Only life didn’t work like that, and she’d been through enough to know it.
You couldn’t go back. Even here, at Sunset Cottage, everything had changed from the last summer she’d been here with her sisters, when they were all young and innocent, when they hadn’t yet had their hearts broken or their dreams shattered. When time was on their side, spread out before them as vast as the great lake. When anything seemed possible.
She wanted to get back to that place. She wanted to believe that despite everything, her future was wide open, full of great things waiting to happen. That there was another path for her, after the one she’d been taking had come to a dead end.
She stayed in her room and worked through the morning. With her book due in only three days now, she was scrambling, but it felt good to pour her energy into something other than her heart. And it felt good to be here on the island, with the sunsets and the water right there, just a few yards away.
Everyone was out, making the most of their last few days on the island, and Gemma had the entire house to herself. She could sit out on the front porch until they all came back. Or she could go down to the coffeehouse. Or out back to the hammock to read over some of her pages.
She decided on the porch. It was the defining feature of this home, the gathering place, where so many happy memories had been made.
With a glass of lemonade in one hand and her notebook in the other, she pushed out the side door of the kitchen onto the porch, looking out over the water as she rounded to the front.
And there he was. Standing outside the front door, wearing khakis and a button-down shirt, not the usual jeans and T-shirt she had grown used to. His expression was wary. His eyes unsure.
“Leo.”
She swallowed hard, catching herself. She had wished for this moment, just as she had wished at first that Sean would change his mind and come back. But unlike with Sean, a part of her, however small and however hard she tried to deny it, had thought that it might just happen.
That she hadn’t been wrong about Leo. That maybe, just maybe, she’d been right.
“Sorry to startle you. I was just about to knock.”
She nodded, wanting him to say more. “If you were here to mow the lawn, I’d tell you that you were too late.”
“I’m not here to mow the lawn,” he said.
She swallowed hard. Gathered her wits. Told herself it didn’t mean a damn thing. That she shouldn’t open herself up to disappointment. But then, that’s what she didn’t want to do. She had closed herself off for too long. “I can see that. You’re all dressed up.”
He gave a bashful grin as he looked down at his shirt. “Yeah, I was thinking about something that was said at the party. About how there isn’t a lawyer here on the island. And I was thinking about something else that was said that night, too. Something you said, about not turning my back on things that made me happy.”
She blinked, trying to understand where he was going with this. “Are you going back to your old career?”
“In a sense,” he said. “I still want to open the stables, but I rented out a storefront in town. A law office, I suppose you could say. Actually, I rented out your sister’s studio. It was my grandfather’s idea. He seems to think that place has a special purpose. Helps lost souls find their way.”
Gemma grinned. “You could say that about this entire island.”
He sank his hands into his pockets. “So Ellie’s really moving out then?”
“Of the studio?” Gemma nodded. “She’s going to travel. I think it will be good for her, to see the world, to experience new things, and meet new people.”
“So you guys are on good terms with everything then?” he asked.
Gemma grinned. “We are. This house was a lot for Ellie. I think she was afraid to let go of it, but now she’s ready to embrace the next phase of her life.”
Leo nodded slowly as he thrust his hands into his pockets. He looked over at the lake and then back at her. “So I’m too late then.”
She blinked. “Too late for what?”
Leo took a step toward her. “What you said the other night really sank in, Gemma. I had a rough go, and I felt let down by a lot of people. And for a while it was easier on my own. I like it here. Really like it. And I like the work I’ve been doing. But…”
Gemma felt her breath catch.
“But I was denying an entire part of myself. And I wasn’t being fair to myself. Or you.”
She stared at him, not sure of what to say, or if she could even speak.
“I spent so long trying not to think about my ex, trying to push aside any feelings that I had for her, that I didn’t even realize that my feelings had changed, and that the person I was pushing away wasn’t her.” He looked at her steadily. “It was you. And…the way you made me feel. It was a feeling that I didn’t think I’d find again and honestly, didn’t really want to.”
She nodded. She understood that much.
“Being here…it’s made me see that my old life was never going to work for me. Even if I’d kept the ranch instead of my brother, things still would have fallen apart with my girlfriend. I can’t blame him. Or her. She just wasn’t the one for me.”
Gemma’s heart was pounding as she looked up into his eyes, daring to believe that he felt the same way that she did.
“The truth is that I like it here. I’m able to be myself. Now I can even think about practicing law and running my own stable, something I couldn’t balance before. And I’ve found someone who likes me just as I am.”
She nodded, because it was true, every word he’d said. “Just as you are.”
“Look, I’m not good at speeches. And I’m not good about talking about my feelings either. And I’m sure you could have said all this a lot better than I have.”
She shook her head. “You’re not a character in one of my books.”
But he had been the inspiration.
“Besides, what I write is fiction. This is real life. And it’s messy. And it’s complicated. And it’s far from roses and sunshine. But right now, it’s pretty damn close.” She met his smile, feeling her heart fill with joy.
“What do I have to do to convince you not to sell the house?” he asked.
She looked at him in surprise. “We’ve decided to keep it.”
There was a pause as he digested this. “You did?”
She nodded. “Some things are worth holding on to, even when times get tough.”
“They are.” He looked around the porch, from the chipped paint on the posts to the worn whitewashed floorboards. He seemed to want to say something, but took a step backward instead. “Well. Tell Ellie to give me a call when she gets back to town then. I’ll see what I can do about some of these repairs on my free time.”
Now Gemma grinned. “Oh, it’s not Ellie who will be staying on the island.”
He looked at her, his brown eyes deep and steady, as if he knew what she was about to say. Maybe even hoped for it.
“I’m staying,” she said. She’d reached the decision easily, so easily that perhaps the idea had been in her head all along. “There’s nothing for me in Chicago anymore.”