Chapter 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Sunday afternoon, Margo’s office at The Gazette was a disastrous mess.

She and Nora had torn through every box and bag looking for the rings, all but dismantled her desk, and looked in every crevice of the room for the rings that they could possibly be in, all to no avail. Her desk was much cleaner now, and she’d gotten rid of a lot of unnecessary papers, but still no rings.

Margo plopped onto the floor next to a pile of decorations that she and Nora had taken out of their boxes, frustrated and anxious. She knew she could be disorganized and scatterbrained when it came to everything other than her job, but she’d never been this disorganized before. She lost track of unimportant things, or things like keys or sunglasses, or sometimes forgot appointments. But when something was important , like deadlines or getting the details right on a photo or especially something like her actual wedding rings, she’d always kept those things straight.

The wedding planning had been chaotic, but she hadn’t thought she’d been that stressed out or distracted. But she must have been, because she could still swear she remembered putting the rings in her nightstand at home, and yet they weren’t there. Or anywhere else in her bedroom, or her office, apparently.

Nora sat back from looking through the final box with a sigh, giving Margo an apologetic look. “They’re not there.”

“Don’t look at me like that,” Margo said, letting out a sigh of her own. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m sorry for dragging you out on a Sunday afternoon to look for my rings that I lost.”

“If I were your event planner, I’d invoice you for it,” Nora said cheekily. “But fortunately, I’m your sister. So of course I’m going to come help.”

She glanced over at Chessie, who had finished the peanut butter in her Kong, and was now looking around for something else to occupy herself with. Margo knew she’d been hesitant to bring the puppy anywhere near the wedding decorations, but Rhonda was already watching Madison, and Aiden was working over the weekend to get repairs done for a neighbor before the next snow came in.

Margo handed her the other chew toy that Nora had brought, and Nora gave it to Chessie. The puppy considered it for a moment, looked around the room once more for other options, and then settled down to once again start gnawing.

“How’s that going?” Margo asked, looking at the puppy, and Nora tipped her head to one side.

“Like having a baby times two,” she said, without much irony. “Okay, it’s not quite as involved as a baby. But I’m chasing both of them all of the time. Chessie can get into something just as quickly as Madison can, that’s for sure. I need eyes in the back of my head. The barking has gotten a little better since we started letting her sleep in the bedroom. But now she wants to get in our bed, and wake us up by licking our faces. Which we put up with because it’s better than her barking and waking up Madison.”

“Spencer was just talking the last time we had lunch about getting a puppy.” Margo smiled ruefully. “Maybe you should fill him in on the cons, since all he can see right now are pros. To be honest, I kind of like the idea too. He wants a husky, so I have a buddy for my hikes.”

“That’s a good idea,” Nora said, glancing over at Chessie once more. “You could use a hiking buddy to keep an eye out for you. It could always run for help if you get in trouble again.” She grinned at Margo, who rolled her eyes playfully.

“None of you are ever going to let that go, are you?”

“It happened twice . In the last two years. I wouldn’t if I were Spencer either.” Nora laughed. “You’re accident-prone. But honestly, it’s not the puppy that’s hard. It’s more the baby and puppy at the same time. But I’m determined to figure it out.”

“Of course you are.” Margo smiled fondly, looking over at Chessie as well. “I like that Spencer is so excited for our future. The wedding, getting a puppy together, all of it. And I can’t wait for it all too. I just need to find the rings,” she added, clicking her tongue against her teeth as she looked around the mess that their search had made of the office. “I can’t think of where else they could be.”

“Mentally retrace what you did the day that you picked them up,” Nora suggests. “Step-by-step. Maybe that will help.”

Margo frowned, trying to think.

“I was heading to work that morning, and Melanie was at the inn. She told me she’d heard the rings had been delivered, and she wanted to see them, so we both went to Sugar Maple to pick them up.” She chewed on her lip, trying to replay the morning in her head. “I was in a little bit of a hurry because I was running late for work, but nothing too frantic. I knew Sabrina wouldn’t care if I was late because of wedding stuff, and it’s not as if I’m behind on any projects. If anything, I’m ahead of schedule. So it wasn’t like I was all that stressed out?—”

“Focus,” Nora gently encouraged. “Step-by-step.”

“Right.” Margo rubbed her hands together, thinking. “Leon had the rings, and we spent some time looking at them. He said he had the other decorations too, so we ended up loading those all into the car so I could bring them with me. It was all super chaotic because Bethany was helping and she still had Chessie then, so Chessie was running around and all underfoot. I put the rings in my coat pocket. No, wait! Maybe I gave them to Melanie to hang onto. No, I’m sure I put them in my coat.” She shook her head. “But maybe they were the last thing I took out. I remember setting them on the counter.”

“But you’re sure you took them with you?” Nora asked, and Margo nodded insistently.

“Yes, of course. I’m sure. At some point, I put them in my coat pocket. And then I dropped Melanie off, grabbed another coffee while I was there, and headed to the office. Sabrina stopped me to ask about my running late, and all the bags I was bringing in, and we talked about wedding stuff. And then I talked to you about coming to pick up decorations, and you said you’d make it as soon as you could, since you were getting Chessie from Bethany.”

“And what about after that?” Nora prompted, and Margo blew out a long breath.

“I staged all the boxes and bags so they wouldn’t look like a mess in here. And I put the ring boxes in my purse. Or maybe I zipped them up in my camera bag.” She looked up at the ceiling, frustrated. “Wherever I put them, I swear I remember taking them home and putting them in my nightstand upstairs. But clearly I didn’t, because we tore through my room looking.” Margo’s shoulders slump. “I feel more confused than ever now.”

Nora frowned, and it was clear that she wasn’t sure what to say. They seemed to have come to a dead end, and Margo covered her hands with her face.

“I wanted this to be such a great surprise! And now I’ve ruined everything.” Her shoulders hunched forward, and Nora reached out, rubbing her sister’s back.

“You haven’t ruined everything,” Nora said comfortingly. “The rings are just a symbol. A really sweet, special one, but still just a symbol. Spencer knows how much you love him with or without specially engraved rings. He would know even without the fancy wedding, or the ceremony, or any of it. All of that is just a way to make memories, Margo. To mark a special day and celebrate with all the people who love you. But it doesn’t make Spencer know you love him any more or less than he does right now.”

Margo looked up, sniffling slightly, her eyes damp. “Do you really think so?”

“Absolutely,” Nora assured her. “It’s in all the ways you’ve shown him, over two whole years. You didn’t think you were going to stay in Evergreen Hollow, but you couldn’t help but spend time with him, even though you thought you shouldn’t let yourself fall for him. You found ways to make yourself more at home here, because you wanted to be happy enough to have a life here with him. You’re having a big wedding because you know he’s excited for it, even though I know you’d be just as happy getting married in the living room of the inn and then going out to dinner and calling it a day. All of those things matter, Margo. And those are just the serious reasons,” she added.

Margo frowned, but the worry was starting to leave her expression, and she could feel her tension easing. “What do you mean, the serious reasons?” she asked, laughing a little.

“I mean that there are smaller ones too.” Nora leaned back against the wall, smiling. “There’s the fact that you bought yourself a planner to try to get more organized, because you know Spencer is so busy, and you wanted to be able to help. Even though I also know that you never use it, because it’s sitting on the corner of your desk right now with the sticker from the store still on it.”

She grinned as she added, “And you’ve been trying like a maniac to get better at cooking and baking, because you think it’s more domestic. Caroline said you even tried to dust the other day, even though she also said that all that happened was that there were streaks of dust on the mantle instead. You’re not domestic or a homemaker, which is totally fine, and I don’t think Spencer really cares. He’s marrying you for you , not a checklist of a wife. But what matters is that you keep trying, because you want to be the best possible wife you can be for Spencer, and I know he sees that.”

“I didn’t even think about it like that,” Margo said honestly. “I just know I wanted to be a good partner for him. And I want him to be happy. I want him to always be as happy about us being together as he is right now.”

“Sometimes it might feel like things are rocky,” Nora confided. “Mom gave me that advice, before Aiden and I got married. There will be things that test you. Babies and unexpected house repairs and bills and schedules—and puppies,” she added with a laugh. “But as long as you work together as a team, that’s all that matters. Definitely more than rings or cooking or planners. And I know Spencer feels the same way.”

Margo smiled, feeling her worries ease. “I’m glad we had this ta?—”

She was cut off by a sudden thud , and the rustling sound of something hard and glassy spilling out all over the wooden floor. Chessie let out a series of high-pitched, excited yips, and Margo looked to see that, bored with her chew toy, the puppy had overturned a box of decorative marbles intended to go in the vases at the wedding.

They were currently everywhere, spreading out over the entire office, rolling under furniture and Margo’s desk and anywhere else that they could find a crack to slip through.

Margo let out a groan, and Nora laughed, pushing herself up from the floor to go and capture the rambunctious puppy. “What was that about wanting a dog?” she asked, but the question dissolved into more laughter as Chessie started to eagerly lick her face, squirming happily. It was clear that she didn’t have the slightest idea of the inconvenience she’d caused.

“You hold her,” Nora said, handing the wriggling puppy to Margo. “I’ll start gathering up the marbles, so she doesn’t try to eat any, and then we can trade off. And then,” she added, “we’ll think of where to look for your rings next.”

The confidence in her voice made Margo feel slightly more hopeful that they would, in fact, uncover the mystery of the missing rings before the wedding. And if not, she thought as she held onto Chessie, she felt reassured by what her sister had said.

Rings or no rings, Spencer loved her. Their wedding bands could be replaced, but that couldn’t.

And in the end, that was all that really mattered.