Only You (22 page)

Cole shrugged. “Maybe it’s time for me to move on. The business has grown beyond what I can handle on my own. I need to hire a staff. I’ve got several jobs going in Georgia, and I’ve bid some more. Maybe I’ll move down there and open up offices in Atlanta.”

Dixie set back in the booth and pinned him with a look. “Oh, now there’s a plan. Run away from this mess you’ve created instead of stayin’ here and dealing with it like an adult.”

“Why do I get the feeling that the subject just shifted to Josie?”

“As far as I’m concerned, that’s the only subject that needs discussing. Folks up here can think what they want of you. People, like me and Blake, who care about you, will forgive you and the rest can—well, the rest just don’t matter. Now, Josie, I would think that she matters.”

“She doesn’t want to see me.”

“Well of course she doesn’t.”

Cole looked at Dixie surprised. “Have you talked to her? Did she say somethin’ to you?”

“She doesn’t need to say a word for anybody who’s lookin’ to see that she’s heartbroken, same as you.”

Hearing what he already knew put into words made him feel even more miserable. “Everything I did was for her.”

“No. Everything you did was for you. Men . . .” Dixie sighed. “I don’t guess we can blame you for being male. When will you ever learn?”

“Speak English, Dixie. I’m lost.”

“Is it not the twenty-first century? Do we, the capable, competent women of today, have anything about us that indicates we need a man to rescue us? No!” she said answering her own question. “Take Josie. She may be small, but that is just about the most capable woman I have ever seen. She’s brilliant, always has been. You know that. She has a Ph.D., for heaven sake, in library science. They don’t just hand those papers out to anybody who asks for one. She worked hard for what she has and earned it because she knows her stuff.

“Sure, Mrs. McKay thought Josie would come back here and be her little puppet on a string, but I had no doubt that when the time was right, Josie Lee Allen would put that woman in her place. The problem was that you didn’t have that same confidence in her. It was her business. Her battle. And you tried to take that away from her.”

Cole’s chin dropped to his chest. “I didn’t mean to.”

She squeezed his hand. “I know that. My guess is that Josie knows it, too.” She paused while he digested that bit of information before continuing. “She was angry, and rightfully so. She’s a sensible woman. Now that she’s had time to cool her jets, I’m sure she sees things differently. You should talk to her, not run off to Atlanta.”

“I don’t know.”

Dixie stood and smoothed her apron. “It’s a risk. But if you love her, I’d think it’s a risk worth takin’. Now clear out this booth. I got payin’ customers waitin’ to be seated.”

As she walked away, Cole reached into his pocket and pulled out some bills to leave on the table. When he passed Dixie, she was taking an order. He stopped and leaned down to kiss her cheek. “Thanks,” he said.

Dixie seemed speechless. That had to be a first.

When Cole walked out of the diner, he wondered if what Dixie had said could be true. He looked down the street toward the library. Should he do what she had suggested and just go talk to Josie?

No. He should do this right. He wouldn’t just walk into her office with his hat in his hand. He’d really show her how he felt. It was like Dixie had said. It was a risk, but he loved her. The alternative of not having her in his life didn’t bear consideration.

Tomorrow was the town Memorial Day Celebration. If he was going to woo the town librarian back into his life, he’d better get to work.

*

Josie’s heart just wasn’t in it. She had seen Cole nearly every day around town for the past week, but he’d kept his distance. That was what she had wanted, after all. She took perverse comfort in the fact that he looked as miserable as she felt.

Now the preparations were at an end. She sat on the front steps of her home, trying to summon the will to take herself into town for the day’s events. She didn’t know how she could possibly give the appearance of being in a festive mood when she felt so alone and unhappy.

“The course of true love never did run smooth,” Miss Estelee commented. Josie’s neighbor sat in her customary spot on her front porch, rocking, enjoying the spectacular view of the lake. “I think the Apostle Paul said that.”

Josie stood and slowly made her way over to stand in Miss Estelee’s front yard. “No, I believe that was Shakespeare, ma’am.”

“No, no. That was the Apostle Paul speaking to the Corinthians.”

Josie smiled. No use in arguing. “Were you ever in love, Miss Estelee?” She assumed that the woman knew about what had happened between Cole and her. Everyone seemed to.

“Oh, yes.” She rocked in an easy slow rhythm. “He was blond and tall like your young man. Very handsome.”

That’s right. Josie remembered Cole telling her on their first date about Miss Estelee having been in love. The picnic by the angel monument . . . the memory of it caused the ache in her heart to intensify. She swallowed hard. “But you didn’t marry?”

“No.”

A profound sadness seemed to etch the woman’s words as well as every line in her time-weary face. She stopped rocking. Became quiet and very still.

“What happened?”

“We were from different worlds. I thought I could live the rest of my days without him. Then I went and did some silly thing to try and make him jealous, thinking he’d . . .” The old lady’s words trailed into silence, then she shook off her faraway thoughts. She resumed her rocking motion, this time faster, like she was troubled by her unhappy memories. “It didn’t make no difference, ’cept for I found myself in a world of misery.

“I lost everything. Let me tell you somethin’, Missy,” she stood and faced Josie. “When you’re old and alone, like me, with no children of your own to love and no one to take care of you . . . It’s a terrible thing havin’ to depend on the charity of others when you got no one else.

“What’s worse is the knowin’. The knowin’ that I could’ve had so much more than what I wound up with, and the knowin’ that I got nobody to blame for it but myself.”

With tears shining in her clear blue eyes, Miss Estelee slowly made her way into her house. Josie’s chest tightened. She squeezed her arms and turned away. In that moment, everything focused into harsh clarity. Her pride stood between her and Cole. She’d been angry and hurt in the beginning, but now she just felt empty.

She felt her feet drag as she forced herself to walk into town when all she could think of was curling up on the bed in a darkened room and having a good cry.

Instead, she would smile and go through the motions for the groundbreaking while standing next to Cole. She was afraid that pulling that off would require better acting skills than she possessed.

*

The Memorial Day celebration was a success. As usual, the entire town turned out. She even saw Miss Estelee sitting on the park bench near the angel monument with Doc Prescott fetching her lemonade from the tables Dixie had set up in the middle of town.

Everyone seemed pleased with the plans Cole and Mrs. McKay presented for the new addition to the library. Pleased that someone they admired had done so well for himself, regardless of which side of the ridge he called home. Well, almost everyone. Some folks up here would never accept Cole, no matter how much success he achieved. He didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he looked almost . . . hopeful?

Josie didn’t have time to puzzle about it. Shovels spray-painted gold and decorated with red, white, and blue ribbons were given to her, Cole, Mrs. McKay, and Mayor Houston for the ceremonial moving of the first clumps of dirt. Josie smiled and posed for pictures taken by Joe Easterday, photographer for
The Angel Ridge Herald
. Now, with the parade down Main over and the picnicking complete, a magnificent sunset would be the precursor to fireworks over the lake.

Couples walked hand in hand down to the shore with lawn chairs and kids in tow. Angel Ridge always put on a spectacular fireworks display, followed by music and dancing at the gazebo in the Town Square. This was a time for couples. A time for families. Time for Josie to go home and have that cry.

She turned to begin the long walk down Main to Ridge Road only to find Cole standing in the middle of the sidewalk, blocking her way. He had that familiar red plaid blanket draped over his arm, and the thumb of his free hand hooked into the back pocket of his black jeans.

Even after all that had happened between them, seeing him still took her breath away. Although she hated the shorter styled haircut he’d adopted in his quest for respectability, she had to admit that he looked incredibly handsome. He was wearing that loose-fitting white shirt she remembered from that night he took her up to the tall pines.

He approached her slowly. Josie couldn’t have moved a muscle if she’d wanted to. Her traitorous heart kicked into overdrive as he neared.

“I was hopin’ I could talk you into joining me for the fireworks.”

Josie’s racing heart jumped and lodged somewhere in the region of her throat. In her years of growing up in Angel Ridge, she’d always watched the fireworks with her parents. All the while, she’d dreamed of sitting by the lake with a handsome man, his arms linked around her as they watched the fireworks display that would herald the beginning of summer.

Strolling down the hillside leading to the lake with Cole at her side would more than fulfill every childhood fantasy she’d ever had. She sighed. How she longed to spend this and every evening with Cole. But, so much stood between them.

He took another step forward and softly said, “Can we call a truce, Josie? Just for a few hours?”

She looked up into the soft blue eyes of the only man that she’d ever loved and with tears stinging her eyes said, “Yes.”

Cole smiled and took her hand. He led her to a spot away from the crowd. He spread the blanket, and then with a hand at her elbow, helped her sit.

“Thank you,” she said.

He joined her on the blanket. “Thank you.”

He sat so close she could feel his heat, smell the familiar scent of his cologne. Despite the warmth of the late May evening, she shivered.

“Are you cold?”

“No, I . . . No.”

Cole trailed a hand up and down her arm in a slow, sweeping movement that did wild things to her tortured, fractured heart.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he whispered.

Days of being without him, without feeling his touch, made her weak. She swayed toward him. “I’ve missed you, too,” she admitted.

He cupped her cheek in his hand. Josie closed her eyes and just let herself feel again.

“Honey, I never meant to hurt you. As Dixie would say, I went all male. I just saw a situation and thought I could fix it. I was an idiot, and I hope you can forgive me.”

She knew he was talking about the donation to the library, but she needed to go deeper than that. “Why did you do it, Cole? Pretend to be a simple handyman when clearly, you’re so much more?” The clues had been there all along, but Josie had been so overwhelmed by her feelings for Cole, she’d ignored them.

He shrugged and looked away. “These people up here, they’ve sort of carved out a place for me, and the fact is that no matter what I do, how much money I make, or how many degrees I earn, I’ll still be a Craig from the wrong side of the ridge.”

“Why couldn’t you tell me?”

“I was going to.”

Realization hit her. “The picnic at the Fort.”

“Yeah. That day sort of got away from me.”

“You should have told me from the beginning.”

“I know that now.”

“Did you think I wouldn’t understand?”

“I guess, at base, I wanted to know it was me you cared for, not who or what I am.”

“The only thing that ever mattered to me was who you were in here.” She pressed her hand against his heart. Its strong, steady beat against her palm brought some life back into hers.

He covered her hand with his and said, “It mattered at first. Even at the end, you were hiding behind a big hat and sunglasses when we were out together.”

Josie pulled her hand away, unable to face the hurt in his eyes. “I’m not proud of that, but it wasn’t you. I just hadn’t figured out how to deal with Mrs. McKay. She knew I was seeing you and didn’t approve.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Josie shrugged. “I guess I was embarrassed. I hated to admit that I had allowed myself to become so indebted to a person that I unwittingly put them in a position to dictate my social life. If I’m so intelligent, I should have been able to keep myself out of that kind of situation.”

“You’re too hard on yourself.”

“You deserved better.”

He took her hand and stared at it. “I know what I did was wrong, but I just wanted to be someone you
could
be proud of.”

“You were . . . you are.” There. She’d said it. She squeezed his hand and dipped her head so that she could look into his eyes as she said the words in her heart. “I’m proud of what you’ve made of yourself, but I would have been just as proud if you were the town handyman.”

Cole gave her a quick, gentle kiss as the first of the fireworks lit up the night sky to the delight and applause of all assembled. Josie could hear the band tuning up in Town Square as they prepared for the dancing that would follow.

The night seemed full of magic with Cole here. In their time together, he’d opened up possibilities she’d never dared dream of for herself. But sitting here with him, the possibility of her spending the rest of her life making a family with a man that she loved seemed within her grasp.

“Come here,” Cole said. He pulled her around to sit in front of him so that she leaned back against the solidity of his chest and rested her head against his shoulder. He pressed a kiss to her temple.

“Can you forgive me?”

“Only if you can forgive me for making you wonder if I could care about you.”

“I’ll forgive you, if you do care about me.”

She turned in his arms and touched his face with her fingertips. “I care about you, Cole Craig.”