Page 110 of Tempted Hearts
“Yeah, but I was just offered tenure at Columbia. And she loves it here.”
I left the even bigger barrier to a relationship with Juliette unsaid.
“Don’t get too much in your head. Just let it flow and see what happens. My advice, for what it’s worth. Although, admittedly, I had to be pretty much hit over the head with a hammer until I realized how far gone I was for Brooke.”
That seemed to be a theme among my friends. I stood, taking the coffee with me.
“Well, thanks again for the truck, and the cottage, and the advice.”
“My pleasure. How are you getting back?”
“Parker. He’s probably already here.”
And he was.
He didn’t say anything on the ride back about Juliette at all, and I didn’t mention her. But every street we drove closer and closer to the end, it felt as if the small town was choking me. An interesting development, since I had never felt that way coming home.
It was New York I didn’t like.
And that was easy enough to admit.
I didn’t want to live there forever. But accepting tenure didn’t mean I couldn’t leave.
“Did you even hear me?” Parker asked as we pulled into Heritage Hill.
I hadn’t.
“Sorry. What were you saying?”
He looked at me for two seconds and narrowed his eyes. “You wanna talk about it?”
“No.” I really didn’t.
“All right. I was asking if you could hit the lake in the morning.”
I’d already decided I shouldn’t stay over again at Juliette’s… but did it anyway. So a fishing morning sounded good to me. “Sure. Just text me a time.”
“Will do. But I’ll probably be seeing you before that. I think the ladies are planning something for your last night here.”
That was actually sort of funny. “I’m not going anywhere except back to New York. I’ll probably be back within the month.”
Parker shrugged. “Sunday Funday. Taco Tuesday. You name a day of the week and they have a reason to celebrate. Not that I’m complaining.”
I agreed. Life was something to celebrate, but I just wasn’t feeling in a celebratory mood. Not much to be done about it. If they were having a “going back to New York” gathering, I’d be hard-pressed not to be there.
“Sounds like I’ll see you tonight then. Thanks for the ride.”
42
JULES
He was gone. I woke alone, his side of the bed already cold.
There was a part of me that wasn’t the least bit surprised. As amazing as yesterday had been, he’d pulled back again.
I got up, noticing the note on my nightstand. There was no reason given, no explanation of why he’d left, just a message to text him when I was up. Restraining myself from touching my phone, especially to text him, I started getting ready for the day.
As I brushed my teeth, deciding not to speculate and ruminate over every detail, I focused instead on today. I promised myself with any two-hour block of time that I had free, I would work on the book. And so, unstressed, I headed downstairs, made some coffee, and sat at the kitchen counter where I typically wrote. It was a struggle at first to concentrate, thinking of Cole and last night, but I managed to get over 2,000 words.
