The Story Of Us - Teri Wilson Page 0,24
blinked at him with exaggerated innocence. “Miso-glazed salmon. Weren’t you paying attention?”
“I was paying attention.” In fact, he’d been paying Jamie Vaughn far more attention than he wanted to admit. “And you are planning something.”
She completely ignored him, focusing instead on the food at her table and Eric, whose presence was really turning out to be a thorn in Sawyer’s side for reasons he didn’t want to contemplate.
“Sawyer?” Rick said.
“What?” he snapped.
Rick aimed a quizzical look at the bowl in Sawyer’s hands and motioned toward the cluster of his classmates lingering by the table of ingredients. “Do you want to give everybody else some arugula?”
What the…?
Sawyer glanced down. “Oh.”
His bowl overfloweth. Arugula spilled over the rim and onto the floor. He’d been so distracted that he hadn’t left a single leaf behind for the other cooking students.
Titters of laughter broke out, and when Sawyer looked back up, every pair of eyes in the room was on him—with the notable exception of Jamie and Eric, who only seemed to have eyes for each other.
The night was getting longer by the second. He winced. “Sorry.”
Was it time for dessert yet?
Chapter Seven
To Jamie’s immense delight, the Waterford Chronicle article about True Love Books & Cafe was splashed across the front page of the Arts & Culture section the following morning. A photograph she’d sent the editor was printed alongside it—Jamie, standing by the bookstore’s front counter and holding up the box of Valentines she’d found behind the piano.
The response to the story was overwhelmingly supportive, beyond anything Jamie could have possibly imagined. To her complete and utter astonishment, the story went viral shortly before noon, with enough tweets, retweets and Facebook posts to spread news of the impending threat to her bookshop far and wide.
Customers poured in, not just from Waterford, but from the surrounding towns as well. They lingered by the cherry tree display at the front of the store where Jamie and Lucy had strung up the old Valentine cards from The Story of Us box, securing them with glittery gold ribbon and pink clothespins. Some customers stayed for hours, reading each and every handwritten message while sipping coffee or nibbling one of Rick’s heart-shaped cookies. They bought books, too! Love stories by the armful. Jamie darted back and forth between the storeroom and the sales floor, trying to keep up with the demand. Meanwhile, the cupcake supply dwindled at an alarming rate. By two o’clock, she was forced to make an emergency run to Rick’s Bistro to pick up more.
She took advantage of her time away to make a quick stop at Anita’s Flowers to share the exciting news with her aunt. The store had been so busy that Jamie hadn’t had a spare second to talk to her about the article, much less the sudden boom in business. Her fingertips flew over her tablet, opening the newspaper’s webpage. She practically shoved it at Aunt Anita the minute she stepped inside her shop.
Anita insisted on reading the article aloud, even though Jamie had practically memorized every word of it.
“‘Is romance on your mind? True Love Books & Cafe in Waterford may be the place to go. With dozens of proposals and successful first dates in its history, some say the bookstore and café is love’s lucky charm. While we’ll never know for sure, many former customers believe in its romantic magic so much, they’ve been sending thank-you Valentines to the store for decades.’” Anita paused for a breath before getting to the last line, Jamie’s favorite part. “‘Isn’t this just the type of Waterford legacy worth saving?’”
Jamie liked those words more and more every time she heard them. She’d actually done it! She’d managed to completely change the narrative surrounding the proposed Ridley development. No one in town was talking about Sawyer’s fancy plans anymore. Now they were talking about things that actually mattered—things like True Love Books and romance and community.
“Oh, this is wonderful, Jamie.” Anita looked up, grinning from ear to ear. “Was the article your idea?”
Jamie nodded and hugged the tablet to her chest when Anita returned it to her, then followed her aunt to a display cooler filled with long-stemmed roses. “I did the interview yesterday. I probably should’ve thought of it before, but it didn’t occur to me until I found the Valentines and with the vote coming up—which, did you hear?”
Anita shook her head as she pulled the cooler door open. “No.”
“It got moved up,” Jamie said. The town council had announced the new