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Chapter Eleven
~ Mimi ~
Feeling a lot like a teenager caught making out in a car by cops, I peered shyly around Judd’s wide shoulders to look at Deputy Elvin Sanders. Heat burned into my face.
“What are you two doing?” he asked. “The fair’s closed.”
“Working on the maze,” Judd reported and nodded down at his tool bag.
“Fixing it, I hope,” Elvin replied. His lowered flashlight moved between us, not in our eyes but still illuminating us in the beam. “Like I hope you have things worked out in your marriage. Darn shame that would be if you haven’t.”
Anywhere else, that statement would be intrusive. But this was Sweetville, and everyone was in everyone else’s business. It was what it was.
“We have,” I replied, before Judd could say anything.We were getting on track, even if we still had things to work out. Even though we were having a baby, and I’d moved back in, there were things left unaddressed as of now. Mostly…how I’d navigate my interactions with his mom. But that was a bridge to cross on another day.
“And we’re almost done here,” I added to the officer. “If you’ll let us finish up?”
Elvin nodded. “I’ll leave you to it. Just make sure you shut everything down before you leave.”
“We will,” Judd promised. His arm went around my waist as he swooshed me away from the young cop, who wasn’t too many years older than us.
“That was way too much like getting caught making out under the bleachers at school,” Judd whispered against my ear, his lips making me shiver as I giggled about his thought that was so similar to mine earlier.
“Yeah, hope he doesn’t call our parents.”
Judd chuckled. “Save me now.”
I tickled his side. “I’ll save you.”
We didn’t stop joking until we were back inside the maze and Judd stopped before one of the interior wall panels. It was located a few yards, and a sharp right, from the exit we’d entered through. “This is the one that needs to be moved.”
I eyed it as he put the drill bit to the head of the first bolt to be unscrewed. “I hate to tell you this, but we should have done this one first, then you wouldn’t have needed to leap over that wall.”
He licked his lips and nodded slowly. “This is why you’re the brains of this operation.”
I scoffed loudly, shaking my head and moving away as he’d had me do at the other panel. “I’ll just wait over here so my big brain doesn’t get hurt. I guess we need it.”
“Your brain, your gorgeous body or our baby,” he corrected, mentioning the wonderful gift we’d finally been given. “I couldn’t bear it if you got injured because I did something dumb.”
My hand settled over my belly. I couldn’t wait until we were farther along and I felt safer in it, more secure. Still, after all this time, I couldn’t believe we’d experience disappointment again. Everything would go just fine.
Deftly as he had the other section, Judd removed the panel and got it affixed into the correct place in nothing flat. After stowing his drill, he dropped the bag to the ground and held out his hand to me. “Come on, I want to show you what was hiding in here.”
I settled my fingers against his firm, warm palm and let him guide me through a few twists and turns. We exited into the last of the three courtyards encompassed in the maze. There were a few benches and Edison lights were strung overhead. As soon as we entered, music started playing.
“Motion detector,” Judd said, answering my unasked question.
I stared around us at the romantic atmosphere and the walls painted with blurred figures of people in formal wear in an outdoor setting. The scene was from our last dance during senior year. That recognition set in about the same time the tune from the speakers registered.Young and Beautifulby Lana Del Rey. Our song. We’d danced to this tune at our prom and our wedding.
Judd held his left hand out to me. “Dance with me.”
I moved easily into his arms. I nestled against his chest, my head notched beneath his chin while his embrace closed around me. We swayed together, lost in the moment beneath the romantic lighting. My eyes closed, but it still glowed golden behind my lids. His lips brushed the top of my head then against my temple while we moved.
I heard the swish of fabric then quiet murmurs while I cuddled into him and let him guide me in circles, within the ambiance of the community dance he’d created for us. And I knew that even though it was in the public Sweetville maze, this was really a tribute to us—specifically, his love and devotion to me. He’d recreated the night of our prom, the night he’d asked me to marry him, the event immortalized in that photo.
“I want a copy of that poster for the wall of my shop,” I whispered to him, not moving from where I’d tucked myself into him.
“Anything you want.”
