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Brie shrugged. “Don’t tell him. This isn’t about him, right? You have that agreement. So it shouldn’t matter what you do with your business. He doesn’t have to know.”
Just hearing her friend say that seemed to calm the tumultuous waves that were Sarah’s life. She nodded with a shudder then got to her feet. The way I see it, today we’ll run as planned. We can worry about closing things down tomorrow.”
Brie smiled wide. “Sounds like a plan.”
Sarah skatedby James’s side, bursting at the seams with everything she was holding back form James. Part of her knew she needed to keep the whole thing a secret. James had a hard time differentiating his two lives from one another. While a small part of Sarah just wanted someone she could vent to, she had already accepted that James wouldn’t be that person. He would most definitely tell her that she should’ve asked him for help.
The problem was, she still couldn’t bring herself to accept what he’d been offering. She didn’t want to have anyone to report to. The bakery was her baby and she wanted to run it her way or not at all.
James seemed to be quiet, too. Normally, he was flirtatious and charming, but lately, he’d grown more distant. The fact that he wasn’t talking made her assume that he was dealing with business issues himself. It would’ve been so easy to pull him aside and ask him what was wrong. She wanted to be there for him. But if what he was holding back had to do with the harbor, she wasn’t sure she could handle it.
That was why she’d decided to simply enjoy the evening with what she had. Sarah reached for his hand, offering him a reassuring smile when he gazed down at her. They continued to skate past couples and families. Christmas music played and an overall sense of Christmas magic seemed to hover in the air.
Despite all her turmoil, she still loved this time of year and the sense of hope it brought. She might be losing her bakery, but she still had so much to be grateful for.
“What’s your favorite part of this time of year?” She asked, hoping her question would be enough to drag him from whatever thoughts were bringing him down.
He glanced over to her, a cloud of concern clearly hovering overhead. “What?”
“Christmas time. What’s your favorite part?”
James seemed to consider her question—longer than she would have expected. “I like picking out the perfect gift for the people I care about.”
She studied him for a moment, a smile tugging at her lips. “I could see that. You are very specific in the way you think things through.” She tilted her head. “Do you have an idea for me?”
Something strange flickered across his expression. She wasn’t sure what it was because it passed so quickly. All she knew was that seeing it sent her stomach churning. Sarah looked away. “I’m actually one of those people who waits until the last minute. I like the gift idea to come to me naturally.”
“Really?” His surprise managed to amuse her.
“Yeah,” she admitted. “I’m terrible.”
“I would’ve thought you had your gifts all picked out in July.”
Sarah laughed. “I suppose that would make sense seeing how strict I was with the festival. But alas, there are certain things in my life I can’t manage to maintain control over.”
TEN
“Like your bakery?” The words seemed to have escaped James’s mouth before he had a chance to rein them in. He immediately realized his mistake and snapped his mouth shut, but the damage had been done.
Sarah frowned at him, uncertainty in her eyes and James backpedaled as quickly as he could. “I only mean to say that sometimes even businesses struggle. You can’t account for dips in the stock market or when suppliers change what they offer. It can be… frustrating… not to feel like you have perfect control over everything.”
“Yeah,” she muttered. “It is.”
Relief washed over him. That had been a close call. He shouldn’t have brought up her business, not with what he knew now—not after the call from the bank he’d received.
Sarah would know soon enough if she didn’t already that her bakery was being taken from her.
He felt sick at the thought of keeping this from her. Clearly, she’d seen that he was distressed by something. It wasn’t even so much the business side of things that bothered him. He worried about how she was going to take it. Her heart would be brokeninto a million pieces. The bakery was her one link to the past that she had refused to give up.
Sure, there would be several festivals to come. Annually, they’d return right along with the holiday spirit. But it wouldn’t be the same. Her sense of community was so deeply interwoven with the bakery that not even the most skilled surgeon could surgically remove them from one another.
James cleared his throat then coughed at the sour taste that remained there. “I wanted to talk to you about something. It’s really important.”
She eyed him warily, skating a few inches from him, leaving him colder than he thought possible. “James,” she warned, “please don’t do this.”
Two different sides battled it out inside him. The man who loved this woman had been divided. He needed to tell her because it wasn’t healthy to run from reality. And at the same time, he couldn’t breathe a word because she’d begged him not to.
Which side was the right one?
