15. Levi

15

LEVI

L evi stepped inside and flipped on the lights in the office. Normally, he would make his way in through the darkness, but he didn’t want to miss whatever surprise Lily had left for him.

Flora made a disapproving sound and nuzzled into his neck to escape the light. He smiled at the way her little hands clutched onto him and then he nearly gasped in wonder as he looked up at the walls.

When he’d left earlier today, the office had been as plain and drab as ever—simple gray furnishings that he had purchased cheaply, and walls he had painted plain white himself. The pretty hardwood floors were the only feature with any warmth or interest in the place.

But now the walls were hung with paintings in beautiful colors, and black and white photos in silver frames.

“What in the world?” he whispered to himself.

The closest painting actually looked familiar. Two weeping willows leaned over a creek, looking an awful lot like the trees at Little Creek Park, a tiny strip of woods tucked away between the houses on the far side of town.

The next one featured a bright yellow school bus, looking cheerful in a snowy setting, and again, so familiar.

A black and white framed photo over his desk was an aerial shot of Trinity Falls, but must have been taken so long ago that most of the suburban homes surrounding the shops and train station were still farmland. It reminded him of some of the photos that were hung on the walls of the real estate office in town.

He continued his walk around the space. The paintings were simply done, and clearly not by the same person. But they brought a spark of life and happiness into the space, and all of them seemed to feature familiar landmarks. The photos had been hung in places where people might stop for a moment and try to figure out where their own house might be in relation to the village.

“How did you do this, Lily?” he whispered.

He knew Lily was doing well with her small business, but there was no way she could pay for original artwork and professional framing like this. At least he didn’t think so.

He looked around again, realizing that his formerly drab office now looked like a vibrant, happy place for people to come and solve problems.

Amazed and grateful, he headed back to the kitchen. Once he had Flora down to sleep, he could bring her monitor back to the office with him and take his time admiring each work .

There was a painting of the town amphitheater over the kitchen table, and a small, framed photo on the table itself. He smiled when he saw it was one of the photos Lily had taken of him holding Flora. He and the baby looked just right together. The thought brought tears to his eyes, and he wasn’t sure if they were happiness or sadness. This time with Flora was making him ache for a family of his own. But he couldn’t imagine feeling this way again about another child.

He headed upstairs and got the little one ready for bed. Of course there was a painting of Cassidy Corral, the local toddler park, over her changing table. It was done with thick brushstrokes in a style that almost looked like a child had done it, but Levi knew just what it was from the way the trees hung over the old wooden fence behind the swings.

The pretty new mobile over her crib was the one she loved to grab at in Lily’s shop. Tiny puppies, kittens, foals, and calves hung from a covered motor in the center that played soft lullabies. He turned it on for her and she woke up just a little, chattering to the baby animals before she began talking to her own hands and then rubbing her hair.

She fell asleep quickly after that, but he stayed for a long time, just watching her sleep.

At last, he headed downstairs and wandered among the paintings and old photos. It seemed there wasn’t a single facet of his life that Lily hadn’t touched and brought to life with her magic.

He hadn’t realized that his world was so lacking in color until she came along and painted it in every brilliant hue in the rainbow.

He slid his phone out of his pocket and typed off a message that he knew wasn’t equal to what she had done for him.

it’s incredible

i don’t know how you did this but the paintings are beautiful and the photos are amazing

the whole house is transformed!

Flora loves her mobile

And I love you, he wanted to write next, but knew that wasn’t something to just drop into a text.

There were dots for a moment. Then a reply popped up.

Lily

I’m so glad you like it! We had fun hanging them and I had a little help from a friend. If you want to take any down or move them around that’s fine.

absolutely not

i love them all!

The paintings are all by local students in a class Lucy Webb taught at the community center. They’re not professionally done or anything, but I love the colors and hopefully you noticed that they’re all things around Trinity Falls. The kids were excited to donate their work when they heard that they might be hung up in an office in town.

incredible!

And the photos are really from Sloane and the folks at the real estate office. Some she took herself, but she also said lots of people give them old photos when they move, and they never have enough space in the office to hang them all. If there are any you don’t like, I can bring them back to Sloane.

He smiled and shook his head. Of course Lily had come up with an out-of-the-box solution to his boring office problem that hadn’t cost her anything but creativity and time, and the fearless energy she seemed to bring to any problem.

The fact that she had marched right up to Lucy Webb and Sloane Greenfield and gotten them to help was amazing. And it was one hundred percent the brilliant, charismatic Lily Hathaway he had admired for all these years.

I can’t believe she cares about me…

Looking around at her impact on his home, it hit him hard. If she could do something like this for him, then she was ready for what he really wanted.

i love every single thing you brought here and every place you put it

i’ll never touch them

They will need dusting from time to time. ;)

Levi smiled at that. There was so much more he wanted to say, but he knew that conversation needed to be in person.

we should talk tomorrow

there’s something i need to ask you

(something good)

See you tomorrow then. :)

sleep well, beautiful girl

The next morning, Levi found himself standing outside the jewelry store before it opened, with Flora sleeping in her stroller in a fleece-lined equivalent of a sleeping bag that Lily had correctly suggested she might need.

Snow was falling now, and the village looked like a Christmas card. This was something Levi had missed growing up. He’d spent most of his time out on the homestead, so he hadn’t seen the sun come up over the village, or been here when there was no one on the sandstone sidewalks but joggers and commuters .

He pushed the stroller back and forth a little, watching his breath plume in the air. A couple of the joggers glanced at him and then the store he was standing in front of.

One of his cousins, Russell, jogged by and arched a brow at him, as if to say he knew what he was up to.

Wincing, Levi wondered how long it would be before word of his plans got back to his mother. After the baby thing, he really needed to make sure she was in the loop.

He was just grabbing for his phone when the lights went on in the shop. One by one, the glass display counters illuminated, sending the gemstones inside alight, like they were filled with tiny flames.

The owner, Valerie Leighton, came to the door and opened it slowly, looking him up and down.

“Good morning,” he said.

“Yes,” she replied with a frown. “Yes, come in.”

“What?” he asked without moving.

“Sorry,” she said curtly, stepping out of the way. “I’ve had a rash of unlikely guys coming in here lately. But you and Lily make sense. Come on in. I’ve got exactly what you need.”

“I’m on a bit of a budget,” he warned her, pushing the stroller inside and gazing worriedly at the pretty pieces under the glass.

“No kidding,” she said drily. “Do you ever let anyone pay you?”

“Definitely,” he said, exasperated to be hearing this line again.

“I guess the ones who don’t pay talk about it more,” Valerie said thoughtfully. “That’s probably good for business. At any rate, what you want for Lily is beautiful and affordable and she’ll love it. And if she loses the stone while she’s unboxing inventory or running around town with her volunteer projects you’ll be able to buy her another one.”

“Okay,” he said, impressed that Valerie had considered Lily’s active lifestyle and work when choosing a ring to recommend.

“Feel free to look around all you want,” Valerie said. “But I’m just going to grab the one you’re going to buy.”

He left the stroller by the register, so as not to bump it into any of the displays in the tiny shop. Sure enough, everything was stunning, but nothing made him think of Lily.

“Ready?” Valerie asked from behind the main counter.

“Yes,” he said, moving to join her.

She held up a small, carved wooden box and opened it.

Inside, a beautiful pink stone glittered and winked, reminding him instantly of Lily’s signature nail polish. A tiny diamond flanked the pink stone on each side.

“Oh,” he breathed. “Wow.”

“It’s a pink garnet,” Valerie said. “Garnets are fairly hard, and compared to diamonds, they’re extremely affordable. They’re also local stones. This one was found in a local river, not too far from Trinity Falls.”

“Amazing,” he said.

She quietly named a price that seemed too good to be true.

“And I’ll throw in one more thing,” she said with a smile, reaching under the counter, pulling out a velvet bag and handing it to him.

He opened it and a tiny bracelet slid onto his hand. A faceted pink garnet that was like a miniature of the one on the ring winked on it between two golden beads.

“I know she’s not yours,” Valerie said, her eyes on baby Flora, who was still sleeping peacefully. “But she should have something to remember you two by. She can move the beads onto a longer cord when she’s older, if she wants.”

Levi felt tears burning in his eyes and he blinked them back as quickly as he could, pressing his lips together.

“If you like these, I’ll just grab the paperwork and a bag for you,” Valerie said without making eye contact, as if she knew he was fighting back his emotions.

He nodded and gazed down at the sleeping baby in the stroller while Valerie headed into the back of the shop.

“You don’t think Flora is the only thing she likes about me, do you?” he heard himself asking Valerie as she came back in.

“Are you kidding me?” she asked. “I used to catch her staring at you back in school.”

“Really?” he asked her, thunderstruck.

“Sure,” Valerie said. “It was kind of cute.”

“But I was…” he trailed off, unable to describe what a complete dork he had been.

“Nerds can be kind of hot, you know?” Valerie said with a teasing smile. “You guys know what you want, and you never stop going for it.”

A surprised laugh exploded out of him, and Valerie chuckled too, shaking her head as she rang him up.

“Good luck,” she told him. “Make it super romantic. I mean it. Lily deserves it.”

“Believe me, I know it,” Levi said.

As he and Flora left the shop, he couldn’t stop thinking about what Valerie had said.

Was it possible that Lily had liked him even back when he was the lanky kid he was always hoping people had forgotten about?