Chapter Twenty-Four #2
Dear Abigail, we’re thrilled that you and Mel found each other, and that you’re part of our family now.
No matter what happens in life, good or bad, small or enormous, we stand with each other.
Nobody goes out alone, nobody comes home alone, nobody gets left behind.
Might as well embroider that and hang it on the kitchen wall, because that’s our creed.
We got each other, and now we got you. Welcome to the family, sister.
It was signed by every old lady and the grown daughters, too.
People who accepted her as she was—who valued her for who she was.
Sisters. Family.
We got each other, and now we got you .
Abigail put her hands in her face and wept.
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~oOo~
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T he grand opening of the Signal Bend Pavilion was the next day, Black Friday, and the entire Horde family was on site early.
The opening wasn’t officially a club event, but it was Autumn Rooney’s event, and Autumn was Cox’s old lady, so the Horde had been nearly as deeply involved in the opening as they’d been in the building.
Only one storefront and two office spaces remained empty.
Autumn had explained at dinner the day before that so few vacancies at the opening of a multi-business location was a great result.
She also had good prospects for those last parcels.
For now, the windows that would expose bare interiors were shielded by holiday-themed covers trumpeting the shopping center’s big opening.
A brand-new sign also stood on the hotel site, proclaiming it the Future Site of The Pavilion Inn!
Though most everyone in the family was on hand to help, Autumn was an executive with a development company and had a big corporate budget to work with, so she’d hired out a lot of the work—from local and near-local vendors, of course.
Vivien Lewis, a manager of the Keller Acres Bed she could not seem to step back from this case, that watch. Almost as if the words were being spoken aloud, she understood that the watch was for Mel.
“Isn’t it rad?” Zelda Bello said, leaning on the case from behind it. She was working at the shop.
“It is,” Abigail answered, not looking away from the watch. “I’ve never seen one like it. The band is wood, too, yes?”
“It is. Zebrawood.” Zelda opened the case and withdrew the watch, setting it on a velvet pad atop the case. “The tree grows in Central and South America, and I think in Africa, too. These watches are made by an artisan who works in the Ozarks, around Branson.”
“Oh, I was about to ask if Bo Lunden had made it. He does such lovely things with wood.”
Zelda let out an earthy laugh that Abigail didn’t quite get—oh, doing things with wood. The double entendre didn’t gibe well with her understanding of Bo, but it gibed quite well with her understanding of Zelda.
“Bo prefers to work in large format,” Zelda said. “Furniture and stuff like that.”
“Of course.” Abigail didn’t realize Zelda was particularly familiar with Bo’s preferences, but that wasn’t her business, so she didn’t remark on it.
She picked up the watch. A small tag dangled from the band. $300 , it read.
Never in her life had she paid so much money for a want or a wish. Virtually every gift she’d ever given, she’d made. Significant wants and wishes for herself, she bartered for almost exclusively. Money was for needs, not wants.
But she’d never been in love before, never been engaged to be married. Never had a partner. And something about the watch told her it was Mel’s.
Unfortunately, she carried very little cash, and she didn’t have a credit card.
She had a debit card, because those came with checking accounts whether you wanted one or not, but the thought of using plastic made her uncomfortable, so that card was tucked in a desk drawer.
Was her credit union open on Black Friday?
She didn’t know. But either way, her credit union was all the way in Rolla.
But the watch held her. She almost felt as if it clutched her hand, rather than the other way around.
“I’d like to buy this watch,” she finally said, “but I don’t have the money with me, and I don’t know if I can get it today. Is there a way I can ...” the words faded away; she didn’t know what to ask for.
But Zelda smiled. “Is this for Mel?” When Abigail nodded, Zelda added, “I can set it in back with a note that you’ll be back in by ... Monday afternoon?”
She had to go into Rolla on Monday anyway, to place a bulk order for winter feed. “That’s perfect. Thank you so much, Zelda.”
As she handed the watch back, she noticed the satiny smooth back of the wooden casing, and a new thought happened. “I don’t suppose you do engraving here?”
“I don’t do it, but Jeff Gaines does. It’s free.
Jeff’s closing today, so he’ll be in at one, and since we’ve been in business for like forty minutes, he doesn’t have a stack of engraving jobs yet.
He can get to it right away.” She pulled a pen and pad from the credenza behind the counter and set it on the glass. “What’s your pleasure?”
The words rolled out in Abigail’s mind as if she’d been planning and refining them for weeks.
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~oOo~
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A fter she left The Nib of Time, she ducked into Boos & Clues for a while, admiring the décor, a fascinating blend of goth and noir, and browsing the stacks.
Then she wandered along the walkway, watching the children waiting for Santa and playing in the small playground, the shoppers strolling along with their bags, the lines at the refreshments tables.
It didn’t seem to her that the problems of the Harvest Festival would dog Signal Bend into the future.
Only a few weeks later, another Signal Bend event bustled with folks from away.
As she stood before the entrance to Dahlia, reading the menu hanging on the wall beside the bright blue door, Abigail felt familiar arms encircle her waist. She smiled as Mel tucked his head against hers and sucked lightly on her earlobe.
She closed her eyes and breathed in the wonderful scent of him, of earth and forest, and life.
“My beautiful lady,” he murmured. “My sweet girl.” He nuzzled her neck and hugged her more tightly. “My magical woman.”
Turning within his embrace, Abigail faced him and found him wearing a smile so full of love it stole her breath.
Handsome as he was—so handsome—it wasn’t the arrangement of his features she was most attracted to.
As beautiful were his depthless dark eyes, it wasn’t their color she was most attracted to.
It was all she saw behind them. The man he was: Decent and honorable.
Responsible but lighthearted. Steady but not obstinate.
Garrulous but not argumentative. Curious and enthusiastic about life.
He loved her like she loved him, and he wore it on his sleeve. She trusted him, she liked him, she loved him, and it was so easy to do. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him—a life that would be both familiar and entirely new. Filled to the brim.
“My hero,” she said and drew his head to hers for a kiss.