Chapter 35
CHAPTER 35
LIAM
I like being here.
I know it’s partly because no one told me I had to be. I’m choosing it.
The other part is Olive.
I actually enjoy helping out where I can. I don’t even mind the small talk. But I love watching Olive in her element.
Once the reindeer were apprehended, of course.
Knowing Olive had been responsible for pretty much every aspect of the market left me feeling proud and impressed. She had crews of volunteers positioned exactly where help was needed. She had signs hung exactly where people could get confused. She’d rented oversized outdoor heaters and created warming stations, which were critical to the overall enjoyment of the day.
And to hear my mom tell it, she’d made Pine Creek a lot of money.
I spent most of my time helping people get things from booths to vehicles and back, but I made a point to check in with Olive several times throughout the day. I also checked on her booth, and by the end of the afternoon, almost everything I’d set up this morning had sold.
People love her artwork. There was hardly anyone without a Wit & Whimsy tote bag on their arm.
Maybe she just got in over her head in that store. Knowing the size of her heart, she most likely had a large, overpaid staff. Hopefully, this whole experience will give her a push to try again.
The thought taunts me. I know she’s not the only one who needs to try again.
I think about the new game idea. I think about showing it to Aaron. I think about how much I don’t want his input on it. At all. Then I think that only crazy people walk away from opportunities like working for Arcadia.
After Christmas Tree Row has been returned to its natural, less exciting state, I find Olive near the area where her booth had been. A strange sort of nostalgia creeps over me, like the kind you get after leaving the high school gym after Homecoming. A surreal mix of coming off an amazing experience mixed with reconciling the fact that it’s over, and you can’t repeat it.
For a fleeting moment, I imagine a future here. With her.
I imagine her market becoming an annual event, and her passion for Pine Creek filtering through to everyone who visits. I imagine stealing kisses among the trees and sneaking off behind the barn. I imagine falling asleep with her and waking up with her.
I imagine all the moments that make a life worth living.
Not a life worth just existing.
“Hey!”
I shake away the thoughts and find Olive watching me. “You good?”
“I’m great,” I say honestly. “How’d you do?”
“The market? It was bonkers,” she says. “I think your mom is really happy. Everything sort of went off without a hitch.” She smiles. “Except for the reindeer.”
“And this?” I motion toward what’s left of her inventory, which isn’t much.
“Oh, my booth?” She grins.
“Yeah.”
“My booth that you made for me?” She says it with a sly grin.
I roll my eyes, but love her goofy side.
“It went really well.” Her lips quirk, like she’s holding in a smile. “Phoebe even got a business card from a licensing agent. She was passing through to visit a friend who lives in Loveland, and . . . she’s interested in representing my work.”
“Wait. Seriously?”
She nods, still holding back a grin even though I know she wants to let it loose.
“That’s amazing, Liv,” I say. “Congratulations.”
“It’s not a done deal or anything, but . . . it’s bizarre, right?”
I shake my head. “Not really.”
She tosses me a look, but her face finally lights up into a bright smile. “It is though. I quit on all of this—I just?—”
I move toward her and take her in my arms. There are still people milling around, but I don’t care. I want to be close to her.
She steps into my hug and rests her cheek on my chest. “I’m so thankful. Like I’m getting a second chance to do it right.”
Me too, I think.
She looks up at me, arms wrapped around my waist. “Hey, the day I had to move all my stuff out of the store, this moving truck showed up, like, out of nowhere. There were two guys who basically took over and handled getting everything packed up and then unloaded it into my garage.”
I pull back and meet her eyes. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. I was kind of a mess that day, and I don’t think I would’ve gotten it done without them. ”
My hands are on her arms, her eyes searching mine. I’m trying not to look caught, because I know where this is going.
“Phoebe said you’re the one who sent them.”
My frown is a little too obvious. “Why’d she say that?”
“She saw your name on the invoice.” She pauses, obviously waiting for me to react. When I don’t, she softens. “I always assumed it was my parents.”
I don’t know what to say. I had never wanted her to find this out.
“You and I hadn’t talked in years,” she goes on. “Why would you do that for me?”
I shrug. “I had to do something.”
“You didn’t.”
“I wanted to,” I tell her. “And I couldn’t be here to do it myself, so I did the only thing I could think to do.” I drop my hands to my sides. “It wasn’t a big deal.”
“It was a big deal,” she says. “A huge deal. Losing the store was such a gut-punch.” She takes a step toward me. “That was my lowest point, and you were there. I didn’t know it, but you were.” She pauses, then narrows her eyes. “How did you even find out?”
“Small town,” I say. “My mom doesn’t like silence on the other end of the phone, remember?”
“So, you’ve really just been a big softie this whole time.”
“The whole time? No.”
At that, she smiles, and I want to bottle the way it makes me feel and hand it out on the streets. The world would be such a happier place with a dose of Olive.
My life would be happier too. It is happier.
“I’m going to kiss you now,” she says.
I quirk a brow. “Here?”
“Yep.”
“There are people around.”
“Don’t care. ”
“Okay.”
“It’s going to blow your mind.” She smirks.
“Prove it.”
Her eyes dart around. There are Pine Creek employees and vendors still packing things up. I’m certain she’ll lose her nerve, or at least lead me into the woods or something. But then, she grabs two fistfuls of my coat and pulls me to her, stopping for a brief moment to make eye contact before kissing the heck out of me.
And she’s right—it blows my mind.
It’s something I’ll never get tired of, her lips on mine, her body pressed up against me, my hands tangled in her hair, hers pressed against my back.
I’ve fallen for her. And I’m pretty sure these feelings are going to make the day I leave one of the worst days of my life.