Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Faith closed her laptop with a sigh of satisfaction.
She picked up the stack of sticky notes resting in the corner of her desk and quickly jotted down a note reminding herself to put posters around town the next day for a marketing event that the McCormick Brewery planned on hosting in the coming weeks.
She chuckled, since the sticky note was shaped like a smiling little cheeseburger with big eyes and it never failed to amuse her.
She stood up, downed the last of her coffee, and slid her laptop into her work bag.
She glanced at her watch, noting that Ryan was probably still in the brewery somewhere.
A quick glance across the hallway told her that he wasn’t in his office, but she knew it wouldn’t take her too long to find him somewhere in the building.
She wanted to give him a quick kiss before heading home and moving on to her next list of tasks.
She slung her bag over her shoulder and began to wander through the brewery. When she didn’t see Ryan, she made her way to the bustling, scent-filled kitchen, where she located him training one of the new hires.
She was about to slip quietly away, since she didn’t want to interrupt him while he was working with someone else, when he caught sight of her and grinned.
“Hey! Come on over here, honey. Brandon, this is my fiancée, Faith. Faith, this is Brandon, our new server.”
“Nice to meet you.” Faith shook Brandon’s hand warmly. He was a freckled, enthusiastic-looking teenager, and Faith had a feeling he was going to be a great addition to the team. She turned to Ryan. “I’ll get out of your hair. I just wanted to say hi before heading home.”
“Hi.” Ryan gave her a quick kiss, which made Brandon blush slightly. Faith repressed a small chuckle. “But why don’t you stick around here? We’ve got some day-old slices of that amazing cherry pie we’re trying to get rid of. Why don’t you have a slice on the house?”
“Okay, sold.” She laughed. “Cherry pie sounds amazing right now. And I have a little more work to do on my computer, so I might as well do that here.”
“Perfect.” Ryan gave her another kiss, in complete disregard to the embarrassment of poor Brandon. “I’ll swing by your table later and say hi again.”
Faith grinned at him, told Brandon it was nice to meet him, and went to get herself a slice of the cherry pie. She added a generous dollop of whipped cream to the top and carried it out to one of the small tables placed in front of the dining room windows.
This is the best part of the day, she thought with a thrill. Now I get to just concentrate on the kind of work I really love.
Tapping her toes under the table with excitement, she began to use the touchscreen of her laptop to sketch out her ideas for how to decorate the balconies and banisters in the barn for Dean and Noelle’s wedding.
Noelle had asked her to sketch out a plan for the decorations since she was so busy with the other details of the wedding, and since Faith had dabbled in florist work just after college, Noelle trusted her to come up with a beautiful design.
Faith would have relished the task regardless, but the fact that she and Ryan were getting ready to be married made it all that much sweeter.
Every time she helped out with Noelle and Dean’s wedding, she got more excited for her own.
Her mind buzzed with ideas for decorations, both for Dean and Noelle and for herself and Ryan.
Once she’d sketched out three different options for arranging lights, greenery, and fabric on the balconies and banisters in the Turners’ barn, she turned her attention to the centerpieces, which needed to be reorganized since there would be more tables in the Turners’ barn than Noelle and Dean had been planning on in their original venue.
They still had the same number of guests coming to their wedding, but the tables in the Turners’ barn were smaller, allowing for fewer chairs at every table.
Although they planned on mixing and matching different centerpieces at every table, they were still six centerpieces short with the new table arrangement.
Noelle had asked Faith to scout out a new centerpiece that they could buy six of, which would work with the theme of the other three types of centerpieces they still planned on using.
Faith felt thrilled as she explored a wedding decoration website, looking for centerpieces that were both beautiful and on the more affordable side.
She also wanted find options for Noelle that fit her and Dean’s personalities.
Their wedding already felt like such a beautiful representation of the two of them, and she wanted to be able to honor that by finding them centerpiece options they would both adore.
She gasped when she saw a centerpiece that was made to look like a miniature pine tree.
Although she could tell that the centerpiece had originally been intended for Christmas weddings, she knew that it would fit beautifully with both the color scheme and the rustic theme of Dean and Noelle’s wedding.
I love this, she thought, leaning forward and peering at her computer screen. It’s so charming. Instead of ornaments, we could put little lights on the branches, or maybe even little love notes or pieces of candy.
Delighted, she added the link to her list of items that she wanted to show to Noelle. Then she returned to the website and continued to browse, on the lookout for other rustic centerpieces that would fit with everything else that Noelle had planned for the wedding décor.
She clicked her way onto the next page and began to scroll down it. She wasn’t seeing anything that she thought Noelle would love, and she was just starting to think she should check out another website, when she gasped.
One of the centerpieces was a set of three glass cylinders, which were meant to be filled with flowers and water and topped with floating candles.
Faith’s heart beat faster as she stared at how beautiful they looked filled with orchids, which floated gracefully in the water.
She knew it wasn’t the kind of vibe Noelle wanted for her wedding, but it was exactly the sort of thing she wanted for her own.
She was staring at the screen of her laptop, feeling enamored by the centerpiece, when someone sat down next to her. She jumped, startled, and then started to laugh when she realized that it was Ryan.
“Gosh, sweetheart, you scared me.”
“Sorry,” he said, grinning and looking unapologetic despite his words. “I told you I was going to swing by and say hi.”
“So you did.” She smiled and leaned in for a kiss. “I just got totally distracted by what I’m doing here.”
“Yeah?” He scooted his chair closer to hers. “What are you up to?”
“Uh, not too much,” she stammered, suddenly tongue-tied. “I’ve been researching potential decorations for Noelle and Dean’s wedding.”
Ryan cocked his head to one side impishly, raising a quizzical eyebrow. “Is that all? I don’t think that explains why you suddenly look so sheepish.”
She laughed and held her hands to her cheeks, wondering if they were warm from blushing. “I did get a bit side-tracked,” she admitted. “I started browsing options for our own wedding centerpieces, sort of by accident.”
“By accident, huh? Let me see.”
She laughed. “Well, I was looking for Dean and Noelle and I happened to come across some that I think are absolutely divine. What do you think of these?” She turned her laptop toward him, showing him the picture of the glass cylinder centerpieces.
“Wow, so fancy,” he said, affecting a silly posh accent. She laughed and punched him playfully in the arm. “No, really, I love them. They look so elegant. Would you want to put orchids inside them like that?”
“Maybe, but I don’t think so. What would you think of crabapple blossoms? Crabapple blossoms always make me think of you because we had that one date under the crabapple tree when it was flowering.”
He touched his nose to hers. “I love that idea. Show me what else you’re thinking of.”
“Well, I didn’t look at anything else for us today, really, but I did see these golden round tealight holders another time, let me see if I can find those—” Faith’s fingers flew at lightning speed as she searched for the orbs she’d found while browsing the web the other day.
“Ah! Here they are. Aren’t they just gorgeous?
And those little holes make patterns of light when the tealight is inside.
I was at a wedding that had something similar once. It was absolutely gorgeous.”
“Those are so pretty.” Ryan leaned forward, clearly intrigued, which Faith found gratifying.
She liked knowing that he wasn’t just acting enthusiastic for her sake, and that he genuinely liked what she was showing him.
He clicked on the website page a few times, scrolling down farther to look at more tealight holder options. “What about these? These look cool.”
“The blue glass ones? Yes! Don’t they kind of look like what we have here in the McCormick Brewery? I love that.”
They spent the next few minutes looking at various centerpieces together.
Faith was having a blast, and Ryan kept teasing her and suggesting outlandish options, which made it even more fun.
Finally with a sigh she reminded herself that their own wedding could wait, and that she needed to stay focused on the task at hand.
“We should get back to looking at items for Dean and Noelle’s wedding,” she said, kissing the side of his forehead. “I’ve got almost as many options written down for Noelle and Dean to look at as I’d wanted to gather, but I want to find at least a couple more.”
“Sounds good.” He watched her with a sweet expression on his face for a few moments, and she laughed.
“What?” she prompted. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I just love how kind you are to everyone, but especially to your family. I think the way you care about people is inspiring. You’re taking important details about the wedding off Noelle’s plate so that she doesn’t have to feel stressed about this venue switch.
I know it’s fun for you, but it’s also a lot of work, and I think it’s sweet that you want to help her like that. ”
“Thanks. It just feels like something I don’t even have to think about. I love my family so much, and I’m so grateful that they’re a part of my life. They do so much for me, and I want to be able to return the favor, you know?”
Ryan nodded. “I understand. It’s easy to be kind to kind people.”
“And it’s not just my family, it’s the whole town. I’ve felt so welcomed by everyone ever since I first arrived.” She nudged his shoulder with hers. “Especially you.”
He took her hand. “I remember those days. We were both recovering from working too much, and neither of us were sure if you were going to stay in town or not. I’m so happy we’ve ended up where we are.” He stroked his thumb across her engagement ring with a sweet smile.
“Me too. I can hardly believe that if it weren’t for that panic attack, I would still be working myself to the bone in Boston, my head filled with overwhelming amounts of information and my body exhausted and crabby from lack of rest. I had some good times back in those days, and I’m proud of myself for succeeding at my career, but my life is so much better now. ”
He nodded. “We’ve both learned to prioritize living in a healthy way over being ‘successful.’”
“Yes! And it’s the people of this town that helped me learn how to do that. I feel like I owe them so much. I wish there was a way I could express my appreciation to everyone for making me feel so welcome here.”
He smiled at her and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You could write thank-you notes to the entire town,” he teased.
She laughed and shook her head. “No, I mean it. What if…” Her voice trailed off as she paused and stared into space for a while.
Then her lips slowly curved upward as she got an idea.
“What if I organized a gathering for Rosewood Beach? We could get the town together to have a good time, which I think everyone really needs right now. I think we need to feel that sense of community now more than ever after the storm and all the damage it caused.”
“I think that sounds incredible. You’re right, I think that’s exactly what people need right now.”
Faith smiled and nodded, feeling excited about her idea. “It would be a way for me to show my appreciation to all of Rosewood Beach, and I think it would really help lift people’s spirits during the aftermath of the storm.”
He squeezed her hand. “Yes. I think it’s the perfect time for something like that. People need community and a little fun when they’re dealing with hardship.”
“One hundred percent. I can’t wait to start planning something.” Faith popped another bite of the delicious cherry pie into her mouth, her mind brimming with ideas for a wonderful gathering the entire town could take part in.