Paul's eyes grow wide for a second before the blue turns glassy and a tear spills over. He closes his eyes in what looks like relief and breathes heavily. "Thank you..." Paul sighs in relief. "Thank you, Sophie."
"If..." he laughs and shakes his head, his face twisting like he'sin pain. "I'm going to hate myself for asking this, but I'll hate myself more if I don't... Sophie, if there's even a part of you that thinks we could—"
"No."
My answer is instant and firm.
"Paul, when you cheated on me, you shattered all the trust that I had and will ever have in you. And now that I have Callum?" I shake my head and watch as his eyes dim. "He's everything to me. I love him, more than I've everloved anyone."
His face twists into an expression that looks like he's in pain, but there's also something else there. Acceptance, maybe. Like maybe he's letting go of something too...
"Even if I didn't have Callum," I continue, "I would never be able to trust you again. I'd question you every time you were out of my sight. We'd both end up resenting each other. It would be a prison we built ourselves. We're just... incompatible now."
Paul sniffles behind his mask and reaches up to pinch the bridge of his nose, breathing deeply to keep himself from falling apart. Paul only cried a handful of times when we were together, and this was the routine he usually went through. Trying so hard to push back his sadness, his tears, instead of actually feeling them.
I sit back and glance over to the door that Callum is behind. Even in another room, I still feel his presence as if he were right next to me, filling me with strength, with love.
Paul takes one last deep breath, then looks up at me. "I figured," he says with a small, self-deprecating chuckle. "I just had to know."
I nod, not saying anything else.
"I'm leaving," he says suddenly, and my eyebrows lift. "I got a job offer in Connecticut. I need a fresh start. I... I need to see who I am outside of this town."
"That's good," I nod, my tone a little more gentle because Imean it. "I'm happy for you."
He laughs softly and shakes his head. "It's a little funny, isn't it? I brought you here—this place that used to be my home. Now it's yours, and I'm the one leaving."
"This became my home," I shrug, smiling as I look around the store that became my safe haven. "I'm exactly where I'm meant to be."
Paul nods before standing, and I stand with him, quite relieved that this conversation is over. For a second, he looks like he wants to hug me, then seems to think better of it. His arms hang uselessly at his sides.
"I wish you nothing but the best, Sophie," his voice breaks a little on my name, and while I don't feel myself softening toward him, I give him a small smile.
"I wish the same for you," I reply softly. "Goodbye, Paul. Good luck."
"Goodbye, Sophie," he says, his eyes lingering on me for a long moment before he turns and walks toward the front door. The repaired bell announces his departure—out of the store, out of my life.
Heavy-booted footsteps behind me smile as arms wrap around me, pulling me back into a solid chest. His voice is a low rumble in my ear, "Okay, baby?"
"Yeah," I smile and turn my head to kiss his cheek. "I'm okay."
Chapter Forty
Sophie
December
"Do you like it?"
"Are you kidding? Iloveit, baby," Callum breathes, lifting up his Christmas present to look at it closely.
It's Christmas morning.
Maeve is tinkering around in the kitchen as Callum and I exchange our gifts, and I exhale a relieved breath as I watch him hold the present I designed. His eyes are wide, almost childlike, as he studies the book nook. Since I've had to stay home recovering, I've had lots of free time on my hands, and this gift definitely needed time.
Time, focus, and patience... everything Callum already gives me so freely.
I wanted to get Callum something really special and different for Christmas, not just the usual men's gifts—a new watch, cologne, or some new electronic device. Callum is extremely practical in all aspects of his life.
