“Hey, it’s all right,” Ryan murmurs, running his hands down my back. “What’s going on? Wait—” He pulls away; his forehead is wrinkled with concern. “Xander gave you the job, right? That asshole better—”

“Yes, he did—not that he had any choice,” I say, then bury my face in Ryan’s chest again. “What were you thinking? Quitting your job for me? Why would you ever think that’s a good idea?”

He exhales and holds me tighter, kissing the top of my head. “Because you deserved to win, Josie. You’re the reason we started working together in the first place—otherwise you would’ve crushed me.”

“But I can’t take your job!” I hiccup, wiping my eyes. “You love that store—you’ve worked there since you were fifteen years old!”

“And I think it’s time for me to move on.”

Alarm flickers through me, and I look up at him. “What do you mean, move on?”

“Come in and I’ll explain,” he says, taking my hand. He closes the door behind me and leads me to his couch, where we both sit. He leans forward, elbows on knees. “Remember when I told you about my friend who offered me a job at their new bookstore in Provincetown?”

Yes, but he told me about it way back in Maine, before we agreed to work together.

“What about it?”

“I called my friend and…” He hesitates, then presses on. “I’m going to drive down there to check it out this weekend. See the space, meet some of the other booksellers, talk details with Gretchen.”

Shock ricochets through me, and I straighten. “Wait, what? You’re taking that job?”

“It’s the perfect opportunity for me,” he says, not meeting my eyes. “There aren’t any other romance bookstores in Boston.”

“But it’s two hours away! Would you just…move there?”

He gives a slow nod, and my heart plummets. “My lease is up at the end of next month. Gretchen has a room I can rent until I find my own space. But I’ll come here on my days off, and you can visit me anytime. Plus we can always chat online like we’ve been doing for months, and we can FaceTime, too.”

I blink; it sounds like he’s worked all this out. Has this been his backup plan the whole time? The thought makes my lungs constrict. While I was putting everything into us working together, he had a safety net?

“And I—” He hesitates before clearing his throat and continuing. “I think maybe it’ll be good if I’m out of your way as you get the new store up and running. You need the freedom to run things according to your vision—”

“We had a vision together, Ryan. Remember?”

“I know, but unfortunately, that didn’t work out.”