Epilogue
Thea
Thea watched the three couples seated in the corner of her café with an amused grin. How had three of her friends found themselves falling in love with nobility?
Fortunately, she had no interest in finding a noble to fall in love with her. She was quite content with her café and her cat.
The door opened, and Nathaniel waltzed in with a fresh bouquet of flowers.
“Good morning,” he said, as he snagged a vase from behind the counter and placed the flowers in it on the bar.
“Some flowers for the café,” he added, as if she were too silly to recognize the fact that every time he brought flowers for the café, they were really for her.
“What’s this?” he asked, glancing over at the couples. “Have all the local nobles fallen in love in your cafe?”
Thea shook her head as Beatrice’s laughter rose up across the room. “I don’t know what she said to bring them all here,” she said quietly, “but I am thankful for their patronage, whether or not they planned it.”
Each of the couples here had somehow brought more business to her café. Sophia and Caspian had been the first, then Beatrice and Alexander, and now Dietrich and Ella.
But as she watched the three couples, she found herself wishing that she could sit with them and not feel out of place because she was alone.
She glanced at Nathaniel, who would no doubt be more than happy to be at her side.
He made no pretense of hiding the fact that he still loved her just as much as he had all those years ago.
But how could she trust him again after everything he had done, and how could she let her heart be open again?
Nathaniel made his way to the fireplace, which lay empty but still was Ginger’s favorite spot to sit, and as the man she had once loved knelt down to pay attention to the cat that was her most loyal companion, Thea’s heart constricted.
Dietrich stood and made his way to the counter, where he handed her a few coins. “Another round of tea, please?” he asked. “Apparently, the ladies are quite thirsty today.”
Thea quickly made another round of tea, pouring three more cups of the cool peppermint tea that she had made earlier in the morning, knowing that it was likely that at least some of them would be visiting since Caspian and Sophia were recently back in town.
“You seem happy,” she said to Dietrich, who was, in fact, glowing.
“It’s amazing what love will do for someone,” he said, after a moment, glancing back toward his betrothed with a smile.
They had wasted no time after Ella had broken her previous betrothal. It had been only a few weeks after that before Dietrich had asked the duke for his permission to wed his daughter.
“She is good for you,” Thea said, shaking her head. “Even if you were always adamant that you would never find love.”
“Well, I suppose Beatrice was right,” Dietrich said with a long-suffering sigh.
“She usually is,” Thea pointed out with a grin.
Ella stood and made her way toward them, and Dietrich wrapped his arm around her waist as she fitted herself against his side and smiled up at him. “I don’t suppose you want to go to the library?” she asked. “I’ve been meaning to stop by and visit Eugenia.”
Dietrich smiled down at Ella and placed a kiss on her hair. “Of course,” he said. “I was expecting you to ask since we’re in town.”
Dietrich was in town much less often than he used to be after finding his true love on the estate he had spent so many years avoiding.
It made sense, but still, Thea found herself lonely with so many of her friends paired off now.
Her eyes fluttered to Nathaniel of their own volition.
She could not let herself fall for him again.
But it would be far too easy to follow her heart, which is why she would continue to avoid him.
He was not the man for her, no matter how her heart might wish to once again belong to him.
Thea and Nat's story will continue in ONCE UPON A CAT, coming in 2025.
Thank you so much for reading Once Upon A Pumpkin!