Chapter 15 Ella
ELLA
Saturday morning, Ella walked with Dalton and Dove as they took in the sights of the Hometown Holiday Celebration in Trinity Falls village.
The roads in town had been closed to cars for the event, allowing the fun to spill into the streets without anyone worrying about children dashing between booths and activities.
Playful snow flurries drifted and swirled from the pale gray sky to the sandstone sidewalks, and friends and neighbors wandered the open streets with smiles on their faces.
Colorful booths and banners announced the various shops and charities offering treats and gifts, and down by the library someone was practicing Christmas carols on an acoustic guitar.
“This is incredible,” Dalton said softly.
There was wonder on the big man’s face, maybe as much as there was on Dove’s. It made Ella’s heart ache to see them both so happy.
Dalton had asked if he could accompany her here today and when she asked if Dove could be included, he’d looked almost horrified.
“Of course she’s included,” he’d said. “She’s the main reason I thought you’d want to go.”
Her yes had brought him such obvious pleasure that she felt a corresponding twinge of satisfaction herself, followed by a pang of guilt.
But the guilt was fading these days. Maybe it was Mom’s words the other night. Or maybe she was starting to pay attention to how the years since Lee passed had changed her.
I’m glad I let Dalton bring us here, she thought to herself now. Maybe I do deserve another chance at love.
“What should we do first?” she asked Dove.
“I want to stay until Santa comes,” Dove said firmly. “He gives out candy.”
“Yes,” Ella said. “But that’s not until the very end of the day. So we can do whatever looks like fun to you, and then after we sing carols, we’ll go wait for Santa Claus.”
“Hot cocoa,” Dove said right away, pointing to a booth that had two big urns with a plate of homemade Christmas cookies between them.
“Sounds great,” Dalton agreed.
But before they made it that far, Dove spotted a friend from school and dashed off to greet her.
“She’s really coming out of her shell,” Ella said, amazed as she watched her quiet daughter jumping up and down and hugging her friend.
“Was she always quiet?” Dalton asked.
“She was a handful as a toddler,” Ella remembered. “But yes, she’s been pretty quiet and super cooperative ever since.”
“That’s good,” Dalton said.
“I don’t know,” Ella admitted. “Sometimes I think she’s burying her own feelings because she doesn’t want to upset anyone. Or maybe she’s quiet because she spends all her time at home with adults.”
Dalton opened his mouth and closed it again, then nodded.
“What is it?” she asked him.
“Oh, nothing,” he said. “It’s not my place.”
“Please,” she said, placing a hand on his arm. “If you have insights, I want to hear them. I know you care about her, and you probably have more perspective on her situation than I do.”
“I was going to say she could use a brother or sister,” he muttered. “But I didn’t mean… you know. I’m not trying to say... anything at all. It just popped into my head.”
He was clearly terrified that she would think he was overstepping. And for some reason his unexpected awkwardness forced a laugh out of her.
Dalton’s eyes widened slightly, and then he was laughing too.
“What’s going on?” Dove asked suspiciously as she rejoined them.
“Oh, Dalton was just being silly,” Ella said quickly. “Are you ready for that hot cocoa?”
Dove was very ready for hot cocoa, and a cookie to go with it, before setting off down the sidewalk to check out all the offerings.
“Grandma, Grandma,” Dove sang out as they approached the farm booth. “I got hot cocoa and a cookie.”
“Isn’t that lovely,” her grandmother said from over a stack of sweet potato pies.
The people in line at the booth all smiled and chuckled.
Dalton and Ella’s dad had spent two days baking the pies to sell today. Dalton had the idea, and couldn’t shake it loose. Her parents agreed, but they wouldn’t dream of allowing him to work the booth today when he could be enjoying the celebration instead.
And as Ella reached the booth herself, she saw the little sign her mother had made.
All proceeds from today’s sale to benefit the Homecoming Heroes Foundation
“Oh,” Dalton said softly. “Wow.”
A former Army captain, Erik Anderson, had started the foundation in town this year.
The goal was to assist new veterans returning home.
Ella knew that Dalton had been involved with it a little.
And, after some encouragement, he was supposed to be meeting a few of the men tonight in his first solo outing since he had arrived in Trinity Falls.
Dalton didn’t talk much about his time in the service, other than to tell her about Andy. But she figured his decision to finally meet the guys when he never left the farmhouse at night told her a lot.
“Hi, kids,” Ella’s dad said with a smile and a wink from the chair where he sat, keeping her mom company. “Having fun so far?”
“We just got here,” Ella said, walking to the side of the booth to speak with him, without getting caught up in the line. “But it’s already wonderful.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” Dalton said softly, nodding in the direction of the sign.
“It’s our pleasure,” her dad told him. “Besides, it’s what Andy would have wanted, for us to give back in some way, especially after all your help this season.”
“Thank you,” Dalton said, clearing his throat.
“Can we see the fire engine?” Dove squeaked, pointing to the parking lot by the municipal building, where families were lined up for a ride on the big red engine.
“Go on,” Ella’s dad said. “Have fun, and make sure to remember every little thing so you can tell Grandma and me all about it tonight.”
“I’m staying out late tonight,” Dove informed him. “I’m going to see Santa Claus and get candy.”
“Well, if we’re in bed by the time you get home, you can tell us in the morning,” her grandfather replied. “How about that?”
“That’s great,” Dove said happily as she ran off.
“That’s our cue,” Ella chuckled, racing off after her daughter.
“Thanks again, sir,” Dalton said to her father as he followed.
The parking lot was alive with kids doing a dancing activity with one of the children’s librarians, Miss Caroline, and her husband, Logan Williams. A couple of the library volunteers stood at a set of plastic tables with hundreds of used paperbacks for sale to support library programming, and of course, there was the line for fire engine rides.
“Do you want to ride it?” Dalton bent to ask Dove.
“It’s too loud,” Dove said, shaking her head firmly. “And it’s up too high. I just wanted to look at it.”
“Okay,” Dalton said. “Should we walk around it? I’ll bet you can really see it from up on that little hill.”
Ella couldn’t help smiling. So many adults would try to make Dove face her fears or some nonsense. But Dalton accepted her as she was. And Ella knew that Dove was actually a lot more likely to try something new or a little scary if no one was pushing her.
He really gets her, she realized for about the hundredth time in the last few weeks. He’s so good for her.
They walked all around the engine together, admiring it from every angle.
“It’s gorgeous,” Dalton said.
“Well, we’ve got so many volunteers in town,” Ella told him. “And that engine is our town’s pride and joy. In the springtime, it seems like they’re always outside cleaning it and polishing every inch of it.”
“Andy was a volunteer,” Dalton remembered.
“He sure was,” Ella said. “But only as a teenager. He wasn’t allowed to put out fires or anything.”
“What did Uncle Andy do?” Dove asked.
“Well, I know he helped keep the fire engine and safety equipment clean and well cared for,” Ella told her. “And he went out on calls to help with the hoses, and of course they did drills all the time.”
“That sounds pretty cool,” Dalton said.
“Can I do that?” Dove asked.
“I think you have to be fourteen years old,” Ella told her. “But you absolutely can, if you still want to when you’re fourteen. The junior firefighters do a lot. That’s a really good activity to do if you want to help your town.”
“I want to help my town,” Dove decided, nodding to herself.
After the truck, they walked down the block looking at all the artwork and handmade items. There were beautiful hand-thrown mugs outside of Locally Made, and even Wags to Riches, the pet grooming shop, was selling pretty collars and bags of special homemade treats to benefit the local animal shelter.
“This place is incredible,” Dalton said, shaking his head. “You guys really take care of your own.”
“We have to,” Ella said, shrugging. “Life is good here, but things happen, and in a small community it’s better if we can rely on each other.”
“Plenty of places would be a lot better if they lived like this,” Dalton said, nodding.
They passed the day happily, grazing on treats bought for good causes, chatting with friends, stopping for Dove to do crafts and activities, and even swinging into Jolly Beans for some soup and a slice of decadent cranberry loaf, which Dalton said was delicious, but still not as good as the one he’d shared with Andy.
And through it all, Ella couldn’t help noticing how many people’s eyes caught on the handsome soldier beside her.
There were certainly tongues wagging when he swung Dove up onto his shoulders so she could wave to the fire engine as it went past. Dove had shrieked with delighted laughter and even Ella couldn’t keep the smile off her face.
If folks were judging her, they certainly weren’t showing it. All she saw was a lot of smiling and nodding. She even got a rare smirk and a wink from Valerie Leighton, a friend from high school who now owned and ran a jewelry store in town.
Maybe it really is time…
It had been more than four years, but she still felt guilty over Lee, and the way she’d been thinking by the time she got back here.