Page 240 of Pumpkin Spice Promises

Clover and Hunter worked the bakery booth together—I watched her hand him things without looking while he rang up customers, the kind of unconscious choreography that came from knowing someone well.

Jax and Rosie were arguing near the hay wagons. That had also become unconscious choreography.

“You can’t add another wagon now,” Jax said.

“We have a line.”

“We don’t have another driver.”

“You can drive.”

“I’m fixing the axle on this one.”

“Multitask.”

“That’s not how axles work.”

Rosie crossed her arms as Jax stared at her, neither budging, and neither noticed me watching.

Near the small riding arena, the little girl from last year’s festival stood beside Blueberry. Her name was Millie, I’d learned that after she’d shown up three more times with her mother during spring and asked enough questions about barrel racing to qualify as an interrogation.

Now she came to Marigold every other Saturday.

We weren’t calling it lessons yet. Mostly because I wasn’t ready to call myself anyone’s riding instructor.

Beau watched our lessons, there if I needed him, but also quiet and supportive. His love for me was never-ending, and even though he didn’t say the three words a lot, he showed me in actions just how much I meant to him.

Sometimes love was Beau scraping ice off my windshield before I left for an early delivery.

Sometimes it was me dropping dinner at Jones Automotive because he’d forgotten lunch again.

Sometimes it was screaming at each other over where a couch should go and apologizing twenty minutes later.

Sometimes it was a bottle of vanilla creamer in the refrigerator.

Sometimes it was a house overlooking a pasture.

The big things mattered to us.

The last guests left shortly after ten. Meme refused to leave until eleven.

“You live thirty seconds away,” I reminded her.

“Then why are you rushing me?”

“I’m not.”

Walter laughed at his old friend, and eventually Margaret convinced her to go inside.

Clover hugged me before leaving. Then whispered, “November ninth.”

I pulled back, staring into her tired eyes. “What?”

“Wedding dress appointment.” She winked with a cheeky grin.

“I never agreed to that.”

“You said maybe, so I made the appointment.” She shrugged like it was no big deal. Then she disappeared before I could argue.