“Was this place here when we were little?” Sophie asked Cadence. “I think I’d remember a restaurant called Moosecakes that makes moose-shaped pancakes, but I don’t.”
“One of the oldest restaurants in town, actually,” Ford told them. They’d snagged the rounded corner booth, and it gave him the excuse he needed to sit close to Cadence. He put his arm around her shoulders, and she let him. The scent of lilac wrapped him in a cloud of bliss.
The two sisters seemed . . . smitten. Gone was the dreariness of last night, and in its place was an almost bubbly happiness. He tried not to stare, but he was determined to unravel the source. It could mean they were simply happy to be reunited, as Cadence had mentioned more than once how long it had been since they’d gotten together. Or it could mean they decided to keep the lodge.
“Are you guys going back to the festival today?” Rilee asked. She’d switched from coffee to Dr. Pepper. Ford had tried to break her of the habit of having soda with breakfast, but soon she’d have no one telling her not to anyway. He would let her have almost anything she wanted until she got on that plane in a few weeks.
“Later, yes.” Sophie ran a hand over the back of Caroline’s head, smoothing her frizzy hair into a ponytail. The girl continued to quietly color her moose picture with a blue crayon. “I think we’re both due for some fun.”
“You, too?” Rilee looked at Cadence. “Or do you have to fly back?”
Rilee ignored Ford’s narrowed eyes. This wasnotthe time for this discussion. He needed to talk to her first. Whatever plans she might have, they could be altered. He had to believe there was still enough time.
“Yeah, we’ll all be downtown for a while today.”
“Cool.” Rilee took a long sip of her soda. “Are you the one who lives in Hawaii?” she asked Sophie next.
“I did for the last five years.”
“Tell me everything!” Rilee launched into dozens of questions about life in Hawaii, a glow in her eyes. She wanted to see the world and had always been that way, something she must’ve gotten from their mother. Ford was content to live out his whole life in little Sunset Ridge, Alaska. Just like their dad.
As Rilee chatted up Sophie, Ford leaned toward Cadence and said against her ear, “I need to talk to you after we eat.”
“Can it wait? We have to call Tessa before she leaves.”
A sinking feeling weighted in his stomach. It didn’t matter why they were planning to call her. He couldn’t let any decisions be made without her knowing the whole truth, no matter any warnings Mr. Jenkins or Patty had ever given him. “I’ll make it quick.” He hated that the conversation that could alter the course of both of their lives would have to be so rushed. It certainly wasn’t the way he’d planned to tell her that he loved her.
She gave him that warm smile that ignited a fire in his heart. “Okay.”
Once the moose-shaped pancakes arrived, no one could talk over Caroline’s excitement. The little girl was so enthusiastic about the three pancakes that formed a head and the antlers of a moose that she could hardly bring herself to eat them.
“It has eyes!” she squealed.
“Egg whites and blueberries,” Sophie explained.
“And a nose!”
“Tiny strips of bacon,” Cadence added.
Caroline insisted, “Mom, I can’t eat him!”
“It’s a pancake, honey. You like pancakes.”
Cadence and Ford shared an amused glance that morphed into something more. At first he couldn’t put his finger on it, but the gravity of it all began to sink in. He imagined the two of them bringing their own daughter to try her first moose pancakes. If he didn’t mistake the gleam in her eyes, a similar thought had crossed her mind, too.
The fear of losing her twisted Ford’s stomach in knots. Is that why Patty didn’t want him to tell her the truth? It didn’t matter, though. He knew in his heart that being honest was the only option, no matter what it might cost him.
Ford picked up the tab, despite objections from everyone at the table but Rilee. “It was my treat.” He slid out of the booth and waited for Cadence, taking her hand as they walked to the door. “Would you guys mind giving us a quick minute?” he asked, and pointed. “There’s a cool lookout point right across the street.”
“We don’t have much time, Cadence,” Sophie said to her sister.
“I only need two minutes,” Ford promised them both, though the truth was he needed hours he couldn’t have.
He waited until the rest had crossed the street safely, then led Cadence to a nearby bench. He held both her hands in his own. So many important things to say, and no time at all to confess them. Fate was playing a cruel joke on him today.
“What is it, Ford?” Cadence asked after a glance over her shoulder across the road.
“I have two very important things I need to tell you.” He swallowed hard, trying to figure out which was best to start with. It seemed almost cruel to tell her he loved her, then follow it up with a gut-punch of a confession. But if he started with the worst of it, she might run off before he could tell her how he felt.
