24. Real Love, Real Life #3
I'd chosen a deep red dress that made me feel beautiful and confident, but more than that, I felt happy. Deep, settled happiness that came from being exactly where I wanted to be with exactly who I wanted to be there with.
"There they are," Janet called from across the room, hurrying over with David trailing behind her. He was tall and weathered, a solid presence honed from years of physical work, with an easy smile. He looked genuinely glad to be home.
"David," Janet said, practically glowing with pride, "meet Cassie, Everwood's newest resident."
David shook our hands with a firm grip. His eyes were kind and genuinely interested.
"Janet's been giving me regular updates," he said with a grin. "I feel like I've been following a romance novel from overseas. Congratulations on the engagement."
"Thank you," I said, proud and happy.
The evening unfolded with easy warmth. It was one of the best Everwood gatherings: good food, comfortable conversation, laughter from every corner, typical only to Everwood.
I moved through conversations until dinner was over, and dessert came.
"So," David said over angel food cake and strawberries, with a slice of Dot's chocolate cake on the side, "Janet tells me you two are planning to stay in Everwood. "
"Definitely," I said without hesitation. "This is home."
"Any thoughts about expanding the family?" Janet asked with an innocent expression, though she was fooling no one."Janet," I laughed, "we just got engaged two weeks ago."
"I'm just saying, Everwood High could always use more future students."
"I'll keep that in mind," Levi said, catching my eye and sharing one of those looks that said we’d table this conversation for later.
After dessert, the event ended in what felt like a chaotic blink of an eye, and I was so full I wouldn’t have to eat for a month.
As we walked home through the quiet streets, snow crunching under our feet and our breath visible in the cold air, I marveled at how perfect this life felt."What are you thinking about?" Levi asked, noticing my contemplative silence.
"Just this. Us. How everything fell into place once we stopped overthinking it."
"Are you saying I overthink things?" Levi asked in disbelief.
"I'm saying that maybe me more than you might overthink things.” I playfully hesitated, measuring my words. “But some of the best decisions are simple to make." I squeezed his hand, my engagement ring catching the light from the streetlamps. "Like saying yes when you asked me to marry you."
"Exactly."
We'd reached the guest house, but neither of us moved toward the door. Instead, we stood on the sidewalk, holding hands and looking up at the windows that glowed with warm light above us.
"I can't wait to marry you," I said quietly.
"I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you," he replied, and I could hear the complete sincerity in his voice.
"Even when I get cranky before I've had my morning coffee?"
"Especially then."
"Even when I try to reorganize your tool shed without asking?"
"You're going to reorganize my tool shed?"
"Probably," I admitted with a grin.
"Then I definitely can't wait to marry you."
I laughed, something that had become as natural as breathing around him.
"Come on, future husband. Let's go home."
Home. At least for now. Home had meant something different since I met Levi. Home had always been a place, but now it was more than that. Home was Levi. It was a feeling, and a choice to build something together that was bigger and better than anything we could create alone.
As we climbed the stairs to the front door, I thought about how this story started. With a broken-down car and a woman who thought she was just passing through. Now it was becoming something else entirely: a love story, a life story, a happily ever after.
Perfect in its imperfection, extraordinary in its ordinariness, and absolutely, completely ours.
THE END
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When a blizzard hits my small town, I’m rescued by a flannel-wrapped ex-soldier.
Now, I might be falling for the one man who could ruin everything.
I was supposed to just be passing through Everwood.
One car breakdown, one match-making innkeeper, and one too-handsome-for-his-own-good ex-soldier later, and suddenly I’m trapped in a postcard-perfect town with a man who smells like pine and trouble.
Levi’s the kind of guy who keeps his heart locked behind quiet stares and calloused hands.
But when a tree nearly takes me out, he pulls me from the wreckage like a real-life hero. Everything I thought I wanted starts to unravel.
He takes me fishing when I fall apart, he walks me home in the snow like he’s afraid I’ll blow away, and when he kisses me by the fire, I don’t just melt… I break.
But just when I finally choose him, I’m called away for the job I swore I wanted.
If I go, I leave the man who feels like home.
If I stay, I lose the life I planned… and maybe find the one I need.