She turned back to find Eveline watching her, something unreadable in her expression.
“Everything alright?” Eveline asked.
“Yes, just… family stuff,” Emery lied, hating herself for it. “I should probably go.”
Eveline nodded, the warmth of moments ago replaced by polite distance. “Of course. It's late.”
They finished cleaning up in uncomfortable silence, the magic of earlier evaporated. As Emery gathered her things to leave, she felt the weight of regret. The moment had been perfect, and she'd ruined it with her lies.
“Goodnight, Emery,” Eveline said as she locked the shop door behind her.
“Goodnight,” Emery whispered.
She walked away. She made it halfway down the block before stopping in a quiet side street, overwhelmed.
She had to decide what she wanted. She grinned. She already knew. She was in love with Eveline. Completely, hopelessly in love. And she couldn't keep lying to her.
“I love Eveline,” she whispered to the empty street, testing the words in the cool night air. They felt right. She looked back at the darkened bookshop in the distance, the faint glow of light visible from the upstairs window. “I love Eveline.”
Chapter Nineteen
Emery woke with a start, her alarm blaring far too cheerfully for the early hour. She groaned and fumbled for her phone, knocking over a stack of books on her nightstand in the process. Some things never changed. But other things, important things, definitely had changed.
Last night kept replaying in her mind. Eveline defending romance novels with such unexpected passion, the way she'd touched Emery’s cheek, the charged moment before Domi's ill-timed call. Emery buried her face in her pillow, both thrilled and terrified.
“I love Eveline,” she whispered again, just to hear the words in daylight. They still felt right, which was perhaps the most terrifying part of all. Not that she had any plans of speaking them in front of anyone else. Not just yet, at least.
Her phone buzzed with a text from Jax:Did you tell her yet?
Emery groaned again. She'd stayed up half the night finishing her manuscript pages and sending them to Domi, but that hadn'tresolved her larger problem. She couldn't keep lying to Eveline, but she also couldn't bear the thought of losing her.
She typed back:Working on it. Going in early today.
Jax's response was immediate:Just rip off the band-aid already!
Emery dressed with unusual care, trying on three different outfits before settling on a blue button-up shirt and her least-worn pair of jeans.
By the time she arrived at The Turned Page, her stomach was tied in knots. She took a deep breath before using her key to let herself in, bracing for the inevitable awkwardness after last night's almost-moment.
What she wasn't prepared for was the sight that greeted her.
Eveline, normally so poised and proper, was humming. Actually humming as she moved purposefully around the shop, rearranging display tables and shifting books. Even more shocking was what she was rearranging. The romance section was being transferred from its usual banishment in the back corner to a prominent display near the front door.
“Good morning,” Emery said, unable to keep the surprise from her voice.
Eveline looked up, and a smile, bright, warm, and utterly real, spread across her face. “Emery! You're early.”
“So are you,” Emery said, putting down her bag. “And you're… redecorating?”
“Just making some adjustments,” Eveline said, returning to her task. “The romance section was too cramped. It deserves more space.”
Emery blinked, wondering if she'd somehow stepped into an alternate universe. “The romance section deserves more space,” she repeated slowly. “You, Eveline Auclair, scourge of happily-ever-afters, think romance novels deserve pride of place in your shop?”
Eveline's cheeks colored slightly as she carefully arranged a row of books, their colorful spines facing outward. “As I said before, I may have been…” she hesitated, “somewhat hasty in my judgment.”
“Somewhat hasty?” Emery couldn't help the teasing tone that crept into her voice. “Yesterday these were 'unrealistic fantasies.' Today they're front and center.”
Eveline straightened, brushing her hair out of her face. “I'm simply giving customers what they want,” she said, but her eyes, when they met Emery's, told a different story.
