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Darcy looked up as though she were daydreaming, “I mean, that wouldn’t be the worst thing…” She shook her head, “But no, Damon is not here and there was still a gas leak.”
“Does Tuck know?”
As if on cue, my phone rang.
“Lettie?” Tuck’s voice came through the speaker. “Lettie, I’m taking care of it.”
“How did this happen?” I asked him as though he had the answer to everything.
“I don’t know. We’re just lucky they found it and before the whole thing caught on fire. But don’t panic, okay? Do you trust me?” Tuck was calm, collected, not a twinge of worry in his voice.
“Of course I do,” I replied.
“Okay, good. Now, check in your top drawer, and I’ll see you down the aisle. Just follow Darcy.”
Tuck hung up before I could reply. I had no idea what he was up to, but I knew that whatever it was, it would be perfect. I had thought it mattered, marrying in the white chapel of Aveline, but in the end, it didn’t. It wasn’t aboutwherewe got married after all, and that was evident in the way that peace flooded over me, knowing that I got to be with Tuck for the rest of our lives.
I opened the drawer to the vanity and pulled out a box along with an envelope just as Darcy gestured to the door. “I’m gonna just go make a few phone calls.”
And with that, she left the room.
I opened the envelope first, pulling out a letter with Tuck’s familiar handwriting across the page.
Lettie,
I remember the first time I saw you with your forehead pressed against my truck, your red hair flowing down your back. I couldn’t have known it then, the way you would change my life, but I knew there was something about you. Something that was pulling me toward you, a deep need to know you, an immediate connection.
I’m convinced there was an invisible string that connected us from the moment we met. Kindred spirits, you would say, but it’s even more prominent than that. It’s like inJane Eyrewhen Charlotte Brontë wrote, “As if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly knotted to a similar string in you.” Even when we were apart I felt the connection of this invisible string. No matter how much time had passed or how far away we were from each other, it never broke. It was pulled tightly, so tightly that it began to unravel and to stretch, but it would never snap.
The string is still there and forever will be because in a world where neither of us had ever felt that we belonged to anyone, we have always belonged to each other.
Thank you, Lettie, for being so nosy that day and peeking into my truck. Thank you for this invisible string and for the best life I could have ever imagined.
Marry me in Aveline, Little One.
Love always,
Baker Boy
I looked up in the mirror, my face wet from tears and my heart so full, I just knew it was going to burst.
“Well,” I said to no one as I wiped under my eyes, “it really is waterproof.”
I held the letter to my chest for a moment before placing it carefully back into the envelope. Then I took out the little box and opened the lid. Inside, there was a single piece of string.
EIGHTY-ONE
SEVEN HOURS LATER
TUCK
I stoodat the makeshift altar in the dining room of Green Gables Inn with the wall of Lover’s Lane behind me. We’d moved out the large table and added white folding chairs that were now filled with the townspeople of Aveline. There were wildflower bouquets everywhere and a bunch of violets sitting on an empty chair in the front row. The sight of them made me smile; my mother would have loved Lettie.
I knew that for a fact.
I scanned the crowd, seeing all the familiar faces of my town, and I felt a warmth and a sense of belonging. Lenora was in the front with a box of tissues, already pulling them out one by one to wipe her tears. Darcy came from the back and sat down next to her, having fulfilled her best friend duties before the big moment, and Poe Miller and Beau smiled at me from the row behind her. Millie, Evelyn, and even Julia and her wife sat in that crowd, faces of all the people who loved both Lettie and me.
The music changed, and I saw my bride step out from the doorway, her elbow linked with Teddy’s. I felt my breath catch in my throat. Then her eyes met mine, her red hair swooped to the side, and I knew there was no way I would escape this ceremony without crying. Hanging around her neck was the locket I had given her all those years ago. I was sure she had thrown it away, tossed it in the creek, or burnt it in a fire, but there it was.
Lettie kissed Teddy’s cheek, and when she made her way to me, I could no longer keep the tears hidden. They trickled from my eyes and down my cheeks, and Lettie wiped them away gently.
“Hey,” she said softly, as though we were the only two people in the room.
“Hey,” I replied, my voice cracking slightly. “I didn’t know you still had that.” I gestured to the locket around her neck.
Lettie peered up at me through her eyelashes. “Of course I do.” Her hands moved to the necklace and opened it, revealing not only the quote inside, but also the string. She placed one hand on my cheek, cupping it delicately. “I felt it too.”
THE END
