Page 68 of Perfectly Matched: Harbor Falls Romance Collection

She had to get away. No question about it. Not just out of that hotel room and away from Ames, but out of New York City. In fact, she’d even risk playing the illness card to be in a place where she didn’t have to think—unless she wanted to. A place that was full of peace and quiet, where cinnamon coffee brewed every morning and where the aroma of just-baked blueberry muffins drifted up the stairway to wake you.

A place where life was predictable.

So that’s what she did.

She escaped the hotel room leaving a dumbfounded Ames lying in the bed, a hint of misty tears in his eyes. Crying. He was crying. How did he pull that off? She’d never seen him cry before. She’d simply gotten up, found some clothes of Suzie’s to put on—hers had been ripped to shreds earlier—and left.

Home for all about one hour, she took a cab to the airport, and then decided to rent a car rather than fly to Harbor Falls. The hours of driving had done her good, searching her soul about the ring she’d left lying on that hotel room pillow; lying there beside of the only man in her life she would probably ever love.

But she didn’t trust him, and that didn’t bode well for either of them.

Now, waking from a good night’s sleep in the blue room Sweet Hart Inn, she listened to birds singing outside her window and smelled the mountains and lake. She swore she could smell them. Fresh. Clean. Very much unlike the city.

She was reminded that people wake up to scenes like this, every day.

“I could get used to this.”

She was used to it.

A week has passed since she had left Ames. She’d called in all of her cards at work, saying she needed to get back to Harbor Falls to get Suzie and lure her back to the city so they could finish the shoot. She knew she was avoiding any chance of meeting up with Ames, really. That’s why she had to leave. She was embarrassed by her actions in more ways than one.

Embarrassed by the way she’d thrown herself at him like she was a bitch in heat. Embarrassed by the fact that she couldn’t say straight to his face that she couldn’t marry him, and why. She was, simply, hands-down, bald-faced embarrassed.

And sad.

She was sad more than anything else.

Patricia rose from her bed and slipped into her robe. It was high time she earned her keep around here. Petey was much better and Suzie had some catering to do today. She’d promised to help.

As she descended the stair and slipped into the kitchen, she could hear Suzie on the phone. While she chatted, Patricia helped herself to a cup of Suzie’s house blend, looked out the back window over the lake, and sighed. She wondered what kind of work there could be for her in Harbor Falls. Perhaps she could freelance…

Freelance. No. Her father would have a cow.

“So, that’s that. It’s all set.”

Dragging her gaze away from the lake, she looked at Suzie, who appeared startled that Patricia was in the room.

“What did you say?”

Suzie drew her bottom lip in with her teeth and set her phone on the kitchen island.

“I said that it’s all set. Um, the crew will be here day after tomorrow. That means you and I can finish the catering job today then do what shopping we need for the shoot and be ready when the crew gets here.”

At that moment Patricia decided that she had indeed been in Harbor Falls too long because her brain must have turned to mush.

“Who were you talking to, Suzie?”

“Talking to? Oh, Patrick.”

“Patrick? Monahan? My boss?”

Suzie ran a knife around a huge blueberry muffin in a tin and popped it out on a plate. She added a pat of butter—real butter—on the side and slid it toward Patricia.

“Here, eat something. We have a full day today.”

Wait a minute.

“Why were you and Patrick talking? I don’t get it.”

Suzie bustled about the kitchen, all but ignoring her, then stopped, finally, hands perched on hips, and looked at Patricia.

“You were unavailable, Patricia. We decided to move forward without you. I need to get this last shoot out of the way so I can get on with my other obligations. Patrick needs the show in the can. We talked and decided to make the decision without you because, well, you’re really not into making decisions lately.”

Patricia straightened her shoulders and stood a little taller.

“I am so into making decisions.”

Shaking her head, Suzie said.

“I beg to differ. You’ve taken yourself out of the decision-making game of late.”

“What do you mean?”

“You didn’t make a decision with Ames, you just left.”

“That was a decision. Sort of.”

Suzie harrumphed.

“It was!”

“Decisions require thought and contemplation. You didn’t give Ames’ sincere proposal any time, thought, or contemplation. You reacted. You didn’t decide.”

“I decided to come here.”

“You were escaping. Again.”

“I decided to help you with your catering.”

“I didn’t ask you, I told you I needed your help. Face it, Patricia, you are in no shape to make decisions, so Patrick and I decided to move forward without you.”

A slight panic gripped her. The crew was coming here. Ames.

“So, we’re just doing the video, right? No stills?”

Suzie sighed.

“We already did those promotional shots, Patricia. You know that as well as I. No, we are not doing stills. We are taping the last episode.”

She turned back to where she was mixing olive oil and spices and vinegar with a whisk in a large bowl.

“Now, eat your muffin, drink your coffee, and get dressed. I have three dozen hard-boiled eggs here that need to be peeled and chopped so I can make potato salad for the Daughters of the American Revolution luncheon. I, for one, am tired of your moping around and feeling sorry for yourself. Now, skedaddle.”

Patricia blinked once, and then again, and stared after Suzie who had turned and was pouring the dressing into a container. “Okay,”

she squeaked out. “Sure.”

And that’s exactly what Patricia, did—ate, drank, and skedaddled. But maybe that was exactly what she needed at this point, someone to tell her what to do, rather than to make stupid decisions on her own that came back to bite her.

Because she was bit—well, depressed. Her heart had hung heavy every second of her life since she’d left Ames alone in that hotel room. It was an action she feared she might regret for a long, long time.

Somehow, she had to snap out of it, and soon.

****

At four-ten in the morning, Ames finally got up and moved to his dark room. With digital technology these days, he rarely developed his own pictures for work, but often did so for pleasure. He liked the process. It calmed him to focus on one step at a time, one photo at a time. He’d been up late, after Suzie’s call, trying to figure out what was the best thing to do. That’s when he’d pulled out the roll of film, he’d taken from the sidelines the first day he’d been on the set with Suzie.

Though the pictures weren’t of Suzie, they were of Patricia.

He lifted one out of the solution and hung it to dry. It was a profile pic of her watching Suzie, her gaze intent upon what was happening on the set. That was one of the things he loved about her—how she got so wrapped up in life and work, how she took charge, and got things done.

God, he missed her.

He’d screwed up. Should have waited with the proposal and the ring. He just wanted so badly to right the wrong from all those years ago. He wanted like hell not to hurt anymore.

He’d thought he’d hurt three years earlier when he realized how deeply he had broken Patricia’s heart with his indiscretion, but nothing in his life had ever hurt as much as when she’d snapped that ring box shut and walked out of his life.

He could still hear the click. Final.

Staring at Patricia’s picture, he knew he had to find a way to move on. Had to. He’d screwed up. Big time.

“I need to work.”

Yes. Throw yourself into your work, Ames. That will keep you busy. Lucky for him he had a job option.

Suzie’s publisher had just hired him to shoot her cookbook. This had nothing to do with Patricia. She was out of this picture and that was a good thing. He needed to work her out of his head.

Reaching up, he snatched the picture of Patricia off the line and tore it in half. The two separate pieces drifted to the floor. He left the room, trying to put her out of his mind.

****

Dusk was quickly falling, and Patricia quickened her step. She wanted to be closer to the inn with night falling. She had grown accustomed to her evening walks around the lake path near Suzie’s house the past few days. The longer she stayed in Harbor Falls, the more she wanted to stay.

She approached the dock where Suzie had her small boat tied and walked down to the end of it. She liked being out over the water like this and savored the peace and calm. A gentle wave slapped against the pilings. The setting sun over the mountains behind her cast a silver-rose reflection over the lake. To her left, a thumbnail moon hung high in the sky. The scene was pure heaven.

She had done a lot of thinking the past few days—about herself, some choices she’d made in her life, and Ames. She wished she could rewind the past couple of weeks, and do just exactly what Suzie said she should have done—give time, thought and contemplation to what Ames had asked her. Because right now, at this moment, if Ames were to ask her again to marry him, she would probably react quite differently.

But that wasn’t going to happen. She’d blown that chance, forever.

“Retrospect is always clearer,”

she muttered.

With a deep breath, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Carefully, she opened it and looked down to read the list. There was a little light left so she could still make out the words. Sort of. Or maybe it was just that she had memorized them.

Suzie was right. This wasn’t a list of requirements for a husband, this was a list that represented everything that Ames wasn’t. But it was all too late, now. Too late for everything. Crumpling the list in her hand, she balled it into a fist, looked up at that sliver of moon, and gave the wadded-up paper an overhand toss into the lake.

It didn’t go very far and landed with an unsatisfying plop onto the water. She stood and watched it bob out of sight under the dock.

Time to head back to the house. With a deep sigh, she started to turn, until a voice halted her.

“Patricia, stop. Please don’t move.”