Epilogue
Fifteen months later
“A little to the left.” Emma gestured to Caleb, who was awkwardly posed in the display window of Yours Truly, trying to get the angle just right on the sign in their spring display.
He nudged the sign to the right. “No, not my left, yours!”
Caleb cupped his hand to his ear. He mumbled something, not that she could hear him through the thick glass. This was her second spring in Falling Leaves, but the first since Yours Truly had been open.
The shop window just had to be perfect. But perfection was hard to come by if your husband couldn’t hear you through the thick, hundred-year-old paned glass.
She swung open the bright yellow door and ducked her head inside. “A little to your left! It’s almost there.”
He nodded and nudged the hand-lettered sign a little to the left.
Emma had spent weeks on it. Then, he paused to adjust the remaining display contents.
Easter baskets brimming with different stationery supplies, soft, collectible rabbits, and other baby stuffed animals congregated in front of the display.
She clapped her hands together and rushed back inside for a final look.
“Perfect. Now, let’s get up the bunting, and it’s all done.”
Caleb awkwardly ducked his head as he backed out of the window.
He jumped from the stepladder. Once it was stowed away, he ran a hand down her bare arm.
His golden wedding band caught the light.
The whole husband-wife business was relatively new.
They’d gotten married two weeks before Christmas—of course—in the chapel at Sky House.
It seemed fitting that they’d had their wedding at the place where they’d first met.
And of course, she’d been a Christmas bride. Nothing else had made sense to her. The wedding had been a candlelight affair right at dusk. It’d started to snow as they took their vows.
“You’ve gone to the faraway place again, Em. You all right?” Caleb reached behind him for the pastel bunting. She’d made it herself during one of the shop’s many craft nights.
“I was just thinking about our wedding. How perfect it was.”
He set some of the bunting around her shoulders and tugged on it. She tumbled into his arms. “You really love me, don’t you, kid?”
She rolled her eyes. “Not when you call me that, but sure, I do.”
He brushed his knuckles against her chin. “Let’s get this wrapped up. They’re about to shut down the street for the celebration.”
“Which one is it today? I swear, I thought fall was the big season for celebrations around here, but spring is giving it a run for its money,” Emma said.
“The basketball finals parade, remember?”
Falling Leaves High had come in fourth at the All-State Basketball tournament back in February. They’d never so much as placed before. This was the kind of place where they didn’t need an excuse to celebrate.
“All that fuss for fourth place,” she joked.
“But hey, it’s not like I didn’t sponsor one of the floats.
” After all, the motto she’d chosen for the business was No occasion is too small to celebrate.
Her tiny little shop was the place everyone came to in town when there was a celebration or if they were looking for that special something.
She’d curated the finest supplies of gifts, as well as invitations.
“At least you got Inez’s pink truck towing your float and the Falling Leaves High cheerleaders. I think the Ellis & Co float is just a couple of the coaches pulled by a tractor.”
She chuckled as she taped up the bunting. “I can’t help that I run a business with a feminine motif, and yours is a construction business.”
Ellis & Co would officially be Caleb’s business after her father-in-law retired at the end of the year. Sabrina still helped with smaller projects, but Caleb now led their core crew.
Especially since baby girl Willow had made her debut last October. Sabrina had taken to motherhood like a duck to water. And now Emma had the title of aunt to the most perfect little girl in the world.
Well, aside from her stepdaughters.
Emerson and Poppy were well used to their Emmybear. Even she was surprised the nickname still hung around, given that Emerson was in second grade and Poppy was in kindergarten.
They locked up the shop and made their way to Silver Spring Street as the Falling Leaves High School band began to line up for the parade.
Somewhere in the crowd, a trumpet emitted a terrible noise. Caleb drew his arm around Emma. “Now, that’s one thing that hasn’t changed since I was in high school. The band isn’t going to win any championships. There’s a reason they pass out earplugs at football games.”
Emma laughed. “Hey, it could be worse. They could be out there, I don’t know…tipping cows or something.”
It was such a beautiful spring morning. She couldn’t imagine herself anywhere else. Not that she’d had much reason to leave town since moving here, except to go to the Lodge.
Davis hadn’t taken too kindly to the letter she’d left in his condo, but his lawsuit had fizzled out before he could ever file it. Last she’d heard, he’d found a new girlfriend shortly after moving to New York.
Good riddance.
Other than a trip to see Aniyah and her family last summer, Falling Leaves felt too perfect to leave.
A crowd had already formed along Falling Leaves’ main drag. Emma and Caleb slipped into the back. Not that they stayed hidden for long.
“Emma Ellis!” Her name came over a megaphone. “Get your little backside up on this truck!” Inez stood with the rest of the biddies in the back of her bright pink truck.
“You too, Caleb, come on! Your mom and dad are in the Ellis & Co float, there isn’t any room for you.”
They exchanged a glance. They’d both gotten better at not overthinking since they’d gotten together. She would’ve been mortified just a year ago to have all eyes on her.
Now, she grabbed Caleb’s hand. “Come on, we both know they’re not going to let up until we agree. Better to just go along with their schemes.”
Caleb laughed. “They’ve taught you well.”
They were both hoisted up in the back of the pink truck that Emma and the biddies had decorated with paper flowers. All of them were there, even the reluctant biddies like Eleanor and Tinesha.
“There’s our best girl. Oh wait, we’re missing one! Sabrina Blake! Get on up here!”
Sabrina made a half-hearted attempt to point at the baby strapped to her chest.
“That hasn’t stopped you before,” Babs said. “Besides, you’re one of us, whether you want to admit it or not.”
Sabrina rolled her eyes but made her way toward the truck with Brandon in tow.
“I hardly see how we’re all going to fit up here,” Brandon protested.
“The more, the merrier, and the less likely one of us will go winging out the back of the cab,” Sabrina said.
Soon, they were all squeezed into the bed of the truck. Caleb brought his arm around the small of Emma’s waist, drawing her close.
Somehow, she still felt butterflies nearly every time he touched her.
“I swear, it seems like half the damn town is in the parade.” Sabrina pointed to the smattering of people waving from the sidewalk.
“Well, we’ve got to show off to somebody, even if it’s to ourselves,” Caleb said. “That’s just the Falling Leaves way.”
As the terrible marching band took up a god-awful rendition of Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us, the parade was officially underway.
“Y’know, I thought about throwing pens or something at the crowd, then the mayor told me that could be a liability issue,” Tinesha said.
“Ballpoint to the eye, not a great way to die,” Brandon quipped.
Everyone laughed.
The band grew louder, and with everyone chattering, Emma stood back and took it all in. She couldn’t imagine her life if she hadn’t seen that fateful ad on social media all those months ago.
She’d found her forever in Falling Leaves.