Home Sweet Home (25 page)

L
ake Yarns was the only store on Main Street with its lights still on at 6:30 p.m. on a Monday night. As Nate and Madison walked up to the front door, he could see the women laughing together inside, toasting each other with mismatched wineglasses, passing skeins of yarn and needles and works in progress back and forth. Strangely, they looked like saddles.

He knew that Andi had kept herself from being a part of a group of women for so long. He was glad, so damn glad, that she’d finally let them in.

He hadn’t wanted to wait this long before coming to find her, but he’d had to go back home to pick something up. Something important.

The din of voices was so loud it reached all the way out to the sidewalk, and at first none of them noticed him walking in. Rebecca saw them first.

“Nate? Madison?”

Everyone’s heads turned to face them, their questioning, interested gazes eating up the situation.

But Nate only had eyes for Andi.

His sweet Andi.

Dorothy and Evelyn drew Madison over to them, and then without even realizing he had moved across the room, Nate was down on one knee in front of Andi.

“Nate?”

“It’s not the deed to the carousel that has me here, Andi.”

He needed her to understand that before he said anything else.

“It’s you. All you, sweetheart. I would have been here anyway. After the town hall meeting, I was hurt. Upset.”

“I’m so sorry, Nate. If I could go back in time and change what I said, I would.”

He wanted to stop, kiss her, tell her he loved her right then. But first he needed her to know how sorry he was for what he’d done.

Reaching for her hands, he said, “For ten years, Andi, I haven’t let anyone get close to me. And then you came back to town and even as I was telling myself that I had faith in us to get it right this time, I was waiting for you to leave. I was looking at the condos like a test that I was daring you to fail. But it wasn’t you failing, sweetheart. It was me.”

“You’ve never failed me, Nate. Never.”

“We both know I did. And we both know we’ll disappoint each other again, that over the next seventy years one of us is bound to mess up again.” He brushed a lock of hair away from her beautiful face. “Remember when we were kids and we’d go out sailing and one of us would blow it and we’d end up in the lake?”

“Laughing,” she said softly, pressing her cheek into his palm. “We were always laughing.”

“It was an adventure. And it didn’t matter that we’d screwed up because we knew we were going to climb right back on that hull and keep sailing.”

Her eyes were huge, beautiful, shining with tears that were on the verge of falling.

“There’s no one else I’d rather take an adventure with, Andi. No one else I’d rather go sailing off into the distance with. It’s always been you, sweetheart. You take away the darkness. You fill all my empty spaces. And I’ll take you any way I can get you. Any hours you can spend here with me, whatever part of your life that you’ve got to share. I can’t promise I won’t keep asking for more, because we both know that I will, but if it’s a choice between losing you or getting to love even a little bit of you, I choose love, Andi. I choose you. I don’t care how we do it—if I move to be with you or you move to be with me or even if we have to put new tires on our cars every six months from all the miles we’re burning up to be together as often as we can. All that matters is that we’re together.”

“You could never live like that, Nate.” Her words were raw. Shaky. “Neither of us could.”

Nate’s heart all but stopped. His eyes closed involuntarily, just as they would have the second before he slammed into a brick wall. But then, her hands were moving to his face and she was tracing the line of his jaw with her fingertips.

When he finally was able to open his eyes again, he saw that she was smiling through her tears.

“I’m not going back.”

He could barely process her words until she smiled again. Bigger, stronger, steadier this time.

“I’m moving back to Emerald Lake. I’m going to run Lake Yarns with my mother and grandmother.”

Everyone in the room, especially Evelyn and Carol, gasped with happiness, but Andi never turned her gaze from Nate’s.

“I would have stayed just for you, Nate. You know how much I love you, don’t you?”

“I do, sweetheart.”

He was vaguely aware of her shifting slightly to reach into a bag beside her. Something soft brushed against his knuckles, and he looked down to see a beautiful sweater draped across her lap.

“I have something for you.”

She held it up for him to push his hands and arms and head through. The sweater was a perfect fit.

“I knit one of my hairs into this sweater. Do you know what that means?”

He had to kiss her. “You ran out of yarn?”

She gave him that wicked little grin that he hoped to see for at least the next seventy years. “It means you’re bound to me now.”

He kissed her again, longer, even sweeter this time. “I’ve always been bound to you, Andi.”

Nate pulled the ring that had once belonged to his mother out of his pocket. “Marry me, sweetheart.”

And a moment later when Andi said yes and he slid the engagement ring onto her hand, a room full of knitters cheered.

Y
ou guys were right,” Andi said to Nate and Madison. “This really is the perfect spot for a rainy day.”

The three of them sat on the carousel beneath the red-and-white striped canopy, sipping hot chocolate and looking out at the lake. Andi and Nate were on the chariot behind the matched pair of horses while Madison rode one of the horses pulling the sleigh.

The winter snow was just starting to give way to spring rains, and they could hear the sounds of construction on the new condos that were being built on a wooded lot with lake access within walking distance from Main Street. Andi had really enjoyed working part-time with the Klein Group on the new residences over the winter. Smaller and more affordable than her original plan, the units were still beautifully designed and crafted.

From where they were sitting, she could look across the street, could see her mother and grandmother through the Lake Yarns window helping customers. Over to the right at the inn, she knew Rebecca was inside making guests smile.

Andi had finally caught that brass ring she’d been reaching for her whole life. Family. Friends.

Love.

“I know we’re planning on getting married at next year’s Fall Festival.” She smiled a secret little smile. “But all that planning is giving me a headache.”

“You?” he teased. “Not wanting to plan?”

She shrugged, hardly able to keep herself from blurting it out. “How do you feel about a shotgun wedding instead?”

Nate’s eyes got big. Really big. He swallowed hard. “Andi? Are you—”

She reached for Nate’s hand, intertwined their fingers, then laid them both over her stomach. “Yes.”

Y
ou are such a beautiful bride.”

Rebecca Campbell smoothed out the cuff of Andi Powell’s long-sleeved silk wedding gown and smiled at her friend in the full-length mirror. Emerald Lake, still mostly frozen and lightly dusted with snow from last night’s short storm, reflected through the large-paned window into the mirror.

Andi’s eyes met hers in the mirror, full of excitement and anticipation for her wedding day. “I know I’ve said it a hundred times already, Rebecca, but thank you so much for everything you’ve done to help with my wedding. I could have never pulled this off so quickly or so beautifully.”

Rebecca was extremely pleased by how smoothly the wedding preparations had come together. Her final walk-through downstairs a half hour ago confirmed that the Emerald Lake Inn had been completely transformed into a tasteful, elegant wedding venue. She had done it before, of course, but it meant more to her this time, knowing that she was an integral part of Andi and Nate’s special day.

Still, she had to tease her friend. “We both know you could have planned a dozen last-minute weddings in the past two weeks, Andi, and probably gotten a spread in
Brides
magazine while you were at it.”

Andi grinned before tossing off, “That was the old me, before I decided to start playing with yarn all day instead.”

Rebecca was happy to let Andi say whatever she wanted. After all, this was her wedding day. But both of them knew that moving back to Emerald Lake and becoming engaged to Nate hadn’t changed the core of who she was. Andi had always been driven, brilliant, and on top of that, she also happened to be one of the most loving, caring people Rebecca had ever had the good fortune of knowing. Business at Lake Yarns was more brisk than ever now that Andi had taken over the store for her mother and grandmother. Not just because Andi was a great businesswoman with a background in management consulting but because she was truly passionate about knitting—and the women who patronized her store.

As Andi turned back to look into the antique mirror in the inn’s “wedding prep” room, Rebecca noted that her friend seemed surprised by her own appearance: the wedding gown, the soft curls brushing against her collarbone, the pretty makeup.

“I never thought today would come,” Andi said softly. “But I always wanted it.” She lifted her gaze to meet Rebecca’s. “I’ve loved Nate my whole life.”

Rebecca blinked quickly to push away the tears that had been threatening to fall all morning just thinking about Andi and Nate’s wedding.

“You deserve it.” She could hear how scratchy her words sounded. She had to work to swallow away the lump that had formed in her throat at Andi’s confession of love. “You and Nate both deserve the love you’ve found again. Especially since this time it’s forever.”

She shot a knowing glance at Andi’s slightly rounded stomach, the lump in her throat replaced with the joy of knowing there would soon be a new baby to cuddle and kiss and spoil.

Rebecca refused to acknowledge the envy that tried to steal through her as her friend’s slender fingers automatically spread across the growing life inside her in a gesture of instinctive protectiveness and nurturing. But she couldn’t hide from the concerned look on Andi’s face in the mirror as she obviously noticed her heightened emotions.

“A little more blush,” Rebecca said quickly, letting her long light brown hair hide her face as she bent down to pick up the makeup bag.

She knew she’d just given too much away. She always did. Some people had poker faces. Her best attempt at trying to fake one would cause her to lose everything in the casino because she didn’t have the first clue how to play the game.

And it was true. Rebecca had never figured out how to play the game. Not with love, that was for certain. And not with jobs, until she had landed here at the inn and realized she’d finally found something she was good at, something she loved.

Even though they both knew her makeup was already perfect, Andi let Rebecca brush a tiny bit more powder over her cheekbones, just until her friend regained her composure.

But then, before Rebecca could step away again, Andi reached out and put a hand on her arm. “You know you can talk to me, don’t you? Anytime.” Her gaze softened. “My groom isn’t going anywhere,” she said with perfect confidence. “I’ve got all the time in the world.

Knowing that the last thing she should do was dump her fears and hurts and baggage all over Andi on her wedding day, Rebecca was intent on finding a way to deflect her concern. “I always get emotional at weddings. You should have seen me at each of my sisters’ ceremonies. I cried buckets. The guests in my row were all wishing for raincoats so I wouldn’t soak them.” She smiled a crooked little smile, hoping to lighten the mood. “This time I’ve tucked some under the seats next to mine as a precaution.”

But her friend, the woman she’d helped see through such a difficult time the previous fall, didn’t so much as crack a smile.

“You don’t have to pretend with me, Rebecca.” Regret flashed across Andi’s pretty features. “Ever since I got pregnant, my brain has been fuzzy and I just want to sleep all the time. That’s got to be why I didn’t see it all more clearly before.” She shook her head. “We shouldn’t have scheduled our wedding for this weekend.”

Andi said her words softly, and while there wasn’t pity behind them, Rebecca believed that was only due to the close friendship they’d forged during the last six months.

Unfortunately there was no escaping the fact—not with Andi or anyone who was going to be downstairs at the wedding and reception—that Rebecca was supposed to have been the one about to get married this weekend. Instead of wearing the gown and saying “I do,” she was going to be sitting in the audience, watching two wonderful people make their vows of love to each other.

The truth was that it hadn’t been easy walking down Main Street these past three weeks, going to the grocery store, passing people she knew on the cross-country ski trails thinking—knowing—they were whispering about her. Sure, they still smiled, still exchanged the same pleasantries. But she knew they had to be either feeling sorry for her…or they were trying to figure out just what horrible thing she’d done to make Stu call off the wedding.

And disappear from Emerald Lake the very next day without a word to anyone.

Only the women at Lake Yarns’s Monday night knitting group had remained the same as always. Warm. Gossipy. And yet, utterly unjudgmental. No matter how busy she was, Rebecca made sure to keep every Monday night open for drinking too much wine and usually doing more talking and laughing than knitting.

She felt like she’d found her home in Emerald Lake and liked to imagine growing old on an Adirondack chair on a dock while she watched her future grandchildren playing in the blue water.

She hated to think that she’d only been accepted by the locals because she was engaged to Stu Murphy, whose family had lived in Emerald Lake for generations. She wanted to believe she belonged here on her own merit. Because people liked her and thought she contributed something valuable to the community.

But regardless of how off-kilter she felt, she absolutely refused to taint Andi’s wedding in any way.

“You know I absolutely loved being able to put on this wedding for you and Nate. And really, it worked out perfectly. You needed a wedding venue right away, and I had one all ready to go.” Rebecca already had the tables and chairs and glasses and food ordered for her own spring wedding at the inn, so Andi and Nate were able to use them without having to try to pull everything together at the last second. “It was meant to happen this way, Andi. I’m certain of it. I absolutely love knowing that I’m a part of your happily ever after.”

Anyone else would have stopped talking there, would have held something back, would have hidden the rest of her feelings, but Rebecca had never known how to do that. Especially when a dear friend was looking at her with such deep concern. Besides, she had finally stopped lying to herself about her ex-fiancé three weeks ago. So what was the point in trying to hold back the full—painful—truth with anyone else now?

“You know Stu and I weren’t right for each other. Not as anything more than friends. The truth is, I enjoyed putting the finishing details on your wedding far more than I ever enjoyed working on it when it was my own.” She shook her head. “I guess that should have been my first clue that something wasn’t right. It was seeing you and Nate together that showed me what real love was supposed to look like.”

“You never told me that,” Andi said, clearly surprised by what Rebecca had divulged. Awareness dawned suddenly in her blue eyes. “Oh my gosh. Three weeks ago. That’s when Nate and I came in to ask about squeezing in a shotgun wedding here at the inn.”

Rebecca nodded, feeling like a diary that had fallen open with a splat. “You two were supposed to be flipping through a booklet of cake toppers. Instead your foreheads were together and you were staring into each other’s eyes.”

She hadn’t been able to tear her gaze away from them, not even when Nate cupped Andi’s cheek and gently kissed her.

That was what real love looked like. Deep and true love.

Forever love.

Just like that, Rebecca had known she couldn’t go through with marrying Stu. Not just for her sake, not just because she wanted that kind of love for herself, but because it wasn’t fair to Stu, either. He deserved forever love, too.

“I don’t know what to say. I hate to think that I caused your breakup. But—”

Rebecca shook her head, wanting to still the remorse, the guilt that was emerging on Andi’s face. “You didn’t cause anything. You just helped me see the light.” Finally. Long after she should have seen it on her own. “I’ll be forever grateful to you for that.”

Andi hugged her tightly, and even though Rebecca longed to tell her friend more—it simply wasn’t her nature to hold things back and the secrets she was keeping were eating her up inside—there was one thing she couldn’t tell anyone.

Specifically what had happened three weeks ago when she went to break her engagement off to Stu after seeing Andi and Nate so in love.