“Anyway, I’ll get out of your hair,” Ellery said. “I’ll see you atBonnie’s.”
“Perfect.” Rosie gave Ellery a quick hug.
“Not a fan of Lenny?” Shay asked when Ellery had gone.
Rosie grimaced. “Lenny is her own biggest fan. She doesn’t need me or anyone else for that.”
Shay chuckled. “So no.” She thumbed toward the stage. “Does Red need help, or can we go too? I need to talk to you about something, and I don’t want to do it here or at Bonnie’s.”
“Sure. Let me just check.”Shit. Rosie’s stomach dropped as she walked back to the stage. Shay had figured out that Rosie’s feelings had gotten out of hand, and she was going to pull away. All the niceties today were just indicators of Shay’s guilt that she was about to break Rosie’s heart. God, she hoped Shay was still willing to be friends. She didn’t want to think about not having Shay in her life at all, not now, not after everything they’d shared.
Maybe it was because of her family. Her dad’s accident might mean that he needed extra care, and of course Shay had stepped up to fill that gap. God forbid any of her brothers did their share of the caring. Their relationship had become too demanding for her, and she had to cut it loose.Fuck and damn it.
Rosie had a quick chat with Alyssa, who said she’d be at Bonnie’s as soon as she’d taken care of the flowers, which Rosie couldn’t wait to see the back of. She picked up the urn and headed back toward Shay, who was waiting at the exit. “Where do you want to go?” she asked, hoping Shay wouldn’t suggest somewhere Rosie really liked. Having her heart broken would be hard enough without having it associated with one of her favorite places.
“I thought we could walk along Navy Pier.”
That worked. It was just across the street and would be busy on a Saturday afternoon, which was all the motivation Rosie needed to keep her ugly crying until she got home. She would’ve preferred Shay to wait until after the evening gathering, but Rosie figured she might be leaving early to get back to her dad. Shehadsaid that the weekends would be her time to look after him, and Rosie hadn’texpected Shay to be here at all.
She clutched her mom’s urn to her chest. Although Shay’s car was only a short walk in the opposite direction, Rosie decided to keep it with her. She just wanted Shay to get this over with.
They took the short walk along East Grand to the pier in a strangely awkward silence, something they’d never had before, as they battled against the wind that her city was so famous for. Itwasan awkward silence Rosie was familiar with from other relationships. She’d come to think of it as the calm before the storm, but she hoped the tornado that was about to rip out her heart wouldn’t take their friendship with it.
“I’m not sure how I’m supposed to say this,” Shay said when they stopped at a relatively quiet spot on the pier.
Shay could barely make eye contact with her, and Rosie’s heart ached at the conflict in her expression. It somehow made her feel a little better that this clearly wasn’t easy. Perhaps it was because it showed that their time together had meant something to her, where countless other women had failed to make an impact. “It’s okay.” Rosie wanted to reach out and hold her close, but there was no way she could risk putting the urn on the uneven wooden planks of this part of the pier.
“It is?”
She nodded. “Of course.” If Shay was struggling to put it into words, Rosie would help. Even though her heart was about to shatter into a thousand pieces, she would never begrudge the time they’d had together or forget Shay’s support in Mexico. “We both knew what this was from the start, and you made it clear what you thought about long-term relationships. Even though it’s something I never had, I understand the need to put your family first.”
Shay frowned and shook her head slowly. “I don’t think you understand.”
Rosie tried for a smile and hoped she’d managed it. “I do. It’s gotten complicated, your family needs you, and you want out of this. Idounderstand.”
Shay continued to shake her head and laughed lightly. “Why would you think I want out of this,” she gestured between the two of them, “when I’ve fallen in love with you?”
The world began to spin like the Centennial Wheel they’d just walked past. The wind whipped through her hair and whistled in her ears. Her body felt light and distant, and control of it slipped away slowly, as if her soul was becoming untethered from it, the same soul that yearned to hear those words coming softly from Shay’s lips.
“Oh, shit!”
Wait, what?Notthosewords. And as Shay lunged toward her, Rosie became aware too late for the reason for Shay’s reaction.Somethingshattered into a thousand pieces, but it wasn’t her heart; it was the Mexican clay pot holding her mom’s ashes. And the Windy City claimed its contents, gathering them up in a gray twister and carrying them out over Lake Michigan.
As the grainy remains of her mom floated up and away with the blustery breeze, it was as if Rosie’s entire past was swept away on the currents of air. And in the unwritten future and infinite possibilities that awaited her, Shay stood front and center, offering Rosie her heart and the love she had stopped searching for, the love she thought she didn’t deserve. “You’ll be my Princess Charming?” she asked, hungry for confirmation of the words that had released her from the chains of her past.
“I will if you’ll let me.” Shay stepped closer and pulled Rosie into her arms. She gently tucked a wisp of Rosie’s hair behind her ear and kissed her. “If maybe you could fall in love with me too…”
Rosie laughed and took Shay’s face in her hands. She pressed her lips over Shay’s, finally able to really claim Shay’s kiss as her own, as just hers. Her soul reached out across the ether and deep in a place beyond physical representation, she felt Shay’s soul wrap around hers, making her feel safe and loved and truly held for the very first time in her life.
She pulled away just enough to say, “I’m already in love with you.”
CHAPTER 26
It hadn’t come out exactlyas Shay had planned it, and she definitely hadn’t anticipated that her declaration of love would result in Lake Michigan being the final resting place for Rosie’s mom. But now that it was out there, Shay felt damn near invincible, like nothing in the world could hurt her, and like she wouldn’t let anything in the world hurt Rosie.
But none of that took care of the smashed urn at their feet. Shay looked at Rosie and then nodded at the lake before she put the toe of her pump against the ceramic carnage and nudged it toward the edge of the pier. Rosie pressed her lips together and clamped her hand over her mouth in a futile attempt to stop a giggle.
“Really?”
