Timber Lake, with its blooming wildflowers and magnificent backdrop of the surrounding mountains, shone salmon-pink in the evening light. The entire town gathered around the lake, and on center stage, Violet and her sisters played their stringed instruments festively. As far as the sisters were concerned, every year was 1945 and there was no reason to stop celebrating the end of World War II.
Julia was surprised at how much energy those three women could muster when they had an audience. Applause was like a battery to their souls.
Natalie sat with Mia on a checkered blanket, and the little girl ate a hot dog and slurped a lemonade.
“Well, you two look like you’ve had a good day.”
Mia nodded, her mouth full of food.
“That’s her third hot dog,” Natalie said. “But they’re nitrate-free. Zak had the good sense to listen to me on that.
Do you want a gluten-free cookie?” Natalie lifted her picnic basket.
“Uh, no thanks.” Julia tried to find the best way to tell Natalie she’d be leaving town.
“I think I’ve really perfected it this time.”
“I’m sure they’re great. I have to watch my waistline, you know.” She patted her tummy. “Can’t bend over a big belly and give a proper facial.”
“Julia Bourne, you don’t have an ounce of fat on you either. You and Reese seem determined to make the rest of us believe you’re not perfect.”
“I’m definitely not perfect. I don’t want a cookie, Nat.”
Julia looked over and noticed Zak behind a portable barbecue flipping hamburgers. He smiled at her, and her stomach fluttered. “Zak never said he’d be here. I thought he’d be working on the renovations.”
“Everyone needs a break, and this is his way of giving back to the community. I think it’s awesome he’s here,”
Natalie said. “Did you go by and see the work he and Carson did?”
“Oh yeah. It’s great. I mean, they’ve really outdone themselves. But, Nat, I need to tell you something. Well, you and Reese and Shelby too.”
“I thought you were bringing your facial supplies to do skin consultations. Didn’t you tell me that?”
“I was going to, but I have a confession to make, and you’re not going to like it, so I didn’t want to bring anything you might use as a weapon.”
“Well, today would have been perfect to introduce the town to what you do. Carson said the spa is going to be ready by August. Aren’t you amazed how these men have come through for the romance destination? I’m so proud of them, because they’ve come such a long way in their thinking.
They’re not too proud to admit when they’re wrong. Says a lot about the men of Smitten. Personally, I think there’re no better men on earth.”
“Hmm. If I were dating a man like Carson, I might feel that way too.” Julia became sidetracked by a gaggle of ducks around a small boy who fed them pieces of his hamburger bun. “I’ll miss it here.”
“Julia?”
“Huh?”
“Don’t you think the men have come a long way?”
“Totally,” she agreed.
“The whole town has come so far,” Natalie continued.
“I’m delighted when I look at how quaint Main Street looks with its twinkling lights at night and the flower boxes all perfectly kept. The way Carson and Zak are working together to renovate . . . It’s like this town knows how to be there for each other.”
“Uh-huh,” Julia said absently.
“I heard next year on the Fourth we’re going to have a hot-air balloon parade. It’s going to be something.”
Julia stared up into the clear blue sky. “Natalie, I’m not staying.”
“For the fireworks? Do you know how hard Carson worked to pull together this show on a shoestring budget? Of course you’re staying. Sit down. We’ve got room on the blanket. Mia, honey, move over and make room for Julia.”
“No, I mean in Smitten. I’m not staying in Smitten. I had an offer today from Devlin. He wants me to open a new spa in New York and—I took it as a sign.”
“A bigger sign than Zak and Carson building you a spa? A bigger sign than Zak going on the Internet and ordering you bamboo massage tables? A bigger sign than that?”
Mia put down her soda can and shook her head. “No, that’s not where you’re supposed to be, Miss Julia.”
“Mia, you little sweetheart. I wish I had your faith, honey, but I just—well, there are reasons that you’re too little to understand. Miss Julia has to earn a living and be independent in ways that I’m not sure Smitten can provide for me.
I provide a service that I’m not sure the people of Smitten need.”
“Then the tourists need it, isn’t that right, Aunt Nat? I saw the wreath on the door at Zak’s.” Mia stood up. “Do you know what it means, Miss Julia? It stands for eternity. ’Cause God will always take care of us.”
“Help me out here, Nat,” Julia said.
Natalie’s lips flattened. “You’re on your own. We’ve all done our parts. Zak made space for you, and he and Carson are working their tails off to get that spa ready for you. How can you be so selfish as to walk out on us now? Carson!” she called out. “Carson, can you take Mia to find Reese and Shelby? Julia needs to talk to all of us.”
“Sure,” Carson said, and the hulking man lifted Mia as if she were no more than a packet of sugar, then went off into the crowd.
“I’m not running away, and I haven’t told my parents yet, but I can send them money this way and they can enjoy their retirement years. Nat, you have Mia and Carson here for you.
There’s a reason for you to stay and make it work. What’s here for me? Zak’s ever-revolving door of girlfriends? And a spa with no clients that smells like barbecued ribs? This isn’t right.”
“That’s what this is about—Zak? Your mind moves quicker than mercury, and when it does, you don’t make wise decisions. You run, but part of relationships is sticking around when it gets tough.”
“I can’t go there every day, Nat. I love Zak,” she admitted.
“He’s doing my brother a favor, and he thinks it’s cute to flirt with me, when it breaks my heart. I wish I wasn’t so weak, but I am. I don’t want to watch him date and marry someone else.
I’m not like you, Nat. I don’t have your fortitude.”
“Have you told him you love him? I’ll let you go without another word if you’ve told him.”
“I can’t tell him that. I’d never hear the end of it. My brother always told me to leave him alone, that he wasn’t interested. Maybe that’s what draws me to him. I never was very good at doing what I was told.”
Natalie laughed. “Are you serious? Oh my goodness, the drama. Girl!”
“What’s so funny?” Reese came alongside them in her track pants and red, white, and blue T-shirt. Reese always appeared as if she might be forced at gunpoint to run a 10k at any given moment. “Hey, Julia, where’s your stuff? I wanted my free skin consultation.”
“She didn’t bring it. Julia thinks Zak put together a spa for her because he feels guilty, and she’s threatening to go back to New York where the Devil man offered her her own spa.”
“What? First off, what would Zak have to feel guilty about?” Reese asked. “Besides, have you met Zak? He’s not exactly the type to do anything he doesn’t want to do. Can you say problems with authority?”
Shelby appeared then with Penelope in a red, white, and blue rhinestone collar. “What’s going on?”
“Julia thinks Zak built the spa because Greg asked him to do it so she wouldn’t go back to New York and leave her parents alone to worry about both of them. She gets out guilt-free, and Zak is stuck with half a spa.”
Now Reese laughed, and Julia felt her face getting warm.
“Julia, your father worries about his cable going out and if his dinner is on time. Get real. He can live without you.
Your mother is doing fine.”
“Reese, I’d expect you of all people to understand. Do you like how everyone looks at you with those puppy dog eyes because they think you’re not over Sawyer Smitten?”
“Well, no. But, Julia, what Nat is trying to tell you is that Zak’s in love with you. That’s why he built the spa. We think maybe Carson getting himself a girlfriend gave Zak some gumption,” Reese said.
“And we think he can’t go after you because he promised Greg something. But you can go after him. That’s our theory, so go put it to the test.” Shelby nodded toward the grill.
Now it was Julia who laughed. “Zak Grant? In love with me? Ha! He had a funny way of showing it with Amy Hastings all those years.”
“He didn’t know it! He sees himself as the Lone Ranger, the man who doesn’t need a woman. That doesn’t mean he’s not going to move heaven and earth to keep you near him. The two of you are both so stubborn. Neither one of you thinks you need another living soul, and rather than admit that as a weakness, you run and he makes excuses like ‘doing what Greg wants.’
Greg’s across the world—he’s not the boss of you.”
“Well, that kind of love doesn’t do anybody any good.”
“So tell him that!” Reese said.
Natalie, Shelby, and Reese dared her with their darkened brows and laser stares.
“You want me to tell him that? Fine, I’ll tell him that.
I’ve got nothing to lose, right? I’ll be in New York by week’s end.”
“That’s right, nothing to lose. Not if you’re going back to New York,” Natalie said.
“I’m going to.” Julia pretended to stand up, but Reese stood and lifted her from the picnic blanket.
“We’re waiting,” Reese said.
“I’m gonna do it,” she said, but inwardly she wondered what she could say to Zak to get the desired reaction for the girls. Maybe she could just ask him for a hug and tell the girls he said they were just friends.
“Oh, for crying out loud, I’ll do it.” Natalie stood up.
“No!” Julia cried. “I’ll go.” She walked across the grass that surrounded Timber Lake and willed her mind to think of something to say as she approached. She pulled her hair back into a makeshift ponytail and tied it in a knot. She stood across the large, iron barbecue from Zak, a plume of smoke between them.
Zak cranked the grill up and away from the fire, and the smoke lessened. “Julia, you hungry?”
“No . . . well, yeah. Maybe.”
“Hot dog or hamburger?” He bent into the smoke. “I’ve got some ribs for special folks. You want some ribs?”
She smiled. “A hot dog is fine. I heard they have no nitrates.”
He handed her a plate with a grin. “Sergeant Natalie has spoken. I guess you heard. The condiments are over there on that checkered table.”
“I like mustard,” she said for some unknown reason. He nodded as though she were simple, and for that moment she supposed she was.
“I like mustard too.”
“And pie. You like my mom’s pie with vanilla ice cream and Cool Whip.”
“That’s right. I do. Did you happen to bring me some?”
He moved around the grill and looked at her legs. “I also like it served in stilettos.” He winked.
“Ballet flats this evening, for the fireworks,” she said.
“Hard to walk in the grass in stilettos.”
“It’s hard to walk anywhere in Smitten in stilettos. Not that this ever stopped you.”
“Pie. I, uh . . . no, I didn’t bring any pie, but my mom made some. Peach. If, you know. If you want to come by after the fireworks, I could serve you some.”
“In stilettos?”
She turned to look back at her friends.
“Julia, is there something you want to say to me?”
She met the warmth in his eyes and became lost in the way they crinkled at the edges, and he conjured one dimple on his left cheek from years of his crooked smile.
“Nothing. Thanks for the hot dog.”
“No, no. You’re not getting away that easily. Spill it. I have half a spa in my restaurant that says you owe me the truth.”
She stared at the pink of the hot dog. “You really know how to barbecue, don’t you?”
“Julia.”
“I don’t really want to go to New York,” she blubbered.
“But I’m afraid to stay.”
“Smitten is your home. Why would you be afraid to stay?”
“Because I love you, Zak. Not like a big brother, and not like a friend. I love you like someone I want to be around me for the rest of my life, and if you can’t see me as more than Greg’s little sister, I don’t want to stay and be hurt day after day.”
“I have been waiting an eternity for you to say those words to me.” He put the utensil down and took the hot dog from her and placed it on a nearby table. “John, can you man the grill for a minute?”
“Yeah, no problem,” his friend answered.
“What if I can’t make the spa work, and your business fails because of me?”
Zak raked his fingers into Julia’s hair and placed his palms on her cheeks. “Julia, I wouldn’t care if we both failed, if you were by my side—but I don’t think that would happen.”
She sniffled. “No, don’t flirt with me. You’ll only make it worse. I know you promised my brother that you’d look after me, but—”
“I also promised your brother that I wouldn’t court you until he got home and could see my intentions were right, but I don’t intend to keep that promise, so I’m not as honorable as you give me credit for. I think I may have stretched the truth to a man in uniform. A man I respect greatly.”
She dared not smile. “You’re teasing me. Like you used to do when I was little and I’d watch you and Greg go out for the night. You’d muss my hair up and leave.”
“No, not teasing. Julia, I have loved you for as long as I can remember. I found hundreds of excuses to tell myself it wasn’t true, because it wasn’t convenient. I tried the concept of honor. Sometimes I chose anger. I blamed you when you left for New York and decided that you were shallow, just like Amy. Once I even decided if you couldn’t bake a pie like your mother, you weren’t worthy of such devotion.”
She felt the warmth of his words and snuggled into the crook of his neck, which smelled like barbecue smoke. She felt the vibrations of his voice in his chest.
“But the more reasons I thought of, the more I realized I couldn’t picture anyone else by my side for the long haul, and it was either you or eternal bachelorhood.”
“The long haul?”
“It totally caught me by surprise, when you brought that New York idiot into my town, how I didn’t want any other man investing in your business. It made me crazy, and before I knew it, I’d jumped on the opportunity to cut my grill in half and build you a spa. I ran out of excuses at that point, don’t you think?”
“You didn’t say anything this morning when I told you I was leaving for New York.”
“I know your parents. I know where your fear of being controlled comes from, Julia. I felt disgusted that I hadn’t given you a choice on the spa—just started building it like you’d do what you were told. I was controlling things to get them the way I wanted them, and that isn’t love. I decided I had to let you go if that’s what you wanted.”
“But somehow you knew I didn’t.”
“I had faith. I had faith enough for both of us.” He pulled her closer and lifted her chin. He pressed his lips to hers.
The outside world faded away as she lived in the moment she’d dreamt about since eighth grade. All right, maybe sixth grade.
“I thought the fireworks weren’t supposed to start until it got dark,” she said.
“These fireworks aren’t going away if I have anything to say about it.”
She heard her friends screaming encouragement in the background, and their shouts made her laugh.
“Sounds like my friends have something to say about it too.”
She snuggled into Zak’s embrace, and it was so much better than she’d imagined it all those years. She saw Mia smiling at her, and she realized the beautiful gift of Smitten’s faith in God, led by a little child. Sometimes Julia ran low on faith, as if God’s grace might dry up like Sugarcreek Mountain in the summer, but God’s grace was unrelenting and overflowing. She smiled broadly toward her friends, thankful that when she’d run dry on faith, she could rely on God and the faith of others to fill her up again. She didn’t have to walk alone. Sometimes, trusting in God meant trusting in the people he had placed in her life. Besides . . . independence was overrated.