Before he could finish, Lottie cut him off by raising a finger to his lips.“You already apologized,” she reminded him firmly.“I don’t need you to self-flagellate or continue to berate yourself.If you’re really sorry, don’t tell me, show me.”
Nate nodded, pursing his lips slightly in order to kiss her finger.Lottie looked shaken by the move and withdrew her hand.“I will.”It was a promise he intended to keep.He’d let her down so much in the past, and he hoped to never do it again.
Lottie nodded and pointed toward the empty intersection.“Then let’s get to it.”
Nate drove them further, finding a parking spot in front of Branch and Brew.The moment the Jeep was stopped, Lottie slipped on her coat, grabbed her huge tote bag, and hopped outside leaving Nate to scramble to catch up with her.Before it had always been her chasing him, and now it looked to be the other way around.It was a reversal of roles he didn’t mind as much as he thought he would, though he could have done with her slowing down just a bit.
“Wait up.”Nate called out to her, but Lottie was already slipping into the art studio where Autumn had set up her shop.
Unsurprisingly, when Nate opened the door, he saw Felix sitting on a stool next to his girlfriend, smiling as he sipped his coffee and watched Autumn work at her pottery wheel.Another woman stood at an easel and painted with watercolors while a man seemed to be sculpting something with his hands.Leaving them to their art, Nate turned his attention back to Lottie.She was speaking in hushed tones with Autumn and pulling out a large notebook from her bag before setting it down on a table near the pottery wheel.
“What are you doing here?”The question was perfectly reasonable, but Felix drawing his attention away from Lottie irked Nate.
He turned to Felix with a slight scowl.There had been a bit of friction between the two of them since he was the reason that Lottie no longer worked as a bartender at Branch and Brew.Felix had mentioned that her replacement had worked out well enough, but Nate knew he missed her friendship as much as her ability to mix drinks.“Lottie’s helping me with my project.”Felix’s eyes widened in shock, but before he could speak, Nate cut him off with a question of his own.“What’d she give to Autumn just now?”
Felix assessed Nate for a moment as he took another drink from his mug.“Lottie comes by every so often with more pictures from years ago that have Autumn or me in them that she’s been able to dig up.”He looked over at his girlfriend, a strong love for her written all over his face.“She’s gotten a few of her memories back, but not much.It doesn’t bother her when they don’t come, but she still likes to look at pictures from that time anyway and Lottie is nice enough to gather them up for her.”
Nate nodded.When Autumn had gotten into a bad accident and had amnesia, they’d all assumed it would be temporary.Luckily for Felix, her feelings for him returned even though her memories of the two of them as best friends had not.“That’s very thoughtful of her.”
Felix turned back to him, a warning in his eyes.“She’s a very thoughtful person who deserves better than she’s gotten.”
The admonishment was deserved, so Nate didn’t argue it and instead held up his hands in supplication.“I know that.”When Felix continued to bore his eyes into Nate’s, he reached over and squeezed his brother’s shoulder.“I mean it, Felix.I know what an amazing person she is and I’ll treat her as such.”
Before Felix could comment on the reliability of that statement, Lottie breezed back over to Nate with a smile on her face.“Ready?”She looked at him more openly than before, and if it took him following her around town all day to keep that look on her face, he would do it.
“For you, always.”Both Lottie and his brother seemed thrown by the statement, but Nate was too busy placing his hand on the small of her back and ushering her back out and into the cold to give it more thought.“Where to now?”
Lottie smiled and gestured toward the diner.“Now we visit Mr.Harvey and then we’ll go onto the next person on my list.”She moved to hike her heavy bag over her shoulder, but Nate grabbed the handles and took it from her.Lottie opened her mouth, probably to protest, but her face softened as she looked at him.“Thank you.”
Nate smiled as he held the tote that must have weighed almost as much as she did.“You’re welcome.”It was a little strange, the two of them interacting without him constantly putting up walls between them, but Nate liked it and hoped to keep it going for as long as he possibly could.
Lottie started walking, Nate hot on her heels when she looked over at him.“Why don’t you tell me about your project while we’re on the go?It will be more efficient that way, and I know how much you like that.”
Nate almost commented on how she’d never embraced efficiency in the past, but he bit off the remark.What had been was something he needed to let go of.They were stepping toward whatcould be, a hopefully much brighter future than he’d thought possible.“Okay, well do you remember my acceptance speech?”
Lottie smiled as she waved to a couple of passersby.Nate didn’t recognize the couple, but she had just treated them like she did everyone else, like a friend she hadn’t met yet.Before he could get caught up in how truly wonderful she was, Lottie started talking.“Remember it?I memorized it.Together we can create an Applewood that our children can be proud of.” She said the final line from his speech in a mimic of his low voice, causing him to chuckle even as he was touched by her memory of the speech he had been excited to give.“It was a good speech.”
“Thanks.”Nate felt his cheeks warm with a blush, hoping that Lottie would attribute it to the cold.“Well, I’ve been trying to get the businesses downtown to approve construction on the town square so that we can have an actual gathering place, somewhere to hold festivals and ceremonies where we don’t have to worry about people tripping over broken cobblestones, but no one wants to say yes.It’s been so strange to me because I have the funding the townspeople donated, just not the approval.”
“That is weird.”Lottie looked away, and Nate wondered if she knew more than she was letting on.It was likely, given how tapped into the community she was, but before he could ask about it, they’d arrived at the diner.“Let’s talk to Mr.Harvey.Maybe we can get some insight as to why people aren’t on board.”
Nate nodded, following her into the diner.The place looked the same as it had when he’d first gone there for breakfast as a child.His family would take up the largest red vinyl booth and dine on enough pancakes to put the place out of business, but luckily the eatery had remained a town staple despite his and his brothers’ large appetites.The morning rush seemed to have passed, so when Lottie walked up to the long, chrome counter, there were plenty of seats for her to choose from.
“Good morning, John.How are you today?”Lottie asked the older man, smiling brightly.
The owner of the diner smiled back at her.“I’m well, doing even better now that my favorite customer has come back.”He reached behind his ear for a pencil and took out an order pad.“Did you want your usual this morning?”
Lottie shook her head as she rifled through her bag.“I’m on the go with the mayor this morning, but I’ll be sure to stop by again this week.”Pulling out a small box, Lottie slid it across the counter toward the man.“I just stopped by because I was able to find that replacement part for your vintage milkshake machine.I know you were loath to get rid of such a great piece of equipment.”
Mr.Harvey looked at her like she was a wizard, an expression Nate was sure was mirrored on his own face.“How on Earth did you find this?”He opened the box and took out a silver contraption Nate had never seen before, holding it as reverently as one would a sentimental keepsake.“I looked all over the Internet and found nothing.”
Lottie shrugged.“I have my ways.”Turning to Nate, she nodded at the seat next to her.“In addition to bringing that by, we were actually hoping to ask you a couple of questions.”
Nate slid onto the vinyl seat with a squeak, the noise causing Mr.Harvey to seem to notice his presence for the first time even though he’d been standing directly next to Lottie since their arrival.He couldn’t blame the man for ignoring him.It was difficult to notice anything else when you had Lottie’s attention directed at you.
“Oh, hello Nate.”Harvey’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes when he looked at Nate, something that seemed odd given his support when Nate ran for mayor, his campaign posters taking up considerable space in the windows.The man turned back to Lottie, his smile much more genuine.“I’ll answer whatever I can.”
Lottie beamed at him and leaned closer to Nate, slipping her arm through his.He was so stunned and pleased at the move that he almost missed her talking again.“We were wondering if you could tell us a little more about your reluctance as far as creating a new town square is concerned.Is it the impact on your business?Because I am sure that the mayor can ensure that parking and walkways that lead to the shops and eateries would be minimally impacted.”
