The Story Of Us - Teri Wilson Page 0,21

the classics and helped us find our happily ever after. Forever grateful, Sam and Laurie.’”

Goosebumps cascaded over Jamie, head to toe. She’d always appreciated how important True Love was to Waterford, but she’d never seen such an outpouring of support for the store before. It was just what she needed, today of all days.

“We should put these out for the customers.” Lucy began lining the Valentines up on the coffee table in a neat row.

“Yes! And show how important True Love is to the community!” Jamie’s heart thumped as she was hit with a small epiphany. Her head snapped toward Lucy. “That’s it!”

A few nearby customers glanced over in curiosity.

“What’s it?” Lucy gave her blank stare.

Didn’t she see? This was the answer Jamie had been trying so hard to come up with all day. This box and its precious contents were exactly what she needed in order to prove that True Love was far more important than the awful industrial development that Ridley—and Sawyer—wanted to put in its place. These Valentines could be the very thing that saved her store.

“That’s how we fight back!”

Chapter Six

Two hours and eight phone calls later, Jamie finally managed to track down the Editor-in-Chief of the Waterford Chronicle. It wasn’t easy. She’d had to navigate her way through a complicated phone tree of various voice mail messages, assistants and department editors, all while waiting on customers, closing up shop for the night and changing into appropriate evening attire for Rick’s Valentine’s cooking class. But all the effort was worth it, because the top dog himself finally took her call just as she and Lucy approached the door to Rick’s Bistro & Trattoria.

She talked as quickly as she could, lest he grow bored with her story and end the call. Plus, Rick’s class was supposed to have started five minutes ago.

“Yes. Yes, that’s right—Valentine’s cards from old True Love customers, people who met there. Some of them date back to the middle of last century!” Jamie paused on the threshold of the bistro just long enough to take a breath and let Lucy open the door for her. Technically, she could have opened it herself, but one hand was holding her iPhone while the other was gesticulating wildly. If she’d been wearing a Fitbit, smoke would have probably been coming out of it.

The editor took advantage of her need for oxygen to ask about the rumor he’d heard that True Love was a popular Waterford hotspot for couples to get engaged.

Jamie beamed at Lucy as she answered in the affirmative. It was actually happening! The newspaper was going to run a feature on True Love Books. She could feel it. “And yeah, this year alone we’ve had four proposals in the store.”

Lucy opened the second door—the one that led from the entry foyer to the main dining room of Rick’s restaurant—and Jamie practically danced her way through it.

“Now isn’t that a legacy worth saving?” she asked, really driving the point home.

Please let him agree. Please.

She bit her bottom lip while she waited for the editor to respond, feeling about as nervous as Eliot on bath day. When he said yes, she jumped up and down right there by the hostess stand in Rick’s fancy bistro. She couldn’t help it. Things were finally looking up.

“And when is it going to run?” She held her breath and nearly fainted when she heard the word tomorrow. “Great! Thank you so much.”

She jabbed the off button on her phone and squealed at Lucy, “We’re in!”

Lucy held her hand up and they high-fived as if they’d just won gold at the Olympics. Honestly, it felt like they had. Tomorrow could be the turning point…by the end of the week, Sawyer might just pack up his hideous spaceship model and go crawling back to Portland. She wouldn’t have to see him for another fifteen years.

If ever.

But as soon as she and Lucy finished their impromptu victory celebration, Jamie became aware of a loaded silence surrounding her. She glanced up, and sure enough, there was Sawyer O’Dell, leaning against Rick’s polished mahogany bar, looking straight at her as he sipped a glass of red wine.

To add insult to injury, Aunt Anita stood right beside him, wine glass in hand. By all appearances, it looked like they were having quite a nice time together.

Naturally.

Anita didn’t have a mean or judgmental bone in her body. She probably thought Sawyer was just doing his job.

Which he was. But that didn’t mean Jamie had to like it.