Garrett scolded himself inwardly. This whole mess felt a lot more understandable now that he knew where she had been coming from. He wouldn’t necessarily say that she’d handled itexceptionally, but maybe he hadn’t done his part either. Maybe he could stand to be a little more effusive with her.
“Well, let me say it to you clearly, then,” he said, spreading his arms wide. “Eleanor Ridley, I love you!”
As far as romantic declarations went, it wasn’t bad. Garrett complimented himself that much, at least. He did have to admit, however, that the overall effect wassomewhatundercut when the ladder wobbled beneath him and he fell right off.
Eleanor shrieked, but some spirit of balance was on his side that day, for Garrett landed as nimbly on his feet as he had ever managed. This put him right in front of Eleanor, right in front of the woman heloved, who had her hands pressed to her mouth in shock and horror. As soon as she saw that he was okay though, she threw her arms around his neck.
“Don’t scare me like that!” she cried, peppering his cheeks with kisses.
“But Eleanor,” he said, giddy with the relief of admitting his feelings at long last, not to mention the disappeared stress of their spatfinallybeing over, “does that mean that you don’t want me tofall for you?”
She groaned at his dumb joke, pressing her hand and then her forehead to her chest. She rested like that for a moment, and Garrett wondered if she could hear the racing of his heart against her palm.
It raced even harder when she looked up and smiled at him. “You know I love you too, right?”
“Thinking about getting married did kind of imply it, but it’s still very nice to hear anyway.” He couldn’t resist teasing her. It was impossible when he was feeling the happiest he’d been in the whole of his life.
She slapped a hand over her face with a groan.
“Oh, no, we’re not ready to joke about it yet,” she said. “It’s so embarrassing. I was acting so crazy.”
“Honey,” he said consolingly, “the last time I had women troubles, I didn’t date for a decade. You freaked out for a couple of days. You’re still way, way in the lead, there.”
“Well, when you put it that way…”
“But,” he said, still in that same light, happy tone, “if you wanted to make it up to me…”
She scowled playfully. “Oh yeah?”
He tapped his cheek. “I wouldn’t object to another kiss.”
She looked as joyous as he felt. “I can do you one better,” she said.
And then they sealed their declaration of love with a kiss.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Winnie checked the written list in her hand against the mental checklist in her head, jotting three more items down on the paper. There really was an awful lot of stuff she needed for this historical society event. Then, muttering to herself as she clicked off each item, she made certain that everything was present and accounted for.
It wasn’t easy. Her front hallway looked like one of those overstuffed storage units from that television show where they busted open units that had been abandoned by their owners. The historian in Winnie loved that show. She loved seeing that kind of wild things people shoved away and then avoided, what things they decided were important enough to keep for a while but not forever.
She found, however, that she liked it a whole lot more on television than she did in her own home. Fortunately, there was only an hour left before Cadence, Tyler, Diana, and Anthony came over to help her transport everything to the town square, where they would set up for the event.
“This idea felt a lot more fun when I didn’t have to think about the stuff,” she told a stack of folded-up tables. Evendisassembled, they made it almost impossible to move back and forth across her house.
Despite her comment, not to mention the fact that she’d started talking to inanimate objects, Winnie was excited for the carnival. Everyone in her department had shown enthusiasm for the idea, and most of them had offered suggestions. Historianslovedtalking about their period of interest, after all.
Even her friends had gotten excited after the conversation at book club. It was another point for Shane’s advice. Opening up with her friends had given them reason to care about both herandher project.
And thank goodness. Winnie’s little car would have needed about forty-seven trips to and from the town square to carry everything. Thank goodness Tyler Meadows, Cadence’s husband with whom she’d separated and reconciled earlier in the year, worked as an electrician and had a truck he was willing to donate to the cause.
Also, he’d been willing to fix the cornhole boards. Thank double goodness. They’d been haunting Winnie. They seemed so simple to fix and yet, the solution had remained elusive.
Winnie had just sat down after doing onevery lastcheck of her checklist when she was startled by a knock at her door. She glanced at her watch, surprised. Her friends-slash-assistants weren’t due for a little while longer.
And indeed, they weren’t at her door. Instead, it was Shane.
“You’re wearing the sweater!” he exclaimed in lieu of greeting.
