Chapter Four
AMY DECIDED THAT she would remember this summer as the summer of perspective. She realized that in previous years, she and the girls had been there for one another in a different way than they were now. They’d practically been each other’s significant others, filling the gaps that boyfriends usually occupied. Now all of that had changed. Each of her friends had taken determined steps to change their lives the way they wanted them. They weren’t driven by what someone else felt or didn’t feel about them, and in the process they’d found their forever loves. Amy realized that she was the only one who hadn’t changed. She was the same girl pining after the same guy she’d loved since she was six years old.
It was time for a change, and if she’d had any doubts about moving on without longing for Tony Black, he’d made things perfectly clear for her. Three times.
Three painfully honest times.
She spent the day with Duke going over his ideas for the opening of the Australia resort. He was a savvy businessman with solid plans for the property and an endless budget. The more she learned about the job he had offered her, the more excited Amy became. She wasn’t thrilled about giving up the business she’d put her heart and soul into, but as with most things in life, where there was a meaningful gain, there was usually an equally meaningful loss.
Duke had lunch and dinner brought in, and they worked straight through until after seven. Duke was easy to work with, and Amy had a good feeling about him. Not only were he and Blue close, but during their all-day meeting he’d taken calls from both his sister, Trish, and his brother Gage. He hadn’t rushed them, which might have turned off another new employee, but Amy found his loyalty to his family refreshing, and it made her happy she’d be working for such a family-oriented man. Selling Amy on Australia hadn’t taken much. She’d never been anywhere beyond the East Coast, and once she’d made up her mind to pull up her big-girl panties and try to move on from Tony—and after he’d told her to take the job—she knew that being far away could only help ease the pain.
By the time she left the resort, she’d convinced herself she’d done the right thing by accepting the job, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she needed to see Tony one last time. She didn’t want to talk to him, and she definitely didn’t want to try to convince him that he was wrong. She was done putting herself in that particular position. She just needed to see his face with a clear definition of where he belonged in her heart—in the friend category forevermore—before seeing him again at Seaside.
On the way back to the Cape, she stopped at the Boston Marriott. A quick stop. She’d peek into his seminar, get one last look, then be on her way with a new job in hand and a new perspective on her love life.
This was good.
It was the right thing to do. Then she could put this part of their relationship—or lack thereof—away forever.
She parked the car and headed into the hotel. She wasn’t even sure Tony would still be there. She knew his seminars were all-day affairs, but he hadn’t texted her for days. She didn’t know his schedule.
Listen to her. Know his schedule. Sheesh. What had she been thinking?
She’d known his summer schedules forever. Now that she was thinking about it, hadn’t she known his schedule for the past few winters, springs, and falls, too? She’d downplayed to the girls exactly how often Tony had texted her. She’d had to. It would have been too painful to admit that while she’d become his habit, he’d become her everything.
Inside the resort her nerves got all prickly. She followed the signs to the Presidential Conference Room, where Tony’s seminar was taking place. She was in luck. It was scheduled to end at eight, and it was seven fifty. She had time to peek and run.
Outside the conference room doors, her brain stopped firing. Open the door. Her hands wouldn’t budge. Just open the door and look. One last look and you can put him into the friend file forever.
Tony had always been in her heartthrob file. Her I love you file. Her someday file. He’d been the only person to ever inhabit those places in her mind.
She drew in a deep breath and smoothed her skirt and blouse. Maybe she should have changed after her meeting. Why was she still dressed up? Why was she thinking about clothing when she was about to say goodbye to the someday Tony and welcome the friend-only Tony?
Taking the job was the right thing to do.
She opened the door with a shaky hand and peered inside the large conference room. The seminar must have just wrapped up. Tony stood at the front of the room surrounded by a slew of people. Amy’s eyes locked on the tall man at the head of the group. The man who never teased her about being flat-chested or chicken-legged. The man who knew she could handle only two drinks but often indulged in three with her Seaside friends. The man who carried her home on those nights and never gave her a hard time for it the next day. His handsome, tanned features stood out against all the rest of the people in the room. He was smiling, his eyes friendly and sharp. She knew that look. It was his game face. His on face. His game face was miles apart from his natural smile. The one that sucked her into the warm, loving, capable man that was Tony Black and clutched her so tightly sometimes she thought she’d forget how to walk.
Turn around. Walk away. You’ll be done with him forever.
Forever is a very long time.