Epilogue #3
My face lit on fire, and I pretty much died right there on the spot.
Webb’s face turned crimson, but his was anger rather than embarrassment.
He opened his mouth to call his brother out for his rude behavior when Hawk turned and glared at Jack, who was standing a few feet away, delivering someone’s bill.
“Everyone in this town is having sex except me! I’m going to be a virgin until I die old and alone. I’m living with a damned cherry that will never be picked!”
He yanked off the denim half-apron around his waist and threw it down on the floor. “I quit.” Then he stormed out the front door.
Everyone in the entire restaurant turned to Jack, who looked like he’d eaten last week’s fish. His eyes shot to Webb with a pleading look. “I didn’t do anything, I promise.”
Webb’s face scrunched up in confusion. “Do anything about what? What was that all about?”
If my sweet husband had a blind spot, it was that he still thought of Hawk as a child like Aiden instead of an adult almost the same age as Gage. By the look on Jack’s face, it was pretty clear not everyone had trouble seeing Hawk as the fully grown, handsome man he was.
Jack’s nostrils widened before he looked around the restaurant and realized everyone was gawping at him. “Nothing to see here, people. Please respect Hawk’s privacy and allow him to have a bad day without spreading it around town. Understood?”
Several people gave him reluctant nods, but not a soul in the place expected this outburst to remain out of the Pippin gossip mill, including Jack. He sighed and suddenly looked tired and hopeless. “Back to work,” he muttered to no one in particular. Maybe he was talking to himself.
After he returned to the kitchen, I nudged Webb. “Go talk to him. He needs his best friend.”
“Yeah, okay. I can’t imagine what Hawk was thinking with that outburst,” he hissed in a low voice. “Jack doesn’t think of him that way. They’re friends.”
I opened my mouth to remind him that he and I had been friends, too… for about ten minutes before we started having sex, but quickly shut it again. “They’ll sort their relationship themselves, baby. Just let him know you care.”
Once Webb had followed Jack to the back, Katey bounced up with her order pad and a big smile. “Hey, Luke! Jack’s making your favorite avocado sandwich today. Do you want waffle fries with it or fruit?”
Seemed like when Katey had paid a king’s ransom to dunk me at the Spring Fling, she’d worked something out of her system, because after that, she’d decided we were BFFs. I supposed now that Webb was fully, legally mine, she no longer had cause for jealousy.
“Fries, please,” I said politely.
“He’s already had plenty of fruit today,” Knox added under his breath. “Considering he smells like our orchard.”
I sank lower in my chair, but Knox reached over to ruffle my hair. And then pulled a small stick out of it.
When Webb returned from the kitchen, he took the seat next to mine and leaned over to press a kiss to my cheek. “Love you,” he whispered.
“He okay?” I asked in a low voice.
Webb shrugged. “He wouldn’t talk. But I told him I’m here if he needs me.”
The door to the café opened, and Aiden came running in, followed by Amanda.
“Dad! Luke! Guess what we saw? The new Dreampest movie! It was so freaking cool.”
He nudged himself between the two of us and climbed onto my lap. He was getting big, all knees and elbows, but I loved every chance I got to give him hugs while he was still young enough to let us.
He faced Webb and started rattling off details about the movie. When Amanda approached, my mom reached out to wave her into an empty chair at the table. “I was hoping you’d come, honey! We need a gossip update about your Realtor and the cute mortgage broker.”
Amanda grinned, but before she sat down, she glanced at Webb as she sometimes did when someone invited her to stay for a cookout, or to meet us at Jack’s for breakfast, or to come for a campout at the Orchard to celebrate Aiden’s birthday. Her look said, This okay?
Webb rolled his eyes and nodded, which was lumberjack code for “You’re very welcome, of course, Amanda, please sit down,” and that’s exactly what she did, pulling up a chair beside my mom and launching into her story.
Webb and Amanda had made a real effort to heal their relationship over those first few weeks after the Spring Fling.
They’d had several long talks—more than they’d had in their entire marriage, according to Webb—and while things hadn’t been perfect, they were both committed to getting along for Aiden’s sake.
Aiden was thriving, and that was what mattered the most.
That and the love we all had for each other.
Because there were a few major elements of my fairy-tale happy ending that I hadn’t realized were missing from my fantasies.
Good things happened as often as bad—I still believed that.
But a person’s good fortune didn’t come from the Unity Bugle, just like his farmhouse didn’t come complete with a fairy-tale happily ever after, his legacy wasn’t a parcel of land, and his home had very little to do with geography.
Real good fortune was being surrounded by people you loved—people who loved you, too, and who’d work beside you every day to make your dreams come true—and I’d found mine in this large, nosy family… and in Little Pippin Hollow.