twenty-two
Candace checked the slideshow she’d made again—well, her father had made, after she nearly sent her laptop through the window. She tried writing a love note first and decided that notes like hers were better off hidden in hollow swans than ever read. Hopefully this would convey the thoughts in her heart better than words on paper.
The week had been cathartic. Crystal had come down, and they’d had three days of crying and laughing, watching old videos, including one she had never seen. Mom had left a video letter to her. Candace wondered when her mother had found time to record it without her knowing.
Candace brought it up again and played her favorite part.
“I looked in your notebook last night. I know that makes me a terrible mom, snooping in your journal or life plan. But by the time you know about it, well, I won’t be around to yell at. I want you to throw that book away. I am not sure where you got the idea you had ten years to live. But you are wrong. No doctor ever said that about you. I wonder if you heard Dr. Kay discussing that old car of his. Anyway, please throw it away and plan to live, laugh, and love. Though I didn’t get to grow old with your father or see my grandbabies, I don’t regret a day of my life with you.”
“Please make a new plan for life . . .”
Candace turned it off.
She had a plan.
Reverend Cavanagh said he would pray for her and her plan. Before she left for the airport, she said one more little prayer.
Colin joined the others gathered in the private dining room of O’Malley’s for the pre-show party. He looked around the table at Daniel and Mandy, Tessa and Sean, Araceli and Kyle, and Abbie and Preston. Zoe sat next to Nick. Colin needed to ask Nick about that. The only empty seat was next to––Candace got up from her chair and came over to him. She reached up and pulled him down into a kiss.
All thought fled.
Gradually he became aware of clapping. Candace ended the kiss.
“Knock it off, you guys. You are making Colin blush,” Candace scolded their friends.
Colin didn’t care if he died of blushing as long as it was because he was in Candace’s arms.
“Come sit down, you two. You can do more of that later.” Tessa waved them over to the table.
The rest of the dinner seemed an eternity as Colin wondered when later would come.
As the closing credits of the Hearthfire Christmas movie that captured Tessa and Sean’s first kiss started to roll, Candace took a deep breath. In fifteen minutes, the room would empty and her encore show would play. Araceli started toward the side of the stage to make the announcement encouraging the majority of the audience to cross the street to the community center for refreshments. At the other end of the room, someone yelled, “Hey! Nick Gooding is engaged!”
Candace whipped around to see her cousin kissing Nick Gooding.
Kissing.
In public.
Engaged.
When?
She looked at each of her friends. One after the other shrugged as they clapped and cheered. Only Colin smiled. He had known!
Colin leaned over so only Candace could hear him. “That isn’t how they planned to tell us.”
“How do you know?”
“Nick asked me to keep everyone here when the crowd left.”
“Oh.”
Zoe worked her way down the row, gathering hugs from the roommates. When she reached Candace, they stared at each other for a moment.
Candace pulled her into a hug. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t have a chance to tell you. We wanted to tell my parents first.”
“And they were on the cruise.” Candace finished the sentence.
“We finally reached them on the way over.”
They hugged again.
Araceli took the stage and tapped the mike. “Ladies and gentlemen, Hearthfire and Blue Pines friends, we invite you to have refreshments at the community center, where you can mix and mingle. Locals, if you don’t have tickets for your families and friends for tomorrow’s shows yet, they will be available at the center.”
A few people gathered their coats, but most just stood around talking.
Araceli recaptured the mike. “Did I mention they are Mrs. Clark’s sugar cookies? Three-time winner of the Blue Pines Christmas bake-off? First come, first serve! Go eat!”
The room started to clear. Colin tried to leave.
Candace held on to his hand. “Stay for a minute.”
Soon only their row and a few security guards remained.
Araceli retook the stage. “It is the first Friday of November, and I hereby call the last meeting of the Friday Night Art Society to order. We are all going our separate ways and starting new projects and new lives. As the unofficial secretary, I have a few items of business, but first a word from Candace, our mentor, friend, and landlord.”
Candace’s legs shook as she took the mike from Araceli. “Lights, please.” She waited as the house lights dimmed and the video she’d made began to play.
“Ten years ago, I made a ten-year plan.” The spiral-bound notebook came up on the screen, the pages turning as she spoke. “I made a bucket list and started checking off each item.” Photos of Candace in various places around the country slid across the screen. “I made some goals, and broke some, like the time I tried being a vegan and decided life was too short to live without ice cream or bacon. Or even bacon ice cream. But this July, I reached the end of my ten-year plan and found myself at a different place than I’d planned.” The last page of the notebook turned, revealing a sketch of a tree stretching over a headstone, a butterfly lifting off toward the sun. “At my annual cancer check, my doctor told me it was time to make a new plan, not a ten-year plan but a fifty-year plan.” A blank page showed on the screen. Candace’s hand appeared with a pencil in it. She started drawing on a blank piece of paper. “I struggled to come up with a plan.” On the screen, her hands ripped the paper and started on a new one. “My cousin Zoe was the first to say out loud what my plan should be. Now I know what my plan is.” The drawing moved in high speed. “In fifty years, I want to be surrounded by you, my friends, as I celebrate my fiftieth wedding anniversary.”
The lights came up. Candace took a deep breath, then whispered one last prayer. Please.
“Colin Ogilvie. You asked me a question a couple weeks ago. Now it is my turn. Will you start the new year as my husband?” There it was. She no longer had any secrets from her friends. Opening up to her father and sister had given her the confidence to share with her friends. These people were like family to her. She had reached the corner and was turned in a new direction. Please don’t be a dead end!
Colin ran up to the stage and grabbed her around the waist. “Are you sure?”
“Positive.” Candace stood on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her lips met his twice before she settled in for a deeper kiss to the cheering of their friends. The mike slipped from her fingers and bounced loudly on the stage.
Colin dipped her and broke the kiss. “One, two, three. I love you too.”
“I knew you would figure that out.”
“Actually, Sabrina did. I think I finally have the glitches fixed.”
Somewhere in the background, her friends were still cheering, but Candace ignored them and wondered how hard it would be to program Sabrina to lock them in after the wedding.