Page 19 of Holiday Reunion
“Maybe you’re right.”
Her stomach bottomed out. “What?”
James shrugged, his eyes turning cold and hard. “You could be right about one thing. I did come back here to help save something that was important to me, but maybe I was also here to prove to the people of this town that I wasn’t just some hotshot who thought he was too good for this place. Maybe I wanted my name to be associated with something that did some good.”
She huffed.
“But if there is one thing, I know I’m right about, it’s your bakery.”
Sarah rolled her eyes. “Here we go again.”
“You were never going to survive if you didn’t learn how to evolve. People these days don’t go to a bakery when they can just order a cake at the grocery store. They don’t think about a small place like yours when they want a croissant or a tarte. Those treats are rapidly filling the shelves of most stores in town. With chocolate shops popping up, people don’t need to come to you for fudge or caramel apples. But you know what people today will do. They will go out of their way to grab a frappe or a macchiato. And when they’re there, they’ll ask you to throw in that warm cheese Danish that just came out of the oven. I just wish you could understand. My experiences away from Hollyberry Harbor have taught me so much in customer behavior that I would be helpless if I didn’t have it.”
She could feel herself closing off to him. Everything he was saying made sense, and yet she didn’t want it. She didn’t want her whole world to change simply because people would move in and out of this place and they didn’t know the history this place offered. “You know,” she said quietly. “It’s probably a good thing that our relationship didn’t really go further than it did.”
“And why’s that,” he muttered.
“Because we’re just too different.”
“Sometimes it’s good to love someone who is different. They can bring out the best in you.”
“Or the worst.” Sarah wrapped her arms around herself and looked away. “You can’t put a square peg into a round hole.”
“I beg to differ.”
She glanced at him then looked away. “I guess that’s that.”
“So you won’t take me up on my offer.”
Sarah shook her head, knowing that if she said anything it would come out in a sob.
“I really wish you’d reconsider.” And he just kept on pushing her. Why couldn’t James just pay attention to how she was feeling? Why couldn’t he just do what she told him to do.
“After tonight, I don’t want to see you again, James.”
He was quiet for a long, stretched out moment, James sighed. “That’s actually perfect. I’ll change my flight and leave tomorrow.”
Her eyes darted up to meet his, full of curiosity, not that he owed her an explanation.
“I have to finalize the funding for the bakery.” His words were cold and harsh like the winter storm they’d experienced mere weeks before. “Then there’s the matter of bringing in companies who want to lease the buildings or hiring people who simply want to work without the responsibility of making monthly payments.”
He was referring to her own inadequacies and she couldn’t blame him. This had ended up far messier than she’d ever intended it to be. She looked away, rubbing her arms up and down. “I think I’ll just find my own way home, if that’s alright.”
“I would rather you didn’t.”
“Lucky for me, we’re not together anymore.” She gave him a wan smile. “Goodbye, James.”
TWELVE
James wandered down Lake Harbor, his emotions bouncing from fury to heartache. He’d wanted to shake some sense into her, but he knew that wasn’t going to do any good. Sarah had made up her mind about him. She wasn’t going to see reason.
It didn’t matter that everything she’d said was absolutely untrue. What mattered to her was finding a villain to blame and that was what he had to be.
Each step he took was more painful than the last. They’d only had a couple weeks to get closer but the loss he felt was just as painful as if they’d been dating for years. If he had to stay in town another day longer, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to manage. Bumping into Sarah would be torture.
Everywhere he looked, down the street, he could see Sarah’s influence. In truth, he’d done very little to pull this show together. Sarah was the mastermind. She probably cared more than the majority of the town. Every argument she’d made about keeping the tradition alive for this holiday season, she’d been on the right side of things.
Couples walked hand in hand from vendor to vendor. Happy children raced ahead of their parents to get to the shed that Sarah had decorated to look like the North Pole. There was noend to the fun activities Sarah had planned and every night had been just like this one—packed to the brim.