Chapter 36
I may have a countdown clock set on my watch. —Milo Warner
There he is: the man I can’t stop staring at.
We’re standing in the dusky light of a setting sun on the leaf festival grounds, surrounded by woods and markers showcasing the trails that lead up and into them.
All day, on this first full day of the Devon Falls Leaf Festival, people from all across New England, and across the country, Benson claims, have been arriving to hike those trails in between enjoying everything else the Devon Falls Leaf Festival has to offer.
There was a parade earlier, the judging of a baking competition, and some dance-offs.
The knitting club has been hosting craft events in their tent all day, and there are so many damn food booths in one square mile right now that I’m not sure how anyone’s going to have room for this fancy fundraiser dinner we’re about to hold next to the main stage on the back of the property.
“Are you seriously watching me eat cotton candy?” Noah asks as he sucks on a bite.
Fuck, that’s hot. Sort of makes me wonder if we can take some home with us at the end of the night…
“I saw that look.” Noah shakes a finger at me. “Do you have any idea how much cleaning it would take to get this stuff out of the sheets?”
“I’ll do that load of laundry.” I lean over to steal a long, lingering kiss. “Hmmm. Tastes great. Someone should make a maple ChapStick flavor.”
“They’re selling it at booth five,” Malachai says as he arrives next to us.
“Where’s Sam?” I ask him.
“Teaching a bunch of middle schoolers how to make scarves over at the knitting booth. He thinks it’ll keep them off their phones.” Malachai stuffs the tie into his pocket. “There. If Tom asks, you never saw it. So, how are you two doing?”
I look around at the tables we’ve just finished helping the catering staff set up.
Each one is carefully set with a centerpiece of battery-powered lights shaped like leaves that circles around a vase filled with red, orange, green, and brown-colored confetti.
Mahogany, I mentally correct myself. Tom has a thing against the word brown.
“Things are good,” I tell Malachai. “Gabe and Colin are setting up the silent auction. Then we just eat dinner and raise some money, hopefully.”
“Did you get some bad reviews on the food early?” Malachai asks Noah as he gestures to the cotton candy.
“Nope. Milo’s sister got me hooked on it.” Noah hands him a piece. “Hey, listen. About that group chat I blocked…”
What group chat did he block? I’m right off the starting block of worry, but Malachai just waves his hand, telling Noah silently that it’s no big deal.
“Don’t stress. We knew you had a lot going on.
If you want, I can add you back to it right now.
” He whips out his phone just as a lightbulb pops on over my head.
“Is this the chat where you’re all secretly dressing your boyfriends without them knowing?”
Malachai pastes on the same damn look of innocence Sam uses when he’s making a hat for me in a color he knows I hate. “Secret fashion plans? Milo, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He leans over to whisper loudly to Noah. “Next group dinner, we’re thinking velvet.”
Noah bursts out laughing, and the sun continues to set on what might turn out to be the happiest week of my life so far.
“Bear looks so good!” Mia scritches under Bear’s chin as she sits placidly next to us at our table. “That sweater looks stellar on you, girl,” she adds.
Lou beams. “I decided her favorite color is purple. I can’t believe the secondhand shop has dog clothes!”
“I’m not sure Bear was so thrilled with that discovery,” Noah murmurs to me as he takes a bite of the chocolate torte we’re sharing. “I swear, sweaters change her.”
They do make our usually boisterous dog oddly calm.
But that might not be the worst thing in the middle of a formal dinner, I have to admit.
I glance over at the silent auction table, where a woman in red sequined shoes and a boatneck dress is leaning over to sign a bid for a Lake Champlain fishing trip.
I’m mostly keeping my nerves together, but I know all of us at this table besides Lou and Mia—me, Malachai, Sam, Noah, Scout, Benson, and Jack—are counting the minutes until Gabe announces the donation total from the auction, which closes in exactly three hundred and forty seconds.
I may have a countdown clock set on my watch.
If we hit our fundraising goal, the first year of operations at the community center are basically set, and Gabe and the team will be in a good financial position moving forward.
He’ll permanently hire Scout, and I’ll stay on as a volunteer, but only part time.
Noah and I talked last night, and I made a decision.
I’m going to dip my toe back into medicine.
Jack and Sam still seem to think there’s room for an orthopedist in their practice.
“With all the ski injuries we’re about to have in this town?” Jack said. “You know we’d bring you on full time if you want.”
I’ve still got some mixed feelings about whether I’m ready to pick up my stethoscope, but Noah convinced me it’s time to try walking back into an exam room.
“You miss being a doctor, right?” he asked me.
“But you’re not sure what you want right now.
What better place to find out how much you really want to go back to your career?
You’re surrounded by your family here, Milo. ”
I am. We both are. And Noah and I have a plan in front of us.
We’ll formally adopt Bear, which shouldn’t be too hard, given that the humane society practically begged me to keep her and take another dog when I last called about her.
We’ll live in the cabin we’ve come to think of as home, at least for now, although I did bring up the idea of hunting for a bigger place with Noah.
He’s awfully attached to that little space, but we’ll see what happens.
I’ll find out if medicine wants me back, and assuming this silent auction goes the way we want, Noah will move forward with making the community center the space that Gabe first dreamed of for this town.
Twenty seconds. I reach down to pet Bear, and Noah flashes me the ghost of a kiss from across the table.
“Whatever happens,” he told me last night. “Will be exactly what we need to happen.”
“Yeah? How do you know that?” I asked him.
Then he handed me his copy of the fortune he got the day we first met. You will find the change you seek.
“Always trust the fortune cookie,” he told me.
The alarm goes off on my watch, and I silence it as Colin walks over to the table and starts gathering forms. He flashes Gabe a thumbs-up sign across the tables and then sits down to start adding numbers.
My heart’s moving a little faster in my chest than I’d like it to go, strictly speaking. Several minutes later, Gabe stands up and takes the stage.
“Leaf festival friends,” he says. “Thank you so much for joining us for this dinner benefitting the Devon Falls Community Center!”
There’s a swarm of applause, punctuated by a wolf-whistle from Benson. Jack rolls his eyes. “Good thing we left Vera with the babysitter,” he mutters. “You’re so loud sometimes, Benny.”
Benson blows him a kiss.
“We hope you enjoyed this time together in community tonight.” Gabe raises a glass.
He’s getting damn good, I think, at playing host to the Devon Falls audience.
“Before we announce the total proceeds from the silent auction and open up the dance floor, I’d like to ask two people a very important question. ”
Malachai shoots Benson a surprised look. “Did I miss something in the chat?” he asks.
Benson scrolls his phone, shaking his head. “Nope. Gabe-o is keeping secrets from us.”
Jack leans back in his chair, unconcerned. “Oh, I think we all know what this question is going to be.”
“What?” Noah asks.
Sam and Jack smile across the table at each other. “Well,” says Jack. “How do we like to end a leaf festival around here?”
Oh. Well, damn. “You’re going to like this, baby,” I tell Noah.
Gabe’s still got his glass raised in the air, and his eyes are on Tom and Colin, who are now at the table together, looking at the numbers on a sheet of paper. “Colin? Tom?” he calls out.
Every single table turns to look at Colin and Tom. “Yes, darling?” Tom asks.
“Well,” Gabe says. “Not to spring anything on you two, but I was just looking around and thinking about how everyone I love is right here, right now, in this space.”
Tom frowns. “Have we decided we love Benson?”
The crowd titters, and Benson blows a raspberry at Tom. “I’m your favorite!” he calls out.
Colin’s clearly just caught onto the bit, and he’s smiling now. “That’s true, little fox. Did you have a question you wanted to ask us? In front of everyone?”
The crowd is looking back and forth between the three of them like we’re in a tennis match now, and I can practically see money exchanging hands under the table as people bet on what’s coming. Gabe grins and raises his glass a little higher. “Lou, come up here with me?”
“Coming!” Lou scrambles up from his seat and runs in his Mary Janes to the area just below the stage. Gabe helps him onto the stage, where he waves to the crowd.
“So, here’s the thing,” Gabe says. “We all know that Devon Falls has a tradition of throwing weddings as part of these leaf festivals.”
There are gasping noises from the crowd as Noah looks at me, smile wide. “Is this happening?” he asks.
“Sure looks like it,” I tell him. I grasp his hand under the table. Bear moves between us, asking for pets.
“Well, we don’t have time for a wedding tonight,” Gabe goes on. There’s a gentle booing sound from the table next to us. “But,” he adds. “Tom and Colin? I thought this might be a good time to ask… will you marry me? Both of you? And each other?”
“And me!” Lou yells out. “You have to be my papas for life!”
Jack’s the first to stand up, I think. Then Sam and me, and then the rest of our table, and soon everyone at a table is standing and clapping as Tom and Colin take their time meandering up to the stage and then onto it. Colin lifts Lou up into his arms, and he and Tom each take one of Gabe’s hands.
Tom speaks first. “It would be an honor to marry you both, my darlings.”
Colin seems to be taking some long breaths on stage, but he speaks up quickly after that. “It would be my honor to marry you both, my little fox and my best friend in life.”
Benson blinks fast, and now I’d swear he’s trying not to cry. “Mushy bastards,” he mutters. “Just go ahead and kiss, will you?” he calls up to the stage.
They do, and the crowd erupts into applause. Colin gives a wolf-whistle, quickly interrupting us, so he can add something else.
“Oh, and guess what?” he says. He’s got tears in his eyes too. “We hit our funding goal!”
Noah gasps and pulls me against him in a hug as the crowd takes their cheers and applause to the dance floor. “It’s happening,” Noah whispers against my chest. “The center is happening. You and me, we’re happening. The future… is happening.”
I have to kiss him then, because this man I can never seem to keep my hands or eyes too far away from is still the same perfect man I met in that elevator: strikingly full of wonder and hope, even when they’re hidden from view.
And if I have anything to say about it, that wonder and hope will never, ever be hidden again.
Noah wraps his arms around my neck and takes a kiss of his own.
“Found you,” he whispers to the world around us.