Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Rachel
If Kell thought he was fooling her, he was sorely mistaken. Anyone could clearly see what he was up to.
Mr. Kellan Dean Luview was about to propose.
To her.
And it was his cat, Calamine, who had tipped Rachel off.
The enormous orange Maine Coon cat had climbed onto Kell’s nightstand last week, tipping over a glass of water he’d left there. Rachel had grabbed a towel from the bathroom and mopped it up, but some had dribbled into his drawer, which she’d opened.
And there it was.
The little velvet box.
Not one to snoop, she’d felt an overwhelming mix of emotions when coming upon it: joy, exhilaration, guilt, joy, regret, excitement.
Mostly lots of joy.
Because it felt so right.
Sure, they’d talked about it. You didn’t just spring a marriage proposal on a person, especially a person like Rachel.
These two years together had taught her many things about Kell; for example, he needed lots of physical activity, and spent as much time as possible in nature.
For his part, Kell had learned that she hated–despised, even–surprises.
So one of the many emotions she’d felt upon discovering the ring was…
Irritation.
Which then triggered guilt.
Which then provoked some shame to leak out.
Which finally made her corral all these errant feelings and give them a good talking to.
Because having Kell Luview pop the question was going to be the best moment of her entire life, so there should be nothing–not one little bit!–wrong with that.
His big surprise was going to be wonderful.
Perfect, even.
But Kell was damn lucky she’d found that box. Cally deserved some extra treats. Knowing what he was planning made it easier for Rachel to prepare for it, to analyze all her feelings about it and to make sure she could focus on the moment instead of on her sense of shock.
That little velvet box also explained Kell’s puzzling interest in singing “I Will Always Love You” at the festival. She understood now why he’d decided to enter the contest.
He was going to propose in public.
For the last week, she’d scrambled to get herself in physical shape worthy of a public proposal. Living in a rural town in Maine meant that many of her more stringent beauty care regimens from Los Angeles had fallen by the wayside.
She certainly wasn’t looking like a female Sasquatch–yet–but no one in town did dermablading like her spa in L.A. And her threader there, Saria, was unmatched. Annabeth Khouri was the best hairstylist in Luview, and she was good with waxing, but it wasn’t the same.
Just yesterday, she’d gone out of her way to head over the mountain to Nordicbeth, the big ski resort over an hour away, to get as much done as possible. Kell had been too tired for sex last night, so the full wax she’d had was going to be her surprise.
And right now? She wasn’t at the festival, eating deep-fried brownies. She’d lied.
She was walking down the street after having her hair blown out by Annabeth. Makeup was fresh, nails were perfect, and Rachel was about to be engaged.
Could life be any more perfect?
“Hey! Rachel!” Waving frantically, Skylar Lewiston came waddling over.
She cut quite the figure wearing a pair of puffy sequined lips and unicorn rainbow cowboy boots.
A barista at Love You Coffee, Rachel’s favorite coffee shop, Skylar had been one of the first people in town to be kind to Rachel, so she had a soft spot for her.
“Skylar! That’s quite a fashion combo!”
“No one could find the red glitter boots that go with the costume.”
“It’s inventive! And cheerful!”
“I look like a preschooler with a dress-up chest.”
“You look fine!” Rachel lied. “What’s up?”
“Can you help tomorrow and take the coffee shop donations to the free fridge for me?”
One of Rachel’s initiatives when she’d moved to Luview had been to advocate for a Freedge, a community refrigerator where people can take what they need and leave what they can. Popular in Los Angeles and other major cities, the free fridge movement hadn’t reached Luview, Maine.
Until now.
One day, while picking up her favorite drink, a “Love Bomb” she’d introduced to the shop manager (double shot of espresso, half two percent milk and half almond milk, with ground vanilla bean), she got talking about free fridges with Skylar.
The two had joined forces, raising money for the refrigerator with a cake auction.
Kell and Luke had donated time and materials to build the small shelter that housed the refrigerator and shelves for stable foods, but the hard part had been getting a location.
People in town were very private and too proud to take handouts. The town’s only food pantry was in the back of a nondenominational church. That location wasn’t good for the fridge, and they needed an electrical outlet.
An unlikely hero had rescued them.
Darren Duarte, the town veterinarian, had outlets at the end of his driveway for an electric fence, and thus an unusual situation had formed: People in need went to the vet’s house, which was two miles out of town. It was private, yet not too far away.
And occasionally, Darren put in a quart of fresh cow’s milk, goat’s milk, or whatever eggs some hens might have laid, if he was taking care of the animals.
“Sure,” Rachel said, distracted by the knowledge that Kell was probably already at the common by now. “No problem.”
Skylar leaned forward and whispered, “That fridge is keeping Dutch and her sister going. I’m so glad Darren offered to host it. That’s close to Dutch, so she can ride her bike and get food for her and Lissa.”
“Oh,” Rachel said softly, flooded with a sense of helplessness.
Dutch was seventeen, her sister fifteen, and Kell had a soft spot for her.
When Rachel had first come to town, Kell had paid Dutch to give them both matching henna tattoos of lemurs, a throwback to their time in D.C.
Good old Leo the Lemur had been their NGO’s mascot.
She hadn’t thought about Leo in a very long time.
“Lots of eggs in there from all the scratch chickens in the area. Garden produce season is starting. I know Latham Earl puts some cheese and milk from his dairy farm in there, and Kendrill’s Market sends stuff over when it gets close to the sell-by date.”
“I know. I do the deliveries sometimes.”
“It’s helping people,” Skylar said proudly. “We did something good.”
“We’re doing something good, Skylar, and we’ll do even more. No problem on getting the coffee shop leftovers down to Darren’s place.”
“Thank you!”
Rachel’s phone buzzed.
Kell: Where are you? I’m up soon.
Rachel did a double take, and replied: In an hour..?
Kell: Ten minutes. They changed my time slot.
Be right there! she typed back. Pressing her lipstick-covered lips together, she enjoyed the creamy smoothness. Skylar peered at her, then cocked her head.
“Hey. You look really good,” Skylar said. “Your skin is so smooth.”
“Thank you!”
“Did you do that threading thing Annabeth talks about all the time?”
“Something else. It’s called dermaplaning.”
“I’ve seen those videos on YouTube! You shave your face?”
“It’s not shaving. Not in the classic sense. It’s more like exfoliating.”
“But it’s done with a razor.”
“Yes.”
“Then why not just call it shaving?”
Every so often, Rachel got tired of how deeply practical everyone in this town was.
“Because it’s different from shaving.”
“My mom says the only difference is that people are too stupid to realize they’re paying three times more than they’d pay to have their face shaved.”
“Skylar?”
“Huh?”
“You realize you just told me your mother thinks I’m stupid.”
“What? No! Not you. Just people like you.”
Rachel gave her a flat look.
“I’ll stop talking now.”
“That sounds like a good idea.” Rachel smiled, though. Skylar was young and often put her foot in her mouth. But then again, maybe she was right…
Which was probably why her comment stung a bit.
Oh, how good her skin felt, though.
“See you at the festival. Kell’s singing!”
“I know,” Rachel called out as Skylar walked toward the coffee shop. “Can you believe it?”
“NO!”
So far, whenever the topic of Kell singing in the festival had come up, people had expressed incredulity.
No small amount of ribbing had been inflicted on her poor boyfriend.
Replying to it all with a well-timed glance or an aw, shucks grin, depending on who teased him, Kell had taken it all in stride.
Now she knew why he was doing it.
And the zing! of excitement that shot up her spine at the thought was just so delicious.
Rachel had turned a corner to head to the common when she came to a halt.
The scene before her was magical.
Living in the “love-liest” place on Earth had its upsides, and festivals certainly were one of them. In a town devoted to love, where love wasn’t just a feeling–it was a way of life–Rachel occasionally found herself feeling cynical about it.
Not in terms of her feelings for Kell, of course. More along the lines of how Luview, Maine marketed love so successfully.
Never one for cheesy, over-the-top expressions, when she’d first come to this town painted red, white, and pink, she’d rolled her eyes and written it all off as commercial fakery.
It didn’t help that she’d hated her job at the time.
Being a corporate drone had seemed like a necessary step up the ladder to success.
A certain kind of success, anyway.
As it turned out, coming here to Love You, Maine to broker a deal and running into Kell again was the best thing that ever happened to her.
And now, as she took in the scene at the I Will Always Love You festival, her sense of belonging here only deepened.
“Oh! Hi!” Selena Martinez, the main on-air personality for the local radio station, WLUV, stepped out from the alley between Love You Flowers and Love You Coffee, nearly crashing into Rachel and dropping two red woven totes overloaded with what appeared to be flowers and small boxes of crackers and cheese.