Peering down my nose at Harriet and Lilith, I murmured, “Ladies,” as I passed them without confrontation. I saw their expressions slacken with surprise, but I wasn’t going to waste energy on two old gossips who had nothing better to do. People would always talk, but as long as the people I cared about were happy for Roane and me, I couldn’t care less what anyone else thought.
When I returned to the bookstore, my skin still prickling a little with the encounter despite my inner pep talk, I moved toward the back staircase and stopped when I heard the giggle from upstairs.
Damn.
I’d given Lucas and Viola permission to use my apartment for privacy. Of course, I knew what “privacy” meant and trusted Viola to use the guest bedroom and not mine, but I’d expected them to be done by now. Why I’d naively assumed that, when they were both twenty-year-olds with unending stamina, I didn’t know.
Rolling my eyes, I moved back into the store, dumped my stuff behind the counter, and flipped the sign to open.
I had so much to organize over the next two weeks. Penny was ecstatic that I wanted to buy the bookstore. I was less ecstatic about what it would cost to buy the building. It would eat up the entirety of the life insurance money my dad had left me. That money would have bought me a huge house with land in Indiana. On the other hand, I’d need double that to buy a really nice two-bedroom apartment in the heart of the West Loop in Chicago.
Since it would take longer than two weeks for all the legal stuff to be finalized and Roane and I didn’t want to rush a wedding, I’d applied for an extension on my work visa. Penny had provided another letter to say I would be continuing on as an employee at the bookstore for three more months.
We were waiting on approval for that, but worst-case scenario, Roane and I would marry at a registrar’s office so I could stay in the country, and then we’d plan a proper wedding later. For now, I was planning as if the visa extension would come through. Which meant I had my lawyer on the sale, and myself on organizing a trip to the States to tie up loose ends there. And to say goodbye.
The thought of saying goodbye to Greer, Mom, and Phil choked me up every time. But I knew I was doing the right thing because there was no niggle in my gut that suggested there were hidden doubts somewhere in my conscience. I knew marrying Roane and moving to Alnster was one hundred percent the right thing to do. How many people could really boast such certainty when making a huge decision about their life?
I was lucky. I knew that.
That didn’t mean it hadn’t been hard to tell Greer about Roane’s proposal. Staring at the glittering diamond on my finger, I felt an overwhelming amount of happiness, but it was tinged with sadness when I remembered my friend crying.
I knew she was happy for me, but like me, she was grief-stricken at the idea of having that big ocean between us for the rest of our lives.
“Maybe I can convince Andre to move to England,” she’d sniffled.
My smile had been watery as I’d replied with a sad “Maybe.”
The call with Phil had been a little better. There were no tears. And he was relieved to hear I was coming back to see them. “I didn’t want to call Mom about this. I want to sit down and have a conversation with her face-to-face.”
“I get it. I’ll let her know. Just keep us updated on when you’re getting into Chicago. We’ll book a hotel in the city.”
“You don’t have to do that. I’ll come out to you guys.”
“Whatever you want. Just keep us posted.”
I sighed as I scrolled through a list of comparison flights on my laptop. With almost every penny I had going to Penny, I needed to book something cheap. Roane had offered to pay, but I wasn’t sure he had an abundance of cash just lying around. Besides, I didn’t want to imagine what kind of money he’d just dropped on my engagement ring.
Mostly, I felt weird about taking money from him. When I said that, he’d scowled ferociously and told me that as his future wife I’d better get used to the fact that our lives were now there for us to share,