Page 32 of Choosing Happily Ever After

Hope nodded and the tiniest of smiles twitched at her lips and that’s when she knew.

Hope had already made her choice.

And it was the wrong one.

She didn’t mean to, but a noise that sounded disturbingly like the sound that their mother used to make when she was disappointed with something they’d done slipped out of her lips.

Instantly, Hope straightened her spine and shook her head. “I don’t expect you to understand, Faith. But…well, look, I don’t want to discuss it right now. I really should get back to the ranch. We have a wedding this weekend and—”

Faith put a hand on her sister’s arm as she stood to leave. “I’m sorry,” she said when her sister finally looked down to her. “I really am. I promise I won’t say a thing. Whatever you want. I’m only here to support you.”

Hope looked as if she might say something else, but after a moment she nodded and pulled her up into a hug. “Thank you,” Hope muttered against her shoulder. “I really don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about it.” Faith put a smile on her face that she knew didn’t reach her eyes. “Now, get out of here and get back to the ranch.” She forced a small laugh. “If I’m going to go and help you out for a while, I’ll have to take care of a few things.” She shook her head a little as the mental list of what she was going to have to do grew in her mind. “Noah is going to be pissed.”

“Noah?” Hope gave her a side eye. “You’ve never mentioned a Noah before.”

She shrugged as casually as she could before turning to go. “I guess I’m not the only one who can keep secrets.”

Faith

“What do you mean you’re leaving?”

Faith had known Noah wouldn’t respond well to the news that she was going to take a leave of absence. Of course, if she was honest with herself, she hadn’t expected him to be quite as worked up as he was.

She’d waited until after the workday was over, and she’d had a chance to discuss it with the HR department. Fortunately, her company had a very generous policy regarding family issues and combined with all of her unused holiday time, she should be able to take as much time off as she needed to be with Hope.

Which was the most important thing. The fact that ever since she’d told Noah when he’d arrived at her condo less than twenty minutes ago, he’d been following her around and peppering her with questions, wasn’t going to distract her from what was important.

“I told you, Noah.” Faith opened her closet and dug through her business suits to find something that would be appropriate for wedding planning. “I need to be there for Hope right now.”What did one wear to plan a wedding?She laughed at herself, as if what to wear was the biggest problem she was going to have when it came to planning a wedding.

“What’s so funny?” Noah leaned up against the closet door and crossed his arms over his chest. “Is this funny to you somehow? That you’re leaving me with no warning at all? What about the accounts you’re working on? The clients? Is everyone supposed to pick up the slack just because you decide to run off to the mountains?”

Faith spun around, a selection of blouses and dress pants in her hands. “That’s what this is about? Work? You’re more worried about the stupid firm than my sister’s life?” She pushed past him to the bed, where she tossed down the clothes.

“No!” He was right behind her. “That’s not it, Faith. That’s not what I’m saying.”

She shot him a look over her shoulder. “Really? Because that sounds exactly like what you’re saying.”

“Faith, I’m trying to understand how you can just put everything on hold and run back to the mountains, all in the span of a few hours.”

“I told you, my sister is sick. She needs me.”

“I don’t know if she needs you to put your entire life on hold.”

“She does.” There was no way he was going to understand it. Nor did Faith care about trying to get him to understand. She had too much to do. “Besides, it isn’t your choice.”

“I get that.”

Faith hesitated for a second. She knew she was being cold-hearted and distant. But she couldn’t help it. Not really. Hell, she certainly hadn’t expected when she woke up that morning that only a few hours later she’d be packing her bags and leaving her job and…well,him…to head back to Glacier Falls. But sometimes life didn’t work out the way you thought it would. Besides, she’d been meaning to break up with Noah for ages. If she’d been looking for a sign of some kind, she couldn’t really think of a better one. She swallowed hard and kept packing. If she turned around, if she let herself look at him orfeelanything…well, there was no reason to make things any harder than they needed to be.

“But it just doesn’t make sense,” Noah continued. “You always say that you’d never go back to your hometown, that you were made for city life. And working for your sister? Inweddings?” Faith couldn’t help but cringe when he said it out loud because she knew exactly why it didn’t make any sense to him. The same way it wouldn’t have made any sense to her. “You always tell me how ridiculous your sister’s business is. Hell, Faith. You make fun of it! You’ve told me yourself, you don’t believe in happily ever after. How the hell are you supposed tosellit?”

Everything Noah said was true. And if she wasn’t already so conflicted about it, she might agree with him. But she’d promised Hope, and she wasn’t about to go back on her word. Especially when her sister needed her.

She moved past Noah into her bathroom and gathered her toiletries together. “I’ll just have to figure out a way to get past all that.” Her words didn’t sound very convincing, even to her own ears. “I get that you don’t understand it, Noah, but I don’t need to explain it to you.” She turned to face him with a hairbrush in one hand and a bottle of lotion in the other. “I’m going back to Glacier Falls and I’m going to help my sister create happily ever afters for a handful of couples who have bought into the whole love thing and it’s going to be fine. More than fine.”

Maybe if she said it enough, she’d start to believe it herself. Because frankly, the whole idea of having to live on the ranch in a small town in the middle of nowhere and help happy couples experience their most perfect romantic day, all while caring for her sick sister who absolutely could not die on her, sounded like hell.

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