Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Winnie was flying high. Everything had gone off without a hitch.
She’d fretted herself into a lather the night prior, when she and her friends had finished setting up only for clouds to roll in that threatened rain.
Eleanor, who had decided to come along and help with the setup, had wrapped an arm around Winnie’s shoulder and reminded her that no amount of worry would give Winnie the power to control the weather and then kept that arm in place until Winnie’s panic had subsided.
In the end, the weather had cooperated enough that it wasn’t anything that twenty minutes and a couple of old rags couldn’t fix.
And everything from that point forward had been perfect.
Well, nearly perfect. She would have liked a little more time to celebrate with Shane.
But that was a pretty small complaint, especially since every time she’d stolen a moment to look for him, she’d found him already looking in her direction, ready to share a little wave before she got sucked into her next conversation.
The whole thing had made Winnie feel so happy she thought she might topple over.
She didn’t, of course. She was a professional.
“Winnie!”
At the sound of her name, Winnie turned to see Lyle, Cherry, and Lyle’s grandson walking toward her. Winnie tried not to react at the sight of the little boy walking hand in hand with Cherry rather than his own grandfather.
Hm. Winnie had wondered if Lyle didn’t get a little bit of an extra twinkle in his eye when Cherry was around. She hoped her suspicions were true. Lyle had been widowed for over a decade, and he deserved some happiness in his life.
“Can you say what you were going to say to Miss Winnie, Connor?” Cherry prompted, leaning down to the little boy, who looked to be about four years old.
“I really like the shestival, Miss Winnie,” the boy said.
“Festival,” Cherry translated with a wink.
“Thank you, Connor,” Winnie said with a grin. “What was your favorite part?”
“The apples,” he said, grinning so big that it overtook his face.
“The apples are really good,” she agreed.
“The whole thing is really good,” Lyle said, and Winnie felt tension release from her shoulders.
She hadn’t even realized she’d been waiting to hear from Lyle what he thought, but now that she’d gotten his stamp of approval, she felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off her.
“This was a truly wonderful idea. You’ve engaged the community in our local history beyond what I might have hoped for in my wildest dreams. I hope that you are very proud of yourself, Winnie. ”
By the time he finished speaking, Winnie was so flattered that she could barely form the words to express herself.
“I… Lyle… thank you,” she finally managed.
It wasn’t the most eloquent she’d ever been, but it seemed as though her boss understood the depth of her feelings anyway, judging from the kind smile he gave her.
“No,” he said, “thank you. Now, enough from me. Time for you to go enjoy the fruits of your labor. And I mean that quite literally,” he added with a sly, sideways wink at Connor. “If you don’t eat at least one thing made of apple before you leave today, you’re fired.”
The joke was so obvious that even Connor knew to laugh.
Shortly after, Winnie bid the trio farewell, then watched happily as Connor tugged both adults toward the hoop run station. Winnie had the impression that this wasn’t their first trip… and maybe not even their third or fourth either.
Winnie thought about trying some of the activities at the booths herself, but before she could decide which direction to head in, she spotted June, who was learning how to make a corn husk doll with her son, Benjamin.
She realized with a jolt that it had been…
oh, she didn’t even know how long it had been since she’d last run into June, since she’d been so wrapped up in the festival prep that she hadn’t had much time for anything else, but she remembered now that June had been worried about Benjamin’s illness the last time that they’d encountered one another.
Fortunately, the boy looked good now. He was frowning down at his corn husk doll in adorable concentration, his tongue poking out the side of his mouth as though doing so helped him focus on what he was doing.
“June, hey!”
When June turned, there was a smile on her face, but it didn’t quite extend to her eyes.
“Winnie, hi! Oh my gosh, you must be so happy. This is amazing!”
“Thanks,” Winnie said distractedly, concerned by the tension she could now see bracketing June’s mouth. “But, June, honey… is everything okay?”
June rubbed a hand over the back of her neck, then glanced at Benjamin, who was still focused on his task. June took an extra step away, beckoning Winnie along so they were out of earshot.
“Everything is fine,” she said, and Winnie heaved a sigh of relief. “Or, well, it will be, it’s just…” She shot another glance at Benjamin. “But we found out that the reason that Benjamin was feeling so sick for so long was because he has type one diabetes.”
She said it like she had to force the words out.
“Oh, June,” Winnie said, reaching out a hand to give her friend a sympathetic squeeze on the arm.
June had to close her eyes and gather her strength for a second.
“Thanks,” she said after a moment. “I mean, I know it’s manageable. And kids are resilient. Honestly, I’m probably taking it harder than Benjamin is. But, it’s just…”
“It’s hard,” Winnie said when June fell silent.
“Yeah,” June agreed. “He’s just… he’s my baby boy. And I wouldn’t say that I’m not thinking about losing Keith when I think about Benjamin being sick.”
“I think I’m going to hug you now,” Winnie said, trusting her instincts.
Fortunately, her awkwardness made June laugh, and June seemed like she really needed a laugh.
“I think that would be great,” June said, spreading her arms.
The embrace felt a little strange, but Winnie was pretty sure this was just because she was out of practice. And June did look as though she felt a little bit better afterward.
“I am comfortable promising that the whole book club will be here for you,” Winnie added after they’d pulled away from one another.
“I know,” June agreed. “And that means a lot to me. It’s just… heavy.”
Winnie gave her another quick side-armed hug.
“Lean on us,” she encouraged, thrilling at the idea of being part of an us. “Let us carry some of that weight.”
“Thanks, Winnie,” June said sincerely. “I’m so glad we’ve become friends, you know that?”
Winnie felt her heart swell with happiness.
“Me too,” she said.
It wasn’t that she felt happy about June’s sadness. Of course she didn’t. But it felt good to be the kind of person that her friends relied upon, to be the kind of woman who others would turn to when things were hard as well as easy.
As she and June chatted a little more about much lighter matters, Winnie found her thoughts drifting back to Shane and the role he’d had in encouraging her to stretch beyond her comfort zone. He’d really had such an amazing, positive impact on her in such a short period of time.
“Sorry, June,” Winnie said during the next lull in conversation. “I have to go talk to someone.”
“Oh, go, go,” June said easily, shooing her off. “You’re the woman of the hour. Bask in the adoration.”
Winnie chuckled, even going so far as to shoot June a daring wink over her shoulder.
Winnie did plan to bask in adoration… it just happened to be mutual adoration for the man who had made this whole thing possible.
“Hey there,” Shane said, smiling broadly as she approached him.
“Hey there,” she said back playfully. “What brings you to these parts?”
“Aw, you know.” He shrugged a shoulder. “I’m just really into local history. It has nothing to do with the person who organized this shindig. Nothing at all.”
“Yeah, who even knows who that was?” she teased back, propping up on her toes to peck a kiss onto his cheek. “They’re boring, probably.”
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, keeping her close at his side.
“Weird. Boring was not the word I was going to use. I was going to say amazing. Adorable. Brilliant.”
“You’re going to make me blush,” she accused.
“Gosh, I hope so,” he said happily.
There was a moment that was just about perfect as they stood and watched the event unfold around them.
And then, something shifted. At first, Winnie didn’t understand what it was.
She just felt a strange tension in the air, almost like the crackle of electricity in the atmosphere before a rain storm.
And then she realized that it was the sense of Shane pulling away. Not physically, but emotionally. So, by the time he spoke, she wasn’t exactly surprised by his words.
“I’ll always cherish this memory,” he said quietly.
She had to swallow hard before she could trust her voice to be steady.
“You’re going home soon,” she said, leaning her head against his shoulder.
“Yeah,” he agreed, pressing his cheek to the top of her head. “It’s time.”
Winnie recognized the irony of their affectionate embrace as things were falling apart for them. It would have made her cry if she’d seen it in a movie. She was proud of herself for not crying now.
“Well, I can’t say that I’m happy about it, but I understand,” she said. “We always knew that this day would come.”
“Shouldn’t that make it easier, though?” he asked. “It’s not easy.”
“No.” There was another lull, and this one was still comfortable, even with the heaviness of their conversation, and somehow that made her feel even sadder.
It hurt that they could understand one another so well, that they could enjoy being together so much, that they could make each other better and braver…
And that it could still not be enough. A powerful connection didn’t make three thousand miles any shorter. It didn’t change the shape of their lives, a shape that seemed determined to keep them apart.
“You know I want everything good for you, right?” she asked, feeling a desperate urge to make sure that he knew that. “All the happiness. All the success. Everything.”
“I know,” he said. “And I want the same for you… but I have no doubts that you’ll get there. I’ve seen how far you’ve come in such a little time. You’re going to be amazing. Just amazing.”
“Is this our goodbye, then?” she asked. This seemed like such a poor setting for it, this wonderful day surrounded by happy people. But then again, would there ever be a good time for this?
He reached down to squeeze her hand.
“No,” he said. “I was hoping that you would meet me for a farewell dinner at Captain’s Crest… you know, now that I’ve got their system up and running again.”
She squeezed his fingers back, a nod to the joke, feeble though it might have been. He was doing his best to keep up his spirits. She could try the same.
“Yeah,” she said. “I would like that.”
They agreed on the time and place and then, with a sad, lingering smile, Shane left the festival. Winnie didn’t even pretend that she wasn’t watching him leave.
She didn’t try to fight the sadness that lay over her like a mantle. She was glad that this wasn’t the last time she would ever see Shane…
But she feared that extending their farewell would only make this pain last all that much longer.