Chapter Forty-Eight
“How about a round of applause for the winners of this year’s contest, JT and Ali?”
They’d won the contest, but it felt anticlimactic.
They’d busted their asses to get to the final and gotten all the help they could to plan their sculpture, but in the end Kyle and Sharon weren’t even there when the winners were announced because they were too busy arguing.
As Walter congratulated them on their throne and accompanying picture idea to bring publicity to the inn and the rest of the town, the bear’s head fell off.
It landed with a thud and rolled toward the walkway.
“Lord, that’s going to scare people away,” the owner of the inn said a little too loudly.
Ali smiled at JT and waved to the tiny crowd gathered outside the inn as they accepted their prize from Walter and the other judges. “Thanks,” she said, taking the envelope. She turned to the inn’s owner. “Sorry about the sculptures. We did our best.”
The woman patted Ali’s shoulder. “Yours is lovely.” She shook her head. “We’ll have to figure out a way to deal with that one.”
She turned to JT, who was accepting her prize envelope as well. “I’d always heard that you were the one Cox who wasn’t an artist. But that was clearly a lie. You did a beautiful job.”
JT blushed. “Oh no, I’m not an artist at all. But hopefully I made my family proud or at least didn’t embarrass them too much. This is way out of my comfort zone, but it was fun anyway.” She caught Ali’s eye and gave her a quick wink.
Ali waited for JT at the foot of the sculpture. “You think it will hold us?”
“Only one way to find out,” JT said with a warm smile. “You need a boost?”
Ali playfully smacked JT on the stomach, or where her stomach was beneath seventeen layers of jackets and sweaters. “I’m more than capable of getting up there, thank you very much.” She got on the seat and waited for JT to join her.
JT handed her phone to her mom and jumped onto the seat easily. She slung her arm around Ali’s shoulder and grinned. “This thing is pretty great, you know?”
Ali nodded. “The chair or us?”
“Both,” JT said with a massive grin. She gestured for Ali to look forward. “Say cheese.”
Mrs. Cox took a bunch of pictures before shooing them away. “Our turn. Come on, let’s show those kids how it’s done.” She and JT’s dad climbed up on the chair and posed like royalty for JT.
JT snapped a bunch of pictures of her parents and then texted them to her family group chat.
“JT! JT!”
JT turned around and saw her nieces and nephew running toward her on the sidewalk. Jonathan, Beth, Clark, and Emerson lagged a few steps behind looking a little worse for wear.
“Hi guys!”
Ali crouched down. “Are you Brooke?”
Brooke nodded.
“What do you have there?”
“Cookies!” Brooke shouted way too loud for how close she was to Ali’s ear. Ali flinched but couldn’t help laughing. She stood up and said hi to Mabel and Harrison.
“Who are you?”
JT covered her smile with her hand. “This is Ali.”
“Are you Auntie JT’s girlfriend?” Mabel asked.
Ali looked at JT, trying to gauge her reaction. JT raised her eyebrows and gave Ali a grin.
“Yeah, Mabel. Ali’s my girlfriend.”
Ali’s chest warmed with the realization that hearing JT call her “my girlfriend” was an unexpected comfort. After spending so much time together, Ali wanted to be able to say they were together, but circumstances made her wonder if JT would feel the same way.
“Are you going to get married?” Harrison asked with a very serious expression.
Ali opened her mouth but couldn’t find the words.
JT crouched down to his level. “Would you like it if we got married?”
Harrison shrugged. “Emerson was saying she hoped you’d have a wedding soon.”
JT looked over Harrison’s shoulder to her sister. “Oh, she did, did she? Hey, Mrs. Bennett, why are you trying to get me married off and why are you telling your kids about it?”
Ali looked at Emerson, who was blushing. “Oh my god, JT. I’m not trying to get you married off.” She looked apologetic. “All I said was I like Ali and it’s about time we had another wedding in the family.”
Emerson leaned closer to Ali. “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to meddle. It seems Jonathan’s kids were lurking when I was talking to Clark. I really am sorry. There’s nothing worse than people trying to rush you when you’re first together.”
Ali shook her head slowly. “This isn’t pressure.
You should see the kind of pressure I had to deal with after Kyle and I won prom king and queen.
People would stop us on the street. It was weird how invested they were.
” Ali stood in the middle of this group of the Cox family and smiled.
It felt nice. She was comfortable with them, even if JT’s mom was still terrifying.
She looked at JT for any hint of how she was feeling.
“JT! That throne looks amazing! How did you manage to make it look so good in so little time!” Jonathan walked a circle around the chair, inspecting it and pointing out things he liked to the twins.
JT grinned. “Thanks, Jon. Mom and Dad had a lot of suggestions that helped.”
“Oh no, don’t you try to give us credit. You two did this all on your own.”
Ali wasn’t sure she’d ever seen JT this joyful around her family.
It made her so happy. After a week of learning all the ways the Cox family had failed her, seeing them all complimenting her work was heartwarming.
But more importantly, they were there. They’d shown up to see what she had done.
Ali could see they were making her feel important and loved.
Ali wished she could capture the moment and carry it around with her forever.
JT’s joy, the smile stretching across her face and the way her eyes crinkled at the corners, filled Ali with such a sense of happiness.
She realized how much she wanted this to work out.
The odds were stacked against them in so many ways, but Ali ached to spend more time being near JT and her sweet, kind, joyful heart.
That wasn’t entirely up to her, though.