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MAGGIE
We drive back to the inn, and there’s a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Never mind the now-day-old Halloween decorations that will need to be refreshed for Thanksgiving, or the Christmas decorations waiting for us in the closet. It’s a beautiful day outside, albeit cloudy, and normally I’d haul Mila, Emily, and anyone on staff outside to help decorate.
Today, the idea of hanging Christmas lights is exhausting.
Everything sounds exhausting. I just want to go back to bed and sleep until next Halloween, wishing for a redo of this one.
Mila chatters nonstop as we enter the inn, and when she asks to find Jax for a cookie, I barely remember nodding and dropping her off at the kitchen. While she settles onto a bar stool, I make my way to the front of the inn and find Emily waiting, hesitant, at reception.
I stand before her, sensing her unease as I rest my hands on the desk. “I’m sorry.”
She relaxes, her shoulders curling forward as she stretches her arms across the desk, then decides that won’t work. Running around to the other side, she envelops me in a hug and pulls my head to her shoulder. “Don’t apologize; we were just worried about you.”
“Tyler...” I don’t need to finish.
“He checked out first thing this morning,” Emily says, her voice painfully soft. “I’m so sorry. What happened last night?”
I shake my head, my throat too constricted to speak.
“Is it true?” she presses. “Did he buy the inn? Claire came by last night. She was worried about you, too.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper again. “I know I shouldn’t have ignored you both, but...”
“Hey, we understand. We love you, you know that.”
Those words, the words I’d longed to hear from my mother first, and then more recently from Tyler, stung. They stung in a way that hurt so good, a way that felt right. A way that made me wonder why love is such a fickle thing—so hard to find in so many people.
I cling to Emily, the tears coming in torrents now, staining her shirt. “He’s gone,” I tell her. “He just up and left. I was going to apologize, and—”
“Apologize for what?” Instantly on the defensive, Emily pulls me back to look at me. “I’m confused—I thought he hurt you.”
“He did, but I overreacted, and—”
“You’re too kind, honey.” Emily pulls me back to her chest. “Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be okay. I know it won’t be for a while, and in the meantime, just rest your head here and cry.”
So, I do.
I cry for some time, then retire to my room while Emily and Jax promise to entertain Mila for the day. I bring my phone with me, glancing at the blinking messages, and decide I can’t bear to hear his words again. Half-hearted explanations, a mangled apology—none of it changes the fact that he left.
When the going got difficult, he left. That’s what Tyler does—he has fun until it’s not fun anymore, and then he escapes to his perfect little New York life. The life without complication, without messiness, without Mila and me.
I should have known better, but I didn’t. I risked my heart again, and I lost it.
I do a hard reset on my phone. I’ve started over before with a helluva lot less than I have now, and I’m positive I can do it again.
As his messages, texts, his very contact information vanishes with the click of a button, I expect to feel a sense of relief. A sense of hope. A sense of...something.
All I feel are the bitter dredges of a survival instinct, something telling me to go to sleep until the pain is bearable. Squeezing the pillow to my chest, I turn off my phone, and I drift off alone.