“Good. I’m happy you decided to come back to town,” Maggie says with a smile, handing me my drinks and muffin.
“Me too. I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”
“I look forward to it.”
I know I made mistakes. The ones I made as an angry twenty-one-year-old might be forgivable, but the ones I kept making as an adult? Not so much. I thought I was doing the right thing by distancing myself from Hannah. Now I can see how stupid I was. I just hope that she will give me a chance to explain.
Chapter Nineteen
He kept the necklace. Why would he do that?
I’m already running behind and this new information is screwing with my head. It is bad enough that my morning routine has been disrupted by his presence, and I absolutely refuse to alter my schedule just because he moved back.
Add in the fact that he looks super-hot wearing tight distressed jeans and bright white Chucks. His T-shirt looked like it had been painted on show casing all his muscles. Logan was always clean shaven and now he is purposely wearing a scruff of whiskers.Damn. I knew he was there because I saw his dog, but it’s still a shock to my system seeing him.
I remember sitting at the kitchen table and picking the perfect beads from hundreds to make our matching necklaces, while he sketched across from me. I told him it was magic and that every time I touched it, he would know that I am thinking about him. I was already beginning to develop a secret crush on him. It seems ridiculous now, but at the time, I believed in magic until so much time had passed, I knew he wasn’t coming back to me. I gave up any remaining hope, removed my necklace, and stashed it away in the back of my bedside table. When I packedup my room to move to the cabin, I put it in a box with some more of our memories that I saved.
I’m not sure how I feel about him keeping it all of this time. A part of me is angry. Has he always worn it or did he just put it back on to fuck with me? The Logan I used to know wouldn’t be that manipulative, but I also didn’t think he would break up with me over the phone so it’s hard to trust my judgement. Just one more thing for me to obsess over I guess.
When I arrive at work, I double check and, make sure everything is ready for opening. It’s not like people will be beating down my door at nine, but I like to be prepared. The gallery was always my mom’s passion project, and I couldn’t imagine it closing. Now it has become a reflection of myself.
Small galleries like A Touch of Grace don’t generate an insane amount of walk in traffic, but the summers are much busier. Tourist and summer residents drop in looking for unique pieces.
In the off season I have more time to create in my small studio upstairs. I love it there. If I didn’t have the cabin, I would have claimed that space as my home. Pursuing art and running this art gallery was never my dream, but I’m happy with this version of my life.
As I organize the front desk, I see the note I made to remind myself to call Mom last night. Well, that didn’t happen. I could wait until Sam, my favourite and only full-time employee, arrives at 10 to call her, but I’ll forget again if I don’t do it now.
Sam moved here to attend school and never left. He actually rented a room in the yellow house at one point. I met him at Bob’s one Friday night and we became fast friends. No, not that type of friend. He was much more interested in Carson who was tending bar at the time. When I was looking for help at the gallery and he was looking for work, I knew it was kismet.
I make quick work of finding my phone and give my mom a call.
“Good morning, Hannah. How are you, sweetie?”
“Hey Mom. I’m good. Sorry I didn’t call you last night. Something came up.”
“Would that something be Logan moving home?”
“How did you know Logan moved home?”
“Beck told Maggie. Maggie told Francis. Francis told me.
“I swear it’s like an endless game of telephone in this town,” I grumble.
Mom laughs. “Have you talked to him yet?” she asks.
“Not really. I found out he was home when I saw him at Inkfluence yesterday, when I stopped to see Beck. She didn’t know who he was. I just ran into him again at Maggie’s when I was getting breakfast.”
“How is he doing? I haven’t spoken to Beth recently.”
“I didn’t ask him. And that’s news to me. I didn’t know you spoke to Beth at all after she moved away.”
Beth and Jackson moved out of town a few months after Dad died. Her ex-husband, Jason, got a new job in another town, and they decided it would be in Jackson’s best interest for her to move to the same area as well to provide him more stability. She was going to have to look for work anyways so why not somewhere new?
“Oh yes, we kept in touch after they moved. We speak less now that she has remarried.”
“I didn’t know she got remarried either. Why didn’t you tell me you kept in touch with Beth?”
“I don’t know. You never wanted to talk about Logan, or his family, after you broke up. Any time I brought him up, you quickly shut down the conversation. You were hurting so badly and as time passed, I decided to leave it alone.”
