CHAPTER 42
Walker
May
“You don’t have to be strong anymore.” Tally’s words echo in my head from two nights ago, when it took everything in me not to blurt out the three little words that would change everything.
It became even harder yesterday—after surprising her at the bakery—when I watched her single-handedly bake the most beautiful cake I’ve ever seen.
“Don’t move,” I had whispered in her ear as I wrapped the gift I’d bought her around her waist.
She had been holding a whisk in one hand, covered in some type of frosting, but she dropped it the moment I finished tying her new apron in a bow.
“Jesse Walker! Did you buy me a present?” she’d squealed.
From the smile she gave me, you’d think I gave her diamonds rather than a canvas apron with the word WILDFLOWER scrawled among different flowers.
I’ve never felt this way about anyone. I’ve wanted Tally from the moment I laid eyes on her. But after our first date a few weeks ago, when I’d walked her to the door of the house, stared into those beautiful golden eyes of hers, and took my time kissing her good night, I’ve been a total goner.
Now, as I stand with my sister, staring at Tally’s cake, I know without a doubt that I’m in love with her.
“That cake is …” Billie shakes her head as she stares at the seven-tier butter cream–frosted cake that boasts a cascade of wildflowers waterfalling down the side into a pool of daffodils at the base.
“Gorgeous, right?” I can’t hide the pride in my voice.
My sister’s eyes are wide when she turns to me. “Walker, everything, every single little thing that you’ve all done is incredible. The cottages, the venue, this cake …”
“Our girl did good, right?” Rosie says, appearing next to us.
The ceremony is about to start, but the bride, Hannah, wanted to get a few pictures of the cake before sunset.
She was thrilled when she found out one of the owners of the farm made it and that local flowers were used for decoration.
She said it made it even more special, and the surprised smile on Tally’s face made all the stress of the last few weeks worth it.
Now Hannah asks Tally to get in a picture with her and her groom in front of the cake. After they’ve got the shot, Hannah turns to hug Tally before heading down to the wildflower field for the ceremony.
“Need help with anything else over here?” I ask Tally, who is fixing the last flower decorations.
She shakes her head. “Just going to get this back in the fridge until after the ceremony. You guys go ahead and make sure the ceremony goes off without a hitch.”
“I’ll help her,” Rosie promises.
“Me, too,” Penny agrees.
Tally meets my worried eyes. “It’s fine, Cowboy. I promise we won’t get out our coffee cups yet.” She blows me a kiss and I chuckle as I guide Billie away from the trio of trouble.
“Oh my God,” my sister mumbles, pausing to stare at me.
“What?” I glance behind me, panicked at the thought that the girls already knocked down the cake. But they’re all just standing there, and the cake is intact. I shake my head and smile. They’ll probably still be talking when the ceremony is over.
“You just laughed.”
I glance back at my sister, my brow furrowed. “I did not.”
She nods her blond head exaggeratedly. “You did. Tally blew you a kiss, and you freaking laughed. And now you’re smiling!” She points at my face like I’m an exhibit in a criminal proceeding. “See! Right now!”
I groan as I slide my palm down my face. “So? Is that a crime?”
She shakes her head and her mouth opens and shuts like she doesn’t know what to say. “No. It’s just … you’re happy. Like truly happy.” Her gaze flits back to the girls. “Because of her.”
I swallow, nervous to admit it. Because if I tell her yes, I’m happy, that I want Tally to stay, she’ll think she has no reason to come work here.
I don’t know how to be a good brother to her, a good uncle to Quinn, and go after what I want.
“You don’t have to be strong anymore.”
Everything I’ve ever done up until these last few weeks has been for Billie and Quinn. But somehow I lost sight of that the minute Tally’s lips touched mine.
“Walker, do you have any idea how rare this is?” my sister says, stepping closer to me.
“What is?”
“This kind of love.” The word doesn’t even scare me. My sister says it like she expects me to deny it, but there’s no denying how I feel. I love Tally. I know that.
Billie’s eyes fill with tears. “Walker, you need to tell her.”
“She’s leaving, Billie.” My eyes fall shut and my shoulders sag because she has to go, and I’m not naive enough to believe she’ll stay.
“Who says she can’t be happy here?” My sister motions to the land around us. To the fields, which are now in full bloom, bursting with pink and purple tulips, white dahlias, yellow daffodils. And the goddamn wildflowers that make my chest ache every time I see them.
“She doesn’t even know the truth about the farm. She’ll hate me when she finds out.”
No matter what I want to do, eventually I’ll have to tell her why I’m really here. And when I do, she may never forgive me.
My sister’s eyes dance toward the cottages, and she offers me a half smile.
“Not if she sees what you’ve been trying to do. You should tell her Peter’s plan. It’s your plan now, Jesse.”
I blow out a breath. I can’t tell Billie that’s what I want to do because then she’ll never agree to move here. It’s a lose-lose situation. In the end, I need to do what’s best for her and for the Darling girls.
Billie and Quinn stay here and they’re happy. Tally goes to Nantucket, and then to school, where she’s happy. This is what’s best for everyone.
“You don’t have to be strong anymore.”
Tally said I have her, but she’s supposed to leave in three weeks. It’s officially May, and while normally I’d be thrilled about the warmer weather and the longer, sun-filled days, it all feels like a countdown that I don’t want to hit.
“I’m not an idiot, you know,” she says.
I balk at her words. “I don’t think you’re an idiot.”
“You know the girls do this thing …” She shakes her head, and her lips hook up again. “I don’t have champagneso I can’t cheers you and force you to tell me the truth. But if I agree to tell you the truth, will you do the same?”
I roll my eyes and let out a huff of air. “You can talk to me, Billie. We don’t need to play some truth-or-dare game.”
She gives me this look that is so Billie, one I’ve seen a thousand times during my life. One that signals she’s about to call me out on my bullshit.
“I’ll go first,” she says before licking her lips and pausing. “I gave my notice at the hotel last week.”
My eyes widen, and she shakes her head to let me know she isn’t done.
“I should have done it a long time ago. I should have listened to you when you told me I was working too much and missing all of these moments when Quinn needed me. I wanted to prove to you that I could do something on my own. Wanted to prove it to myself, too. I didn’t want you to have to fix something else for me.
I’m stubborn, I admit,” she says with a half smile.
I laugh. “You think?”
“Where do you think I get it from, grumpy old man?”
“I’m not that old,” I mumble.
“My whole life you’ve protected me. Given up things for me.”
I open my mouth to object, and she holds up a hand to stop me.
“Don’t even try to say you haven’t, because you have.
Our grandfather lost this land, and all we ever heard about was how the Darlings stole from us, how they owed us.
It made Dad a miserable person, just like his dad.
You could have been the same way. But you are good.
You protected me. You worked hard. And Peter saw that.
You didn’t con him into giving you this land.
He came to you because he needed help, and he knew how much this land meant to our family.
To you. You deserve good things, Jesse Walker.
Peter saw it, I see it, and Tally will see it.
You need to be honest and admit that you don’t need me to come help with the farm.
You want me here, with you. I know what’s best for Quinn and me and, as long as I’m welcome here, I promise I’m moving in.
Whether I work on the farm or not. Now tell me why you’re letting Tally leave rather than fighting to keep her.
Because Walker, I’ve never seen you smile this much.
And I can’t tell you the last time I heard you truly laugh. ”
Well, shit. I tug my sister beneath my arm and squeeze her tight right as the music starts up to signal the ceremony is about to begin.
“When did you get so smart?” I whisper, emotion keeping my voice quiet.
Billie grins up at me. “Well, I had this really wise older brother.”
I smile at her before we turn our attention to the ceremony.
From our spot on the hill, we have a perfect view of the part of the meadow we’d cleared for the ceremony.
Like Tally’s cake, flowers from all over the farm trickle down to the clearing to where the white chairs—decorated with wildflowers—are set up, a cascade of daffodils and tulips lining the walkway to make the entire space seem as though it is part of the flowering farm.
A genius idea my sister had and that Gail and Penny helped her make happen this morning while Tally worked on the cake.
Golden fairy lights twinkle from the green foliage as a little boy runs down the aisle screaming for his mama, much to the amusement of all the guests.
The groom rushes after him, lifting him up in the air and flying him past the line of groomsmen, who are clearly all hockey players.
They stand, each of them oversized with a black eye or two and big smiles.
Each of the guys fist-bumps the toddler and then the groom hands him off to an older man sitting in the front row.
Apparently the couple were married right after they had their son, but the groom wanted a bigger celebration so Hannah agreed to this ceremony.
It’s sweet that he’s the more excited one.
I think in a different life, if I’d been raised differently, if Billie didn’t need me the way she had, I could have been like that.
And when I spot Tally standing in the meadow, a pretty smile on her face as she catches me staring, it’s easy to imagine that maybe I still can be.