AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It’s fine. I can be strong. If I don’t let myself get distracted by the way Aria looks and smells—like a queen and juicy strawberries, respectively—I’ll be fine.
But will I be okay if this whole thing fails? If sales are abysmal and booths pull out early? I know, logically, that Aria and I did everything we could to make this succeed. But somehow, I’ll still feel like a failure if it fails. And what would that do to Aria?
“Did you see the crowd lined up outside?” Aria asks, her eyes darting back and forth.
I see people gathering on the front lawn of the mansion, waiting for the festival to open. Huh. “There are more people than I thought there would be, considering the near apocalypse we’ve been going through.”
“I kept psyching myself up this morning, telling myself it’s okay if there’s only ten people. They’ll just get lots of extra attention.”
She adjusts the neckline of her dress and I about keel over at the sight of it.
“It was seriously my mantra. As long as we get ten, it’s going to be okay.” She sighs. “It wouldn’t have been. But I was trying to prepare myself for disappointment.”
I step to the long narrow windows flanking the ornate door. “You don’t have to worry. There are way more than ten.”
Soon, Liz, Marjorie, and Darrel open the door and security guards hold the people back as Aria and I give a quick welcome speech. People are allowed in, and we wave, smile, and greet them. The first one hundred customers to arrive get gift bags full of samples and swag, so Aria and I help pass those out.
“Can you believe the pandemonium?” I whisper to her as the line waits for a man in a wheelchair to go up the ramp.
“I am relieved. It feels like years past. There’s nothing like it in all the land,” she says, her gaze darting to mine before she turns and bends to say hello to a little girl, who tells Aria her dress is pretty.
“Look!” Aria spins around and the skirt swishes fast. Her head tips back in a laugh, and I’m lost in all the sensations of her.
That sight will be permanently etched into my mind.
She poses with the girl and her sister as her mom takes a photo of the three of them. “Okay, now with Theo Carter,” the mom says, holding up her phone again and motioning with her hand for me to scoot closer. She leans back more. “I can’t get all three of you in the shot,” she says. “You’re going to have to stand closer together.”
Being closer to her is a glorious kind of torture. My arm is smashed between us, so Aria lifts my arm and helps it to drop around her waist so that she and I can nudge that much closer.
“Sorry to get all in your grill here, but it’s for the children, so …” she offers an apologetic smile.
A lot of the more formal Victorian dresses have necklines that are low, and Aria’s is no exception, which I have a front row seat to now that I’m standing flush to her side.
I snatch my gaze back to the mom as quickly as possible.
Mercy. Aria’s so beautiful.
As soon as the mom lowers her phone and thanks us, I step back and away and wave.
That interaction repeats itself multiple times for the rest of the meet and greet, as more and more people ask if they can pose for a photo with us. We even have several people ask for our autographs.
“Don’t get a big head,” Aria says after I sign a woman’s canvas bag.
“Too late,” I joke.
It’s not long before Howard Beckwith, Aria’s grandfather, walks through the front doors. He’s in a Santa costume that hangs off his thin frame. Still, the twinkle in his eye makes him a more believable Santa figure than most around.
“Merry Christmas,” he bellows, his arms wide. Pulling both of us into a hug, he laughs. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think we were on a movie set ofA Christmas Carol. You two are hawt with an ‘A. W. T.’”
“It’s good you’re here to see it now.” I say. “We don’t have to be dressed up like this again until closing day. The committee is allowing us to throw on the blazers when we come here between now and then.”
“Did you come to eat almonds with me, Grandpa?” Aria asks. She’s beaming, her smile riveting me to the spot.
“When you’re finished with the meet and greet.” He looks around the room. “I’ll get all my Christmas shopping done in one fell swoop.”
Finally, the throngs of people have trickled to a steady, quick-moving line. We take a quick walk-through to see the booths. The committee managed to space them further apart so the fewer number of booths doesn’t make the space seem sparse. We leave the back exit of the mansion and enter the tent for the remaining booths. We see Jesse and Camilla at Shorty’s booth and talk with them for a while.
When we leave them to check out the remaining booths, Aria eases closer to me. I feel the heat of her arm against mine.
