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“Exactly.”
“Goldie, do you know what you just made me realize?”
“What’s that?”
“Sometimes it’s just as hard to leave someone as it is to be left behind.”
As we walked, we moved beneath a maple tree as a burst of wind fluttered past, shaking a handful of leaves over us. I smiled toward the sky as a few leaves fell against my skin.
“Gosh, I love fall.” I blissfully sighed. “When I was a kid, my mom used to gather as many leaves as possible and build a huge pile in the front yard while I was at school. When the school bus pulled up to our house, I’d run from the bus and dive straight into the gigantic pile. She’d join me and make it a big deal every single day until there were no more leaves to dive into.”
“She sounds like she was wonderful.”
“You have no clue. I’d only had her around for a few years, but I’d give my whole life to have her for a little bit more.”
“Can I ask what happened to her?”
My mouth grew slightly dry as I rubbed a hand against my neck. “When she was pregnant with my younger sister Willow, there were complications at birth. She didn’t make it.”
Alex’s eyes showed deep sorrow. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah. Me too. She was a remarkable woman. If I could be half the mother she was, then I’d be happy.”
“You want kids some day?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “A litter of them,” I semi-joked.
He let out a small smile. “You’d be a good mom.”
“You think so?”
“I do. You have patience like no other. Not only did you put up with Feliz, but you put up with my dumbass, too.”
“You’re right. I’m a saint,” I teased. “Do you want kids?”
His brows knitted as he fell into thought. “I do. I just sometimes wonder if that’s in my cards. Just because a person wants something doesn’t mean it will always happen.”
“Yes.” I nudged him in the arm. “But we should always expect the unexpected. Good things can happen, too. You just have to believe that after some dark days, there is some kind of light waiting around the corner.”
He laughed. “You sound like my great-aunt Teresa. Always so positive.”
“If I’ve learned anything from life it’s that it doesn’t hurt to hope for better tomorrows. It gives me a little comfort knowing that maybe I have yet to live my best days. The idea that the best is yet to come keeps me on my toes.”
“Yara?”
“Yeah?”
“I hope someday I can see it like you.”
“See what like me?”
“The world.”
CHAPTER 25
Alex
Once Yara and I decided to fake date, she went straight into prep work to spread the news around Honey Creek that she and I were an item. She stood at my kitchen island with a glass of water and said, “The hard launch of our relationship will be at the Fall into Fall Festival.”
“Should that mean something to me?”
“Yes, it should. In about a week or so is the festival to launch off autumn in our town. It’s also the day of the annual picnic auction to raise money for a small business. This year, it’s for my shop, The Pup Around the Corner. The picnic event is called Snack on Hillstack. Essentially, people make picnic baskets, and others bid for a date with the person and their basket on the hilltop. It’s a fun event. I need you to show up and bid on my basket.”
“How much?”
“Uh, however much it takes to outbid Cole. I know he’ll show up and be a pain. So if you outbid him, we’ll go on our date, and then the town can see us together. It will be our first public outing. But don’t worry, Cole is a cheapskate. He never spent over fifty bucks on my basket in the past years. And that was because I’d given him fifty dollars to spend.”
“You paid for your own basket?”
“When you say it like that, it sounds depressing.”
“That’s because it is depressing.”
Her smile faltered, and a flash of despair hit her eyes. I’d hit a trigger point.
I cleared my throat. “I didn’t mean that in—”
“No,” she cut in. “You’re right. It is depressing. I did a lot of depressing things when I was with him. All birthday gifts, holiday presents, vacations. I bought and planned them all for myself. All Cole had to do was show up, and when he did, he’d be so mean about it all.”
“I’ve overheard people in town talk about you two and how it seems cruel that you won’t give him another chance.”
“That’s because the people in town don’t really know who he is. To them, he’s this good guy whose wife left him.”
“Why don’t you tell them what really happened?”
Her brows furrowed and she fell into thought before shrugging. “I guess a part of me thought he might’ve stood up for me when people were saying those things. That he’d speak the truth and tell them he was the one who left me long before I brought up the divorce. Maybe not physically, but Cole checked out years before we canceled our I dos.”
