Epilogue
[Neve]
There’s nothing like summer in Lovewell Landing. The glint of the sun off the bay. The chatter of people outdoors in our small town. And the festivals.
So many celebrations.
By summer, Wren is nine months old. She’s crawling and babbling and an absolute joy.
Firehouse Station is open for business. We have one bay for specialty car projects and one bay for routine auto needs. We’re busier than ever, and I have a staff. A staff.
Two part-time mechanics allow me a break and the freedom to spend time with Wren and Tate.
Tate took on a new job. Still in the real estate brokerage industry, but something that allows him remote work, providing him time with his girls, as he calls us.
I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.
As a family, we head to the beach for the annual wife-carrying contest. The competition doesn’t necessarily involve a husband and wife team, but does demand a male-female partnership in which the female must be smaller than her male counterpart.
The race involves her being carried by him through an obstacle course.
Once a show of dominance and strength in ancient Finland, it’s taken on a rather comical feel in Maine.
Ladies are lugged over shoulders in fireman holds, or ride upside-down, legs over shoulders and arms around waists. Others take the piggyback route, as one couple is doing.
“Is that—” Tate points, gobsmacked at a couple who look exactly like . . .
“Isolde and Landon?” I gasp.
Tate and I glance at each other then back at the team of my sister on the back of Landon Abbott, her sworn enemy.
I don’t know what Landon ever did to Isolde. He’s just always rubbed her the wrong way, but I’m quite certain that’s because he’d love to rub his body against hers.
Unlike me, Isolde didn’t sleep around. She had one bad incident that deeply scarred her.
She hasn’t sworn off men as much as become leery of them, shy even. I know for a fact she has far less experience than her twin sister or I have.
Maybe her hatred of Landon stems from him being a player around here.
Whatever the situation, Landon carries her through the course involving a teeter-totter ramp, splashing through kiddie pools, and a race across sand.
As we watch them run, we fall into the mayhem of the crowd by cheering our heads off for Landon and Isolde. When they cross the finish line, most couples continue toward the bay, which Landon does as well, eventually falling backward and soaking Isolde.
When the two stand, Isolde spins toward Landon, shoves water at him, then stalks away.
I can practically feel the angry steam coming off her body in the July air.
But the stranger part is that Isolde is staring off to her right at another couple.
Her eyes on him, the new football coach at the high school.
His partner’s eyes are focused on Landon, who remains in the bay, splashing water over his head before swiping at his face, then his aim returns to Isolde’s retreat.
Now, I’m not up on my Shakespearean tales, but my sister has talked a number of times about her teaching Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to her students, so I know the story well enough.
And this situation has a midsummer mishap written all over it.
MIDSUMMER MISHAP – coming May 2027
+ + +
THANK YOU for reading FALL LOVE.