23. Evangeline
Evangeline
Evangeline was nearly out of pies. There was only one left in the cupboard—a double-chocolate banana cream pie with chocolate crust—and Evangeline was thrilled.
The sun was starting to fall, but the tavern was still full of patrons, and outside, her tents were still full, too.
Even though it was too warm for a fire, her vision of the Hollow’s grand reopening had always involved a roaring blaze, and so Jacks had insisted on lighting one in the tavern hearth.
Evangeline could see the gold and yellow flames, but she could not hear the crackles over all the excited voices in the tavern.
She smiled as she caught snippets of conversation:
“I hope they do this again next year.”
“I hope they do it next season!”
“The dragon-roasted apples are the best I’ve ever had.”
“I loved the pear cream pie!”
“I told you that you should have made more pies.”
Evangeline spun around at the sound of Jacks’s teasing voice. He was smiling as widely as she was, but he wasn’t looking around the tavern, just at her.
“I know you’re only joking, but I was actually about to find my apron and—”
“Oh no—not tonight.” He grabbed her by the hand and started pulling her toward the door. “Before you object, or say you need to do anything else, this is why we hired staff.”
Jacks opened the door that led out to the garden. It was quieter than in the tavern, the conversations from the vendor tents and the delighted laughter of children all diffused by the warm, misty night.
Jacks twined his fingers with hers as they strolled under bunting and flickering glass lanterns that swayed with the breeze.
Earlier that day, Evangeline had recognized familiar faces from the south, but now she was starting to see people she knew from Merrywood Village.
The local seamstress was walking hand in hand with the blacksmith.
The baker was eating a slice of pie—and smiling.
Some of the young girls who had been jumping rope in the square yesterday were climbing up the treasure tree, which actually looked as if it needed more maps …
but Jacks tugged her past before they could stop.
“Where are we going?” Evangeline asked as they left behind the tents and the bunting and the people, until there was only the night and the two of them.
“I thought it might be nice to go somewhere quieter.”
They stepped onto the path that led to the lake. Evangeline could have sworn she had placed some bunting here, but there were just a few flickering lanterns along with several signs that were not hers:
Stop!
Turn around! Death and dismemberment up ahead!
Did you not read the earlier signs?
Go away!
“Who put these here?”
Jacks started walking with more swagger in his step. “I did.”
“Why? What happened?”
“Nothing.” He grinned devilishly. “I just knew that at some point tonight, I would want you all to myself.”
He led her onto the dock, where a blanket had been laid out. At one corner were several thick pillar candles, and in the middle were two sets of plates covered with finger sandwiches, fruit and cheese, and chocolates.
“I also figured you wouldn’t have eaten,” Jacks said.
Right on cue, Evangeline’s stomach grumbled. She had been either too excited or too busy to eat all day, and she was ravenous now. Jam and meat sandwiches had never looked so delicious.
Jacks popped a grape into his mouth as Evangeline plucked several sandwiches from a plate. And that’s when she noticed the glass box with the broken heart cookies.
It had been sitting behind the pile of sandwiches.
And suddenly Evangeline was thinking about choices.
This was a choice that would forever change her life.
She thought about how her father had said that he couldn’t tell her who she should always love.
But he had told her what he wanted that love to look like.
He had wanted her to find a North Star love, and she had found it.
Evangeline had always been drawn to Jacks’s light, even when it had been dim.
But she still took a moment, and she thought about what would happen if she didn’t eat the cookie, which then made her wonder what would have happened if Jacks hadn’t made his deal with the fairy.
Last night, Jacks had said, There is no world where I would ever lose you to something like age or time.
And she believed him, but she also wondered—
“What is it, Little Fox?”
“It’s nothing.” She reached for the box.
Jacks caught her hand halfway there. “If you’re having second thoughts, we don’t have to do this tonight. We can wait as long as you want.”
“No, in fact it’s quite the opposite,” Evangeline said. “This doesn’t even feel like a choice. But it just made me wonder. If there really are infinite endings, do you believe there are worlds where you and I don’t ever find each other?”
“Does that idea bother you?”
“Of course it does.” Evangeline had always liked the idea that there was no such thing as fate.
She liked the idea that a person had the power to choose their own ending.
But she didn’t like this idea. She wanted Jacks to be her North Star love in this world and in every world. “It feels quite unromantic.”
“It doesn’t to me.” Jacks intertwined their fingers.
“What matters is that we are in a world where we did find each other. You and I didn’t just make one choice that led us here.
We have chosen each other over and over, and I think the fact that other unfortunate versions of us didn’t make the same choices makes this all the more valuable. ”
“Well, when you put it that way, I suppose it does sound quite romantic.” Evangeline reached for the glass box, and this time, instead of stopping her, Jacks opened the lid.
And Evangeline had a sudden thought that maybe she had been wrong.
Maybe this wasn’t actually their happily ever after. Maybe this was just their start.
The cookie tasted like sparkling sugar. It burst against Evangeline’s tongue as she took her first bite.
Jacks’s gaze remained on her as she finished. His eyes were two fallen stars.
“I want to marry you, Evangeline.” Jacks said it the way someone else might deliver serious news.
His voice was low, as if he was trying not to sound demanding, but his words grew firmer with each one that he spoke.
“I know you had a wedding before, and it was horrible and awful, and I feel selfish for making you do it again. But I think you already know that I can be very selfish, and this is one of those moments. I want everyone to know that you’re mine and I’m yours.
There will be no more mirror Jacks in your future. ”
“Ahh,” she teased, but her heart was racing.
Although the night had gone cold, she was suddenly hot, her chest full of too many feelings.
The way Jacks spoke made her believe that he hadn’t planned this part of the night, that the not-quite-a-proposal had just come out, and she really didn’t want him to take the words back.
She wanted to say Yes, of course! I’ve been waiting for this.
But she also wanted to make sure none of this had been an accident.
“So mirror Jacks is why you suddenly want to marry me?”
“There was nothing sudden about this.” Jacks’s glittering gaze darkened.
For a second, all the stars in the sky dimmed, the cool air turned icy, and Evangeline was reminded of another night and another version of Jacks, when he had sat atop a throne made of ice and glared at a little ghost fox while she’d stood before him in a wedding dress.
He had made her think of a tousled, winter king—an angry one. She’d thought that his fury had been because of the fox. But now as she replayed his words—There was nothing sudden about this—she wondered if perhaps she had been wrong. If there was another reason he’d been so upset that night.
“Just how long have you been thinking about this, Jacks?”
“Long enough.” He smiled then, and the stars returned, shining brighter than before. “I’ll let you decide how you want to do it and when you want to do it, but we’re getting married, Little Fox.”