“What?” he asked.
“Oh nothing,” she told him. “You work outside all day. You deserve a good snack.”
“Yeah, I do,” he said, smiling at her with his mouth full in the way that used to make her wallop him over the head when she was younger.
“Close your mouth, Tripp,” she scolded him.
He just laughed at her and drank the rest of the milk out of the bowl.
She wondered suddenly if he would be doing this in his own kitchen one day. Each Lawrence kid had a house on the property that their parents were holding for them. She and Tripp were the last two left.
What if he’s out before I am?
As much as he loved to tease her, she adored her older brother. And he made it feel normal to live with her parents.
“You okay, champ?” Tripp asked her, placing down his bowl and wiping his milk mustache with the back of his hand.
“I’m fine, big brother,” she said. “I love you, that’s all.”
“Love you too,” he told her. “Get some sleep. And keep your eyes open, baby sis. I can’t have yougetting hurt.”
“I will,” she promised him, touched at the note of husky sincerity in his voice.
He nodded to her, and she put her apple core in the compost bin before heading upstairs.
She stepped into her room, feeling more energetic than she usually did at night. It was probably just the wild day she’d had.
She changed into her warmest pajamas and headed into the bathroom to tidy up.
Slipping the ring off her finger to wash her hands and face, she noticed something on the inside of the setting.
She held it up to the light and drew in a breath.
Once upon a time & happily ever after…
She had told her students that every great fairy tale had aonce upon a timeand ahappily ever after.
But seeing it engraved inside the engagement ring Ash had put on her finger… it felt like magic.
It’s just something Maya shared with him,she reminded herself.It’s not fate or magic.
But she couldn’t stop the fluttering of her heart, or the way the words seemed to whisper in her ear as she lay down to sleep.
17
ASH
Ash stood at the corner of Maple Street and Bear Avenue the next morning, with Allie by his side and Maya between them. All three of them looked out over the park, taking in the incredible sight.
The picturesque square that had been a silent moonlit blue last night was now alive with the sounds and activities of townsfolk, all bundled up in their colorful coats and scarves—more people than he would have thought even lived in Sugarville Grove.
He could hardly believe this was the same quiet park where he’d proposed.
Pretend proposed.
“Everyone’s here,” Maya murmured, her eyes scanning the crowd. “Everyone.”
Ash wondered if maybe that was a little bit scary for her.
