Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
WEBB
When I saw Luke standing outside the Pick-a-Book booth looking like a drowned rat, stuck halfway between murder and tears, I was pretty sure I knew exactly what had happened to cause this situation…
And I was not fucking pleased.
“Luke needs you,” Em had said when she’d called, worry and anger bleeding into her voice.
“Principal Oliver sent him to the splash booth, and now he can’t find Aiden.
Amanda might have been involved. Luke looks ready to rip someone’s head off, starting with Principal Oliver.
And Webb? He said to tell you he’s sorry. ”
Sorry? Fuck that.
I’d started running across the town common before I’d hung up the phone.
I knew the moment Luke saw me coming, because he visibly braced, like he was ready for me to scream at him—or maybe to go back to disliking him and cut him out of my life again.
And fuck that, too.
Gage watched me warily as I stalked closer. “Webb,” he said cautiously, holding out a restraining hand like he might try to hold me back. “Dude, maybe chill —”
But I couldn’t chill. I didn’t pause or hesitate, because this whole fucking situation was unacceptable, and I wouldn’t tolerate it for another second.
I grabbed Luke around the back of the neck, and he let out a little grunt of surprise.
Then I pulled him in for a single hard kiss that left him gasping.
“We’re going to find him,” I said decisively. “It’s going to be okay.”
Luke’s stiff posture melted like candle wax, and he shuddered against me, burying his face against my sweatshirt. “But you don’t understand—”
I cut him off. “I do. I get it. I— First things first. Baby, you’ve gotta be freezing.
” His shirt was so sodden, water was seeping into my sweatshirt as I held him.
“Here, come on.” I pulled him out of the crowded walkway and into the Pick-a-Book tent, shooting Principal Oliver the most scathing look I could fathom.
And without preamble, I stripped off Luke’s T-shirt, tossed it to the ground with a plop, and removed my sweatshirt so I could pull it over his head.
My shirt was still warm from my body, and Luke shivered as he burrowed into it.
“I lost him,” he said bleakly. “You left him with me and I got distracted and I lost him. God.”
“It’s not your fault.”
I wasn’t sure whether he even heard me.
“You knew,” he said softly, pulling away from me. “You knew something like this would happen, didn’t you? That’s why you didn’t trust Amanda. And you were right—”
“No, Luke. Listen to me. I didn’t trust Amanda.
But you were right to call me on it. You were right.
I didn’t get a chance to tell you this yesterday, but I talked to my attorney.
Amanda’s been holding down a job. She’s been showing up, despite her bad luck.
Which is why I’m not freaking out. Believe me, if she took Aiden away from the fair without telling anyone, I’m going to be pissed.
But I’m going to be pissed mostly because she worried us all and made you fucking cry.
She won’t let any harm come to him. I know that now. ”
He took a deep, quavering breath. “How are you so calm? I thought—”
“That I’d be losing my mind? I’ll save that for when he’s back safe and sound.” I wrapped my hand around the back of his neck again. Touching him grounded me and kept me focused. “We’re going to find him. Right now.”
Luke nodded, like he’d only needed that reassurance in order to regain his natural optimism. He amazed me. “Okay. What do we do?”
“I’m going to call Amanda, first off.” I pulled out my phone to do just that. “And you’re gonna figure out a way to get everyone’s attention.” I waved my hand in a circle to indicate the booths and all the areas beyond. “The whole crowd.”
“But what if he’s with Amanda and they already left? What if they’re halfway to the highway? Should we call the police?”
“We’ll let Sheriff Carver know, but they can’t have left. The parking lot’s been shut for over an hour because someone left the door to the pig enclosure open, and two of the pigs escaped.” I rolled my eyes. “One of them was Donna McKeown’s sow Peppa, and she started farrowing.”
“Farrowing?”
“Giving birth,” I explained. “Right there in the parking lot.”
Luke sucked in a breath. “Donna did?”
“No, honey. The pig.”
“Oh.” His jaw dropped, and he gaped at me for a long moment before he recovered. “I have so many questions.”
“Later. Right now, we have a mission. Amanda’s not answering, but that doesn’t mean anything. They’re either still here, or someone’s seen them walk off. We need to get everyone’s attention and find out.”
“Webb, what’s going on?” Drew hurried up, breath heaving.
I spoke loudly so at least the people around us could hear. “We need to get everyone’s attention. Aiden’s gone missing.”
A murmur of concern spread quickly.
“The mayor has his microphone set up for announcements,” Drew reminded us.
“Good. But—” Someone nearby won a game, and a chorus of cheers and ringing bells filled the air. “—that won’t be enough. See if the mayor or anyone has a bullhorn. Something we can use to spread the message all the way back to the picnic area.”
“Mayor York’s got the bugle over at the gazebo!” a childish voice piped up. “That could be loud… if you blew it.”
Luke tilted his head in mild reproof. “Olin, sweetie, is now the time to bring up that bugle?”
But I blinked, because actually, when I thought about it…
“Luke. What’s the one thing that will make this whole town stop and take notice?”
“Uh. I dunno.”
“Yes you do. What makes every patron of Panini Jack’s stop eating their breakfast? What one subject is so popular, my freakin’ family is selling us out to win commemorative scrolls?”
Luke’s lips parted in horror. “No. No, there are other ways. Skywriters. Fireworks. Air raid sirens.”
“Do you have an air raid siren handy, baby?”
His shoulders slumped. “No, but—”
“Love, it’s gonna be fine. Trust me?”
Luke’s eyes softened, and despite the worry still in them, he nodded without hesitation. Despite all the things left unsaid between us—all the things I hadn’t told him last night about land deeds, and Amanda, and the fact that I was in love with him—he still said yes.
And I vowed to myself right then and there that I would work hard every single day for the rest of our lives to be worthy of that instant trust.
I grabbed his hand, and together we ran toward the table by the stage in the center of the common by the gazebo. The mayor wasn’t there, but Dora York was, holding down the fort for her husband.
“Dora, Luke and I need the bugle. Right away. And we’re gonna need to use the stage.”
Dora gasped and fluttered her hands excitedly, like she wasn’t sure whether she should find her husband, text her friends, contact Genevieve with an exclusive story, or hand over the bugle first.
I made that decision for her by reaching over and snatching the bugle off the temporary plaque that some kind and overly invested soul had erected on the table.
“Thanks so much, Ms. York,” Luke called over his shoulder as he let me tow him up the makeshift stairs to the stage.
We stepped up to the microphone stand, and I stared down at the brass instrument in my hand. It still looked a little dented and tarnished and old but somehow seemed more intimidating than it had all those weeks ago. Maybe because I knew just how powerful it was.
I put it to my lips and blew… and, yep, my drunkenness had not distorted my memory of that noise one little bit, but it seemed to have the desired effect.
People near us stopped talking and laughing, and the silence spread outward like ripples in a pond. Game bells stopped jangling. The music slowly died.
The silence didn’t come quickly enough for the man at my side, though. He grabbed the bugle from my hand impatiently and blew it once again, even louder than I had.
“Holy crap,” someone in the crowd muttered, covering their ears.
“Oh mah gahd, they’re doing their vows,” someone else said.
“Webb bestowed Luke his sweatshirt! Part the Fifth is complete! This is really happening!”
“Lukey! Oh, Sue, it’s Lukey and Webb. I told you they’d work things out. Didn’t I tell you?” Ms. Williams yelled from somewhere nearby.
“Heck, yeah, Luke!” Alan Laroche yelled, wiping his misty eyes with his Habs jersey. “Couldn’ta happened to a nicer guy!”
“We’re looking for a missing child,” Luke said into the microphone, and the cheering cut off as quickly as the carnival sounds had.
His voice wobbled a little with worry and unmistakable love.
“My—uh. Webb Sunday’s boy Aiden’s gone missing, and we need help finding him.
For those of you who don’t live here and maybe don’t know him, he’s seven years old.
Four and a half feet tall. He’s got dark hair and big green eyes.
He’s wearing a Nature Scout uniform with a brand-new knot-tying badge on it—” Luke sniffled a little and tried to cover it with a cough, and I wrapped my arm around his waist.
There was a reason why, once I’d stopped irrationally disliking Luke Williams, I hadn’t been able to erect any barriers or defenses against him.
Luke continued. “And, uh… his front teeth haven’t grown in yet—”
There was a reason why, even when I’d tried to tell myself I didn’t trust him, I had.
“Aiden’s sweet and talkative and smart, and—”
There was a reason why falling for this man had been as easy as… as falling off a damn roof. How could I not fall in love with a man who was gorgeous and warm as sunshine? Who was smart enough to know what was most important in the world and had a heart big enough to treasure it?
“—and if you’ve seen him, please just tell someone. Nobody needs to be in trouble, okay? We just want to know he’s safe—”
“Webb?” Amanda pushed through the crowd toward the stage, towing a not-particularly-pleased-looking Aiden behind her. “He’s okay, you guys.”
Oh, holy shit.
Luke covered his face with both hands. A single, low sob emerged, like he’d finally let himself fall apart now that he knew he could. “Thank God,” he whispered into my shoulder. “Oh, Webb, thank God.”
“I wanted to surprise you all when my boss let me out early,” Amanda continued. “But when I was on my way to the Pick-a-Book tent, I saw Aiden dart out, and I followed him to the playground.”
“Aiden,” I said severely. “Is that true? Why in the world would you do that? Why would you worry us—”
Amanda set a hand on his shoulder. “Tell them what you told me.”
“I didn’t want to worry you, Dad, I wanted you to blow the bugle!” Aiden cried, the words rushing out of him in a torrent. “I wanted you guys to get married, and I wanted Luke to be in our family. So I left the tent, and I told Olin to tell you to blow the bugle, and you did, and I’m not sorry!”
“We’re going to discuss your behavior at home, young man,” I said.
His defiant stance faltered a little, but he forced himself to rally. “I don’t care! You blew the bugle, and now you’re married! And that’s all that matters.”
“Jesus,” I whispered under my breath.
Ernie York heaved himself through the crowd. “Not so fast, kiddo.” He smoothed his hair with one hand. “They haven’t said their vows yet. And they’d better not either,” he added, “until Genevieve gets here. She was planning to do a live broadcast tomorrow, but this’ll be better.”
Aiden looked from Ernie to Luke to me, clearly crestfallen. “Vows? They gotta do vows, too?”
Amanda squeezed his little shoulders gently.
“Yep,” Ernie said. “They’ve gotta pledge their love and declare their desire to be together.”
Aiden’s eyes went wide. “Okay, but… but you do love each other. Mr. Williams! Luke! You love my dad. You said so!”
Wait, what?
I turned to look at Luke. His face was bright red beneath his freckles, and he looked up at me shyly. “I… I know,” he said, turning back to Aiden. “But…”
“You do?” I asked in surprise. I knew he cared about me and Aiden—it was there in everything he did for us, the way he put his trust in me so completely—but was it possible he’d fallen for me as hard as I’d fallen for him?
“Of course I do,” Luke said softly and maybe a little sadly. “You’re… gosh, Webb. You’re everything. You’re so strong and protective. You love so devotedly. You make me feel like nothing is impossible. How could I not love you?”
His words reminded me of my exact thoughts from a moment before, and I couldn’t help my short huff of amusement.
Luke’s next words sobered me instantly. “But I don’t want you to say it back! I know you’re not ready for a relationship right now, and that’s okay. I can feel how much you care for me, and that’s way more important than you saying—”
“I love you,” I said emphatically. “I love you so damn much.”
“What? No! You can’t,” Luke blurted, stepping all over my romantic declaration, and I laughed out loud, just like I did every damn day that this man was in my life.
I took his hand and held it up, twining mine around it so we were palm to palm. The moment felt just as right, just as fated, in the stone-sober bright light of day as it had on that cold, dark February night.
“You brought me hope. I didn’t realize I’d lost it until you found it and brought it back to me. You helped me trust in people again. To believe that life can be as full of good things as bad. And I’m keeping you. If you need me to blow that bugle all day every day to prove it—”
“Oh, God, please don’t,” Knox said. “That thing sounds like the bellow of a constipated elephant.”
“Hey!” Van the bartender appeared out of nowhere and smacked Knox on the back of the head. “Respect the damn bugle, Sunday. That thing is good luck.”
I laughed. I was definitely going to respect it from now on, but the bugle wasn’t lucky. The only luck I’d needed was the man in my arms, the starry-eyed flatlander I’d fallen in love with.
“Good enough for me,” Ernie York said, sniffling and drying his eyes.
“That was… beautiful.” His wife patted him on the back gently.
“I hereby declare, by the power vested in me by the Town of Little Pippin Hollow, that the articles outlined in the Little Pippin Hollow Handfast Act of 1762, that Thomas Webb Sunday and Luke Guilford Williams are hereby…”
He paused dramatically, as if giving me and Luke one final chance to back out.
The two of us looked at each other and grinned; then Luke wrapped his arms around my neck and kissed the hell out of me—or as my husband would say, the heckity out of me—right in front of all the people we loved best.
“…married!” he concluded happily. “What the bugle has joined together, let no man put asunder.”