Chase drifted gently toward wakefulness the following morning, well rested, sated, and warm. He opened his eyes, blinked twice, and smiled. Nothing like waking up with a naked woman snuggled against you.
He’d spilled his guts to her yesterday. Just opened his mouth and let the whole hideous story pour out. Saying the words had been hard and yet cathartic, and for the first time in longer than he could recall, he’d slept without being haunted by nightmares. She’d listened and she’d supported him. She hadn’t turned away from him when he’d admitted the ugly truth.
Then she’d spoken words that applied salve to the wounds on his soul. You saved them such heartache. And, You absolutely had to go for the camera. She’d understood and she hadn’t thought him a monster.
The burden he’d carried for months wasn’t quite as heavy today as it had been the day before.
He woke her by making sweet love to her, cooked her bacon and eggs for breakfast, then sent her off with a kiss to begin her day of vaccinating cats and doing blood tests on dogs. He told her he’d see her that evening on her front porch and asked her what she’d like him to cook for dinner.
Then he turned his attention to slaying his personal beast. It wasn’t easy. It took him a while to work up the nerve. But finally, surrounded by the peace and privacy of the yurt with memories of last night fresh in his mind, ignoring hands that shook and the cold sweat running down his spine, Chase used his phone to snap a photograph of Captain.
It was lousy, blurred, and beautiful to him.
By the time he went down to Eternity Springs to shop for supper and wait for his date on her porch swing, he had a couple shots of the dog worth framing. Later that night, he took a picture of a sleeping Lori, her hair a midnight waterfall across her pillow, her lips still moist and swollen from his kisses. He knew he’d treasure the photograph forever.
It set the tone for the following week. He’d retrieved the replacement camera Lana had given him from the closet where he’d stashed it out of sight, and when campers arrived for the second session of the Rocking L’s summer season, Chase met them at the entrance to snap shots of their smiles.
The children invited to the second, shorter camp session were all return campers, so they all knew how to swim. Chase didn’t have any Tadpoles to introduce to the water, but he did end up offering to teach a basics-of-photography class for the older kids. Upon hearing the news, Jack and Cat Davenport sent over age-appropriate cameras for every child in camp.
Chase was taking photos of kids and horses at the camp corral when he heard Celeste call his name. “Good morning, Celeste.”
“It is a glorious morning, isn’t it? I was wondering if you’d do me a favor in a bit.”
“Anything for you.”
“My nature walk begins soon. I’ve asked Lori to join us today to talk to the children about the wildlife we see. Would you tag along and record the moment in photographs?”
“I’d be happy to do that.”
Her blue eyes twinkled. “I thought you might. Meet us at the trailhead in twenty minutes.”
“I’ll be there.”
Chase took a few last shots as the horseback riders set out on their morning ride, then he wandered toward the trailhead to wait for his woman.
His woman. That’s how he thought of her. He wasn’t quite as certain that she thought of herself that way or that she’d consider him to be her man—never mind that they slept together almost every night.
The woman was skittish. No surprise there. The Lori he’d always known and never stopped loving moved slowly and deliberately more often than not. She was still dipping her toes in the waters of their relationship. Chase believed that the best way to get wet was to dive right in.
So he was making plans to push her.
She arrived with Celeste wearing jeans, hiking boots, and a V-neck FRESH BAKERY T-shirt in a green that matched her eyes. She looked relaxed and lovely, and Chase had to restrain himself from kissing her hello. She wasn’t ready to go public with their relationship, she’d told him just last night.
He wondered just who she considered to be the public. From what he could tell, everyone in town already knew.
Chase’s mother had asked him if he wanted to bring Lori up for supper next Tuesday night. Her brother Devin had made a smart-ass remark about Chase’s jeep being parked in her driveway overnight.
Cam Murphy had given Chase the stink eye when he went into his sporting goods store to purchase a new fishing license that very morning. When Chase caught Cam gazing from the bows and arrows behind the counter to Chase’s chest and back to the bows and arrows, he quickly handed over his credit card. Cam rang up the sale, but when he handed back Chase’s credit card, he didn’t let go of it. “Got your act together?”
“Getting there.”
“Huh. Well, I’m keeping my eye on you.”
Chase slipped the card back into his wallet, grabbed his license, and hightailed it out of Refresh. And to think Lori regretted Cam’s having missed out on playing “Dad” during her high school years.
The campers arrived and they headed out on their walk. It proved to be a good wildlife day. They spotted deer, a pair of marmots, a pine marten, a weasel, and more squirrels, chipmunks, and birds than he could count. The prize of the day was an elk across the creek and some fifteen yards away.
Celeste’s voice interrupted him. “Well, I think this does it. I sensed the time had come, but this gives me undeniable proof.”
He glanced over to see Celeste staring at her phone. She looked up at Chase and beamed. “Don’t you agree?”
She held up the phone and he saw that while he’d been occupied taking photos of Lori lecturing about elk to the excited group of campers, Celeste had turned her phone’s photo app toward the photographer and recorded a thirty-three-second video. Chase watched it, watched himself snap photos of the campers and Lori, and said, “I don’t get it. What are you trying to show me, Celeste?”
“Your camera isn’t pointed toward the elk. What were you taking pictures of, Chase?”
“Smiles. I’m taking pictures of smiles.”
“And look at your face.”
Chase wore a grin as big as any of the children.
“I have something for you,” Celeste continued. She reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a pendant on a silver chain. Recognizing it, Chase felt his throat go tight. “You’re giving me Angel’s Rest wings?”
“Our official healing-center blazon, awarded to those who have embraced healing’s grace. You’ve earned it, my dear Chase.”
He accepted it. Smiled down at it as wonder and gratitude rose within him. “When you started handing these things out, I never thought I’d be in the market for one. Never wanted to be.”
He glanced toward Lori. “I thought she’d be the one earning her wings, what with all the to-do over her dad coming home.”
“Yes, well. Our Lori still has a little work to do, you see. She’s not quite ready to take that leap of faith that her parents took. But with encouragement…” Celeste glanced pointedly down at the pendant in his palm. “She’s competitive.”
Chase’s lips twisted in a grin. “I like the way you think, Celeste.”
He stepped forward, calling, “Hey, Lori. Look at what I just got.”
* * *
As Lori dressed for her date with Chase to the annual Eternity Springs Arts Festival, Lori told herself she was glad that Celeste had awarded Chase the Angel’s Rest blazon, and for the most part, she meant it. Chase was almost back to his old self now. The frequency of both his bouts of brooding and nightmares that jerked him from sleep had decreased substantially. That pleased her and relieved her, and if at the back of her mind she began to wait for him to start flapping his wings in prep to fly away, well, he hadn’t died on a mountain in Chizickstan, had he?
She heard him knock on her screen door and call, “Lori?”
“C’mon inside. I’ll be right out.” She dragged the brush through her hair one more time, touched up her lip gloss, then exited her bedroom. Chase waited for her in the front room. Admiration shone in his eyes when he saw her. “Hey, Glitterbug. You look spectacular. Love the dress.”
“Thank you.” She spread the full skirt of her floral sundress and made a little curtsy. “Nic sent it over to me. She said she was online shopping the end-of-season sales and thought it looked like me.”
“She’s right. It’s perfect for you. So how is she doing?”
“Mama and baby are both doing well, she tells me. The baby is due in about six weeks.”
“My sister is coming in for the baby shower.”
“Oh? I hadn’t heard that. I’m glad. I’ve missed Caitlin this summer.”
“I talked to her this morning. She likes her job, but she misses Colorado. Personally, I don’t think she’ll stay in New York past the first of the year.”
A sound at the door caught Lori’s attention. “You brought Captain?”
“Yeah. He’s still a little damp from his bath so I left him on the porch. He has a date with Sage to have his puppy portrait drawn.”
Lori chuckled and picked up her purse. “Good thing she draws fast.”
“I know. I warned both Claire and Sage.”
“Claire? Claire Branham?”
“Yes.”
Claire Branham owned the newest retail establishment in Eternity Springs—Forever Christmas. Delight spread through Lori as she put the clues together. “She chose Captain to be one of her models?”
“The Twelve Dogs of Christmas. He’s going to have his own ornament and everything.”
Chase sounded like such a proud papa that she couldn’t help but laugh. She thought that she’d keep the news to herself for now that Mortimer had been chosen for the honor, too.
They left the house and started toward Spruce Street where white canvas tents lined both sides of the street. The Summer Arts Festival was Eternity Springs’s biggest tourist event, having grown in both size and reputation each year since its inception. The juried show brought in local, regional, and national artists and featured work in a wide variety of mediums from sculpture to jewelry to woodwork to paintings, from the dramatic to the whimsical. Local featured artists included glass artists Gabi Brogan and Cicero, and painter Sage Rafferty. Savannah Turner’s homemade soaps were a hit, as were the delectable edibles available in Lori’s mother’s bakery’s booth and that of Chase’s mom’s restaurant. The festival saw every available room for miles around rented and kept merchants’ cash registers ringing.
“I love the arts festival,” Lori said upon reaching Spruce.
Chase grabbed hold of her hand. “As long as nobody plays John Denver, I’m okay with it.”
Lori recognized his reference to the festival the summer when she’d been struck by a bullet. She recalled what he’d said during their middle-of-the-night discussion last winter. I was afraid we’d lose you. Afraid I would lose you. That’s when I knew I was in love. And, What happened to us, Lori? Why wasn’t love enough?
That made this summer’s arts festival an anniversary of sorts. She stole a look at Chase. Why hadn’t love been enough? Had anything really changed?
He might have read her mind, because he lifted her hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss against her knuckles. “Let’s go make some good memories, shall we?”
“Sounds fine by me,” she replied.
“In that case, follow me.”
He led her first to the Vistas Art Gallery booth where Sage sat with sketchpad in hand. “There’s the pooch of the hour,” she said, smiling brightly at Chase, Lori, and Captain. “I’ve been wondering when you’d show up.”
“Are you ready for us?”
“I am. Have a seat. There’s a basket of dog toys beneath that chair. See it?”
“Yes,” Chase replied.
“Give him something to play with. Don’t worry about keeping him still. That’s not what I need. Just hold the leash and let him roam around the booth.”
“Seems like you picked a strange time to do this drawing, Sage,” Lori said.
Sage picked up a piece of charcoal and went to work. “Not really. I always do drawing demonstrations during the arts festival. I really liked the idea for this particular drawing.”
Lori watched her work for a couple of minutes. Sage’s talent always amazed her. Captain’s face was coming to life right in front of her.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Chase frown and reach into his pocket. He checked his phone and said, “Hmm. My mother is asking for my help with something. She says it’ll just take a few minutes.”
“Lori, you can hold the leash,” Sage said without looking up from her drawing.
“Okay.” Lori stepped forward as Chase stood.
“Thanks, Glitterbug.” He kissed her on the cheek. “See you in a bit. Have fun.”
Have fun? Holding his dog? That was a bit weird.
Sage distracted her with a comment about the other drawings she’d done for the Twelve Dogs of Christmas. They talked about the project and then the Christmas store and how Claire was quickly becoming part of the fabric of the town. “It’s such a fun project,” Sage said. “It’s nice to have new ideas for chamber of commerce fund-raisers. I think this one will be a hit.”
“Me, too. I think—Oh, hi, Devin.”
“Sis. I’ve been looking for you.”
“Oh?”
“I’m supposed to take care of the dog.”
“What? Why? I don’t understand.”
“Here, sweetheart,” Sage said, tearing a page out of her sketchbook. Her eyes sparkled and her lips twitched as she handed the paper over to Lori.
Two things hit her immediately. First, the artwork around the edge of the page was that whimsical style that defined Sage’s work—dogs and roses and angels and hearts. Lots of hearts. The handwriting and what that handwriting said was all Chase.
Roses are red,
Dogs are tame,
Tell me, Lori my love,
Do you have game?
1. Hard to soft, salt to sweet,
Puppies love this sticky treat.
“It’s another treasure hunt,” she murmured. Her heart went pitty-pat and a grin tugged at her lips. Staring from Devin to Sage, she accused, “You both knew about this?”
Two identical shrugs of innocence had Lori rolling her eyes. Her mind had moved on to the riddle. She knew the answer, of course. Peanut butter. Peanut butter meant one of two places. Either the Taste of Texas Creamery with its peanut butter cup ice cream or her mother’s peanut butter cookies. Since Lori couldn’t picture Chase using her mother for the first stop in this treasure hunt, she decided to try Taste of Texas. She all but skipped to their booth.
“Do you by any chance have something for me?” she asked the owner, Jared Kelly.
“As a matter of fact, I do.” He pulled a frozen treat out of the freezer. She unwrapped a piece of fruit on a stick. The pineapple slice had been cut in the shape of a dog and dipped in white chocolate. A note tied with a ribbon dangled from the stick.
2. Mirror Mirror on the wall
Who doth sparkle for them all?
Angels sent with scented slab.
Lori, my love, find one to grab.
Lori grinned like a maniac, bit the head off the pineapple dog, and put her brain to work. The thing to remember when solving his riddles was the KISS principle—keep it simple, stupid.
So … hmm … mirror and sparkle. Could he mean makeup? The only place to buy makeup in town was the drugstore. No, that didn’t feel right.
Angels could be Angel’s Rest. Scented slab could be the spa. Was he sending her to choose a treatment at the spa? Maybe. Unless … Angels sent with scented slab. Angels scent could be Heavenscents, Savannah Turner’s handmade soap shop. Scented slab—a bar of soap. That sounded like a better fit. She’d try Heavenscents first.
Sure enough, at the shop a delighted Savannah handed over a darling tote bag that held a bar of heavenly scented soap. “Oh, I love this,” Lori told her when she lifted the bar to her nose to sniff it. “I can’t put my finger on the oils. Lavender? But there’s a tinge of spice, too.”
“It’s a new fragrance,” Savannah told her. “Specially commissioned for you. It’s supposed to smell like summer and puppies, new beginnings and children’s smiles.”
Lori’s heart melted.
The riddle tucked in with the soap sent her off to Fresh where her mother had a cookie baked especially for her and another riddle. For the next hour, she visited the Callahans’ kitchen, Ali’s restaurant, the Eternity Times office, the sheriff’s office, the Christmas shop, the taxidermy collection at the school, Cicero’s art glass gallery, and Gabi’s shop, Whimsies. She’d filled up the little tote bag she’d received at Whimsies and, for that reason alone, hoped she was reaching the end of the hunt.
The riddle at Whimsies sent her to Murphy’s Pub where she found a single red rose, a sparkling glass of champagne, and a handwritten challenge.
The past is out of the pocket
The future waits where it began.
The question is in the can.
What will be your answer?
Whoa. Lori took a long sip of her champagne. Liquid courage? She didn’t get the first line, but the next three were pretty clear. Was the question the question she thought it might be?
She wasn’t ready. She really wasn’t ready for that. The man had been rushing her from the very first. He was born to rush. Born to fly. And she was born to sink roots and roost.
Leave it to Chase to force the issue.
Too soon.
They’d only been together a few weeks. They were still getting to know the people they’d become in the intervening years.
And yet, excitement sparkled in her veins like the champagne dancing on her tongue. She finished her drink, picked up the rose and riddle card, and made her way to the place where it all began. The Trading Post grocery store. At one time, the family business. It’s where she’d been stocking the shelves the fateful moment that Chase Timberlake first walked into her life.
He waited for her in the canned vegetable aisle. In front of the corn.
When she saw him, Lori’s steps slowed. Her memories flashed back to that first moment she’d seen him. Not love at first sight, but definitely crush at first sight. He’d been her crush for weeks and months. She hadn’t experienced a single blinding moment when she’d tumbled into love. For her, falling in love—into true love—was more a gradual thing.
So falling out of love took a very long time to manage, too. In theory, anyway. Lori wasn’t sure she’d ever pulled that one off.
“Hello, Glitterbug. Fancy running into you here.”
“A treasure hunt, Timberlake? And you involved our friends and family?”
He grinned. “I was tired of the questions. They were straining themselves coming up with ways to ask that didn’t seem too nosy. I figured we might as well put them out of their misery by going full-out public with our relationship.”
“You’ve done that.”
“Do you like your gifts?”
“They’re treasures. Each and every one of them. I especially like the angel from the Christmas shop. I hadn’t been in Claire’s angel room before. It’s spectacular.”
“I know you’re a little jealous that Celeste awarded me my wings.”
“Yeah, well. Let’s not go there. This was fun, Chase. Thank you. You’ve changed the way I’ll look at the Summer Arts Festival forever.”
“Good. I like the idea of replacing bad memories with good, and good memories with better ones. So, Glitterbug, are you ready to solve the last riddle?” He gestured toward the shelf of canned vegetables.
Her heart thundered. The prize was obvious. One can of Del Monte corn was mixed in with the row of Libby’s. She inhaled a deep breath and reached for it. As expected, it was lightweight. A diversion can safe. Slowly, she unscrewed the lid and turned the can over.
A black velvet ring box fell into her hand.
“Oh, Chase.”
“I bought it when you were in college. I carried it in my pocket for months. The time was never right to give it to you. Now, it is.”
Lori’s throat went tight with emotion. The pressure of tears built in the back of her eyes. Chase took the box from her hand, went down on one knee and opened it. Held it up.
A simple solitaire on a plain gold band sparkled up at her. “Lori Elizabeth Reese Murphy, I love you. I’ve always loved you. I want to live with you and love with you and grow old with you. I want you to have my children. Glitterbug, will you marry me?”
She closed her eyes. So long. So long, she’d dreamed of hearing those words.
And yet, she licked her lips and met his gaze. “I’m scared, Chase. I’m scared to say yes. It hasn’t been that long. What if you get bored here again? What if I’m not exciting enough for you? What if once your spirit has completely healed you realize this is all a mistake and you’re ready to fly off to Zambia or Brazil or Yap!”
“Yap?” His brow furrowed. He came up off his knee. “Where’s Yap?”
“It’s an island in the South Pacific. You have wings, Chase. I sink roots. That hasn’t changed.”
“My wings brought me home to you, Lori. Home to my family. I’m not a migratory bird.” His warm brown eyes remained solid and steady with promise. “I’m home to stay.”
“I want to believe that.” Big fat tears spilled from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. “In my heart, I think I do believe it. But I’m afraid. I’m like Nicholas. My head knows you are not a danger to me, but my heart … my heart fears you’ll rip it out if I let you close.”
The man actually laughed. “So am I a bird or a wolf?”
“You’re a hawk, Chase, and I watched that hawk’s broken wing heal and then he flew away.”
He reached out and touched her cheek. “Do you love me, Lori?”
“Yes. I do. I love you with all my heart.”
“And I love you with all my heart. That’s our bottom line. We can build from there.”
“But we tried to do that before! We failed.”
“That’s because we didn’t trust each other enough. We didn’t trust that we could overcome the obstacles we faced. I made a mistake when I didn’t give you this ring years ago. I’m correcting that now. Trust me, Lori. Trust us. We don’t have to set a wedding date now, but I want you to wear my ring.”
“No wedding date?” The idea intrigued Lori. Maybe that’s the way she could do this. Be engaged, but wait until she was sure. Until she was ready.
“No wedding date for now. We’ll figure out a way to introduce you to the idea. Give you time to get used to it. I predict that before long, you’ll be ready for the Mortimer test.”
She blinked away her tears and let out a short, soft laugh. “What’s that?”
“I don’t know. Probably something to do with our mothers. Shopping for a wedding gown.”
“Yeah. That would certainly be a Mortimer test. Mom and Ali would love it.”
He took it from the case and held out his left hand palm up. “Wear my ring, Lori. Promise to be my wife someday. Say yes.”
The word spilled from her lips like a love song. “Yes. Yes, Chase. I’ll marry you. Someday.”
He slid the ring onto her finger and took her in his arms and kissed her long and lovingly.
It was only when they broke apart and turned to go that Lori saw the heads peeking around the aisle end caps. Mom. Ali. Nic. Celeste. “I should have known we’d have an audience.”
“No way around it. This is Eternity Springs, after all.”