Falling Like Leaves (Bramble Falls, #1)(83)

She nods. “I know. But that’s life. It’s unpredictable, and anything can happen at any time. Which is why you should live doing what makes you happy. What lights you up inside, what keeps that flame burning. And truthfully, I think journalism has always dulled all your blues to gray.”

“What an artist thing to say.”

She smiles. “You are the only person who has to live your life, Ellis. Your dad is the main character in his own story. Why not star in your own instead of being a side character in his?”

“Because what if I fail?”

“What if you don’t? What if you take the world by storm?” she says. “Growing up is scary, but it’s also full of possibilities. You can’t only consider the worst things that could happen.”

She’s right. The idea of pursuing fashion is scary. But… maybe I shouldn’t push myself away from the things that make me happy, the same way I shouldn’t have tried to push her back toward a life that didn’t make her happy.

“What are you thinking?” she asks. I must look how I feel—exhilarated yet absolutely petrified.

“I don’t know. That going to school for fashion is risky but it excites me?”

“Some risks are worth taking,” she says. My stomach knots. Cooper said something similar about me at the corn maze. You’re a risk worth taking. “Whoa. What just happened? Your face just… crumpled.”

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

Mom frowns. “Please don’t do that. It’s okay to feel your feelings. You do not have to be fine, Ellis. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess it’s about Cooper?”

I look at the floor as she sits back. “Yeah. He said he was afraid I’d leave, but he was taking the risk. I hurt him, and now he hates me.”

“He doesn’t hate you, honey. He just needs to know you care about him as much as he cares about you. That you’ll take risks for him, too.”

“But how do I show him that?”

“I can’t answer that for you. I wish I could,” she says. “But you’ll come up with something. It might take some time, but luckily, I don’t think he’s going anywhere.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Mom stands. “I’m going to rinse my paintbrushes and go help Naomi if we’re good here.”

“Yeah, we’re good,” I say. “What’s going on down there?”

“They’re having a budget meeting,” she says. “They haven’t raised quite as much money as they were hoping to.”

“Oh. What does that mean for Aunt Naomi?” I ask.

“Well, I think she’ll have to get a bit creative about how to fund next year’s festival, but you know your aunt. She always figures it out.” With a smile, she adds, “The same way you do.”

I follow her out of her room. Before going downstairs, she turns to me. “You know I love you, right?”

“Yeah, I know. I love you, too.”

She gives me a hug, then heads downstairs toward the yelling in the kitchen. I climb the attic steps, thinking about what she said.

Cooper needs to know I care about him. That I see him and I’m sorry.

As I get to the top step, my eyes land on my sewing machine, then on Cooper’s whimsical cookie costume, which I finally finished a couple nights ago. I have an idea.

My brain quickly concocts a (potentially preposterous) plan, and I pull out my phone to text Fern: What are the chances you can come to the Falling Leaves Festival in Bramble Falls tomorrow?

I sit at my sewing machine. But before getting started, I text Sloane: Hurry up and get home. I need you. (And no, there’s no body.)

If I can pull this off, maybe I can get back what I let slip away.





Chapter Thirty-Eight




After staying up all night, I meet Sloane at the high school with the dozens of other people participating in the parade.

“People are staring at you,” she giggles as I waddle over to her. Her eyes trail down my getup—a giant, bright orange circle, covered in fabric that’s folded and sewn together to look like Oreos, with orange spandex arms and legs attached.

Cooper’s favorite Oreo Creamsicle cookie.

“I know,” I say, a blush spreading across my cheeks. From somewhere in the crowd, Aunt Naomi shouts a ten-minute warning. “Where is he? This thing is starting soon.”

“He said he’d meet me here early so he could change into his cookie costume,” she says, searching the parking lot for his truck. “He’s late, but he’ll be here any second. He wouldn’t miss it.” Her green prosthetic witch nose peels up a bit when she smiles. “I still can’t believe you’re doing this.”

I laugh. “I can’t either, to be honest.”

“It’ll be worth it,” she says.

“I hope so.”

Sloane hugs me. “Worst-case scenario, we eat chocolate Pop-Tarts and watch Practical Magic for the fiftieth time tonight.”

I hug her back. “Thank you. For everything.”

She lets me go. “You’d do the same for me.”

My whole chest expands. It means so much that she knows that. I don’t know if it would have been true when I came here, but this place and these people have become important to me. I would do anything for them.