Chapter 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Caitlin moved her fingers dexterously back and forth as she stitched up the edge of Pearl’s butterfly costume for Kids’ Fest. She pressed her lips together in concentration, focusing completely on her task. She knew that the butterfly costume was important to her daughter, and she wanted it to look wonderful.

It was just one week until her wedding, but for the time being, she was putting all of her wedding-related tasks to the side. It felt refreshing to work on something else for a change—as excited as she was to marry Michael, all of the work of planning the wedding had felt overwhelming at times.

She knew how excited Pearl was for Kids’ Fest, and when she’d learned that her daughter’s presentation was going to be on butterflies, Caitlin had had the idea to sew Pearl a butterfly costume to present in. Caitlin liked to sew, and it wasn’t a difficult project, but after a couple hours of work, her fingers were starting to ache a little.

She leaned back and yawned for a moment, surveying her progress. She saw that she was almost done, and she smiled. She was looking forward to seeing the look on Pearl’s face when she got to try on her costume.

“Hey, sweetheart!”

She turned and saw Michael walking through the doorway behind her, grinning at her.

“Hey!” She tilted her face up and he kissed her. “How are you, sweetheart?”

“I’m good. What’s all this?” he asked, gesturing to the beautiful black and orange costume on Caitlin’s lap. The orange fabric shimmered in the sunlight pouring in through the window.

“A costume for Pearl,” Caitlin said. “I’m almost done sewing it, and then I’ve just got to shape the wire that’s inside it.”

“I’ll help you,” he said.

“Would you? I want to sew these little black sequins along the edges here. You want to start on some of those?”

“Absolutely. Hand me that black thread?”

For a few minutes, they worked in companionable silence, and then she caught him looking at her with a sweet smile on his face.

“What?” she prompted, laughing a little.

“This,” he said. “You. You’re such a good mom to be doing this. A lot of brides wouldn’t be able to focus on anything besides their wedding the week before.”

She cleared her throat, feeling touched by his words.

“I care about our wedding very much, and I’m so glad we decided to do a bigger wedding instead of a courthouse wedding, but at the end of the day, the thing that matters most to me is my family. In the long run, I care more about Pearl having this costume for her presentation than I do about all the details of our wedding being perfect. Because even if there are some small snafus on the day we get married, it won’t really matter, because at the end of the day I’ll be married to you. That’s enough. That’s all that really matters, so I don’t need to stress about the small stuff.”

He gazed at her, a grin cutting across his handsome face as adoration glinted in his eyes.

“This stuff,” she said, gesturing to the craft supplies lying around her, and to his hands as he stitched along the edge of the costume. “This is what I’m really looking forward to. Every day, for the rest of my life. Us having a life together, and all of the little moments that come with that.”

He swallowed, and there seemed to be something gleaming in his eyes.

“What?” she asked, tucking her hair behind her ear and suddenly feeling a little self-conscious, he was staring at her so hard.

“I just fell more in love with you,” he said, and then laughed breathlessly.

“Oh, sweetheart!” Her heart felt a rush of happiness. It made her love him even more, knowing that he valued her words so much. It meant that he was looking forward to those parts of their marriage as well. “I love you so much.”

“I can’t wait to marry you,” he said, squeezing her hand. “I can’t wait for all those little moments.”

He leaned forward and kissed her again, and she knew she couldn’t wait to marry him either.

Gwen walked down the hallway of Little Clams Elementary School, feeling a thrill of pride. Her muscles ached with tiredness, and there were speckles of colorful paint all up her arms, but her heart felt full.

It was the day before the big Kids’ Fest event at the school, and she and Isaiah had been there together all day, making finishing touches on all of the renovations to ensure that everything was perfect.

At the moment, she wasn’t sure where he was, but she was taking one last walk through the elementary school, looking at all of the rooms they’d renovated. It was partly to make sure there weren’t any tasks that they’d missed, but it was mainly because she wanted to take a look at all of their hard work and enjoy how good it looked. Each of the classrooms they’d worked on had been transformed from something functional into something spectacular.

She stepped inside one classroom that she was particularly proud of. That room they had painted with all kinds of colors—red, blue, yellow, green, orange, and purple. Each of the walls was painted with thick stripes of the various colors, and the plan was for teachers to be able to use the stripes as a teaching tool. Olivia had come up with all kinds of ideas for how to use the stripes for learning activities, such as organizing words into categories or arranging events onto a timeline. Gwen smiled at how beautiful the walls looked—the room was like a garden of colors. It didn’t feel like too much, at least not for a children’s classroom—the variety added a sense of energy and excitement to the room that she knew would make the kids eager to learn.

In addition to the colorful walls, that room had some of the new furniture that Isaiah had built, along with one of the new reading nooks. Isaiah had built small lofts in some of the classrooms—structures that were essentially indoor treehouses—and they’d filled them with pillows and crates of books. Those were one of her favorite new additions to the school, and she knew the kids would be absolutely thrilled about them.

She paused by the window, which offered her a fantastic view of the new playground that Isaiah had built. It looked fantastic—colorful and fun, with plenty of structures that would encourage the kids to get exercise while playing games with their friends.

She stood there looking at it for a while, thinking about the man she was starting to date and feeling a surge of admiration for him. When she finally turned around, she jumped a little. Isaiah was standing in the doorway to the classroom, smiling at her. She wasn’t sure how long he’d been there, but he had a look in his eyes like he’d been staring at something.

“What are you looking at?” she asked, smiling at him. “The room looks great, doesn’t it?”

“The room does look great,” he said, smiling and coming toward her. “But I was looking at you.”

“Oh,” she said, feeling herself flush a little. She didn’t know what to say in response.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said. “Not only intelligent, but beautiful. I’m so lucky I get to date you.”

“Beautiful, huh?” she asked, smiling up at him. “Not too inflexible and difficult to be around?”

He leaned forward and kissed her. “Not at all. I like even the most stubborn parts of you.”

She laughed, feeling butterflies of happiness flap around in her chest. As they stepped away from the kiss, she noticed a large brown paper bag in his left hand.

“What’s that?” she asked, realizing that an incredible savory smell was coming out of the bag.

“I went ahead and got us some dinner from The Crab,” he said, grinning at her. “I figured we’ve earned it, with how hard we’ve worked today.”

“That sounds incredible,” she said. “I’m starving.”

They laid a blanket down on the floor of the room and set their food out on it. They ate the food hungrily, and she felt that food hadn’t tasted that good to her in a long time.

“Thanks for that,” she said, when they finished eating. She let out a long, contented sigh. “I owe you one.”

“Are you kidding?” he said, lying down on the blanket and looking at the ceiling, grinning. “I owe you. You’ve done all this work. It’s incredible.”

As she glanced down at him, she suddenly got an idea. Outside, the sun was setting, and they’d turned the lights on in the classroom so that it wouldn’t be too dark. She got up and scampered over to the light switch, turning it off. Over their heads, a miniature galaxy of glow-in-the-dark stars glowed against a navy-painted ceiling.

“Oh, that’s nice,” he said, grinning at her as she came back and flopped down on the blanket beside him. “We really did a nice job with those stars.”

“We sure did,” she said, looking up and feeling a pleasant sense of peace wash over her. “It feels so good to accomplish something like this. It was fun, but there’s so much satisfaction in knowing that it’s all done.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, a thought struck her. She glanced over at Isaiah, suddenly feeling sad.

“What’s going to happen now?” she asked softly.

“What do you mean?” he asked, turning toward her with a smile that disappeared as soon as he saw her serious expression.

“I mean,” she said slowly, “now that you’re all done with the school, what happens with us? Aren’t you going to go back home?”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” he said, rolling onto his side so he could look into her eyes without turning his head. “And I’m thinking that I’d like to stay here in Blueberry Bay.”

“You would?” she asked, her heart beating faster.

“Not just because of our relationship,” he said. “I don’t want you to feel that kind of pressure. I really love this town, and I’ve got family here. But I would be lying if I told you that our relationship wasn’t a major part of why I want to stay. I really want to see where things go with us.”

She didn’t know what to say. Her heart was thumping in her chest, and she felt filled with a mixture of relief, peace, and excitement. The news that he was wanting to stay made her heart feel like it was doing cartwheels.

“Is that okay?” he asked softly, seeming to misinterpret her silence.

She beamed at him, making sure he could see on her face how truly excited she was.

“It’s more than okay. That makes me so happy, Isaiah. Really, truly happy. I want to see where our relationship goes too.”

For a moment, they smiled at each other, and then he moved his head toward hers. He kissed her, and a lightness like she’d never known before filled her heart.