by Ann Omasta
Understanding dawned in Noah’s expression just before he nodded solemnly and said, “Yes, let’s head over to my residence where we can sit comfortably.”
He locked the front door of the office, then led us through a hallway that connected to his modern farmhouse kitchen. After he brewed a pot of coffee and delivered the steaming mugs to us, along with a plate of chocolate chip cookies, he sat down with us at the oversized, reclaimed wood dining room table.
I couldn’t resist teasing him as I grabbed a cookie. “You’ve grown so domesticated.”
Noah shook his head before answering, “Part of the charm of working in a small town is that payment is prompt and often includes baked goods as a bonus.”
After Avery took a bite of one of the cookies, she made an appreciative sound before asking, “Dr. Waters?”
“Good guess,” Noah confirmed.
Turning to me, Avery explained, “Dani and Dean’s mom has always been known for making the best chocolate chip cookies. When we were kids, half the town’s children would show up on their doorstep whenever we found out that she was baking.”
Noah and I both chuckled at the mental image of such a quaint, happy memory that was so different from the horrors we grew up enduring.
Quickly changing the tone of the conversation, Avery said, “You have my word that I will never tell another living soul anything about what really happened to your father on that fateful day, but I do have one condition.”
Noah swallowed audibly before asking, “What is it?”
“Admit out loud to the two of us that you never should have let Gage take your punishment and offer him a sincere apology,” Avery demanded.
Noah defended himself, “But he insisted on taking the blame. I didn’t ask him to do it.”
“No, but you let him rot in prison for something you did,” Avery fired back. Her eyes flashed with barely-contained fury.
I patted her hand and said, “Your protective streak is endearing, but it isn’t necessary. Noah’s right… I made the choice on my own. He didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“He had everything to do with it!” Avery practically shouted. “He’s the one who committed the crime, but you’re the one who got stuck doing the time.”
I didn’t need or expect Noah to apologize, so I wasn’t sure why it was so important to Avery. In an attempt to calm her, I said, “It doesn’t matter. It’s over now, and I’m happier than I would’ve ever dreamed could be possible for someone like me.”
“It does matter,” Noah said so quietly that I wasn’t positive he’d actually spoken the words. He stared down at the wooden tabletop as he continued, “It matters more than anything. What you did for me was something I didn’t deserve, and I can never repay you for it.”
“It’s okay. Let’s all just forget about it and move on,” I tried.
“Forget about it?” Noah’s voice was filled with barely-contained emotion. “I can’t ever forget about it or forgive myself for what happened. I killed my own father, then let you––the only man who ever actually gave a damn about me––go to prison for it.”
Noah’s face twisted into a tortured expression. “I’m the worst kind of man there is. I’m a murderer and a coward.”
“Jack got exactly what he deserved. You did what I should have done to protect our mother,” I assured the younger man.
Ignoring me, Noah squeezed his eyes tightly shut and continued, “I stayed silent and let you take the blame––even with Mom.”
The first tear fell down his cheek as he said, “I’m so sorry, Gage. Can you ever forgive me?”
“Of course,” I answered before standing and pulling my mother’s other son into a hug. We embraced for a long, emotional moment.
When we finally pulled apart, Avery broke the tension in the room by grabbing the entire plate of cookies and saying, “Well, with that heartfelt apology and this peace offering, I think we’re all good here.”
After she sauntered out of the room with her prized cookies held high, Noah said to me, “You’ve won the heart of an exceptional lady. Do whatever it takes to hold on to her.”
“I intend to,” I told him before following the outlandish, wise, and witty woman of my dreams outside.
32
Avery
Scamp seemed to sense the significant nervous energy in the room as he raced around Gage’s apartment like a little madman. Over the past several weeks, I had practically moved into Gage’s place, so we were sharing the bathroom to get ready for our big date.
My stomach turned flip-flops as I leaned in to apply a second coat of black mascara.
Gage, too, seemed to be taking extra care in getting ready as if he knew that tonight was destined to be more monumental than a simple date-night. We’d both been so busy lately between my bar exam prep and his work to get Flower Power ready to open, it felt like we’d barely seen each other.
Our conversation was stilted during the drive. Even after we were seated at our romantic corner table at Seasiders, the fanciest restaurant within forty-five minutes of our town, I was too anxious to pay close attention or come up with anything amusing to say.
When the waiter whisked away our salad plates, I excused myself before practically sprinting to the restroom. The friendly bathroom attendant foiled my plans to call Molly and freak out, so instead, I texted my best friend frantically from inside a stall. I can’t do this!!!
When the three little dots immediately lit up, I stared at the phone awaiting Molly’s sage words of wisdom. After the phone buzzed, I glared at the words on the screen, It will all work out.
What if he says no?!? I let my extra punctuation enunciate my high-strung emotions.
It took Molly a while to respond, so I hoped she was typing up the perfect advice to help me be brave and follow through on our big plan.
The night may not go exactly as you’ve planned, but I have no doubt that by the end of the evening, you’ll be delighted with the outcome.
“What the hell does that mean?” I asked aloud, forgetting that I wasn’t alone.
The bathroom attendant asked, “Excuse me, ma’am?”
“Oh, sorry. I wasn’t talking to you,” I explained.
The bewildered look the other woman gave me when I emerged from the stall let me know that she fully believed I had been talking to myself, or perhaps the toilet. I was too keyed up to pause to explain to her, so I washed my hands, accepted the warm towel she offered, left a generous tip, and scurried out of there.
I shoved my main course around my plate, certain it was probably one of the most delicious meals I’d ever been served, but unable to taste it. The dessert course of our meal was quickly approaching, and it was sure to be life-changing––hopefully in a good way.
When the waiter came to take our plates, Gage asked for the check. I quickly jumped in and asked in a squeaky tone, “What about dessert?”
“You barely touched your meal,” the waiter admonished me.
It was tempting to kick the rude man for the barely-concealed judgment in his words, but I gave him a fake smile and said, “That’s because I was saving room for dessert.”
“How about if we get dessert later?” Gage suggested.
I shook my head a little too frantically and said, “We’re already here, and I’m sure their desserts are delicious.”
“I’m too full to even think about eating anything right now,” Gage said.
I narrowed my eyes at him because the man had barely eaten any more of his meal than I had.
After giving the waiter an overexaggerated wink, I said, “I think it’s time for the big finish.”
The formal man looked down at me as if I’d grown a second head. He obviously didn’t have any idea what I was talking about. Had Molly failed to call the restaurant to make the proper arrangements or had the restaurant’s management not gotten the word out to our waiter?
Either way, it was a frustrating snafu, but I was determined to see this through. I would just hav
e to go forward without the planned string quartet serenading us in the background.
After clearing my throat, I said, “Gage, I have something important to––“
“Let’s go!” the love of my life interjected in the middle of my big planned speech.
I blinked blankly at him, unable to believe how horribly wrong this was going.
“But I wanted to ask you something,” I hinted, not bothering to hide my hurt feelings in my tone.
Gage placed some crisp bills on the table to cover the bill before suggesting, “Ask me later.”
I glared up at him as he stood, put on his coat, and said, “It’s getting late. Let’s get out of here.”
My gaze darted to the window. It wasn’t even starting to get dark yet. Sounding as perplexed as I felt, I asked, “Late?”
Rather than answering me, Gage took my hand and led me outside to his truck. While he was rounding the back of his vehicle after closing me inside, I said to the empty cab, “Well, that couldn’t have gone much worse.”
Silence permeated the truck as Gage drove us back toward the town limits of Brunswick Bay Harbor. I considered demanding him to pull over to the side of the road, so I could ask him without any distractions, but something about this entire evening felt off.
Had he realized what I was about to do and cut me off on purpose? That was the only explanation I could come up with for his behavior that made any sense, but that also meant that he didn’t want me to ask. The most logical conclusion to draw from that was that he didn’t want to marry me and was trying to save me the embarrassment of being turned down.
I was so distracted by my fuming that I didn’t notice at first when he turned the wrong way. We were a good distance down the narrow, winding lane that led almost nowhere when I said, “This isn’t the road to my parents’ house or your apartment.”
“I know,” he said simply. When I huffed out a frustrated breath, he added, “I thought we could go for a little drive.”
The last thing I wanted to do was spend more time cooped up in this awkwardly-silent vehicle with the man who apparently didn’t want to marry me. I crossed my arms over my chest and glared out the window as we drove down the narrow road that cut through the thick, green forest.
When Gage pulled the truck to a stop near my favorite lookout bluff, I spared a glance in his direction. It was surprising that he’d found this little tucked away gem on his own, but I hadn’t yet shown it to him.
“Let’s go for a walk,” he suggested.
Once I climbed down from his vehicle, I found myself unable to deny Gage’s outstretched hand. Even when I was mad at him, the blasted man was still completely irresistible.
He led me down a path along the river toward a clearing near the bluff. I was surprised to see a huge boulder that could easily serve as a bench seat that hadn’t been there the last time I was here. Admittedly, it had been years since I had hiked this path, but I couldn’t imagine how anyone had moved this behemoth of a rock.
“Close your eyes,” Gage said as I gasped and moved toward the bench.
I immediately obeyed and trusted him implicitly as he led me closer to the bench. Unable to resist teasing him a bit, I asked, “Is this the point in our story where you shove me off a cliff?”
He chuckled good-naturedly before saying, “Nope. I don’t need to serve another prison term for murder.”
I smiled, even though I couldn’t quite believe we were joking about such a serious matter. After leading me to the spot where he wanted me, Gage said, “Sit down.”
I complied, having no fear that he would let me fall. The giant rock was surprisingly comfortable, but the rough surface was chilly through the light fabric of my dress.
“Open your eyes,” Gage said quietly.
When I did, the sight below us nearly took my breath away. The stone bench faced west, so the setting sun was highlighting the field below us where beautiful red flowers spelled out the words ‘Marry me?’
My eyelashes fluttered as I tried to absorb the stunning sight. Gage said, “We used a mix of flowers to spell out the words… red roses to say how much I love you, Gerbera daisies to represent my everlasting desire for you, red carnations to show my admiration of the amazing person you are, red chrysanthemums to let you know that you are and always will be my best friend, and red tulips to bless our relationship with plenty of passion and romance.”
“Oh, Gage,” I breathed out, utterly at a loss for words. I couldn’t have dreamed up anything more romantic or ideal.
He gave me a proud smile before revealing, “I spelled it myself. I’ve been taking private tutoring lessons with Dean. I’ve learned more by working with him these past few weeks than I did during all my years in school. You were right… the one-on-one attention seems to be exactly what I needed.”
“That’s wonderful!” I beamed at him before asking, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted it to be a surprise,” he answered simply.
“It’s the most splendid surprise ever,” I weighed in, beyond thrilled by the entire scene.
“I had a lot of help,” he admitted.
I grinned at him before saying, “I noticed you said ‘we’ at the beginning. Was Molly in on this?”
“Yes, plus your parents, Alex, and the entire film crew,” he admitted.
“What?” I asked, feeling astounded that everyone had gone to so much trouble for me.
“I’ve been planning this for quite some time. Farmer Hayes owns the land, and I talked him into letting me plant the flowers in this corner of the field. When Molly revealed that you were going to propose to me tonight, we had to move the timeline up.”
I shook my head and said, “I can’t believe she didn’t clue me in. How could she let me make a fool of myself by prattling on about my planned proposal?”
“She wanted you to be surprised. Besides, she said she volunteered to take care of hiring the string quartet.”
“So, she never called them,” I guessed.
“Oh, she did,” he hinted before yelling toward the trees, “Come on out, guys.”
Right on cue, the elegantly dressed gentlemen emerged from the trees playing their instruments. They stayed unobtrusively in the background as they serenaded us with a lovely rendition of “A Thousand Years.”
Grinning, I turned my attention back to the man beside me before saying, “Smooth.”
“I try,” he answered.
Still unsure how the others had been involved, I asked for clarification.
“The updated timeframe didn’t allow enough time for the flowers to grow and bloom from seeds, so we had to plant each of the buds by hand. Your parents even came out and helped.”
He couldn’t have stunned me more if he’d stripped down to his underwear and dove off the cliff. I forced my mouth closed before verifying, “My mom came out to the woods and planted flowers?”
“She did, and she seemed to enjoy herself,” Gage answered.
I couldn’t imagine the prim woman out here where she might get dirt under her fingernails. When I said as much to Gage, he said, “They love you very much and would do anything for you.”
“They obviously like you quite a bit as well,” I answered before asking, “But where did Alex and the film crew come into the mix?”
“It didn’t take long for us to figure out that the job was bigger than we could handle. When your parents explained the situation to Alex, he showed up here with the entire movie crew. They worked tirelessly to get everything perfect, then we all prayed there wouldn’t be a frost overnight,” Gage explained.
I was still bewildered. “That was very nice of them, but I’m not clear on why they would do all of that work. I haven’t even met most of his crew.”
Gage beamed with pride when he said, “Alex was so impressed with the creativity of my proposal scene that they are going to use it in the movie. He said it was much better than the cliché one he had planned at a fancy restaurant.”
It took a mo
ment for his teasing to sink in. When it did, I smacked lightly at him and said, “Hey!”
I couldn’t even be pretend-angry with the marvelous man, though. He had truly knocked this out of the park. Unable to contain my excitement any longer, I looked down at the flower proposal and said, “This was perfect!”
“Except one thing,” he added.
When I turned to face him to see what could have possibly gone wrong with this supremely romantic gesture, Gage was bent down on one knee with a ring box open in front of me.
“Avery Biggs, I don’t deserve you, but if you’ll marry me, I’ll spend the rest of my days trying my best to be worthy of your love. Will you make me the happiest man alive by agreeing to become my wife?”
The flower-spelled words blurred in the background as tears welled in my eyes and I nodded my head to answer his beautiful, life-changing question.
The trees startled me by yelling, “What did she say?”
Immediately recognizing Molly’s voice, I shouted back to my best friend, “I said yes!”
The whoops and yells of excitement drew near as a large group of friends and family hurried out of the cover of the forest to encompass us in a joyous circle of unbridled happiness and small-town love.
Epilogue - Avery
I took a deep breath of the fresh floral scent as I sat frozen in Gage’s shop staring at my laptop. My hand shook over the mouse. Part of me wanted to refresh the screen, but I was scared. It was time for the state’s bar exam results to be posted. This was the moment of truth when I would find out if all of my years of study and hard work had paid off.
My hand hovered as I tried to work up the courage to click the button. Gage finished with another delighted customer, then walked up close behind me. He leaned down toward my chair, allowing the soothing heat of his body to seep into mine as he whispered very near my ear, “Check the results.”
“I’m nervous,” I revealed.
“I’ll still love you with all of my heart either way,” he promised.
