“Fucking go to him.”
“What if he doesn’t want me anymore? What if I waited too long?”
Riley rolls her eyes. “Doubtful, by the number of chicken updates he sends you. If that doesn’t tell you he’s still interested, then I don’t know what to tell you. But at least you’ll know either way,” she tells me.
She’s right. I stare at my phone. At Jax’s number. At the last text he sent.
JAX: I miss you.
I miss him and that’s what I should have said, but instead, I let his message sit there, frozen by fear. I’m such a bitch and he deserves better.
December 21st.
I’m walking past the bookstore again, with its window full of Christmas romance novels. All with snowy covers and cozy cabins and couples falling in love. I step inside, and like a moth to a flame, I follow the sign that says.
The Holiday Romance Collection
Find your own Snowbound Heart.
I stop walking and stand there staring at the display. At the couples on the covers, looking at each other like they’re the only people in the world. At the snow and the cabins and the promise of happily ever after. And something inside me breaks open. Is that what Jax and I looked like together? Because standing here, staring at these books filled with promise, magic, and love, it finally hits me.
That was me.
I pull out my phone and type into the group chat.
SLOANE: I fucking love Christmas.
MAGGIE: Are you drunk?
SLOANE: No, but I’ve seen the light.
RILEY: Are you high?
SLOANE: No. I’m at a romance bookstore and I decided that I want that.
RILEY: A book?
SLOANE: It all.
MAGGIE: You’re talking in riddles.
SLOANE: I want Jax. I want the business. I want it all.
RILEY: Finally.
MAGGIE: Good. Because they accepted our offer today.
SLOANE: Wait, what?
MAGGIE: The business is ours.
Tears well in my eyes. I don’t believe this.
RILEY: We need to celebrate.
MAGGIE: Meet you at the bar in twenty.
Maggie drops the location in the chat.
