23. Epilogue
Epilogue
Black Friday
Her favorite time of the year.
Holiday cheer filled Bluestar.
Jenna couldn’t stop smiling. That wasn’t anything new. Simon was always putting a smile on her face.
For Thanksgiving, they’d invited his parents to Bluestar to spend the holidays with her family. Today, the mothers were off Christmas shopping in town while the men stayed at home to watch football. They left Gus at home with the guys while they went to get Christmas trees.
Myra had opted to go with them. They needed three trees. One for their mother, one for herself, and one for Simon’s place. Jenna couldn’t remember ever buying that many Christmas trees in one year.
It was a tradition to go to the Bluestar Christmas Tree Farm. Jenna had been doing it her whole life. It was one of her favorite holiday traditions.
She followed Simon in her cart. It was hard enough hauling a single Christmas tree in her cart without trying to put three of them on a single cart.
And Myra was behind her in another cart.
They made a short parade. Jenna’s cart was the merriest of all, as she’d put a red nose on the front of her cart and then attached antlers to the roof.
And then because she was feeling extra festive, she’d strung battery-operated twinkle lights around the roof of the cart.
When Simon saw how she’d decorated her cart, he’d laughed and shook his head in disbelief.
When she told him she had decorations for his cart, the smile fell from his face.
He totally shut down her idea before she could even explain it.
As such, there would be no decorations on his cart, or so he said. She hadn’t given up on the idea yet.
She was grateful that she had put the enclosure on her cart.
It was cold and windy that day. In fact, there was a chance of snow in the forecast. It would be their first snow of the year.
She was excited. She loved snow for the holidays.
After the New Year, the snow could disappear, and the warmth could come back. If only…
When they pulled into the parking lot of the tree farm, Jenna was surprised by the number of available parking spaces.
She could remember coming here as a kid with her father.
A bittersweet pang touched upon her heart at the thought of her father.
She always wanted to go with him to cut down the tree.
Back in those days, there wouldn’t have been a place to park.
Maybe everyone was out shopping. After all, the town was really stepping up their Black Friday sales.
That was probably it, and the crowd would arrive tomorrow.
She parked and got out. She took a deep breath. “Smells like snow.”
Simon walked up to her. “You can’t smell snow.”
“Yes, I can,” she said matter-of-factly.
Disbelief shone in his eyes. “No, you can’t.”
“Wanna bet?”
Simon arched a brow. “And what would this bet entail?”
She paused to give it some thought. “How about if there’s no snow by tomorrow night, I’ll do the dishes for the next week? But if there is snow, I mean even a dusting, you do the dishes next week.”
“But we both have dishwashers.”
She nodded. “But think about all of the things that can’t go in the dishwasher like pots and pans.”
Before he could respond, Myra said, “While you two settle this, I’m going to find Nathan and see if he has any cut trees that will work.”
After Myra walked off, Jenna turned to Simon. “Now see what you did.”
His brows rose. “What I did?” Then those expressive brows lowered and scrunched together. “Wait. What did I do?”
“You kept talking, and now my sister has gone off to pick out a tree for my mother’s place on her own. My sister has the worst taste in Christmas trees. And when she picks out the crooked tree with big holes in the branches, my mother will blame me.”
“Why would she blame you?”
“Because everyone in the family knows that Myra likes to take in strays and find uses for the discarded. She has a great big bleeding heart for lost causes. Come on. We better catch up to her.”
When she went to walk away, he reached out and caught her arm. “Not so fast.” He drew her to him. “Not before I do this.”
And then he kissed her. His lips were still warm, even though the temperature was hovering around freezing. And her heart tap-tapped in her chest.
The past six months had been amazing. And he’d already signed another six-month lease for his half of the duplex.
Some people might think that they’d grow bored of each other after seeing each other day in and day out. They shared most dinners together, where they caught up on each other’s day. But the closeness had only helped bond them. Now she couldn’t imagine her life without Simon...and Gus in it.
When Simon pulled back, he stared into her eyes. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” They weren’t just words. She really meant it from the bottom of her heart.
She’d never known a love like this one. It just kept getting better—more relaxed—more comfortable.
He smiled and nodded. “Come on.” He held his hand out to her. “We need to get this tree because I have a book to finish writing.”
She smiled as she placed her hand against his and threaded her fingers with his. “Let’s go.”
Not only had their relationship been taking off, but so had their careers.
Simon found a new agent to take on his new series.
Lucky for them his other agent, Gwen, hadn’t caused as many problems with the switch as Simon had expected.
Although, he still had to deal with her regarding his previous series that was still selling well—Jenna should know because she bought and read all of the books before she devoured the corresponding movies. Simon was very talented.
As for her, the idea for the market was a hit not only with Neil and the rest of the family but also with the shoppers as well. And modifications had been made to include things from the Lily Pad as well as Darby’s shop: Sea Gem Designs.
Now there was talk about starting to remodel the small bakery where Myra was in charge.
It wasn’t easy for any of them to make these changes because it was like erasing a piece of the past, but they accepted that the business had to keep evolving.
And so, they compromised and hung a big portrait of their father in the front of the store.
It felt good to have him looking over their shoulders.
As they stepped up to the entrance of the tree lot, Jenna glanced around. “Do you see Myra?”
Simon looked this way and that way. “I don’t think she’s out here.”
They looked in the window of the little shop where you could buy pine wreaths. And there was Myra talking to Nathan. It looked like a serious conversation.
When Nathan shook his head, Jenna asked, “What do you think that’s about?”
Simon pointed to a sign on the door. “It might have something to do with that.”
A white sign with big black marker read: FARM FOR SALE.
Jenna blinked and read it again. That couldn’t be right. The Bluestar Christmas Tree Farm had been around almost as long as the Island Market.