Chapter Twenty-Three

“You’re going to move? To New York?” Becca stared at Sarah as if she’d grown three heads.

“It’s an option. One I have to pursue.” Sarah shoved her make-up bag into the small suitcase on her bed. It might be rash to leave hours after Corey had dumped her, but she had a chance and was seizing it. “I can’t let my career die. I need a job.” She needed to get the hell out of Fallbank. Corey had disappeared after their break-up and she wanted to be gone when he did return. Her heart couldn’t take seeing him. Not this soon. Never might be too soon.

Becca crossed her arms and glared. “But I thought you said you were staying here and opening your own firm?”

Sarah paused and looked up at her cousin. “No. I said I was thinking about it. Investigating a lease for an office space. I never said it was for sure.” And now it was off the table. She was either going back to Seattle and the agency there or to New York, to take a job with the company that had bought out her Seattle firm and let her go, then called her and offered her the job of her dreams with one catch—moving to the east coast offices.

“I think you’re being too rash about this. You were in a good place. The family’s back together. Even Hop is going to stay for a while… I think.” Becca sighed. “This will break Gran’s heart.”

It was Sarah’s turn to glower. “Don’t you dare guilt me for thinking about my life. Choosing what I need to do to make a living. Are you going to berate me the entire time we drive to the airport? Because if so, I’m getting a ride-share.”

Her cousin held up her hands in the universal sign for surrender. “Okay, that was out of line. You have every right to do what’s best for you. I just think that’s here. These past couple of months are the happiest I’ve seen you in years, Sarah. Don’t lose that.”

Too late. She’d lost Corey and with that her happiness, especially in Fallbank. She slumped onto the edge of the bed. “I wish I could tell you I’m going to be okay, but I’m not. I don’t know how long it will take to get even a fraction of back to where I was when I lived in Seattle. What I do know is that I need distance right now. I can’t be in town and see the pitying looks. Run into Corey while at dinner. Live next door to him.”

She shook her head. “No. I can’t.” She swallowed back the tears threatening to fall again. The past few hours had been awful and filled with sobbing. Her heart begged to stay, to fight for him. Her head told her to run far and fast. The call for the job had come through right before Corey had found out and broken up with her. She’d wanted his opinion. It wasn’t as if Sarah had been overjoyed for the chance, but now she was glad she hadn’t turned it down on the spot. She’d had the prudence to at least consider things and hold her tongue on the phone.

Sarah looked up at Becca. “I need this. I’m not saying I will move, but I’m not saying I won’t. I can’t make any promises right now.”

“Okay. I get that.”

 

* * * *

 

Hours later, Sarah waited for her chance to exit the plane with her carryon at hand. This would be a quick trip to New York, but if things worked out, she’d be out here for much longer the next time, when she moved across the country. Her head and heart were a complete chaotic mess at war with one another. And she was exhausted from the turmoil. Sleep had eluded her on the flight and her mind whirled the entire time. She looked forward to grabbing a cab and getting to her hotel to sleep. The time change meant it was past midnight and she still had an hour before getting to her lodging in the city. A couple walked hand-in-hand in front of her and it took all her strength not to throw herself onto the ground and throw a toddler tantrum. What had she done in a past life to deserve this one? Orphaned at ten, given the perfect partner just to have their relationship blow up not once, but twice. How much suffering and loss could one person take?

When she checked in and struggled up to her room, Sarah fell onto the bed and curled into a ball. She didn’t bother with washing her face or brushing her teeth. She closed her eyes and prayed for sleep.

The morning dawned bright and sunny. Sarah winced at the light streaming into her room and dragged herself into the shower. Once dressed, she claimed a cup of coffee from the hotel lobby and set out. The humid heat smacked into her as soon as she stepped foot outside. “At least there’s sun,” she mumbled to herself. Glancing around like the tourist she was, Sarah sought out the direction she needed to go for her interview. Walking loosened her muscles and the busy, crowded streets fascinated her. There were so many more people than Seattle. Or maybe it was that the city itself was so small from a geography perspective that it turned everyone into sardines. Regardless, she was grateful for the distraction. It helped pull her mind to the here and now to get into the mindset she needed for her meetings.

The towering steel skyscraper Sarah stood outside was intimidating in a way she’d never experienced in Seattle. There were plenty of soaring buildings downtown there, yet here the vibe was different. Maybe it was the history that permeated everything—even new construction held an oldness that had seeped in from the ground.

Someone bumped into her and as Sarah turned to apologize, the pedestrian snarled at her. Rolling his eyes, the man snapped something about idiot tourists then walked on. She was taken aback by the interaction and left wondering why people felt the need to be so rude.

She shook off the irritated sensation left behind as she made her way up to the floor the firm operated from. She wished she’d realized how much the bustle and pulsing demand to go-go-go wasn’t held to the outside. The need to hurry and cursory exchanges of words was the standard, not the exception. Her west-coast upbringing chafed at the urgency with which everyone moved. Even during interviews and learning about the company, if she spoke too long or took her time answering, she felt the impatience. The Human Resources team made her an offer at the end of the day. The salary and benefits package was generous and Sarah couldn’t say there wasn’t some inkling of temptation. Yet when she asked for two weeks to decide, they’d countered with one week and that left her feeling dissatisfied.

Too unsettled to go straight back to her hotel for the evening, Sarah wandered the streets, thinking she’d grab a taxi to take her back. A trickle of happiness went through her at the prospect of getting lost. Along the way, she noticed how little green there was in the city and sought out a park.

Along her journey, she found a local bookstore and ducked inside. She’d hoped this would be the mood boost she was looking for. After all, a new stack of romance books could lift anyone’s spirits. Making a lap around the store, she couldn’t locate the shelf she was looking for. Sarah looped around twice more before admitting defeat and seeking out an employee.

“Excuse me,” she asked a younger man with a name tag on. “Could you direct me to the romance book section? I can’t find it.”

A single twist of his lips and raise of his eyebrows was his patronizing nonverbal response. He waited for a long moment, then said, “We don’t have that kind of section at this store. Is there a real book I can help you find?”

Asshole.

Sarah pinned her most saccharine smile on her face. “No, I’m good. I only read from the top- grossing genre that amasses more than a billion dollars in annual sales. Why would I read any of those other, lesser genres that can’t even compete?”

She stomped out of the shop, fuming over the jerky attitude that guy had thrown at her. After a few more blocks of walking and working up a sweat, she stumbled upon a small fenced-in green space. “Perfect,” she said and sauntered in.

The pathway was crushed gravel and the crunching noise her shoes made was pleasant to her ears. Surrounded by trees, flowers and grass, Sarah released the tension in her body. Birds chirped and squirrels chased one another through branches. A sense of home seeped into her bones. Rounding a corner, she jerked to a stop. The sight of a woman in a wedding dress arrested her. A photographer knelt and snapped pictures as she moved through a grassy plot. The gown’s voluminous skirts swayed and sparkled in the late afternoon light.

Sarah’s heart pounded. It was a sign—the surrounding, the feeling of home and the wedding dress modeled in front of her. She knew where she belonged…and with whom. Corey might not forgive her right away, but he deserved for her to try. When things got tough with him, she’d run away again. She’d spent too many years in a place that allowed her to pretend she wasn’t still bleeding out inside, that she wasn’t desolate and yearning for human connection, that her job fulfilled in enough to make life worthwhile. It was time to make changes for the better, not worse. And to prove to Corey that she was with him for better or worse.

Sarah was a fan of romance novels. She had an e-reader packed with them. One thing they’d taught her was that when love grew challenging, a grand gesture was the solution. Staring at the woman in the exquisitely fussy gown in front of her, Sarah saw her plan come to life. She spun around and raced back to the street and hailed a cab. Her flight back wasn’t until tomorrow morning, but she needed to get to the airport. Maybe there was a last plane out that she could grab a seat on.

As she sat in the cab, Sarah pulled out her phone and made three phone calls. The first to the firm she’d left an hour earlier. The second to the agency in Seattle. And the third to the realtor in Fallbank.

 

* * * *

 

Cornelius walked into Three Sisters on a mission—find out where the hell Sarah went. He hadn’t seen her at the house since their fight and the desperation was wearing on him. The bell above the door jingled as an alert to his entrance and Gran bustled through the door leading to the stock room.

“Hello, Cornelius. What brings you in today?” She smiled, but held back from her normal joyful hug for him.

He steeled his nerves and adjusted his glasses. “Hi, Esmerelda, I’m looking for Sarah. Do you know where she is?”

“Why would you want that information? Last I heard from my granddaughter, you weren’t wanting to talk to her at all.” She cocked a hip and despite the upturn of her lips, she was giving him her best Look. Her eyes held an anger he hadn’t seen since his teenage years when he and Sarah would get caught past curfew.

Clearing his throat, he attempted to speak without betraying the fear Gran was putting in him. “I was a bit rash and upset last time she and I spoke.” He paused, unsure of how much Sarah had shared with her grandmother and didn’t want to betray her past actions just in case. “I’m hoping to fix that. Apologize for how I reacted.”

Gran pursed her lips and took a few steps closer. “How do you plan to make this up to her? I won’t have her devastated like I found her last time.” She crossed her arms and full-out glared. “Do you know what she looked like when I showed up at her house? In a ball on the floor bawling her eyes out. She could barely speak.” The older woman who looked like she wouldn’t hurt a bee, poked a finger at his chest. Hard. “After what she confessed to you! How could you walk away from her?”

“I-I-I wasn’t thinking. We were both caught up in too many emotions and I freaked out.” His emotional dam burst. The pain of losing Sarah—twice now—of picturing her sobbing on the floor of her house, having to shoulder the burden of accidentally getting pregnant and walking into a clinic alone. All of it crashed through him and he broke down. Tears fell from his eyes. Cornelius yanked his glasses off and swiped at the wetness.

Gran wrapped her arms around him and he cried on her shoulder. “Oh, honey. I’m sorry.” She rubbed his back in soothing circles. “I know how much you two love one another, but I have to protect my grandchild, too. It’ll be okay.”

“I didn’t know. She never let on. At all. I would have supported her. If she’d told me, I wouldn’t have forced her into anything.” His pain poured out of him. “I can’t imagine how scared and alone Sarah felt going through all of this by herself. I thought she and I were solid. That she’d tell me anything. It hurts that she felt like she couldn’t.”

“It’s all right. Things will work out.” Gran patted his back as Cornelius lifted his head and breathed deep to steady himself. “You two will fix your relationship. Just don’t take twelve years this time. You’re both mature enough now to sort it all out.”

“Thanks, Gran.” He sniffled, wiped at his cheeks once more then put his glasses back on. “I promise I’ll never react like this again. Please help me find her so I can make it right?”

“She’s in New York City.”

“What? How… Why would she go there?”

Gran shook her head. “The company that bought out her Seattle firm wants to hire her to work in their east coast offices. She went for an interview.”

He gaped at her. “When did they even have time? We fought yesterday. I slept at my office for one night!”

“They called her yesterday morning. She took a flight out yesterday afternoon. Sarah won’t be back until for a couple of days at the earliest.”

“Shit.” Cornelius grimaced and looked at Gran. “Sorry.” An idea formed in his head. “Okay. I can work with that. Yeah. It gives me time.” He pressed a kiss to Gran’s cheek and grinned. “Thanks, Gran. I have to go.”

She chuckled. “As long as you mend the relationship with Sarah, that’s all I want for you two.”

With a buoyed sense of purpose, Cornelius raced out of the store and to his truck. Once home, he booked a flight to Eureka and called the neighborhood kid up the road to check on Lolli and Jelly. Throwing a quick bag together, he called Hop for a ride.

“What’s going on, Cor?” Hop asked as Cornelius jumped into the car. “Where’s the fire?”

Lifting one side of his mouth, Cornelius answered, “I’m making moves to my life, starting with a visit to my parents.”

His friend side-eyed him while still balancing watching the road as he drove. “What are you doing? You aren’t moving, are you?”

“I’m not sure.” Cornelius turned the idea over in his mind. Moving to Seattle would be easier than New York, but he’d do whatever it took to win back his Sarie. “That depends.”

“On what? How can you move? You’re half owner of Timber Logging Company.”

Cornelius shrugged. “Yeah, but maybe I sell. Or become a silent partner and let Jack take over. Oh, by the way, while he’s out on his honeymoon and I’m…busy, could you stand in?”

“Me?” Hop asked and threw Cornelius an are-you-crazy look. “Isn’t there someone else who works for you that you’d rather tag in?”

“Julio can manage the crews, but I’d like if you could take care of the day-to-day office operations. You have the skillset for it and I trust you.” He fished the keys to the office out of his pocket and tossed them in the empty drink holder. “Call if you have questions, but it should be straightforward. You worked at TLC in high school. We haven’t changed that much.”

Signs for the Portland airport appeared and Hop guided the car toward departures. “I don’t know, Cornelius. This doesn’t sound like the best of ideas.”

“Sure it is.” Cornelius said as he opened the car door. “You need a job anyway, right? For however long you’re sticking around town, this can be yours.” He shut the door before his friend could respond. With a wave, Cornelius loped off into the airport.

A short flight and ride-share later, Cornelius was walking into his parent’s house. He was tired, but happy. He had a plan and a purpose. Time, for once, was on his side. He bid his mom and dad a good night, ignoring their questions about his spur-of-the-moment visit. Then he collapsed on the bed in the guest room and slept well with hope for him and Sarah dancing in his dreams.