Chapter 20

"Oh, I'm nervous," Marsha said as she stood in front of her bathroom mirror, pinning her hair back. Her heart was fluttering with butterflies—butterflies that had been her constant companions ever since Olivia had convinced her to agree to enter the Summer Smash costume contest with Willis again.

"Don't be nervous!" Olivia leaned in the doorway of the bathroom, grinning at her aunt. "It's going to be a lot of fun. Trust me."

"Yes, I trusted you to take me out to a nice dinner with just the two of us, and it ended up being one of the most nerve-wracking evenings of my life," Marsha replied, wrinkling her nose at her niece.

Olivia beamed, unrepentant. "And look what's come of it! I'm so excited for you, Aunt Marsha. I didn't get to talk to Willis really, but he seems like a very nice guy."

"He is." The butterflies in Marsha's stomach swirled again. "But he'd said he didn't want us to see each other again. So I think he's only agreed to this because Blueberry Bay asked everyone who's won in the past to participate again."

Olivia smiled, and something about the glint in her eyes looked extra mischievous. "I mean, there's a good chance he's scared of getting hurt again. Maybe getting to spend time with you for this contest will help him see that he has nothing to be afraid of."

Marsha's heart stirred. She hated the idea of Willis being afraid of being hurt by her, or by anyone.

"We're just entering a contest, Olivia," she said gently. "There's nothing romantic about it."

Olivia just smiled at her aunt, still leaning in the doorway. Marsha continued to play with her hair. It had been a long time since she'd spent such a long time on it—ordinarily she just pinned it back easily without much thought. Now she was paying attention to every stray wisp, and wanting to make sure that she had the same amount of hair pulled back on both sides.

"You look beautiful," Olivia assured her. "That's a beautiful dress! Where did you get it?"

Marsha glanced down at the royal blue dress she was wearing. It was made of a soft, comfortable fabric, and had a wide neckline and three-quarter-length sleeves. "I—I don't remember," she admitted. "I've had it for years, but I haven't worn it very often."

"Well, it looks great on you. Stop fixing your hair!" Olivia stepped up to her aunt and kissed her cheek. "You look wonderful."

"Okay." She smiled feebly. "What time is it?"

"Time to go! You'd better leave now if you want to be there early." She winked, teasing her aunt about her tendency to always be more than punctual.

Marsha laughed, feeling her nerves swirl again, like a carousel on overdrive. "Okay. See you tonight?"

"See you tonight!"

Marsha picked up her purse, hugged her niece, and left her home through the back door. As she walked along the garden path to her car, she could feel her heart beating faster.

I'm still worried, she thought. What if he doesn't really want to do this? I have a feeling Olivia and Hannah are partially behind this new idea for the costume contest. I think we've been tricked into this just like we got tricked into the dinner cruise.

She smiled for a moment at the memory. She didn't regret it, and she was grateful to the girls for having arranged it. It had been painful to see Willis and then immediately have to part with him again, but she was glad she'd had the chance to apologize to him, and to see him again after all those years.

When Olivia had approached her about the new costume contest guidelines, she had refused initially. She'd insisted that Willis didn't want to see her again, and that was that. But then Olivia had burst into the kitchen one afternoon, grinning and bearing the news that Willis had said he would participate in the costume contest with Marsha as long as she was willing to do it.

I've never found it easy to deny Olivia anything, she thought, smiling as she climbed into her car—a mint green Volkswagen Beetle. Besides, I have always wondered what it would be like to have a second chance with Willis. This contest is the perfect excuse to find out what could happen.

She drove along the sleepy roads of Whale Harbor until she was close to Blueberry Bay. Then she turned down a side street, making her way to a small white shop located along the waterfront. She parked her car in the parking lot, glancing around nervously for Willis.

Then she saw him, climbing out of a dark blue Ford truck. She smiled for a moment, remembering his old red truck he'd had when they were dating years ago, and all the good times that they'd had in it.

He noticed her as she was walking across the parking lot toward him. He nodded at her, and she noticed that he was holding himself stiffly, as if he was uncomfortable. She smiled at him warmly, hoping to help him feel more at ease.

"Good afternoon, Marsha." He held out his hand for a handshake, and she took it. His hand felt warm and strong, and as she smiled up at him, he smiled back with a kind light in his eyes. "It's good to see you."

"It's good to see you too. Thanks for meeting me here."

He nodded and they started to walk toward the shop together. A sign hanging beside the bright blue door read, "Pattie's Place."

"Have you ever been here before?" she asked him as he held the door open for her.

He just smiled at her. It was an amused, almost playful smile—the kind he'd given her a lot when they were young together. It seemed to say, "What makes you think I would ever go to a fabric store, Marsha?"

She chuckled. Once inside, they were greeted by a woman with short gray hair wearing red dangling earrings.

"Hi!" Pattie called. "Good to see you, Marsha. Hi, Willis."

Marsha's smile became slightly forced when she realized that Pattie knew both of them. She often went to Pattie's store for fabric and other crafting supplies, but it was the closest to Blueberry Bay that she ever went—besides her recent adventure on board the cruise ship.

"Hi, Pattie. Willis and I are entering the Summer Smash costume contest together. I have most of what we need already, but we're looking for some more fabric, and maybe some novelty buttons? We have a few Blueberry Bay stories in mind, but we're not sure which one we want to pick yet."

"I've got all that!" Pattie smiled warmly. "I'm so excited you'll be entering the costume contest together again! I remember when you both won the Summer Smash contest as the Beatles. Those costumes were fantastic."

"Oh?" Marsha felt as though she was flushing a little. She didn't remember Pattie living in Blueberry Bay then—but Pattie was about ten years older than she was, so they wouldn't have moved in the same social circles. And it had been a long time ago. "That's sweet of you."

Willis just nodded and made a grunting sound.

"I'll show you where the novelty buttons are first," Pattie said, beginning to escort them down one of the side aisles of the crafting store. "I know you know your way around the fabric section, Marsha."

"Thanks, Pattie. The store looks great, as usual!"

"Thank you." Pattie grinned. "We've got some wonderful garden statues, just in. Feel free to check those out before you leave!"

They thanked Pattie again and she left them in front of a long rack of buttons.

"Wow," Willis said, staring at a bright green pair. "Frogs. I never would have thought."

She smiled at him. "Yeah, Pattie has some good things here."

He glanced at the proprietor, who was watching them from the check-out counter at the front of the store. "You know," he said, joking dryly, "this could be problematic for us. People are likely going to start speculating about us if they see us going around town together."

"Especially since they know we dated in the past," she agreed, making a face. "Now that The Outlet has been publishing photographs of past winners in every issue, a lot of people have seen that photograph of us winning the costume contest together."

He nodded, smiling wryly at her. "And a lot of people remember when we were dating, like Pattie."

"And people are going to talk." She chuckled, since she didn't feel particularly bothered by the idea, and he didn't seem to be either. "Oh well. We never minded the speculation when we were young." She felt nostalgic as she remembered knowing that people were gossiping about her and Willis and not caring in the slightest. "We thought it didn't matter what anyone thought."

"Everyone is foolish when they're young," Willis said, his expression a bit guarded.

"What do you mean?" she asked softly, feeling suddenly hurt. "I've never thought that loving you was foolish. Certainly not."

He shook his head quickly. "I didn't mean that." His voice was soft, and he wasn't looking directly at her. "I just mean that… well, we weren't living in reality back then."

She wasn't sure what he meant by that, but she didn't press him. For a few moments, they stood quietly side by side.

"What do you think our reality is?" she asked him.

His lips parted, but then he didn't speak. Either he didn't want to give her any kind of a harsh answer, or he didn't know the answer to her question. Judging by the way his eyes had widened a little, she guessed that the reason for his hesitation was that he hadn't really thought about it before.

"I know it's a hard question," she said gently, reaching out and touching his arm. "And I know that those young women in our lives have a very different idea of our reality than you do, which has led to all this—"

"Yeah?" Willis smiled at her, almost teasing, his eyes twinkling. "What have they said?"

"Well…" She felt herself blushing a little. "Olivia told me she believes that it's worth trying. She said that we should ‘give our fairy tale ending a chance.'"

Willis swallowed, his eyes on her face. "Fairy tale ending?" he said softly.

"That's what she said," she admitted, laughing nervously a little. The words had sounded so cheesy spoken aloud. Almost silly. Maybe that was what Willis was getting at—he thought that the idea of them trying again was silly, something that was bound to not work out.

"Hannah said something similar," he admitted. "And I understand where they're coming from." He cleared his throat. "It's a nice thought, but not practical. They're young. They're still seeing a lot of things through rose-colored glasses."

She didn't know what to say. She felt sad that he was so dismissive of the idea of them getting back together, and a little hurt as well. He looked a little stiff, and he stared at the rows of buttons in front of them, his jaw tense. She swallowed, clasping her hands together, wondering how she could direct their conversation away from such an awkward subject and back to the task at hand.

"I think before we can do anything," Willis began, and for a moment her heart leapt up, thinking he was talking about potentially resuming their relationship, "we need to know what cherished town memory we want to portray."

"Yes, you're absolutely right." She smiled even though her heart was sinking a little bit. "We should decide that now. Do you have a favorite?"

He shrugged. "I've never been all that into history. I like to live in the present."

She smiled, thinking that his attitude toward history could do with some improvement. "Some of the stories must have jumped out at you, though. I know some of them really spoke to me."

"Well, I did like the story of how the statue of Joseph Braxton, the founder of Blueberry Bay, was damaged in a storm and the whole town came together to repair the landmark."

"That was my favorite as well!" She beamed at him. "After a particularly terrible summer storm, the sea rose up, causing the statue to fall and break into several pieces. The town banded together and worked as a team to repair the statue and return it to the pedestal it had been on."

He smiled at her, perhaps charmed by how eagerly she was describing the event. "But we can't make costumes about that event, can we? The main characters in that story are the statue and the sea."

Marsha sucked in a breath as a sudden idea struck her.

"We can be the statue and the sea!" She clasped her hands and stared straight ahead as ideas began to take root in her mind. "I can create a beautiful dress for myself, out of the colors of the sea, easing from the stormy hues of a treacherous storm to the calm colors of after the storm has passed."

He nodded. "That sounds lovely."

She smiled, happy with his praise. "And your costume could be of the statue, but in the various stages of it being rebuilt. The broken statue and the replacement statue were both made out of wood, so your outfit could be the colors of rough unfinished wood transforming into a fully painted final product."

He nodded. "Yes, absolutely. I think this is a wonderful idea, Marsha."

"Thank you! And we can ask people around town what rebuilding means to them and write their answers across the costumes."

"That sounds very artistic." He grinned at her, and she grinned back. "Let's go pick out the fabrics first."

"Wait, hold on a moment. I'll need buttons for your costume—you'll need a seventeen-hundreds outfit as the base of your costume, because that's what the statue looked like."

"How about the frog buttons? As cufflinks?"

She laughed, enjoying how they seemed to be falling into the easy camaraderie they'd had when they were dating.

I don't want to get my hopes up, she thought, but maybe he'll change his mind about everything. To me, it feels like we could pick up where we left off. Spending time with him feels so nice.

"Hmm, gold buttons," he said, noticing her choice. "Not as good as frogs, but fancy."

She laughed. "Gold for one side, and… yes. Here. Wooden ones for the other side."

"Brilliant." He winked at her.

They left the button section and started toward where the fabrics were. As they walked, she glanced at him a few times and was happy to see that he was smiling.