EVERYTHING ABOUT THE Red Sled Holiday Bazaar had come together better than Lila could have ever imagined.
She had to credit Keira and JJ for their help. They had doubled the flowers that she had created, and now, bright brilliant blooms were everywhere, linked by garlands done up in fall colors, tied with spectacular burlap ribbon.
There was apple cider, apple bobbing and apple cake. There was pumpkin-spice coffee and pumpkin-spice beer, and pumpkin-spice bread that Lila had been told was superb.
Kiera had a cart set up, and was making coffee as fast as she could, handing it out in cheerful blue cups that said June’s on the side.
The felted animals were selling at a good clip from booth seven, and all of the ladies with their crafts seemed to have forgotten about the rivalry to get that booth, as they were all being particularly successful.
Indeed, the bazaar had drawn a near record crowd this year.
Tourists driving in from Copper Ridge, Jacksonville and Gold Valley. A great many people had made the trek down from the Portland metro area, too.
There was a band playing country music outside the barn, and a dance floor, with heaters set up around it so that people could have a good time without freezing to death.
It was a great and grand kickoff of the holiday season. With decor fit for Halloween, Thanksgiving and going all the way to Hanukkah and Christmas. For Lila, though, the success was somewhat muted.
Here she was in Everett’s barn, holding a piece of apple cake in her hand that she couldn’t bring herself to take a bite of, staring at booth number seven, not because the felted animals were cute, but because she and Everett had made love on that booth.
She had sanitized it. Because she was thoughtful that way.
But that didn’t erase the memories.
Someone looped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a light squeeze. She looked to the left, at JJ, who stood a good four inches taller than she did.
“You okay?”
“I will be.”
She looked around and saw Lora and Ellie running around the barn, Cade keeping watch over them like a paranoid hawk.
Lila reached into her purse and pulled out the two felted mice that Ms. Jones had gifted to her.
“Here,” Lila said, handing them to JJ.
“What are these?” JJ asked, looking askance at her. “I don’t want your rodents.”
“They’re for Lora and Ellie. They should have them.”
“Thank you,” JJ said, clearly still in deep unwant of them, but obviously willing to have them for the girls’ sake.
“Tell them they’re from Aunt Lila. And that...I want to see them more. I think... I think I want to move here. I’ve been thinking, JJ. I know that none of this went exactly the way I wanted it to. But...this did,” she said, gesturing around the barn. “The arrangements, your flowers. I think we could really have something. I don’t want to go back to the florist’s in Portland and work for someone else. I want to build something with you. I want to be...here. Where the best part of our childhood was. And I want to be near you and Keira. Because you’re my family. The only real family that I have. And...whatever happens with Everett, that’s not going to change.”
JJ pulled her in and gave her a hug. “I want that, too,” she said. “Really. Everything down to the flower shop. As long as you deal with the people.”
“I’m happy to deal with the people.”
“Good. Because I’m not. I’d rather dig in the dirt.”
“That’s fine with me. I mean, that’s what makes us a good team. That we’re different.”
JJ grinned. “Yeah. I guess that is what makes us a good team.”
Then she took the mice over to Lora and Ellie, who squealed, and Lila had a feeling that JJ and Cade were going to end up buying quite a few more from Ms. Jones before the day was up.
It took Lila a moment to realize that the music had stopped. Suddenly all she could hear was the sound of voices rising up over the crowd. “Excuse me for a moment.”
That was when she heard Everett.
She blinked, beating a hasty retreat out of the barn, and to the stage area.
“Hi, Lila,” Everett said.
He was standing on a stage. And she could think of nothing that Everett McCall would like less than to be standing on a stage.
“What are you doing?” she hissed.
“I have a little bit of public humiliation to engage in. Though, whether or not it ends up humiliation might be up to you.”
A whole crowd had gathered now, people filtering out from the barn to come out and watch what was about to happen.
“Lila Frost,” Everett said. “You have told me that you loved me in good faith more than once now. And I was too much of a fool to recognize that it was the thing I needed most. I see that now. I hope it isn’t too late. I love you, Lila. I want to marry you. I want to have babies with you. All those things I said I didn’t want, I want them, because it would be with you.”
A ripple went through the crowd, and Lila was part of that ripple. Because she couldn’t believe it. She knew that most people in town wouldn’t believe that staid, steady Everett McCall was confessing his love to airy fairy Lila Frost.
Frankly, neither could Lila.
“This can’t be real,” she said.
“It is,” he said, still speaking into the microphone. “It is, and I’m going to stand up here and keep on telling you that I love you until you give me an answer. Until I embarrass us both, which really wasn’t the idea, because I’m trying to even the playing field.”
“I love you,” she shouted. “I love you, even though you were a little bit of a... Well, you were a jerk.” She would’ve said a stronger word, but there were children present.
“Will you marry me?” he asked.
“Yes!”
She scampered up to the stage, flung her arms around his neck, kissing him, hard.
He dropped the microphone. “You were right,” he murmured. “I was scared. But my love for you is bigger than fear. And it’s what I want. More than my ranch or my horses. More than what I considered to be success. I’m not a success if I don’t have you, Lila Frost. And that’s the God’s honest truth.”
“I love you,” she said, kissing him again.
And she looked around, and saw everyone watching them, the whole town witnessing her triumph. And right there in the front were Keira and JJ. And, somehow, she felt like Grandma June was probably watching, too.
She had always believed. In her heart she’d believed that she could be loved. That the world was beautiful, even though it was hard sometimes. That if you just hoped, and kept on hoping, your day would come.
It was even better, though. She’d learned over these past weeks. It was more than hope, more than optimism. If you were willing to take a chance, if you were willing to change, if you could reach down deep and find a way to heal some of your own hurts, you could free yourself up to hold a lot more love.
“I guess sometimes you have to do things you don’t like to have the one thing that you need,” he said.
“I guess so.”
“And you know what...? You were the one, after all.”
She’d been right all along. Her heart that was too big, too loving, too soft, hadn’t been any of those things, after all. It had been true, and it had been for him.
And it had been just right all along.
“And so were you.”