It took some getting used to, but Shelby loved all the pampering once she could stop feeling guilty about it. After the first few minutes of being stiff in the massage, Shelby relaxed into the treatments. It was hard not to as strong hands kneaded her muscles. She had never felt anything like it. But throughout each new treatment, she felt Jake’s absence like the kind of nagging thought that sticks with you and won’t leave you alone.

While hands rubbed the knots out of her shoulders, she wondered what Jake was doing.

During the facial, she thought of the strong lines in his face and the slight cleft in his chin.

As her legs were being rubbed with warm stones, she thought of how he carried her to bed the night before.

When she saw herself in the mirror after a trim and a blowout for her hair, she wondered what he would think when he saw her.

She left the spa feeling both sleepy and energized. Her whole body felt fresh and new. It was incredible. Before, spas seemed like a colossal waste of money—paying for something so temporary. She and Gracielynn had openly scoffed at celebrity’s lifestyles while reading People magazines. Now she felt sad thinking about the fact that this might be the only time in her life she got to enjoy it. She didn’t know how much money Jake threw down on her afternoon, but it seemed like she got every single treatment in the spa. She would never be able to do it again.

As she made her way back up to his suite with the card key he’d left with her, she felt nervous. Would Jake be there? What would he say? Her clothes were the same she’d worn to the pool: the same silver bathing suit and sheer white cover-up that Maria had sent up, but her skin glowed and her hair had never looked or felt so soft. She wished that she had thought to bring down the blue sun dress so she could have something clean and fresh to match how she felt.

“Jake?” she called as she pushed open the door to the suite.

He strode out of the second bedroom and stopped when he saw her, sucking in a breath. Shelby looked down, feeling shy. He was already dressed in a suit for dinner and looked amazing. When he didn’t speak or move, she looked up at him. He had a wide smile.

“You look beautiful,” he said. “You did before you went and you do now.”

Somehow that second part of the compliment made her heart soar. “Have you been waiting long?”

“Nope. And I have something for you.”

He dashed back over to the couch and came back with a silver package wrapped up with a turquoise bow.

“Jake,” she said, a warning tone in her voice. “I don’t even want to think about how much this one-day date is costing. You can’t get me gifts too.”

“Shush,” he said. “Sit. Open.” He took her hand and pulled her to the couch, pausing only to notice her nail color. “That looks great. I like the natural look.”

After much debate, she’d gone with a clear polish on her fingernails and silver on her toes. Shelby hadn’t ever been a fan of silver, but it kept popping up through the day. She wiggled her toes at him. “And this matches the wrapping paper.”

Jake seemed pleased with this. “Maybe silver is our color?”

Her cheeks heated. She held the gift box in her hand, overcome with emotion. She fingered the ribbon. They had a color? She didn’t want to read too much into his words. He had been talking all day like they were a couple, but was still leaving for Chicago soon. Maybe tomorrow. He hadn’t been specific about the day, but it would be as soon as the parts came in for his car. Would he make some kind of commitment before he left? Is that what he was doing now?

Jake sat down on the coffee table in front of her and touched her hand. “Shelby?”

She fixed a bright smile on her face. “Jake?”

“Are you okay?”

Was she? Underneath, no she wasn’t. Taking a breath, she shoved that thought away. “I’m fine. Sorry. Did you wrap this?”

“The concierge did. If it had been me, you’d be looking at duct tape and newspaper or something.”

She giggled and began to undo the ribbon.

Inside the box was more silver: thin, gauzy cloth instead of tissue paper. Her fingers trembled as she unfolded the fabric to reveal a whole stack of books. Shelby couldn’t help her smile as she picked each up, turning them over to read the backs, to smooth her hands over the covers, to smell the pages. This was not what she was expecting. It was perfect.

“There’s one more thing in the bottom,” he said.

Shelby almost missed it because it was wrapped separately in more silver cloth. It was a smaller box and as she pulled away the paper, she frowned. “An e-reader?” She looked up at him for confirmation. The old books in the box had been perfect, as though he knew her that well already. The e-reader surprised her. It was one thing she’d never wanted.

Jake leaned forward and put a hand softly on her knee. The touch sent her reeling and she tried to focus on his words. “I know this probably isn’t your thing. But I thought it might be really nice to have something small and portable so you can read no matter what or where you are.”

“No matter what?”

Shelby met his gaze, still unsure of what he meant. His eyes were cloaked and heavy. With…sadness? Awareness washed over her as she realized that he was giving her an e-reader because Shelby was about to be moving, which meant losing her library. And being displaced somewhere for who knows how long.

The way the realization crashed into her made Shelby realize just how effective today had been in keeping her distracted from the reality that waited in Lucky. Losing her home. Figuring out what her mama wanted and why she came home. It all came rushing back over her suddenly. She didn’t want him to see her cry and stood quickly, leaving the e-reader on the sofa next to the books and the empty box. She hugged him so she could hide her face in his chest.

“Thanks, Jake. This was perfect. I guess I should get dressed?”

Without waiting for him to respond, she crossed the room and shut herself in the master suite before she lost control of her tears. Jake’s gifts were hard to take: the spa, the suite, the clothes, but his kindness brought her to her knees. Tomorrow they would go back to Lucky and the bubble on this tiny spread of happiness would burst, sending her right back into the mess of her life.

The mess she would handle. Life had always been messy and Shelby always handled it. She stayed and she figured out a plan. That’s just what she did. But losing Jake—she didn’t have a plan for that and had no idea how to move on from a crushed and broken heart like this. She had never felt strongly enough about a man to have her heart even touched.

Shelby pulled on the black cocktail dress and stood in front of the full-length mirror. She hardly recognized herself with her blown-out hair and painted nails and a dress nicer than anything she’d ever owned. It was too much—everything about this day and the realities just outside of it. Instead of going back out to see Jake, Shelby climbed into the bed in her dress and pulled the covers to her chin.

An hour or so later, there was a soft knock at the door. Shelby debated whether to call out that he could come in or not, but she didn’t feel like she could speak. The door opened slowly. She must not have locked it.

“Shelby?” Jake peeked his head around the door. When he saw that she was in bed, he crossed the room quickly, then hesitated a few feet away. He crouched down so that his face was just below hers. “Hey, you okay?”

Was she? Shelby nodded, but her eyes were still full of tears. She put a pillow over her head. “Fine,” she said, her voice catching. Maybe he’d just go and leave her wallowing.

“Except I think I’m wrinkling my dress,” she said, sniffling. She pulled back the covers a bit so he could see that she was wearing it.

He smiled. “I’ll buy you a hundred more dresses if I need to. But it still looks great on you. Maybe a little too fancy for pajamas, though. I would have bought you those too if you wanted.”

Shelby laughed, feeling the heaviness lift, just a little. Jake stood and nudged her. “Scoot over, Bacon.”

Surprised, she wiggled over in the bed and he kicked off his shoes and climbed in beside her. The late afternoon sun still stretched into the room, but they were both in bed now, covers up to their chin. He turned on his side to face her, propping his head up with his hand, and she did the same. Their faces were a foot or so apart and her feet stretched out, grazing against his knees. He was so tall.

“I think we’re a little underdressed,” Jake said.

“Huh?”

“The required attire for snuggling is black tie. I should be in a tux and you need a ballgown.” He cupped her faced with one hand, tracing her cheek and brushing hair back from her face. The tiny caresses sent her nerves singing. She couldn’t take her eyes off of his face.

“Should you call Maria?” she asked.

“Not yet. Maybe…in just a minute.” He moved his hand from her cheek to jaw, following the line down to her neck. Shelby shivered. He started to pull his hand away, but she grabbed it and brought it to her mouth, kissing his palm.

“Jake, I don’t want our day date to end.”

He stiffened. Shelby couldn’t meet his eyes, so she stared down at his hand in hers, tracing over his fingertips and his knuckles and the curve of his palm. He pulled his hand away and she felt hot tears start again. She closed her eyes, willing them to stay inside her eyelids.

Jake’s hands cupped her face. “Shelby, look at me.”

She hesitated, but then opened her eyes, sighing softly. A few minutes before, Jake’s gaze had been touched with sadness. The emotion there now was just as intense, but it wasn’t the same. She drew in a breath. It was a look that she had seen in Matt’s eyes for years when he looked at her. It was the slow burn of love.

“Jake?” She wanted to ask him a thousand questions, but he cut her off with a kiss.

When she had kissed him in the pool, it had been unexpected, fueled by her jealousy and desire to stake her claim. Jake had clearly been surprised, but had kissed her back without hesitation, his lips soft and their faces wet from the pool.

This kiss was different. He kissed her slowly, like they had all the time in the world. There was passion heating up between them, but restrained. Jake was making promises with his kisses, showing her that he felt the same way. We have time, his lips promised. All the time in the world.

She could feel this in the way his lips moved on hers, slowly, gently, and then with more heat. Every part of her body lit up. All the worries and fears were lost in the love that she felt as their mouths moved together. He pulled away after a time. It could have been minutes or hours. His eyes moved over her face, admiring. His fingertips traced over her eyebrow, the swell of her cheek, her jaw.

“Jake,” she said, not sure how to say what she wanted to say next.

He smiled a slow smile. “You don’t have to say it. We should probably get out of this bed. I suspect you’re not that kind of girl.”

“I’m not,” she said.

“Neither am I.”

She giggled. “What kind of girl are you?”

“A total girly girl,” he said, grinning. “I love girl talk and pillow fights…”

At that, Shelby rolled away and grabbed a pillow. She got to her feet, unsteady on the mattress with the pillow clutched in her hands. “Well, let’s go then, City. Show me what you got.”

He grinned and grabbed a pillow, trying to dodge as she started hitting him before he even got to his feet. And then they were both swinging pillows at each other’s faces and laughing. After a few minutes, Shelby tossed her pillow and he followed suit. Before she could question whether or not she should, she started jumping on the hotel bed.

Jake laughed and joined her, both of them flying up and down, her hair whipping around her head, both of them looking ridiculous in the mirror across the room: he in a suit, still wearing his jacket, and her in the short black cocktail dress.

When they were both breathless and sweaty, he ordered room service and they moved to the suite’s couch still in their formal wear, enjoying a leisurely and private dinner. As long as he could pretend that this moment and this room was all they needed to know in the world, so could she.

Shelby lay back against the couch cushions, her legs stretched out on the coffee table. She wiggled her toes. “Thanks again for the spa day,” she said. “Believe it or not, I’ve never had a pedicure. Or a manicure. Or…basically any of that stuff.”

Jake grinned. “I aim to please.”

“You did,” she said. “You do. Thank you.”

It was almost ten o’clock. Probably time to call it a night. They’d eaten steak and fingerling potatoes and had some kind of dessert that the guy who wheeled up the tray set on fire. It was all amazing. Shelby could feel the way the night was drawing to a close, though, like Cinderella moving toward midnight, ready to run right out of that one slipper.

Jake reached across the couch for her hand, wrapping her fingers up in his. “What do we do, Shelby?”

His question stilled her. This was the same thing she’d been asking herself for the past day and the days before that. “I don’t know,” she said. “What can we do? I mean, what options do we even have? You live and work in Chicago. And I can’t leave Lucky. I think that pretty much leaves us stuck where we are. Which is…not together. It seems impossible.”

His thumb traced over her hand. Her chest ached. She waited for him to say something, anything. Didn’t he have some kind of solution? Would he leave Chicago for her? She wanted more than anything for him to say that she was wrong. If anyone could figure something out, he could. Because money could make things easier, right? But he did not speak.

She turned her face away toward the dark windows and the lights over the lake outside.

After a few minutes, he sighed and pulled her close. She let herself be drawn to his chest, but she did not look up at his face.

“Shelby, I don’t know what to do. But I know that I want to be with you. To figure out what this is. I want more time.”

She sensed the hesitation. “But?”

“This is a tricky time for work and I can’t stay. Not right now.”

“I understand.” Shelby worked to keep her voice even.

“But I could come back. I could…”

She could almost hear the thoughts in his head as they turned over. Shelby sighed. “Maybe this is just what we have. This right now. I don’t want to mess that up thinking about what won’t work.”

Jake squeezed her tighter and planted a kiss on her head. “Don’t say it won’t work. Don’t give up on the idea of an us.”

“Give me a reason to have hope, Jake,” she said.

He shifted her until she was turned to face him. His eyes roved over her face, looking wild and desperate. Taking both of her hands in his, he kissed her fingers. “Hope in me, Shelby. I haven’t…I don’t do this. You are so special. You took me by surprise. I don’t know what’s next, but there is something next. There will be an us.”

He took her hand and put it against his chest. She could feel his heart beat through the thin cotton dress shirt. “Do you feel it? Is it this way for you too? Tell me if I’m wrong.”

“You’re not wrong,” she said quietly. Putting his hand to her chest felt too intimate, so she pulled his hand to her neck, where her pulse was racing.

His fingertips rested there as he searched her eyes. And then he pulled her to him, his lips again assuring, promising, and asking. She kissed him back, each movement of her lips one more yes.

When they finally pulled away, breathless, Shelby felt more at peace. They didn’t have answers, but that could wait. They would find them or make them. She groaned, touching her lips. They felt raw and swollen. Her chin and cheeks too.

“I think you broke my face,” Shelby said.

“Do I need to fix it?” He leaned in as though to kiss her again. Giggling, she pushed him back.

“You can’t fix it like that! That’s how you broke it!”

“Fine.” He gave her a light shove and stood up. “I think it’s time to get out of this stupid suit.”

Shelby smoothed down the front of her dress. “I feel bad you bought this and we didn’t even go anywhere for me to show it off.”

He grinned and kissed her before she could push him away again. “You showed it off plenty to me. And I loved it. Worth every penny. Now I’m going to change into pajamas before I turn into a pumpkin.”

“Should I change?”

“Do you want to?”

“Not yet,” she said. “I like the dress.”

“Then stay in it. You look amazing. But I also like you in my Cubs shirt. Either way.” He smiled, then pulled his phone out of his pocket and groaned. “I’ve ignored this thing all day long. Guess it’s time to face the music.” He turned it on, then set it on the coffee table before disappearing into his bedroom.

Shelby fished her phone out of her purse. She hadn’t checked messages all day either. Jake’s phone lit up and flashed with messages. She wasn’t trying to look, but the screen kept refreshing with new messages, pushing the old ones down, and it was hard to ignore the flashing. He must have had fifty texts. The last message caught her eye and she read it without even meaning to.

Xan: It’s gone sideways. Call me NOW. Hope you didn’t tell that girl you bought her land. May not matter now anyway.

She stared at the message, reading and rereading. Who was “that girl”? Daisy? Or was it her? The land…It had to be her land.

Jake was the one who bought her land? That made no sense. It was annexed by the city after she couldn’t pay the bank. Shelby frowned and looked at her phone.

She had missed fifteen calls, eleven from Matt and four from Gracie. Shelby didn’t bother listening to voicemails, but checked the time. It was after eleven. Gracie would be asleep so she dialed Matt.

“What’s going on?” she said.

“You okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

He sighed and paused a minute. “You don’t know, then.”

“Know what? Matt. What is it?”

“I didn’t want to be the one to tell you,” he said.

“Just say it.”

He sighed through the phone. “Everyone knows now, so it’s not like it will stay a secret. Jake’s company is planning a development in Lucky. He was working with the mayor and city council, but something happened and it all fell through, but everyone knows. You might want to tell him not to come back to town.”

It was true. Jake and his company were the reason she was losing everything. She had to be sure. “Are you saying that the reason we lost our land wasn’t just the bank?”

He was quiet. “It wasn’t just the bank.”

“You mean Jake…”

Jake’s voice startled her. “Jake what? Are you talking about me? I hope it’s good.”

He had a grin on his face and his hair was mussed from putting on pajamas. Shelby stared at him across the room, not smiling, not knowing what to say or how to respond to the painful squeezing of her heart.

“Do you need me to come?” Matt asked.

“Yes,” Shelby said and hung up the phone. She looked at Jake. “You took my land?” The smile slid away and his eyes got huge. “Jake, this whole time. This whole day and the last week. All of it. You knew. And you knew I didn’t know. I am such a fool.”

“No, Shelby, you aren’t. I’m so sorry. I wanted to tell you, but then you came here all upset and I just wanted to make you happy. I wanted to fix it. I didn’t know how to tell you.” He started to cross the room and she held up her hands.

“Don’t you dare give me an excuse. You didn’t know how to tell the truth? You just say it, Jake. You form words and give me the truth. That’s how you do it. You don’t lie to me and tell me you want to take care of me because I’m sad and you don’t kiss me when you’ve made a devil’s deal with the mayor. You can’t make promises like this and leave out half the story.”

“I—”

“NO. Jake, stop it. You can take your money and your land deals and this dress and these shoes and this suite. Take it and go. This is impossible, but not because it’s just hard. It’s impossible because you’re a liar.”

That last word came out with a snarl and Shelby was surprised at the venom in her voice. She threw the new shoes at Jake and slammed into her room to change back into the clothes she’d arrived in. Jake knocked as she changed and she was glad she had locked the door.

“I’m not talking to you! We’re done!” she shouted.

The knocking stopped after a few minutes. Shelby had on her bathing suit again, her tank top and shorts. She left all the clothes that Jake bought her crumpled on the floor. He could take them or return them or throw them away. She didn’t care.

He was standing just outside the door when she threw it open and his face would have broken her heart if there was anything left to break. “Move,” she said. “I’m going.”

“Shelby,” he pleaded. “I’m so sorry.”

“You ruined my life. In less than a week, you swept in here and took away where I live. You took away our memories and our history and you made me fall in love with you—” She gasped at the words, not realizing they were coming out of her mouth. But as they did and as she realized that they were actually true, her rage only intensified. “I hope I never see you again. I’m glad whatever you tried to do in Lucky failed. You deserve that.”

A look crossed his face. “It—what?”

She smiled, feeling mean and not caring at all. “Oh, you don’t know? Matt told me. And I saw a text on your phone. You should really check your messages. Looks like your plan isn’t going to work out. Too bad for you.”

She grabbed her purse and, at the last minute, decided to grab the gift box of books. Not even Jake could ruin books for her.

He frowned, holding the phone in his hand. As she stood in the doorway to the suite, she realized that he wasn’t watching her now. He was too busy worrying about his deal that went south. She didn’t matter to him. His work mattered more. That’s what he cared about when it came down to it. She slipped out the door before he could look up again.

And she was glad, because then he couldn’t see the onslaught of tears the spilled over the second the door closed. Shelby dashed down the hallway and into a stairway so she could catch the elevator a few floors down, just in case he ever put down his phone and tried to follow her.