by Abby Tyler
She’d returned to rehab for a week about a month ago after encountering some people she used to know at the grocery store. But it was working. They took everything one day at a time.
“Here you go,” Jenica said. She could make a pizza almost as well as Louisa now, having been well trained. “One of these days, you’re going to have to open an actual pizza shop,” she said.
Now that was a crazy idea. “Maybe,” Louisa said.
Ella was making circles around the coffee table behind her, holding on to the wood surface to keep her balance. She was nine months old and into cruising around the furniture.
“Ba ba,” she babbled, her eyes lighting up at seeing Louisa.
The park party could wait another moment. Louisa walked over to pick up Ella and give her a big smooch on the cheek. “Auntie Louisa is here, baby girl. How’s my scrumptious love?”
Ella answered with more babble. Louisa gave her a big squeeze and set her back down to hold on to the coffee table again.
“You need to get going,” Jenica said.
“Okay, okay.” She took the boxes and raced out the door.
Leaves trickled down from the rapidly emptying tree branches as she drove to the park. They were on the brink of winter, but this Fall day was glorious and only slightly chilly.
When she got to the pavilion, cars were everywhere. What was this party? It must be a bunch of out-of-towners. It was almost impossible to have a gathering of this size in Applebottom without Louisa knowing about it. With her pizza delivery resumed, she definitely had her ear to the ground for any town gossip.
But the toppings to these pizzas hadn’t given anything away.
She wasn’t going to find a parking spot anywhere close, she feared. And she had eight boxes of pizza to carry. Great.
But as she drove through the lot to turn around, she spotted an empty one right at the end. Amazing. Someone must’ve left early. She slid straight into the spot.
She hurried to the back seat to pull out the pizza boxes. Before she could even stack them, two men materialized on either side of her. “Need help with that?” one asked.
Louisa ducked back out of her car. It was Micah Livingston, the town lawyer. He stood there with Carter McBride, the football coach.
“Now wait a minute,” she said. “Is this y’all’s party? Because there aren’t any pizzas with anchovies for Micah, that’s for sure. And Carter, you haven’t ordered a pizza with meat on it in a year, but all eight of these are loaded.”
The two men exchanged a glance. “Not our party,” Micah said. “We didn’t order the pizza.”
“Or there would have been a veggie one,” Carter added.
Louisa watched them with suspicion as she passed over the boxes and the carrier.
“The name on the order was Bartholomew. There isn’t one of those in Applebottom, period,” she said. “Who is he?”
“Just follow us,” Micah said.
Louisa closed her door.
As they approached the pavilion, Louisa recognized every single person. Had they closed the whole town? Gertrude and Maude were there. And Betty. Topher and Danny. Delilah. Janine. Arnold the barber. That was every single shop on Town Square.
“What in the world?” she muttered. Now she felt a lead weight in her belly. Why hadn’t she been invited to this?
And, dang, there were way more people than eight pizzas were going to feed. These weren’t fishes and loaves, and she was definitely not Jesus.
When they made it to the front tables, she realized her pizzas were just part of the spread. T-bone was spearing great hunks of meat from the grill and onto platters. Bowls of potato salad, fruit, vegetables, and dip looked as if they came from half the kitchens in town.
Louisa fidgeted with her hair, which was pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing old jeans and a polka-dot top from the 90s. She hadn’t expected to see everybody she knew.
Then she spotted Jack and almost did a double take. Why was he in a suit?
“This way,” Micah said.
He led her to the last table, which was empty. He stepped up onto the seat, then the table, and held her hand as if she was supposed to climb up there, too.
“What are we doing?” Louisa asked. Oh, she wished she’d worn something else. She looked like a frumpy old lady!
“You’re coming up here,” Micah said.
“I’m not!” She didn’t want to be the center of attention!
But she had no choice in the matter. Within seconds, the other two officers of Applebottom, Jeremy and Isaac, were on either side of her and lifting her up.
She squealed, and a light laugh ran through the crowd.
“What are we doing?” she asked. “Is somebody pranking me?”
“We ought to be!” someone called out, and another laugh ran through the crowd.
Micah jumped down, and Louisa stood alone on the table. Everybody was here. A door slammed and she spotted Jenica hurrying out of the beat-up Ford Focus she’d manage to buy with her own pizza money, rushing to pull Ella out of her car seat.
Oh! She knew and hadn’t said a word!
This was the joke to end all jokes, Louisa was sure.
When Jenica had melted into the crowd beneath the pavilion, Jack approached the picnic table and climbed up to stand beside her.
“Thank goodness,” she said. “I was worried I was about to get egged. Or tarred and feathered.”
“Nobody’s going to do that,” Jack said.
“Why are you so dressed up?” she asked.
But when he got down on one knee, she knew.
Tears sprang to her eyes. “Jack?”
“Louisa James, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
He looked up at her, every last hair in place, clean-shaven, his suit and tie impeccable. He was still a man of few words, and he still liked some things to be more perfect than necessary. But he was here, accepting her in all her rushed, hair-brained messiness.
She held onto the moment, taking him in, but also letting him sweat it out a bit. If he was going to put her on the spot like this, in her worst pair of jeans, she could at least make him nervous about her answer.
The crowd shifted on their feet. A small murmur began to ripple through the pavilion.
When the first tiny bead trickled from his temple, she gave him an easy smile.
“Yes, Jack Stone. I’ll marry you.”
A great cheer went up. Jack slid a simple gold band with a lovely round diamond on her finger.
He stood then, and a burly voice shouted, “Kiss her, already!” Louisa was pretty sure it was Mayor T-bone.
And Jack obeyed, sliding a hand around her neck and drawing her close. His lips were tender and soft, and so familiar. She held onto his strong arms, letting the moment wash over her. She never thought this would happen to her. But here she was.
And every single thing about it, from her chaos to Jack’s perfection, was absolutely the way it was meant to be.
Opposites really do attract! (Eventually!)
I’m so happy for Jack and Louisa!
Love Applebottom?
See some of the characters you met here in the other Applebottom books!
Melody, the current pep squad coach who was in on the greased football at the pep rally, teams up with Delilah’s hometown hero son in Mistletoe Summer.
Carter McBride, the football coach, is the main character with Ginny (as well as her crazy untrained Great Dane) in The Perfect Disaster.
Betty’s granddaughter Lorelei helps out at Tea for Two and catches the eye of town lawyer and volunteer firefighter Micah in the Elvis-filled Irresistible Spark.
Want to learn more about the town of Applebottom? Check out their meeting minutes — just turn the page!
Applebottom Meeting Minutes
APPLEBOTTOM TOWN SQUARE PROPRIETORS
* * *
Minutes by Gertrude Vogel, secretary
* * *
Because everybody’s memory has more holes than Swiss chees
e.
* * *
Today we met at the Applebottom Pie Shoppe, owned by yours truly.
We barely even got our coffee poured when Betty Johnson, owner of Tea for Two, which doesn’t serve a single menu item that will power an old woman for more than five minutes, insisted we hear her first.
Her face was as pink as her jogging suit, which annoyingly matched the bows on her dog, which she takes everywhere, health violation or not. With her white hair all fluffed out around her widow’s peak, she looked like the ghost of a valentine cookie. Except she could stand to eat a few. If she would put away a few slices of my brownie-bottom pie, we might could get some weight on her.
Nobody trusts a skinny cook.
Maude Lewis, co-owner of Applebottom Pie Shoppe, must have been thinking the same thing, as she got up and took a chocolate refrigerator pie from the cooler. She sliced it up for everybody and our Mayor T-bone (nobody knows his real name, and we’re too scared to ask) about drooled on the tablecloth.
I took the largest piece and passed it to Betty, who tried to turn it down. But at least four hands shoved it closer to her, so she took a dainty bite like she was Scarlett O’Hara about to be laced into a corset.
Our civic duty done, we started getting chatty until Betty reminded us she had a pressing matter. She hired Sandy Miller a couple months back to decorate her cakes since her eyes weren’t so good.
Even though we’d just served the finest pie you can get in the Missouri Tri-Lakes area, she brought out a container full of her fancy little petit fours.
It’s not enough food for a bird, if you ask me, tiny little cakes barely an inch across. There’s probably not enough calories in one of those tiny cakes to keep a roach alive.
Maude nudged me to pay attention. Betty was droning on about how intricate all the floral work was on the cakes. I was about to pop her fancy schmancy rose bud right in my mouth when Maude slapped my hand! Right in front of everybody!
Betty said I was missing the point and lined up all the cakes in a row. And that’s when I saw it. Clear as a bell, the loopty loops turned into letters, which became a word.
Handsome.
I asked Betty who those cakes were for, and she said nobody special. Then she showed us pictures on her phone of an oblong torte with maybe one day hidden among the frosted leaves.
Another little round cake, if you skipped every other loop, read regret.
I said that girl probably did have a lot to regret, and Delilah told me to shut my nasty trap. Betty and Maude and the whole lot of them stared me down, so I did shut up, scrawling these here notes like I had nothing better to do.
Topher Smith-Cole of Applebottom Blossoms said it was romantic, and we should figure out who this handsome man was.
T-bone said Betty should watch the girl’s eyes, as that would give her away if the man was still around.
Betty said Sandy never came out from the back, and everybody started talking at once, saying to make her come out and this was important and finally Betty said she’d have her do some work out front. That way she could watch her eyes, like T-bone suggested.
We agreed that we’d figure it out and come up with a good way to get them together. There was nothing like a good match of two locals to make a small town proud. And we were the people to fix them right up.
We ate our pie and the petit fours, too.
Meeting adjourned.
Want to know what they’re talking about? Read about why Sandy left love notes in frosting to the town’s history teacher in the Applebottom second-chance love story The Sweetest Match.
Love Gertrude? Don’t miss her commentary on all the Applebottom weddings! Each couple has a ceremony, attended by our favorite hard-talking, curmudgeonly town matriarch! She wants to tell you ALL about it (and her opinions too!)
Fans who receive text or email messages from Abby receive an exclusive bonus epilogue of the wedding for every book!
Sign up on her web site for email or text ABBYT to 866-982-6659 (US only) for text!
Gertrude & Maude’s Blackberry Pie
CRUST
• Any two-crust pastry crust.
Gertie, it’s book six. Don’t you think we should let them have our crust recipe?
* * *
Nope.
* * *
But they’re loyal fans. They’ve bought six books! That’s not cheap!
* * *
Maude, all six together cost less than one of our pies.
* * *
Are you ever going to give it up? When it’s book ten? Or twenty?
* * *
I’ll be dead by then. You can put the crust recipe on my headstone.
FILLING
• 4 cups of fresh blackberries, whole. (If you have to use frozen, it’s just fine. Use about a bag and a half. But don’t tell Gertie. She gets testy about these things.)
* * *
• 1/2 cup sugar plus some for sprinkling
* * *
• 1/4 cup flour
* * *
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* * *
• 1 egg, beaten
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the oven to 425°F.
For the crust: Lay a circle of crust on the bottom of the pie pan. Cook the bottom crust for about 3 minutes, just long enough to harden a touch. This will keep the bottom of the pie from being soggy. (Maude, whose crust are you calling soggy?) (Nobody’s, Gertie. I’m just saying if you don’t harden up the crust a bit, it’ll get soggier than your attitude.)
For the filling: Combine the sugar and flour in a large bowl.
Add the blackberries and lemon juice and stir gently to avoid softening the berries. (If only we could put Gertie in a bowl and soften her up.) (Can it, Maude. Not everybody can be a softie like you.)
Place the filling onto the bottom crust of the pie. (Don’t forget to cook it a bit or you’ll get a soggy bottom like Maude.) (Gertrude Vogel! Be nice!)
Cover with your top crust. You can do any sort of decorative crust. Lattice isn’t our favorite for this pie because of the uneven way it will cook, but the choice is yours. We made a pretty heart cut out crust for ours as it holds the berries in and doesn’t let them dry out.
Beat the egg and brush it over the top of your crust. Sprinkle with sugar. (Imagine it’s Gertie, and it needs a lot of sweetening up.)
Place the pie in the oven at 425°F and then immediately drop the temperature to 350°F.
Bake 15 minutes at 350°F then cover the edges with foil to prevent overbrowning. (Like the one in that picture up top! Maude, why didn’t you redo the pie?) (It’s fine, Gertie. Not every pie has to be perfect.) (Says you.)
Bake another 30 minutes.
Enjoy your pie and don’t miss more of Gertrude and Maude and their recipes in the next Applebottom book Belated Kiss !
About Abby Tyler
Abby Tyler loves puppy dogs, pie, and small towns (she grew up in one!) Her Applebottom books combine the sweet and wholesome style of romance she loves with the funny, sometimes a-little-too-truthful characters she remembers from growing up in a place where everyone knew everybody’s business.
Join her email or text list for a bonus epilogue for every book, a wedding scene narrated by Gertrude!
* * *
The Applebottom books include:
The Sweetest Match
The Perfect Disaster
The Irresistible Spark
The Unexpected Shelter
Mistletoe Summer
The Special Delivery
Belated Kiss
with many more planned!
%); filter: grayscale(100%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share
