Out of The Blue

Chapter 21

"Clearly I didn't," I mumbled shamefully.

Had I really been so stuck in my grief the last year that I'd detached so far from the life I'd had before? All this time, I thought I'd only withdrawn socially, but Mara was right. I was holding on so tight to Wilma's because I was afraid that if I let go, everything around me would crumble. What I failed to see was the damage was already done, and there was no moving forward if I stayed trapped in the rubble.

"Hey—" Mara reached over to place her hand on top of mine. "—I didn't say that to make you feel bad, but to point out that you aren't stuck here. You're choosing to be. If you want to make a relationship with Ryan work, you can—it'll just be ten times easier if you go back to teaching. Whether that be here, or in Boston."

Overwhelmed, I could feel tears lining my eyes as I choked out a laugh. "Try to get rid of me?"

Her lips quirked up into a soft smile. "I just want you to be happy," she said gently. "And ever since Ryan came back to town, pieces of the woman I've known for years are slowly starting to make their way back together."

I walked around the island and pulled her into a hug. "I love you," I said before pulling back, "and I'm sorry if you felt you couldn't talk to me about this months ago. I never meant to become that reclusive."

She waved me off. "No apology needed. Seriously. You needed someone to relate to. That person just happened to be Ryan. So while you can't change the circumstances that brought you two together, you can decide where things go from here." She bumped her hip with mine, a cheeky grin on her face. "And if my two cents matter, I think you should hop on the Nyberg express and ride that baby all the way to the altar."

I laughed incredulously, a snort of disbelief finding its way out as well. "You're crazy."

"But now you're thinking about it," she said with a wink.

Rolling my eyes, I didn't give her the verbal satisfaction of agreeing, because while I may not have been looking all the way down the road, I was definitely beginning to think about how to step away from the store. And, when the time came, how to arrange my life so that I didn't lose what I had with Ryan.

***

The next afternoon when I walked into work, the line was short, and I smiled in greeting at the customers as I slipped behind the counter to help June with the orders. It took a couple minutes to get everyone served, and with all of them taking their orders to go, the store was empty when I finally threw out a greeting to June.

"How were things this morning? Any hiccups?"

"On the customer side, no, it was actually a bit busier than usual for a Saturday, but I'm assuming it's because a new flock of tourists came into town last night," she explained. "But when I went to take out the blueberries from the small freezer in the back this morning, I realized everything was defrosted. I had to switch up the menu a bit in terms of what desserts I put out today, but otherwise, when I called the technician to come in and check it out, they were able to fix the problem within the hour." Turning to grab a piece of paper from under the register, she handed it to me. "Here's the bill for the repair, and I also added everything that had to be tossed to the next food order."

"Damn," I breathed out, not actually expecting her to report on anything substantial. "Thanks for taking care of that, though you know you could've called me."

She shrugged. "I didn't want to ruin your morning. Plus, I had it under control."

"Looks like it," I commented, glancing down at the bill to see, luckily, the price of the repair had only been a few hundred dollars. Not as much as I expected. Though hearing that she'd handled something like this so smoothly—whereas I would've likely stressed out about it for hours—gave me an immense amount of reassurance. "Do you have everything you need for the afternoon treats?"