After a week of tension, Patty and I had recouped a bit of our relationship. I had no doubt that my boss was relieved that my happily ever after came to a crashing halt. Now we were both back in the same lonely boat. Only I couldn't help but notice that every time the beer delivery guy stopped in with his dolly of beer, Patty went into smile and lash batting overdrive. She also did her usual disappearing act, leaving me to sign off on the delivery. Sealing her fate of forever admiring guys from a distance.

I'd had more than one conversation with Samuel, the delivery man, and I'd managed to get a few details about his personal life. He was very much single and a bit of a cad, but a likeable cad. He lived just thirty minutes from Butterfield. As far as I was concerned, the matchmaking ducks were all lined up, and I had a plan to lead them to water, metaphorically speaking.

Samuel's truck pulled up out front, and Patty started her nervous dance. She was standing at the back, near the refrigerator, moving bottles around to accommodate the new product. I caught her using the glass door as a mirror. Of course, I knew too well that after a few minutes of primping, pinching her cheeks for color and quickly slapping on some lip gloss, the newly shined up Patty would scurry into the backroom to hide.

I watched outside the window as Samuel unloaded the truck. My timing had to be perfect or the plan would fail. Samuel slammed shut the doors on the truck and leaned back his filled dolly.

I headed to the door and pushed it open. "Patty, Fran just texted me. She has an emergency. I'll be right back."

"No!" she cried out, but cut her plea short when Samuel slipped past me with his load. "The boss will have to sign for this one," I told him as I scurried down the sidewalk and out of view of the store.

In an unexpected coincidence, I nearly ran straight into Fran as she rounded the corner to the market. "Ella, where are you off to in such a rush?"

"Now that you ask—" I pulled her arm to walk back the way she came from. "If Patty asks, you had an emergency and you called me to come help."

"I did?" She reached up and pressed her hat lower on her head. "What kind of emergency?"

"I don't know." I threw one out there. "The zipper on your purse was stuck, and you couldn't get your phone out."

"Then how did I call you with it? And my purse has a latch not a zipper."

"Your heel got stuck in the heating grate in your office."

Fran cleared her throat and looked pointedly down at her sandals. "I just happened to wear flats today because my new shoes gave me a terrible blister."

We stopped under the shade of the hardware store awning, well out of sight of the market.

Fran laughed. "I guess we need to preplan these emergencies a little better."

"I suppose we do."

Fran leaned out to get a look at the sidewalk. "I see that cute beer delivery man's truck. Patty talks about him constantly." Fran's white smile lit up under the brim of her hat. "Does he have something to do with my emergency?"

"Yes and Patty will probably never speak to me again. I thought if she had no choice except to sign for the beer, then she would have no choice except to talk to Samuel."

"Aren't you a clever little schemer. It might work. Or like you mentioned, Patty might never talk to you again. Or me either, I suppose, since my hostile purse zipper pulled you from the store."

Out of the corner of my eye, a dog trotted along the sidewalk. My pulse took off at warp speed as a dog that looked just like Boone came out from behind the fountain. Jilly emerged behind the dog and on the other end of a leash.

"Jilly liked Boone so much she found a dog just like him on a rescue website. She drove out yesterday to pick her up. She named her Colette. She's a sweet little thing, and Jilly is over the moon about her new baby. She said she's almost ready to open the shop full time. I think this little town will be booming once the summer traffic starts coming our direction." Fran finished her little speech and then noticed that I had just recovered from seeing the dog. "Holy moly, here I am blathering on about Jilly, and I hadn't even thought that seeing little Colette would bring back memories. Still no word from Fynn?"

"Nope. And I don't expect it anymore. He's gone for good." I took a deep breath to keep from tearing up. I'd allowed myself a few days of good crying, but I was done with that. For a brief moment in time, I’d been looking toward a future. Fynn had made me look toward a future. I wasn't going to be Ella, Lucky Thirteen of Butterfield, anymore. I was going to start a real life, an adult life with the man I loved. But that dream fell apart as fast as it grew. I should have known at the time that I wasn't destined for true happiness.

Samuel's truck started up. "I guess I'll go back now and see if I'm fired . . . again."

"Well, I was heading into the market, but I think I'll avoid it for a bit until this blows over. Good luck."

"Thanks, Mayor Coward."

I headed back to the market and stretched my neck up to see inside the window. I decided it was best to know exactly where Patty was standing as I walked into the ambush. I couldn't see her, which meant she was in the back or the corner aisle. The cowbell made sure that there was no way for me to sneak into the store unnoticed. How the hell did cows not go crazy wearing the damn things?

Patty stepped out from the coffee and tea aisle. She strode straight for me. I wasn't sure whether to duck or run.

She threw her arms around me. "You sneaky, wonderful friend."

After smothering me for a good long moment, she lowered her arms.

"So you don't hate me?"

"I could never hate you, Ella. We have been friends for too long." She raised a brow at me. "How was Fran's emergency?"

I waved it off. "You know Fran. She's such a drama queen."

"Right. Well, Samuel asked me out."

"What? He did. Oh my gosh, I think I've found my true calling."

"You have. At first I was petrified but then I had no choice but to talk to him. I mean, I am the manager."

"That you are."

Patty hugged herself. "He's so cute and so nice. It turns out he'd wanted to ask me out for awhile, but I was always in the backroom when he came in. Now that the ice has been broken"—she took in a long breath—"I think I can do this." Without warning, the elation drained from her eyes, and she covered her face with her hands. Her shoulders shook with a sob. "I'm horrid. I'm awful. I'm a monster."

"Whoa, how the heck did this go south so fast?" I tried to pry her hands from her face. "It'll be fine. We'll get your hair done up really pretty and—"

She dropped her hands. "No, Ella, you don't understand. I've done something so awful, so unforgivable. Oh, I hope you can forgive me, although I wouldn't forgive me because what I did was unforgiveable."

"O.K., Patty, deep breath. You are talking in circles, actual word circles. Tell me what you did, and I'm sure we can get past it. We've gotten past everything else."

My words hadn't given her any comfort and her face was turning splotchy from tears. She sucked in a shuddering breath and raced into the back. I stood alone where she'd left me wondering what the hell had just happened. Maybe helping her meet Samuel wasn't such a solid idea after all. Maybe she wasn't ready for it yet.

Still sniffling, Patty came back out of the office with a crumpled piece of paper in her hand. Through the wrinkles, I saw my name written on the backside of a note. I recognized the writing from a handwritten list I'd seen in Fynn's van.

I lifted my eyes to Patty's face. As things dawned on me, it felt as if I was standing in the middle of an avalanche, rocks hitting me from every side. "Is that from Fynn?"

Patty's sobs intensified as she handed me the paper. "He slipped it under the door the morning that Richard saw him driving away."

I stared down at the hastily written note. He had been in a hurry, obviously anxious to get home to his grandfather. I read the few lines over and over again. Just one word. He needed to hear just one word from me and he would come back to get me. But he never heard it. He never heard even one word.

"Oh, Ella, can you ever forgive me?"

My stomach churned and my throat was dry as the desert. Patty's sobs continued as I reread the note again.

I finally found the strength to look up at her. "I don't know, Patty. I don't know if I can ever forgive you for this." I whipped the apron off over my head and dropped it on the counter.

I clutched the note in my hand as if it was the most important thing in the world. I walked across the street to the park, the park that now sparkled with life because of Fynn. It had been more than a week. I could only imagine what Fynn thought of me after I’d so coldly cut him off. I was sure he had already written me off as that girl in Butterfield who had known the truth about the accident but who had selfishly kept it to herself. After a week away from here, I was sure he had convinced himself that I wasn't even worth the trip back to Butterfield.

I hiked all the way to the back of the park, to the benches that Fynn had painstakingly cleaned and painted. I sat down and stared at the stone flamingo. It looked nearly real again, with the pond water circling its long legs. Fynn had changed everything, and the biggest changes had had nothing to do with the park.

I pulled out my crummy old phone. My fingers trembled as I dialed the number. My number would be unfamiliar, and he would most likely not answer. I was actually relieved when it went to voicemail. I almost hung up but then words fell off my tongue.

"Hey, it's me. I just got your note. I hope your grandfather is feeling better. You said you just needed one word, well here it is. Yes."