Page 33 of When You Were Mine

“I told you. She’s not a wedding planner.” Chris offered an apologetic look to Jess.

“That’s okay.” Jess didn’t take offense. She didn’t expect anyone outside the field to understand her job.

“What does a resort designer do, exactly?” Trevor asked.

“I’m involved in every aspect of creation. I plan the layout and work with architects and landscape designers. I handle menus and uniforms… Even the music you hear while wandering around the grounds.” She spoke directly to Darby. “The pastry chef will be important, but I won’t be handling that on this visit.”

Darby nodded to indicate she understood. “Your job sounds like an interesting mix of creative and technical.”

“Yes, exactly. That about sums it up.” She smiled at the woman but only to keep from staring at Trevor’s arms. It was impossible not to notice the way he’d rolled the cuffs of his flannel shirt to his elbows, exposing tanned skin, ink, and sexy muscles.

Her stomach lurched. Because those weren’t the arms she remembered.

These were even better.

And given how much she desperately wanted to explore those tattoos, she forced herself to look away.

“So, basically, you give a resort its vibe?” Darby asked.

“She gives it its soul.” Chris beamed at her. “And I’m damn lucky she took me on. Did you know she just opened one of her own?”

Jess jerked as if someone had pinched her. She wasn’t ready for Trevor to know she lived in Calamity too. Which was stupid considering the town had ten thousand permanent residents, and she was very involved in the business community.

“Really?” Darby asked. “Where?”

Fortunately, her phone buzzed, and she checked the screen. “Ah. Our nine o’clock is here. Let me go get him.” She raced away as if the room had gone up in flames. “Be right back.”

She knew she was being ridiculous. Of course she was. But she couldn’t get a hold of herself.

All those years spent thinking about him, the countless internet searches.

I mean, come on. I held off buying property in Calamity because of him.

And now that they were finally in the same room, seeing him blissfully happy with another woman and getting married, it made all the time and emotional energy spent on him seem…

Embarrassing.

Because he hadn’t thought about her at all. Not once. Not even a little.

You knew that.He had a babytwo yearsafter he said his vows to you in a Vegas chapel.

How many reminders do you need before it sinks in that he doesn’t care?

Well, she couldn’t let the landscaper see her like this, so she ducked around a corner and leaned against the wall. Closing her eyes, she willed herself to let Trevor go. More than anything, she wanted to free herself from his grip on her.

“I don’t know how,” she whispered. Tears scalded, and she blinked them back.

Despair threatened to pull her under.

Why did it still hurt? Why couldn’t she fully move on?

Come on.Use this as the kick in the pants you need to finally let him go.

It had worked twenty-six years ago when she’d seen him with his son.

Let seeing him with his future bride be a permanent fix.

And maybe, instead of blaming Joel for excluding her from his Christmas plans, she should take a hard look at how she guarded her heart from him.

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