Page 4 of Here With Me

Instead, she’d had to reset the count—four days had passed since she’d seen David Williams. Hopefully, that number would continue to go up. Sadie Hoover pulled the ham and provolone from the fridge and set them on the counter of her kitchen in her new-to-her apartment.

The alarm on her phone sounded, halting her movements. Great. Where had she left her phone? The vintage kitchen was barely big enough for two people, so how could she lose her phone?

She paused and followed the muffled notes of the alarm to one of the half dozen cupboards. She opened it. Of course, next to the bread. She grabbed both. This was David’s fault. It was the wrong season for a visit from the spirit of Boyfriend Past. “Lottie! That’s the fifteen-minute alarm.”

“I heard it, Mom.” Lottie’s voice carried a thick layer of nine-year-old sass.

The front door burst open, and Romee, Sadie’s youngest sister by four years, burst into the apartment. Romee’s long brown hair tumbled around her face in wild curls, her glasses slipping to the end of her nose. She closed the door with a flourish and pushed her glasses up with one fluid movement.

“Look at this place. It’s really coming together.” Romee toed off her black flats by the door.

“Really?” Sadie scanned the area. It was definitely cleaner than a few days ago when everyone had helped her move in the furniture, but all she could see were boxes. On the vintage oak coffee table she’d found thrifting last month. On the dining room table that had once been Jeremy’s grandmother’s. She even piled them at the end of her queen-sized bed. At least she’d gotten Lottie’s room ready. First day jitters at a new school were enough without being lost in a sea of boxes.

“So, Dad said David is back.” Romee squeezed by Sadie in the kitchen and selected a mug.

Leave it to a sister to make herself at home, even before Sadie had. Turning back to the sandwiches, Sadie layered ham and cheese on two slices of bread. “He was in the store, not back. I think he still lives in Costa Rica, which means it was a one-time thing. By the look on his face when he saw me, he’ll make sure of that. I just wish he’d gotten fat. Or gone bald.”

“What you’re saying is that he’s still hot.”Romee eyed her over the rim of Sadie’s favorite Cedar Point mug.

Hot didn’t really cover it. David always had been good looking with his coffee-colored eyes and auburn hair. Clean shaven, incredible bone structure, and full, kissable lips. And boy, had he known how to use them. So okay—yes, he was still hot. “He’s older. Broader. And not in my life.”

Romee wiggled her eyebrows. “But he could be.”Her sister gave a questioning look at the sandwich. “When did Lottie start eating like a linebacker?”

Sadie blinked at the sandwich then started pulling off the layers. If David had her this discombobulated after one encounter, she prayed he’d be leaving the country soon, very soon. Maybe she’d offer to buy his ticket.

Sadie packed up the now normal-sized sandwich and put it in Lottie’s new tie-dyed lunch box. Romee picked it up, zipped it closed, and put it in Lottie’s matching backpack by the front door.

“No more talk of David.” Sadie shook her head. Her chest ached, and her heart squeezed. Hadn’t she gotten over the pain of his departure years ago? “He chose to leave me behind. He didn’t want me then, and he definitely doesn’t want me now. Besides, I have Lottie.”

Swallowing another big gulp, Romee looked over the top of the cup. “Jeremy would want you to move on. And he liked David. Well, except for the whole dumping you and taking off thing, but it’s been ten years. Maybe?—”

“No. I have a new life.” Sadie turned from Romee and walked out of the kitchen into the main room, past the dining room table. She squeezed between the sectional sofa and a row of boxes to the small hallway that led to two bedrooms. “Almost ready, Lottie?”

Lottie’s heavy footsteps came running out of her room, her purple hairbrush in her hand. She now had a huge bump on top of her head that hadn’t been there when Sadie braided her hair after breakfast. Her freckled nose wrinkled as she waved the brush around. “Mom, I hate my hair. Fix it.”

Sadie took the offered brush. “Fix it,please.”

Lottie acquiesced to the proper request, and Sadie quickly brushed out the braid and re-did her daughter’s thick red hair. She might hate her hair now, but give it a few more years, and the girl would love it. Thick, wavy. The color would cost women hundreds in a salon. She had her father’s hair and her mother’s beauty. “Five minutes, kiddo. Have you made your bed and brushed your teeth?”

“Going now. Hi, Aunt Romee!” Lottie gave a quick wave and rushed back to her room, straightening her lilac T-shirt as she left.

“Mom. It’s still surreal to hear her call you that.” Romee leaned against the wall outside the kitchen and sipped her coffee.

“We still talk about Bonnie and Jeremy often. But when she asked if she could call meMom…” Sadie’s throat tightened.

Romee pushed her glasses up. “When is the adoption finalized?”

“October twenty-second. And it should be pretty easy. I do wish Jeremy could be here to see it, even if his sister, Doris, is unhappy with me for moving away from Grand Rapids.”

“Let Doris be unhappy. Jeremy was clear in his will that he wanted you to take custody of Lottie, not his sister. Lottie is going to love it here. We both know Heritage was an amazing place to grow up. Even if it moved you farther from me.”

“We’re going to miss your daily drop-ins, but you could always move home.”

“Because Heritage is full of promising violinists looking for an instructor. Grand Rapids is my home now. My music school is there. Besides, you are going to keep plenty busy with the store.” Romee picked up the store key on the counter and placed the ring around her finger, spinning it.

“It’s a little crazy to think I’m taking over.” Sadie had always pictured taking over the store as a child. When David had started talking marriage, she pictured taking it over with him. Then he’d left, and she’d let the dream die because she couldn’t fathom taking over the store without him. “Do you think it’s a mistake? I mean, I thought I had two years to get ready for this.”

“Dad needs you now, and you need a job. It makes sense for everyone.”

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