“You have to eat it, Mama,” Dove said, her eyes wide. “It was a present for you.”
“Fine,” Ella said. “I’ll eat it.”
She pulled it out, and when she caught a whiff of the delicious vanilla flavor, her mouth began watering.
“Take off the wrapper, Mama,” Dove whispered to her, nodding encouragingly like a stage manager reminding an actor of his cue.
“Should I eat it in one bite?” Ella asked, winking at Dove.
“Yes,” Dove said. “Yes, yes, yes.”
Ella quickly removed the wrapping, pulled off the bottom of the cupcake and set it over the frosting heart.
“I don’t think I can do this,” Ella said to herself.
“You can do it, Ella,” Dalton said immediately. His voice was playful, but his eyes were serious. “Rise above our expectations. Show this cupcake who’s boss.”
Who is this man, and where is the serious soldier I’ve been harvesting sweet potatoes with all week?
Clearly, Dove brought out a special side of Dalton that Ella couldn’t access on her own.
Dove was leaning forward now, her eyes fixed on Ella’s cupcake like she might believe in unicorns and fairies again if her mother actually ate a whole cupcake in one bite.
Ella glanced around, but miraculously no one was watching them. The ukulele band had just kicked offtheir weekly performance with John Lennon’s “Imagine” over at the music tent, and everyone was distracted.
Taking a deep breath, Ella said a silent prayer that she wouldn’t choke, and then shoved as much of the cupcake in her mouth as she could before she changed her mind.
It wasn’t the whole thing, but it wasa lot.
Crumbs rained down her jacket as Dove shrieked with glee and Dalton applauded and tipped an imaginary hat in congratulations.
The cupcake was actually delicious, flavored with a delicate vanilla and frosting so sweet it practically made Ella’s toes curl.
“Good job, Mama,” Dove crowed.
“Last bites together,” Dalton announced, bringing his remaining portion to his lips.
By the time Dove got hers to her mouth, Ella had miraculously swallowed her big bite down, so she was just in time to finish with Dalton and Dove.
As the three of them looked at each other, mouths full of sweetness, humming in appreciation over final bites, Ella felt a sense of belonging so strong it made her chest ache.
7
ELLA
Ella kept herself as busy as she could over the next few weeks. But she still couldn’t help noticing Dalton.
She noticed his special attention to her dad, asking his advice every night on different aspects of the harvest.
She noticed the way he tried to shield her mother from manual labor of any kind, throwing himself into every task as if he wished he could multiply himself do it all and just send Ella and her mother back to the house to rest.
She noticed the way he spent extra time with Dove, making up funny stories for her and pretending he was too full for dessert whenever they had her favorite chocolate ice cream, so she could have his scoop.
And of course, Ella couldn’t help noticing the way he treated her.
The day they had shared in town at that first farmers market had clearly meant something to him. He’d asked her to walk around with him each Saturday since. Themoment the line at their booth was gone, she knew to expect the question.
And as much as she’d also enjoyed that day, Ella just couldn’t bring herself to say yes to another.
