for the coffee.” She fidgets, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. “You really don’t have to keep bringing it, but I appreciate it. ”

“Of course.” I watch her as she takes a sip before setting the cup on a closed box. “Marybelle’s really ready to retire, huh?”

“Oh, yeah.” Abbey laughs. “The sale doesn’t officially go through for another week, but she’s adamant I get a jump start on packing everything so I can start on renovations immediately.”

“When do the renovations start?” I follow Abbey’s example and place my cup on a box, moving to the shelf Ava was working on before I came in. I can’t help but chuckle when I see she was working in the “thriller” section.

“One of the many benefits of small town living.” Abbey glances over her shoulder to watch me for a second before she focuses back on the shelves.

“George said he can send a crew over next week to get started, but we have to get all the stock boxed up and put in storage before they arrive Monday morning.”

“So you’re going with George?” Abbey wasn’t joking at the party last week when she mentioned she had meetings set up. She met with three contractors on Monday and had proposals from all three by Wednesday.

“Yeah. He wasn’t the cheapest, but he had the best ideas to accomplish my goals and the fastest timeline.” She laughs, more to herself than anything else. “Besides, in this small town? How could I go with anyone else? People would’ve boycotted the shop on principle alone.”

“You’re not wrong.” I chuckle. “Do you have a place to store all these boxes?” I ask, looking around at all they’ve already packed and the shelves of books that have yet to be touched.

“Yeah, we’ve got one of those pod things. I wish I’d been a little smarter and culled some of the inventory before we started packing. I think I’ll have to do a big sale on books during the grand re-opening…” Abbey continues talking, but my mind drifts when I reach the shelf filled with my books .

When I saw them a few weeks ago, I noticed the little plaques with blurbs, but I didn’t realize there was one for each of my books on the shelf. They don’t stock all of my books, but for the ones they do, Abbey has written a few words recommending them.

It surprises me how many they have in stock, though. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not, but I had the ideas and my publisher loved them, so over the last ten years I’d been able to publish two books a year. Even with my success, it’s rare to see a store have all my books on their shelves.

But what surprises me the most is when my eyes catch on my debut novel, The Echoing Silence . Don’t get me wrong, there are debut novels out there that will stand the test of time, but I don’t think mine is one of them. Then again, we are our own harshest critics.

With a slightly trembling hand, I can’t stop myself from picking up the note Abbey wrote.

This book transfixed me in a way no other author ever has. The complexity and emotional depth of the characters is like no other. I felt seen.

The words are so simple, and yet it’s knowing they came from Abbey—it’s knowing that my words touched her in a way I never imagined when I wrote them. It’s knowing that, even though I was hundreds of miles away from her, we were still connected—even if we didn’t know it.

“Jude, you okay?” The feel of Abbey’s hand on my shoulder brings me back to the bookstore.

“S-sorry. What did you say?” I ask, swallowing the lump in my throat before looking at her.

“Just asking if you’re okay. You’ve been quiet and unmoving for a few minutes now.”

“Oh.” The concern in her eyes has me looking away, unable to hold it after reading just one of her recommendations.

“I’m fine, just got distracted reading the little blurbs you wrote for this author.

” I gesture to the shelf I’m standing in front of.

“Isn’t this the author we talked about a few weeks ago?

The one whose book you hated,” I ask, knowing we are one and the same and trying to come up with a valid excuse for my off behavior.

“Yeah. I think that might have been why I was so harsh. I’ve been a fan of his since the very beginning.

” She reaches for a copy of The Echoing Silence , thumbing through the pages as she speaks.

“I read this book when it first came out. It’s actually what got me back into reading.

It’s also what landed me the job here with Marybelle. ”

“I didn’t realize you stopped reading.” Slowly, without letting Abbey see, I slip the note into my pocket.

Her eyes meet mine. “Yeah, shortly after you left, Mom’s health declined pretty rapidly. I spent a lot of time with her, reading books aloud, and after she passed I couldn’t get into it the way I used to.”

“It reminded you of her.”

“Yeah, and I just wasn’t ready for that.”

“I was sorry to hear about Grace. I know it wasn’t a surprise, but that doesn’t make it any easier.”

Grace Selbey was more than kind to me. She’d been the only mother figure I had growing up.

My father was my whole world as a kid. He was there for every milestone, scraped knee, school activity—anything you’d wish for your father to be, he was it.

But he couldn’t fill every shoe I needed—though he tried his damnedest. Where my dad missed, Grace was there, filling the gaps.

When she got sick and was diagnosed with ALS a few weeks after Abbey and I were married, it nearly broke both of us—not our relationship, but our spirits.

Grace was our biggest supporter and was so happy when we told her about our marriage.

She’d been sad she wasn’t there, but we didn’t have to explain why we did it the way we did—she just got it.

Grace knew better than we did how Edward would’ve reacted had he known about the wedding before it happened, and she understood why it had to happen in secret. But her joy when we told her was unlike anything I’d seen from her before.

“She loved you,” Abbey whispers, and the words just about break my heart.

“I know,” I say around the lump in my throat. “I hate that I wasn’t here for you both in the end,” I tell her honestly.

I see the tears well in the corners of her eyes before she can look away. “Well…” She swallows. “It happened a long time ago.” She turns to the shelf she was working on and begins packing boxes again.

I know it’s a defense mechanism, and I understand it.

I want to say more, but that would mean talking about the past, and I can’t do that if I want to stick to my plan.

I told Abbey I’d help her focus on her future, and that’s what I’m going to do.

Once she opens this store, I’ll focus on getting her to talk to me about that night and the last seventeen years.

My fingers ghost over the note in my pocket once more before I get back to work, ignoring the rest of the notes. I can only imagine what the rest will do if one note sent me into a tailspin.