Chapter 52
MIRANDA
A day later, the Green Grocer already felt empty.
She felt empty. Everything felt empty. The weekend had not gone as she had expected.
Whether or not Jim had staged the video was almost secondary.
She wanted to believe him. He sounded entirely sincere and almost gutted when they’d spoken about it at the bonfire, but it was more than that.
She’d gotten swept up in the romance of the weekend, the fall vibes, Jim’s attention, everything.
Now she was grounded back in the real world again.
Jim and Shelby were long gone, back in Seattle. It was time for Miranda to return to normal, too. The store needed her attention. It had been picked over. No complaints. She was happy to restock and rearrange. It gave her something useful to do.
But she dragged through the motions, feeling groggy and sluggish. Had she been too quick to judge with Jim? Should she have given him another chance?
The only good thing that had come of this weekend was her breakthrough with Pete yesterday.
Her intuition was right. Something had been bothering him.
She was glad he’d finally opened up and told her the truth about wanting to find his birth father.
She wasn’t upset, and as she said the other night, she truly had exhausted every possibility of trying to track him down when she learned she was pregnant.
She wasn’t harboring a deep, dark secret about him.
She was happy to support his search and offered to pay to hire the private detectives.
Miranda went through the opening procedures in a slight trance. She wiped down tables, rearranged the displays, and organized the shelves.
Was she making a mistake?
Was she being too hard on Jim?
She plucked a dead flower from one of the bouquets.
No. It was all too fast.
She’d been acting like a lovesick teenager, not a full-grown adult.
She sighed and tossed the flower in the garbage before tying on an apron and turning on the kettle for tea. It was time to put Jim out of her mind. It had been a fun few days, but it was over. Time to return to her regular life.
Maybe the gnawing in her stomach would be tamed with breakfast. She toasted a cinnamon bagel, slathered it with pumpkin cream cheese, and sprinkled it with cinnamon. She took a minute to enjoy the bagel and sip an apple spice tea.
What next?
What is it you want?
The first thing that came to her mind was Jim.
Miranda laughed it off, licking cream cheese from her pinkie.
You have it bad.
She sighed, finished the bagel, and shifted her attention to prepping sandwiches.
You really need a distraction.
Miranda sliced newly delivered loaves of sourdough and spread them with herb butter, lemon, and dill aioli.
She layered thin slices of prosciutto and Havarti.
And then stacked the sandwiches with green leaf lettuce, red onion, and heirloom tomatoes.
She placed them on a tray and turned her attention to the soup of the day.
She was in the mood for something warm and comforting, so she decided to make a pot of creamy chicken and stars with locally grown veggies.
Whenever Pete was sick or feeling down as a kid, she would whip up a batch of the cozy soup and pair it with a grilled cheese.
It sounded exactly like what she needed today.
She popped her headphones in and cranked up her Harry Connick Jr. playlist while she diced onions, carrots, celery, and garlic in the kitchen.
She must not have heard the bell.
But she distinctly heard voices in the shop.
Were Pete and Elise here already? That would be just like them to try to cheer her up. She removed her AirPods and went to say hello.
But she was greeted instead by a small crowd in the dining area. The group had come in chatting brightly and bringing the breezy, salty air in with them.
Miranda screwed up her eyes. Was that the young couple from the engagement video?
She dropped her jaw and threw both hands over her heart. “It’s you. Oh, my goodness. Come in. Come in.”
The young woman she recognized right away from her gaffe rushed forward to scoop her in a hug.
She was tall and lanky, with porcelain skin and shiny, long hair as black as basalt.
“Oh, my goodness, we’re so thrilled to meet you.
I’m Addie, the bride-to-be, by the way. We have watched the video about a million times, haven’t we, Mark?
” The young man behind her nodded with a grin.
He was stockier with thick-rimmed glasses and windblown hair the color of toffee.
“It’s the cutest thing we’ve ever seen.”
More heat spread to Miranda’s cheeks. “It was completely unintentional. I’m so sorry I ruined your special day.”
“Ruined it?” Addie shook her head vehemently, reaching for Mark’s hand. “You’re kidding? It’s the sweetest thing we’ve ever seen, and we’ve had offers to go on the Today Show and national news. Everyone loves it. Everyone loves you, especially us.”
National news? The Today Show?
Miranda was confused. She brushed her hands on her apron and looked toward the front of the store as more people crowded in. Elise and Pete were first through the door, both wearing the same impish grins as they had when they first told her about Voyager and her Catalina Island video going viral.
But is that…?
She squinted as hope swelled up inside her.
Is it?
She blinked hard twice as happiness coursed through her veins, already moving forward as if she were being propelled by an imaginary force.
Shelby beamed at Miranda and made a heart with her thumbs and index fingers. Then she nudged Jim forward.
Miranda wanted to pinch herself. She wasn’t dreaming.
This is really happening.
He’s really here.
Jim took a timid step toward Miranda, holding a single red rose. Affection glowed in his eyes.
Miranda’s entire neck erupted with bright red splotches.
What was happening?
Jim offered her the rose, refusing to tear his eyes away from hers. “Miranda, I see you’ve been officially introduced to Addie and Mark. We may have accidentally bumped into them the other day.”
Miranda’s breath stalled. Her knees wobbled.
“That’s why we were so thrilled when Jim tracked us down.” Addie clapped twice. “It’s like something right out of a movie.”
“Jim tracked you down?” Miranda looked at him for clarification. He gave her a shy nod that made her insides flop.
“Yeah, he went out of his way to find us. The internet worked its magic. Have you seen this morning’s post?” Addie asked, handing Miranda her phone.
Miranda glanced toward Pete and Elise. They gave her sheepish grins, encouraging her. She scanned the post before handing Addie her phone back. “I don’t understand.”
“The proposal is an internet sensation. We want you to be the first official invite to our wedding,” Addie said, beaming at Mark. “We’ve already decided the wedding will be here in Half Moon Bay next October for the Fall Harvest Fest, and we want you to be our most honored guest.”
Miranda fumbled, trying to find the right words. “Yes, of course. I would love to attend the wedding, but I promise it wasn’t a stunt. I wasn’t trying to turn your proposal into an internet sensation.”
“Jim, show her,” Shelby said, pushing Jim forward.
He stepped so close that their shoulders touched. Miranda could barely resist the rich smell of his cologne or how, just by being in his proximity, the air felt supercharged. She watched the video. It was the final proof she needed.
“So you didn’t… It wasn’t a…”
“A setup?” He finished her thought. “No. I’m as guilty as you, though. I never saw it coming because I couldn’t take my eyes off you.” His voice was rough, thick with emotion.
Nothing felt real. Was she floating?
“Kiss her,” Shelby said.
Pete and Elise applauded. “Yeah, kiss her!”
Miranda’s cheeks flamed with heat, but she didn’t care.
Jim cupped her face in his hands and kissed her softly.
They might have stayed there forever if it weren’t for their audience.
When they finally pulled apart, everyone whooped and hollered.
Miranda looked at Jim and whispered, “What now? What about the promotion?”
“Promotion? What promotion? That’s all Shelby.
I have no interest in management, but I was thinking we could give long distance a try?
” he said, under his breath, his eyes holding all the hope in the world.
“I have a lot of airline miles, but I should warn you that I have been known to show up on airplanes in coffee-stained shirts. I don’t know how you feel about guys wearing their lattes. ”
Her heart felt like it might pound out of her chest. “Oh, I’m a big fan of a latte-stained shirts.” She leaned in and kissed him again. “The biggest fan.”