Return to Me (Blue Harbor Book 5) by Olivia Miles (most popular ebook readers .TXT) 📕

was sure to add, lest he dared to hope that she had been nothing short of miserable and regretful about her decision to move there, “but I’m older now, and I have the experience I need, and I was never going to be able to break out on my own there, not really.”

“You so sure about that?”

She didn’t look sure, and her sigh was heavy before she spoke. “It was a tough business. Long hours and not a lot of upward mobility. My boss and I had a lot of creative differences. Maybe…”

She stopped to take a bite of her pizza as if she wasn’t sure she wanted to continue. “Maybe I didn’t have what it took.”

She shrugged, managed a tight smile, but he could see the hurt in her eyes.

“Impossible,” he said, giving her his best grin until he pulled a smile out of her. “I saw your dresses in the shop. That’s true talent right there. Don’t let one person’s opinion make you doubt yourself.”

“Sometimes one person’s opinion matters the most,” she said quietly. She looked away, clearing her throat. “Thank you for saying that. It means a lot.”

They sat in silence for a moment, looking out onto the rain hitting the grass below, and he thought of what to say next, but came up blank. After she’d first left, there had been a hundred things he wanted to say to her, and some that he’d wished he had. Don’t go, being at the top of the list. Or, wait for me. Eventually, it shifted to, Come back to me. But there was anger in there, too, mixed with understanding. He’d made a choice. She’d responded to it. And he’d had to live with the outcome.

Now, all that seemed like a very long time ago, and with her back in town, most of it felt pointless.

“Everyone gets stuck with a bad boss at some point.” He started to laugh when he remembered one of her complaints from years back. “Remember how Patsy had said you weren’t pushy enough? How she wanted you to up-sell the customers? Tell them they needed accessories?”

Brooke covered her mouth, laughing. “Oh, I forgot about that! She used to have me push the most expensive items, too. If the red blouse had the biggest price tag, then everyone who came in the shop that day had to be told that red was their color.” She shook her head. “I’m surprised you remembered that.”

His laughter faded. “That’s the funny part about sharing a life with someone. Your memories are shared too.”

She nodded, and then set her pizza down, her smile waning. “Patsy was hardly the ideal boss, but I did learn a lot about retail from her, and when Gabby told me she was closing her store…it felt like a sign.”

He frowned at her. “A sign? I thought you didn’t believe in those things.”

The girl he knew would scoff if he suggested they get their palms read at the county fair or roll her eyes when her sister read the horoscope pages. Brooke was exactly what she said she was: a planner. She made choices; she didn’t let life happen. She took it by the reins, and heck if he didn’t admire her for it, even if it had eventually led her away from him.

“Well, I don’t believe in fate and superstition and all. I believe in hard work. But I also believe in opportunity. I guess I saw this as an opportunity. It made my decision very easy. I hadn’t been actively thinking of returning until I heard about the space, and then…Well, it was like the idea was planted, and the decision was made.”

“If I’d known it was that easy to get you back here, I would have driven Patsy out of business years ago,” Kyle only half joked.

Brooke sipped her wine. There was tension in her eyes. “Or you could have just driven to New York.”

Now it was his turn to feel tense. “You know I couldn’t do that,” he said quietly.

“Couldn’t or wouldn’t?” She shook her head. “Forget it. There’s no sense in rehashing it. What’s done is done.”

Kyle felt his pulse quicken. “Well, it’s not over yet. You’re still my wife.”

She sighed heavily. “Only because we haven’t filed the paperwork yet, Kyle.”

“And why haven’t we?” He knew why he hadn’t, and with each day and then month and then year that went by, he’d dared to think she felt the same. That somehow, someday, they’d find a way back to each other.

That hope had made the long days shorter. Made the nights a little less lonely.

She blinked at him. “Because there was no reason to before.”

He nodded. He supposed it was true. Neither of them had moved on romantically, work had remained a top priority for both of them. And now, Brooke needed to qualify for a loan.

They both did, he thought, recalling his recent conversations with his brother about the state of the pub.

“About Harrison’s—” he started, but she held up a hand.

“Kyle, we both did what we needed to do. I was angry and hurt, but I also know that you didn’t do anything to actively upset me. I know how much you cared about your dad,” she added gently.

He swallowed hard, knowing that was only the half-truth. “But I cared about you too, Brooke.”

And he still did.

He stared at her, at the face he knew so well, even if there was so much about her that was new and foreign to him. Underneath it all, she was the same person that he’d fallen in love with and never stopped.

She looked at him, blinking slowly, and the only sound that he could hear was the rain falling slowly and steadily. He felt a pull, drawing him closer to her, wanting to kiss her, to