Chapter 15

fifteen

LUKE

“What do you mean , it’s not happening?”

She looks like a mad pixie with the way her blonde hair is swept onto the top of her head, her fists clenched at her sides. And darn it, if old feelings don’t come slamming back into me like a ton of bricks.

Ella Taylor is all grown up.

The last time I saw her, she was beautiful. Now she takes my breath away.

When I came across her in her old driveway, I just assumed she was a city-dweller that got lost driving around the outskirts of town. It happens. But then she’d stepped out of her SUV at my house, all legs and impractical shoes.

It’s a long way from ripped jeans and Converses or cowboy boots.

“Bad choice of words. I mean, you need to call up Holly and tell her we can’t accommodate her and she needs to pick another place. Or time of year. Just not in the middle of everything happening here.”

Ella straightens and smooths the sundress she’s wearing. For once I wish Enchanted Hollow brought on fall sooner. She’d have to swap the dress for pants and a thick sweater. It’s hard to think with her bare shoulders shining in the sun.

“You want me to tell my bride that the place that welcomed her in a time of need can’t figure out how to celebrate the most important day of her life?”

I grimace. “Ella, you’re putting words in my mouth.”

“I’m just repeating back what I’m hearing you say, so you know how ridiculous you sound.”

“Holly is always welcome here. She knows that.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Just not for her wedding?”

I yank off my hat and drag my fingers through my hair. Weddings make me itchy for several reasons—mainly because mine was a failure I should’ve seen coming a mile away. Feeling itchy leads to getting snappy.

At least I can recognize it and try to rein it in.

Living in a place where happily-ever-afters are part of the status quo is almost unbearable, especially when mine ended up a happily never after.

And the woman who haunts my thoughts more often than I’d like to admit is standing in front of me.

“You still believe in this town’s hocus pocus?”

“It’s not hocus pocus.” She wrinkles her nose, and I try to ignore how cute she looks when I’m agitating her. “Love exists whether or not you believe in magic.”

“Bah humbug.”

Ella fights a grin. “Wrong season. But maybe you need to be visited by some ghosts to knock some sense into you.”

This woman is impossible.

“You always were one of those people, weren’t you?”

“What kind?” she asks.

“Soulmate chasers. People that believe this festival is the answer to their lacking love life. That this town can grant people their fairytale ending.”

Just saying the words out loud makes me want to grit my teeth. I feel like I’m being beaten with this town’s feelings about love from all angles today, like there’s a mad fairy smacking me around with her wand.

Even now, I don’t have a beef with love itself. My parents deeply love each other, and so did Ella’s. I’ve seen what love looks like when two people embrace the highs with the lows, the good with the bad.

I bought into the idea of all of it: magic, true love, soulmates.

And had my heart broken for the trouble.

I never expected to stop hearing from El after we met at the dance. I wrote letters that went as unanswered as my questions.

I’d felt something for Ella that I still, to this day, can’t explain. I swear she did, too. We never got the chance to explore that, either.

Love has done nothing but lead me to dead ends.

Wind whips around us, whirling leaves up into a circle before tossing them back onto the ground. It’s like nature painting a picture of the current tension between us: the pushing of two similar magnetic poles shoving against each other in protest.

She narrows her eyes at me before straightening her shoulders. “Luke Cantankerous Jackson.”

“Oh, we’ve resorted to name calling now?”

“Well, you’re being particularly stubborn today. Besides, I can’t call you by your full name. I don’t know your middle name. You could at least give me the first letter.”

“You could have paid better attention growing up.”

A sign escapes her as she tucks a flyaway stand of hair behind her ear. “I paid plenty of attention. There’s just quite a few of you around here. Back to the topic at hand; we got married here once. I think we could pull off another wedding just fine.”

I’m not sure what I was expecting for her to say next, but it wasn’t that. And it does weird things to my insides.

“You were five. The bouquet came from Mom’s garden and we used one of Gram’s tablecloths for your veil. She wasn’t very happy about the grass stains. Besides, if I remember things right, you turned around and married Dean about thirty minutes later.”

She shrugs, a smile playing around her lips. “I can’t help it if he was more eager to marry me than you were.”

“He just wanted an excuse to kiss you.”

The thought is fleeting, but it’s enough to make me grumpy again. Dean never really went through a ‘girls are gross’ phase. He’s just living his best life.

Not for the first time, I wonder if I’m unhappy and alone because I’m too careful. I thought too hard about what kissing Ella would mean back then, and the chance slipped away. El kissed me, and then disappeared.

I made a series of bad decisions because I didn’t just act on how I felt. Or when I finally did act, it was too late.

Holly and Cade aren’t doing that. They’re jumping in with both feet.

“You know Holly,” Ella replies, breaking into my thoughts. “Do you really think she wants a complicated wedding?”

I shake my head. “She’s surprisingly uncomplicated.”

“Then what do you have against this event?”

There’s a long list.

“Not enough time. We’ve been hosting Autumn Enchantment for years, and it’s a well-oiled machine at this point. Plus, the bicentennial is this year. Why does it have to be now? ”

Not to mention the really unflattering pumpkins in the patch that I still need to figure out.

She uncrosses her arms and gestures around at the farm. “Why not now? I’m on your side, Luke. I’m here to help, not to hinder.”

“Sure doesn’t feel like it.”

I don’t miss her slight wince against my words, and I wish I could take them back.

Maybe I am cantankerous. Honestly, I just feel overwhelmed.

“I’m here to give Holly and Cade the next chapter in their love story, that’s all.”

“Love story, sure.” The snort that escapes me is downright rude, but I’m hot and done with this conversation.

I’m well aware of how Holly and Cade got here.

Our farm’s orange tabby weaves in and out of her legs, letting out a loud mewl for attention. He spies new meat and he’ll do anything for attention.

“What a sweetheart,” she croons, bending down to scratch him between his ears.

I can hear the purring from here.

“Traitor,” I grumble, shoving a finger in his direction. “I’ll remember this.”

In response, the jerk flops onto his back for belly rubs.

“You’re a sweet boy,” she coos. “What’s his name?”

“Pumpkin.”

Her eyes raise to mine, an eyebrow arched in surprise. “Seriously?”

“Boy scout honor.”

“How original.” Her smile broadens as Pumpkin angles his head under her hand, his eyes squeezed shut in bliss.

Memories of finding him hiding behind an oversized pumpkin with Lucy eases some of the tension in my response. “My daughter named him.”

“Lucy? Gaby has told me all about her.”

Once again, she’s taking the wind out of my sails. I don’t know what to say anymore. I know she’s not here to make my life harder, but even if she weren’t here to plan this wedding, she’s making it harder by forcing me to acknowledge that my feelings never went away.

“I’d like to ask for a reboot.” She rises to her feet on those impossible wedge sandals I’ve told Lucy she’s too young to wear. “It wasn’t fair for me to just show up.”

“I still think Holly needs to pick a new date.”

She leans into me, laying a hand lightly on my chest. “We can revisit this on take two.” She’s close enough where I can smell the vanilla in her shampoo.

“The farm opens tomorrow for the season.”

Tomorrow is the official first date of fall, and it will require all hands on deck until the season ends. No vacation time, no nothing.

“I can work around your schedule. Even if it’s during morning chores.”

Picturing her shucking out stalls in the petting zoo area has me shaking my head. Probably because I know she’d do it. “Where are you staying?”

“The Enchanted Hollow B just a few minutes of peace to myself. I yank open the truck door and hoist myself into the seat.

Ella has re-entered my life the same way she left it: in a shocking turn of events.

And I feel even less prepared for it this time around.