“Here?” she said dumbly. Because they were standing outside Sanderson’s Jewelers.
“Yeah, I’ve got something on order. Want to come in and see?”
Autumn’s mind ground to a screeching halt, as everything she’d been about to say simply blanked. Judd Hamilton did not buy jewelry. At no point in their twenty-five years of friendship had he ever given something sparkly to one of his girlfriends. He’d never even gotten any cheesetastic jewelry for his mom on Mother’s Day. And he had something on order for Mary Alice.
There was only one thing it could possibly be.
Something burst inside her, a white hot nova of shock sweeping through her body. Autumn felt the reverberation in h
er chest and for long seconds she waited for the physical pain to take her to her knees. But there was no pain. She wasn’t dying this time, even though she was losing him now as surely as she’d nearly lost him years ago to a bullet meant for her. And for a moment she regretted that the surgeons had repaired her heart. Because that meant she had to live through this, watching him build a life with someone else, knowing she’d never even been in the running.
She drew on every shred of control she had to smile at him. Because she loved him and she wanted him to be happy.
“No. That’s what I wanted to tell you. I’m going to have to bail on our tradition. I’m supposed to meet Mitzi to help finish up a grant for the library. With all the budget cuts, I really can’t afford to tell her no, even though it’s technically my day off. There’s a deadline.” The lie rolled off her tongue with surprising ease.
“Well shit. Why didn’t you say something earlier?”
“She just emailed me this morning, and I thought we could at least do breakfast. But I need to get on. You go ahead and finish your shopping. I’ll see you later, okay?”
Worry was written all over his face as he studied her.
Please. Please let me go right now.
“Yeah, okay.”
Because she felt the weight of his gaze on her, she didn’t run, though every instinct urged her to flee. She kept her strides even and unhurried, though she was starting to shake. She kept her head held high, though she wanted to scream. She’d survived more than her fair share over the years. She’d find a way to survive this.
But as she passed the cursed fountain, she wondered how she’d survive it without him.