“You can always turn them down, Firecracker, but they’re excited about this now. And you’ve done everything on your own long enough.”
I nodded. Then I gently pressed my lips to his.
He held me like he was drowning after that, my headtucked under his chin. I fell too, tumbling into a spiral of stars, already hearing the ocean in my ears.
“Goodbye, Firecracker,” he’d whispered in my ear.
He saw me inside, and then with the rumble of the car’s engine, he was gone.
I stepped back out on the porch when he left. Then I’d walked down the stairs and tipped my face up to the rain. “Goodbye, Mitchell Harrington,” I’d said, thinking of that hard rain the first night we’d gotten together. How that had been so indicative of what we’d had. Fast, hard, big, loud. All-consuming, then gone; a rainbow in its wake.
When I finally turned around to go inside, the curtains next door had dropped.
Mrs. Moody.
I smiled. She was finally giving me some space. Seemed to be a theme with me, lately.
On the plane, I reached up, surprised to find hot tears twinning down my cheeks. “I’m sorry,” I said.
Sarah was still on the call. She gave me a soft look. “Nothing to be sorry about. Loving someone you can’t have is its own special kind of hell.”
But just then Sarah jerked her face up. “Sorry Win—” she whispered, “Don’t hang up.” She muted me, listening to someone off-screen.
I reached into my bag, thumbing the smooth ivory envelope the flight attendant had handed me when I’d sat down. It was a quick flight to St. John’s, just under two hours in this type of jet, the pilot explained. I told myself I’d open the envelope before I landed, but I didn’t have the stomach for it. Not yet. In fact, my stomach had been queasy for days leading up to this trip. I suddenly wished I’d accepted Mitchell’s offer of a bodyguard, if only to drive me around in case I got sick. I didn’t need to be scared of an old man in a prison cell. He had no control over me. I knew that now.
Sarah came back on the line then. She looked pale.
“Sarah, is everything all right?”
She blinked. “Um, nothing. It’s fine. Just Jamie.”
“Now what?”
Her chin trembled, and I realized she was on the verge of tears.
“Sarah, what is it?” I asked, alarmed. “What did he say?”
But she blinked rapidly, looking up. “It’s fine,” she said. “Nothing I can’t handle. I’ll see you at the big meeting next week, okay?”
Heartbreaker Trades’ inaugural meeting was set for Wednesday.
“Sarah, are you sure?—”
“Winona, seriously, don’t worry about me. I’m one hundred percent.” She smiled widely as if to prove it. If I hadn’t just seen what I’d seen, I’d have bought it, too. But I couldn’t argue, because she disconnected the call.
I shot Cher a message through the airplane’s phone to check up on Sarah for me.But there was nothing more I could do from here.
It was only after I was disembarking into the cool, sharp wind at St. John’s International Airport that I registered what Sarah had said. That she might know something about loving someone she couldn’t have.
Sal’s assistant had booked not only all the transport and hotel for this trip, but a full itinerary, too, and somehow she’d gotten every spot I wanted to see.
Not somehow—Mitchell had obviously told her everything.
My hotel was an ornate Art Deco building right on the water, with violin music piping into the lobby. A place that sold goods that weren’t up to snuff for Mama and me in the windows downstairs.
I had the full penthouse suite.
Becauseof course I did.
