60. Kiara
sixty
Kiara
I t’s late but not quite dark yet by the time we approach Emerald Creek. Three months in the city lights, dazzled by the Eiffel Tower at night and confined inside during the day, and I’d almost forgotten how huge the sky is here. I open the window, and the air slaps my face.
I feel alive again. The Vermont cold isn’t this insidious humidity that seeps into your bones, but instead it’s a healthy slap that resets your energy, activates your blood flow, and wakes you up instead of making you want to stay in bed all day.
My heart skips a beat as we approach the garage, the familiar sight hitting me hard. Just like when I saw Colton in Paris, the feelings I’ve suppressed are now flooding me. The familiarity of home. Knowing that no matter what, everything is going to be alright.
Instead of continuing onto Sunrise Farms, Colton eases onto the empty parking lot and shuts down the engine. Something looks different about the place. The sign on the garage.
Harper’s Body Works is now called Harper’s Auto Haven, and a cool, vintage-looking logo replaces the sleek design I’d come to dislike so much.
A nice tingling takes over my belly when I realize he’s had it changed. All it took was one involuntary pout telling him I wasn’t a fan that Valerie’s touch was still on his business, and it’s gone. My emotion tinges with a dose of guilt, but the smile is there nonetheless. “You changed it!” I whisper. “Why?”
His mouth twitches in a suppressed smile. “We can talk about that later,” he says as he pulls up beyond the garage, coming to a full stop where his land extends and shows Emerald Creek—the river and the village, down below.
I squint into the deepening darkness, unable to make out the lights lining the main streets, The Green, and twinkling from the dozens of houses huddled around it. There’s something blocking the view, like another building. Could it be a hangar? Is Colton expanding? Why didn’t he mention it? I want to hear more about that.
He cuts off the engine, jumps out of the truck, and opens my door. “What are you doing?” I ask, laughing at his obvious excitement and jumping out into his arms. He sets me down and wraps his arm around my shoulders. “Did you expand your garage?” I look up at him, but he’s looking ahead. Suddenly, as he takes a clicker from his pocket, lights illuminate the planes of his face.
I turn to see where it’s coming from, and my knees go weak as breath eludes me.
I blink.
Ahead of me, darkness is replaced by thousands of small lights outlining… a house? A barn? “What is it?” I ask, knowing in my heart what the answer will be.
Colton nudges me ahead. Soon our steps find solid ground where a pathway leads to the building. Colton stops us and takes the clicker from his pocket again. Now, floodlights illuminate the scene: a red barn with a sign on top.
Sweetness Delivered.
“I thought of moving the Dewey’s barn, but turned out, we were better off building from scratch. Believe it or not, it wasn’t as much as it seems—”
“Shut up,” I say. “It’s-it’s-it’s… everything.”
“Now, before you get all excited, equipment hasn’t arrived yet. I asked Annabel to get on that. She and Alex are working on sponsors to give you stuff for free and—”
I slap his chest playfully, but tears are threatening, and my voice falters. “Babe. What is happening?”
“You said to not hold back showing my love. This is me showing my love.”
“Colton.”
He squeezes my shoulder. “You have no idea, do you?”
I blink back tears again. “No idea what?”
“You have no idea how happy it makes me, being able to do stuff for you. You letting me do this, instead of… you know.” His chest heaves and a big grin brightens his features.
“I think I’m beginning to get it.”
He nudges me forward, and we get to the barn-type structure. The front is a wall of glass, giving full view to the inside. Strings of fairy lights adorn the post and beams inside, softening the rustic look. Colton slides the front door open, and we step inside. It smells of wood and fresh paint. “I wanted you to choose the furniture,” he says, “though Autumn already has a whole list of stuff for you to look at.”
Taking my hand, he leads me up a staircase, to a mezzanine. The view from up there is breathtaking, the whole valley at our feet. “You could have your tasting area here,” he says like it’s no big deal. He points to a wooden door halfway up. “Thalia and Lucas already roughed it in for a dummy,” he adds, referring to the couple who moved in town last year and opened an architecture firm and construction company. He leads me back downstairs. “Lemme show you the best part.”
The best part? My head is spinning as we get to the back of the main room. How could this get any better? Pushing on a swing door in the back, he reveals a space as big as the front room, with a row of windows offering a unique view on Emerald Creek—the same as the one from upstairs. It’s empty, but the outlets for water, electricity, and gas are there. It’s ready to become the pastry lab.
“Didn’t want you to have to spend your days baking without seeing the outdoors. Doesn’t seem right,” he says. “It’s uh… a blank canvas. That’s what Annabel and Autumn said. So you make it how you like it.”
Blinking tears of emotion, I raise a shaking hand to my mouth. “I don’t know what to say.” From his comments, I gather that the whole community contributed. It feels like too much, and I should say so. But I heard Colton loud and clear in Paris: I need to let him love me. And I need to let all of Emerald Creek show me their love as well. They didn’t have to do this. No one forced them to. They chose to do it. They chose me. Just like Colton chose me. “I don’t know what to say,” I repeat.
Colton pulls me against his chest. “I know, sweets. I know. You don’t have to say anything. Just keep baking, keep giving us your sweetness and your love. That’s all anyone’s really hoping for. Nothing you can’t do.” Then he lifts his chin to me and kisses my lips softly. “Come on, let’s go to Lazy’s.”
He walks us out to the truck, clicking the lights off.
“That’s a cool thing,” I say.
He hands me the clicker. “It’s all yours,” he says as he opens the door for me, leaning in for another long, wet kiss once I’m seated.
Once he’s behind the wheel, I say, “So… New name for the garage? New logo? When were you going to tell me? What happened?” He starts the truck and creeps to the exit, giving me time to look at my pastry store next to his garage.
“What happened is that my woman had a bad taste every time she saw that thing. Woulda gotten rid of it sooner if I’d known.”
My mouth drops. I liked that he changed it, because he’s right, it did something to me, if only subconsciously. But I didn’t expect him to do it for me . “Colt…”
“Tracy’s friend from high school designed it. Inn’t it cool?”
“It’s… awesome. But…”
“But?” He comes to a stop and looks at me. “Lemme be clear. My ex designed it. I should have thought of getting rid of it sooner. It wasn’t fair to you. Okay? That’s the only but.”