Page 99 of A Novel Love Story

ISTARED AT HER. “INlove with …”

She nervously tugged on her long vibrant red braid, and muttered a name under her breath.

I leaned closer. “Who?”

“Maya.”

Of course she loved Maya, that wasn’t a question, but … “What does that have to do with me leaving?” I asked.

She shifted nervously on her feet. “Because you love Anders, and you’re leaving, and I just want to knowhow? How can you do it?”

I went through all the excuses in my head, everything I could think of to say—but nothing seemed good enough. And knowing Lyssa, she wouldn’t believe any of them, anyway. She had a knack for sussing out lies, and it was one of the (many) things Maya loved about her.

I chewed on the inside my cheek. “I wouldn’t sayloveexactly, but … how do you know?”

She gave me a level look. “The entiretownknows at this point. You’re like peas and carrots.”

A small smile flickered across my mouth. “I guess so. Let’s walk?” I suggested. “Around the clock tower? One last lap before I go,” I added, and she caved and followed me into the shade of the tower. The afternoon had grown pink and gold as the sun bobbed above the trees. “So … the simple answer is—I don’t want to. But if I stay here, then I’ll never see my friends again. I’ll never see Pru again,” I said, realizing it myself as I did. “I’ll never hear her voice or watch terrible Hallmark movies on the couch with a box of wine. I won’t be at her wedding or … anything.”

We wouldn’t read books together anymore, or talk about Quixotic Falls, or roll our eyes at how popular the series got after the author died, because people loved to love something that was no longer there.

And that was it. I knew what I had to do, why Anders walked away—there was only one ending here. And it wasn’t mine. We ended our walk at the bench I’d sat on the first day I was here, when Anders found me and held an umbrella over my head as the rain dried up. Now, the sky was clear and the air smelled like dry summer, and it was strange how fast things changed.

“I can’t stay,” I said, finally. “No matter how much I want to.”

Lyssa sat quietly on the bench beside me for a long time. This was the first real conversation we’d had since I arrived in Eloraton, and I hated that it was. She took a deep breath, absently picking at her cuticles.

After a while, she asked, “But aren’t you scared that he might be the one? And if you leave him you’ll leave every good thing behind, too?”

“Yeah.”

“And still, you …”

“Yeah,” I admitted.

“How?”

That was a good question, and one I didn’t know the answer to, because I couldn’t predict the future or how I would miss him when I took the only road in and the only road out of Eloraton, so I told her exactly that. “I don’t know. What’s stopping you from telling the person you love that you love them? Taking a chance?”

“Onlyeverything. What if Maya and I don’t work out? What if her sister and my dad get into a condiment feud? What if we have to pick sides? What if—” She stopped herself, and took a deep breath. “Anyway, thank you.” Lyssa took my keys out of her pocket, where she’d stashed them, and held them out to me. I took them, and they felt heavier than I remembered.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help,” I said.

“Pru must mean a lot to you,” she inferred.

“She does, and we left on kind of bad terms,” I admitted. “She hasn’t heard from me in a few days, so I’m sure she’s worried—I’m sure the whole book club is.” I hoped Pru chalked up her unanswered text to me having spotty reception. I hoped she wasn’t waiting for my response—she was off in Iceland, after all, climbing glaciers and floating in hot springs. I’d text her as soon as I got reception, I promised myself. It was all Icoulddo, as I pushed myself to my feet, and wondered if I should say goodbye to Anders—andhowI could say goodbye to Anders.

A part of me wondered if I should just get in my car and go. I would just be a chapter in his life, anyway, perhaps not even that. But it was a good chapter. A lovely paragraph. A blissful mention.

She stood and dusted off her skirt to leave.

“You know,” I said thoughtfully, as I remembered the way Anders kissed my shoulder in the morning light, the way his fingers fit in mine, the sun lingering in his white-blond curls, “it’s okay to not know how something is going to work out.If I’ve learned one thing about being here, it’s that it’s worth taking the chance even if it’s the wrong one.You’reworth that chance. And so am I.”

She smiled. “Thank you. Dad parked your car in front of the bookstore. It runs as right as rain. Safe travels,” she added, and left for her garden store again.

I twirled the keys around in my hand, watching Eloraton, committing every bit of it to memory. The buildings. The the way the streetlights popped on one after the other like dominos. The soft whisper of summer wind through the trees. And when I was satisfied, I pocketed my keys.

There was one last place I needed to visit before I left.

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