Chapter 5 Dalton #2
“You should take Dove and do something fun,” Mary told Ella quietly when the line had finally disappeared.
The idea gave Dalton pleasure. The little girl had worked tirelessly all morning beside her family, without a single complaint. Even if it seemed like she enjoyed the work, she had definitely earned herself some fun.
“Thanks, Ma,” Ella said with a smile for her mother.
“And take Dalton with you,” Mary suggested. “He should see what this town is all about.”
Ella turned to Dalton and he tried to quickly compose his expression. But he figured it was too late, and she probably saw the naked hope on his face that maybe a bit of her sweetness would extend to him today.
“What do you think?” she asked with a gentle smile. “Do you want to see the sights with us?”
“Yes,” he told her gratefully. “Thank you. As long as you two don’t mind?”
Dove was already beaming up at him.
“I’ll show you everything, Dalton,” she told him, grabbing his hand.
He couldn’t keep the smile off his face as the charming little girl took him by the hand. Something about Dove’s confidence made him feel anchored.
The people they passed all gave friendly smiles as they watched him allowing his enthusiastic little friend to lead the way.
She’s the best kid ever.
They passed the next few booths, where other farming families waved to them from behind their own crates of produce.
“Look,” Dove said, pointing to two plastic tables covered in paper where some teenagers were helping kids do crafts.
Dalton watched as one of them helped a toddler trace his hand onto a piece of colored paper to make a turkey. At the second table, a few older kids were cutting out fruit and vegetable shapes to make cornucopias under the watchful eyes of another group of teens.
“Do you want to do one, Dove?” Ella asked.
“Yes,” Dove said. “I’ll make a good one.”
She trotted off to the table for the bigger kids and a teenage girl instantly waved her over to a free seat.
“It’s really nice how they help the younger kids,” Dalton said, impressed.
“The seniors at the high school have to do some community volunteering in order to graduate,” Ella told him. “But I remember loving it. Most of us grew up here and we all remember how cool we thought those big kids were that helped out at the summer camp or made crafts with us.”
“The circle of life, huh?” Dalton asked her, half-teasing.
“Yes,” she said, nodding with a serious expression on her face. “Exactly. You notice it more when you live in a place like this and you see things come around again and again.”
“With the crops too,” he said, nodding.
“And the weather, and all the fairs and festivals,” she said. “It’s comforting, in a way. Some things change, but there’s plenty here that we treasure, traditions we’ve kept going for generations—maybe for always if the kids Dove’s age love it as much as the rest of us did, and their kids do too.”
Dalton nodded, uncertain why he felt a rush of disbelief. Obviously, Ella was telling the truth, she had no reason to lie to him.
Maybe it was just that he’d never been a part of anything like this. In his life, the only constant had been change.
He suddenly wondered if he could even survive for years in the same small town, his own thoughts consuming him without the distraction of survival, while a simple life repeated itself in annual cycles right outside his window.
“It’s not for you, huh?” Ella asked, chuckling.
He cursed himself inwardly for wearing his feelings on his face.
“I think it’s great,” he told her honestly. “It’s just not what I’m used to.”
“What are you used to?” she asked.
“Not this,” he said tightly.
He wasn’t going to lie to her. But he also knew she didn’t really want to hear about how he’d grown up. She was the kind of girl who reveled in the idea of going to the same farmers market every weekend for the rest of her life.
And I like her that way.
Ella nodded curtly and her smile faded.
You hurt her feelings, you idiot. She wanted to get to know you and you shut her down.
He wished he had a nice story to tell her about who he was and where he had been, the kind that would keep that happy smile on her pretty face. But most of the stories he had were short on smiles.
He decided that if he couldn’t really let her know him, at least he could get to know her.
“Was Dove happy when you two moved back here?” he asked her.
“She was so little,” Ella said, her eyes faraway all of a sudden. “And her daddy had been ill, so she was used to being with just me most of the time. But it was good for her to be here, with my parents doting on her.”
“I’m sorry about your husband,” Dalton said, pushing through his discomfort at having stupidly brought up her loss. “And I’m glad she’s happy here. Any kid would be lucky to have grandparents like Michael and Mary.”
“Yes,” Ella said. “I used to think I was just home to get back on my feet. But I can’t imagine leaving them now. Is that pathetic?”
The expression on her face was serious, and he could tell that she wasn’t making light of the question.
“Not at all,” he told her honestly. “If I had parents like that, I’d never leave them if I could help it.”
She smiled up at him in such a pleased way that he almost felt embraced by the warmth in her brown eyes.
“Well,” she said softly, leaning toward him as if she were confiding something. “You basically do now.”
She was so close that he picked up a teasing whiff of peppermint and wondered if it was her shampoo.
Suddenly, all he wanted was to pull her closer and inhale that sweet scent.
He imagined holding her tight to his chest, feeling Ella’s heart beating as fast as a bird’s when he cupped her cheek in his hand and tilted her sweet face up to his for a kiss.
“You’re saying I should stay?” he heard himself ask, his voice a low growl.
She turned from him to look at Dove, but not before he saw her blush pink all the way to her hairline.
“You’re Andy’s best friend,” she said, her eyes still on her daughter, who was carefully cutting out a tomato from a piece of red construction paper. “My parents would welcome you to stay as long as you want.”
He nodded, pressing his lips together to avoid asking her the questions that were in his heart.
What about you, Ella?
Do you want me to stay?