Of course Ash would have to be at the farmers’ market.
Juniper had gotten into the car, steering it toward the farm until she’d looked at the dashboard clock and realized what time and day it was. Ash wasn’t going to be at the farm right now.
It was market time, when a huge crowd of people would surround him, browsing through the stalls and wanting his attention as they asked about the apples and the cabbages or wanting to buy something.
Declaring she loved him and wanted to be his wife—really be his wife—in the middle of all that would be a terrible idea. But if she waited to tell him how she felt, she might fall apart. She was vibrating with the need to tell him, to embrace him, to make everything right between them. She couldn't wait. Not a single second.
She might be able to catch a quiet moment with him, between customers. It wouldn’t take long; all she had to do was say, “I was wrong, I love you, and I need us to be together,” then wait for his response.
If she hadn’t been driving, she would have buried her face in her hands. It sounded easy, but the wait for his response was going to be agonizing. And if he told her to leave…
Well, she’d prove her love, her determination to him. She wasn’t giving up easily. Now that she’d realized she wanted him, she wasn’t going to stop at anything.
Unless.
A terrifying, brilliant idea came to her. One that made her want to pull over the car and throw up.
But an idea she was slowly realizing she had to make happen.
When she finally pulled into the library parking lot, she was shaking. This was going to spectacularly backfire. If she thought she was gossiped about before, it would be nothing compared to what would happen after this.
But she had to prove herself to Ash. She had no watch to give him, only this insane idea of hers.
She found Leonora Harper, the librarian in charge of the market, at the entrance to the rows of stalls. Ash’s stall was near the end, thank goodness. He couldn’t see her from here.
“Leonora!” Juniper gave a wild wave.
“Uh, hi.” Leonora was surprised but trying not to look so. She was too much the professional for that.
“Is there a PA system here?” Juniper looked at where a band had set up near one of the stalls. “Or that. Can I use that?”
Leonora put a hand on Juniper’s arm. “Honey, do you want to come inside and sit? Maybe take a rest?” Her tone was patient—and patronizing.
Juniper tried not to roll her eyes. “Look, I know this seems crazy but it’s—okay, maybe it is insane, some. But I need to talk to Ash. Only, I need to talk to him in front of everyone. I need to prove it.”
Leonora’s mouth opened, but nothing came out. She closed it, gave Juniper a twisted-eyed look, and then tried again. “This really isn’t the place for a…” She bit her lip. “A domestic situation,” she finished delicately.
“It’s not that. I promise it’s not that.” Juniper swallowed, her heart skittering through her chest. “I have to tell him how I feel. I have to prove it. And if I say it in front of everyone, he’ll know I can’t take it back. Do you understand?”
“Oh.” Leonora put a hand to her mouth. “Oh. I do understand. But, Juniper, there are maybe a hundred people out there. Are you sure?”
“No, not really.” Juniper pulled up a shaky grin. “Which is why I have to do it.”
There was a pause. Finally Leonora grinned back. “Knock yourself out then.”
The microphone squealed with feedback when Juniper picked it up, catching the attention of everyone in the market, or at least it seemed that way.
Juniper froze. People she knew from high school were probably out there, people who hated her mom, people whose kids went to school with Owen—everyone who’d ever judged her before.
They were all watching her, every single person in Cabrillo even if they weren’t all here. Once she did this, the news would spread fast.
But Ash was here too somewhere. Probably just behind that stand selling the hand-carved animals if her mental map of the market was correct.
They might all be watching, but she’d be talking to Ash. That was all she needed to focus on. All that mattered.
She took a deep breath and raised the microphone to her mouth. Thankfully, it didn’t squeal this time.
“Hi, everyone. I’m Juniper Gries.” She waggled her fingers at the people closest to her, feeling like a fool. “Or, uh, Warner. Juniper Gries Warner. I think. We didn’t really go over the names issue.”
She shook her head. That was… None of that mattered. She was babbling already.
“Some of you know me from high school,” she went on, praying that it wasn’t actually true. “Or maybe from the Ranch Kitchen or maybe even from my son’s school. You might… you might also know that I’m married to Ash Warner. He’s the devastatingly handsome man running the produce stand.”
There were several titters, and Juniper’s cheeks heated. She hadn’t meant it as a joke—Ash’s looks really did devastate her. And he’d just heard her confess that to everyone here.
“Um, so yeah, I’m married to him. Which I said.” She was getting to the hard part, and running her mouth into nonsense was easier than saying it.
People were slowing now, their attention turning toward her, their eyes wide with curiosity. Her stomach twisted.
“Anyway, the reason why I’m saying all this here is because I needed some witnesses. Because…” She swallowed hard. “Because I was wrong and I hurt him. You see, I love him. I’m… I’m in love with him. Desperately.”
The entire market had come to a standstill like a life-size diorama, all these people who thought they were merely buying crafts and heirloom tomatoes now frozen with shock. She didn’t blame them.
Ash didn’t appear though. Surely he had to have heard that. People halfway across the valley must have heard her say that.
Hell, maybe it wasn’t enough. She had to go on.
“I love him, but I had this plan you see.” She gestured toward the plan before her, imaginary and invisible. “It wasn’t just for me, it was for my son too. I love Ash, but I needed this plan.” She put her fist into her chest, needing them—Ash—to understand that.
“I needed to make a new life for us,” she explained. “What I didn’t realize was that a new life was waiting for me with Ash. It won’t be perfect or clean or an entirely fresh start like I’d imagined. But I won’t need that if I have Ash.”
There. She’d confessed most of it. Confessed that her plan wasn’t happening. That in the end, she didn’t want it.
She wanted him.
But Ash still wasn’t coming. Either he wasn’t here… or he was, and she was too late.
She wiped her palm on her thigh, gathered herself to tell the rest of it. Maybe he was only waiting for the rest of it.
“But I didn’t realize until after I left him. He tried to tell me, but… Well, I’m stubborn. He claims he likes it though.”
There were softer laughs then. But the overall mood was one of unease. This woman was pouring her heart out to them, and nothing was happening. Was something supposed to happen?
Juniper sure as hell hoped something would happen.
“So, I was wrong. I was wrong to leave him, to doubt that… to doubt that he loved Owen.” Her throat closed as tears choked her. “But I was afraid.”
She looked out over the crowd, but the face she wanted to see didn’t appear. “I am afraid.”
Still no sign of Ash. There was nothing more for her to confess; her love, her fear, her stubbornness were out there for him to take or leave.
She prayed he would take her. That having seen the worst of her impulses and heard her own up to them, he’d take her back.
Time seemed to slow, with the crowd waiting. And waiting. Then one by one, people turned away. Turned from the spectacle that had fizzled out and went about their business.
But Juniper had nowhere to go. She could only wait here, alone, possibly rejected.
The crowd thinned, moving again. The very last face turned from her. No one was watching her now.
She let the microphone fall from her hand, landing in the open guitar case beside her. She was too late. She’d failed.
He was here. He had to be. He’d heard all that… and he’d decided not to come.
Juniper couldn’t move. She was numb, frozen. Heartbroken.
And then there he was.
He was wearing a T-shirt that strained across his biceps, snug jeans, and his fertilizer cap, and he was coming toward her at a fast clip. His jaw was rock hard, and his gaze was feral.
Every emotion rioting through her ran across her skin. She wouldn’t be surprised if her hair was standing on end.
Then he was in front of her, and her hair really did stand on end. She could see the little freckle under his eye, the green highlights running through the brown of his irises, the small hairs making up the stubble on his face. All of it, every small detail, making up the man she loved.
“Juniper.” He put a hand to her cheek and the other at the small of her back. “You don’t have to be afraid. I’m here.”
When he kissed her, it was a celebration, a joyous jubilee of love and contentment and happiness. She even heard cheering in her head.
Wait. No, that was real cheering. From the crowd.
She buried her face in his chest, which was shaking. The man was laughing.
“I’m glad this is funny to you,” she mumbled.
“I’m happy.” He tipped her face up to his. “So happy.”
His expression was lit with his happiness, the crinkles near his eyes deep and pleased. She was happy too, but her nerves hadn’t quite stopped vibrating yet.
“What took you so long?” she asked. If he was so happy, why’d he leave her hanging like that?
“I wanted to hear the whole thing.” He pressed a kiss to her temple. “It was pretty good.”
She put her hands on his chest and put space between them. “I poured my heart out, and it’s only pretty good?”
He leaned into her ear, easily closing the gap again. “I’ll tell you later exactly what I thought of it. We have an audience now.”
That sounded… promising. And hot. But she needed him to understand, all of it.
“I had to prove myself to you,” she said. “The way you did with the watch.”
“Honey, you never had to prove anything to me.” His chest moved under her cheek, deep and steady. “I was coming to get you tonight anyway. And carry you off like a caveman. You said you want strong—well, you would have gotten it.”
“Really?” She peered up at him. “Even after I told you I was leaving?”
“I spent five years watching you and never doing anything. Once I finally got you to marry me, once you finally fell in love with me, I wasn’t going to make the same mistake.”
“I thought you married me for my water.”
“I did. But I also married you for yourself.”
That was… that was so lovely it made her chest ache. “I love you too.”
“I know.” Ash said it not as an arrogant deflection but as confirmation that he’d heard everything she’d said. Both into the microphone and to him now.
She laid her head on his chest, ready to stay like that forever. He’d always be there, a hand at her back, supporting her, sheltering her—
“Um, I’m really sorry, but could I get to my stuff?”
Juniper turned in Ash’s arms to see one very confused musician staring at them. Crap, she’d forgotten there was an entire market going on around them. And that she’d commandeered this poor man’s stuff.
“Sure. Right.” She reluctantly pulled herself away from Ash. “I’ll see you at home then.”
“Yeah. I’d better get back to my stall.” But his arms hadn’t entirely released her, and he looked poised to sweep in and kiss her. Not that she would have protested even with everyone looking on.
“And I’ve got to tell Owen.” She smiled up at him, sharing their love for that kid. “He’ll be so excited.”
Ash grinned back at her for a long moment. Then he frowned and asked the one question that convinced her she’d been entirely right to entrust him with her heart and her son’s:
“Who’s watching Owen right now?”