I’m on the edge of my seat now. What is on that paper? And how is this suddenly the most entertaining thing I’ve witnessed in weeks?
She lowers the flyer and looks out at everyone. “Approves? You all approve?”
What?
I snatch a flyer from Phil, sitting in front of me.
“Next time, young man, just ask!” he says over his shoulder before Todd puts his hand on Phil’s arm and pats it gently, earning a softening of Phil’s shoulders before they eventually lock fingers.
“Wait,” I say to Noah quietly. “Are they together?”
“Of course. What did you think?”
Well. The old married couple vibes make more sense now, that’s for sure.
I turn my attention down to the flyer, and sure enough, it shows the final tally of town votes for our relationship: 250 votes in favor of me and Annie dating, 0 votes against. That can’t be right.
This is me they’re talking about dating Annie. I don’t deserve her. This is bullshit. Every single person in this town should have voted against me. Do they not care about her at all?
Below the tally is an agenda for the meeting:
Address Marvin using the mayor’s parking spot
Share official petition results for the Annie and Will relationship: ruling in favor and support.
Harriet stands up again. “I’ll admit that at first I was skeptical because of Will’s media reputation. But the more we all watched you two together, the more we saw the realness in Will. He’s a good man. And furthermore, we can see that you two are clearly in love and right for each other. We just want you to be happy, Annie. And we see how happy he makes you.”
I’m still reeling from the word love used to describe me and Annie so casually. Mentally, I’m doubled over, hyperventilating, and trying to reach for something to hold on to.
Mabel suddenly shoots up from her seat. “But let the record show that I was always in favor of William from the start! Harriet only jumped on board recently.”
“Oh, sit down. No one wants to hear you toot your own horn.”
“I will not sit down,” Mabel says indignantly. “Actually, I will, but only because my hip is acting up and I want to sit down. But not because you told me to.”
Annie looks just as shaken by the L-word as I do. She blinks softly, hands the flyer to Harriet, and smiles. A montage of our night together runs through my head, and I assume it’s doing the same for her. And then I see the moment she decides she’s misled the whole town and needs to come clean.
Her brows pull together as she looks out over the crowd, and that’s when I stand up. “Thanks for the votes, everyone. Jeanine, are you headed back to the diner soon?”
She blinks at me. “Uh—you can let yourself in, hun. Coffee’s warm and Greg should be in the kitchen. Be there in ten.”
“Sounds good.” I go to the front, take a dazed-looking Annie’s hand, and start pulling her with me. “And Marvin. You really gotta stop parking in the mayor’s spot, man. Not cool,” I say, shaking my head on my way out.
The second we are out the door, I stop and take Annie’s face in my hands, pressing my mouth firmly to hers, stealing any words she was about to say right from her lips. Annie wraps her arms up around my neck and we both simultaneously deepen the kiss until we’re full blown making out on the sidewalk. Weird town meeting forgotten.
A minute or two or five later, we pull away out of breath. Annie presses her fingers to her kiss-stolen lips and blinks at me. Neither of us knows what’s happening anymore. And that’s okay.
“Let’s go get some breakfast, yeah?”
She swallows. “Okay.”
I look over my shoulder as we cross the street and find no less than twenty faces peering out the window of Gemma’s quilt shop.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Annie
After an abnormally quiet breakfast where Will and I didn’t even come close to discussing what’s going to happen to us after he leaves town in two short days, I went to the flower shop. It’s closed today so that I could spend the whole afternoon putting finishing touches on the arrangements for the rehearsal dinner tonight.
Somehow I managed to block out all thoughts of Will and focus on my work. Just kidding! I literally zoned out no less than ten times when I realized I was replaying our night together. It turns out that even after reading all of those incredibly steamy scenes in my historical romance books, I was in no way prepared for how incredible the real deal is. What it would feel like to be fully known by another person. To love someone in a tangible, outward way.