Happily Ever Afters Guaranteed

by Lacy Williams

  “Miss Olive, daddy and me carved a punkin for the contest. I drew the design and daddy cut it for me cuz I’m too little to use the knives. That’s okay, right?”

  She glanced at the pumpkin in Jesse’s hand, a half-smile crinkling her strawberry lips. “Hmm, yes it’s fine, Josh. That’s nice that your daddy helped you. Let’s fill out this entry form… You’re just in time, too, because the judging is going to start in about ten minutes.”

  Jesse set the pumpkin on the table among about fifteen others with different degrees of art carved into them, ranging from simple triangles for eyes to really intricate art designs.

  His attention half on filling out the quarter sheet of paper that Olive slid across the table to him, Jesse’s heightened awareness tracked Olive to where she now stood with one hand on Josh’s shoulder.

  “Did your daddy make you dig out all the pumpkin seeds?” Olive asked Josh, tone serious.

  “Yes, and it was really goopy and gross!”

  Josh let out a sudden giggle and Jesse glanced up to see a large black and white Border Collie had approached and was licking his son’s face. “Oooh, Darby… blech!”

  Jesse knew his son didn’t really mind the doggie kisses, not after he’d heard story after story about the mutt.

  “Daddy, this is Darby. She’s the dog that visits my class with Miss Olive.”

  Jesse crouched to greet the dog and noticed it had on a bandana complete with skeletons and scarecrows. How festive. It extended its paw in a polite shake and Jesse couldn’t help but chuckle.

  “Miss Olive says Darby is the smartest dog ever because she’s been to school for five years in a row. That’s a lot in doggie years. Miss Olive says I should finish my school too so I can be smart just like Darby.”

  “Miss Olive says” was a common refrain in the Parker household. Josh had been enamored with the lovely volunteer and her shaggy companion since they’d begun visiting his kindergarten class weekly at the beginning of the semester.

  Jesse knew his son desperately needed a mother’s touch. Was the boy imagining Olive in that role?

  “Oh, Daddy, I see Cassie from Sunday school! Can I go say hi?”

  Jesse couldn’t say no. He stood up, hands in his pockets, supremely conscious that he’d been left alone with Olive. He watched his son run up to a little girl in a princess costume, saw the girl’s mother wave at him that she’d watch Josh for a few minutes. He nodded his acquiescence.

  What should he say to Olive? He didn’t know how to approach the subject of how wrong he’d been a year ago.

  “He’s been excited since breakfast, hasn’t he?”

  “Yep. Didn’t want to go to bed last night, either.” Jesse glanced at the woman that still made his heart sound like it needed a tuneup just by standing there. She had a yellow sun, complete with smiley face, painted on one cheek. Festive, just like her dog.

  Olive shuffled a pile of papers in front of her, face downcast. Did she want him to go away? He really should apologize…

  “So you volunteer once a week at the school?” he asked.

  She looked up, almost seemed surprised that he was still standing there. He probably deserved that after the awful way he’d treated her last year.

  “Twice, actually. The kids really love it and Darby does too.” Her hand crept down to rest on the dog’s head.

  “I’m surprised you have time, what with running your grandma’s farm and doing…” Jesse swept his arm in an arc to encompass all the activity going on around them. “…all this.”

  She started loading the pumpkins into a wheelbarrow he hadn’t noticed behind the table. “I make time for what’s important.”

  He wasn’t sure if her words hid a double meaning, but he let them go for now.

  Jesse lifted a large pumpkin from the front of the table and rounded the corner to put it in the wheelbarrow for her. She nudged a cardboard box in his direction and he assumed that meant to fill it up. He did.

  “Josh is a sweet kid.”

  Jesse looked around mock-frantically, then heaved a sigh. “Don’t let him hear you say that. No, seriously, he can be a terror sometimes but he has his ‘sweet’ moments.” He gave her a wry smile. “Kinda surprising, since he’s my kid, huh?”

  Her eyes met his for the first time instead of flashing away. “No. You have your moments, too.”

  PART TWO

  Olive kept her eyes averted, but she couldn’t turn off her awareness of the way Jesse’s muscles bulged as he maneuvered the wheelbarrow piled high with jack-o-lanterns over the bumpy farm lane to the display she’d set up on her Gran’s porch.

  She couldn’t believe she’d blurted out that she thought he was sweet. She’d been prepared for him to turn tail and walk off – had expected it after the last conversation they’d had one year ago – but he’d flushed under his tan, averted his expressive brown eyes, and insisted on helping her tote the jack-o-lanterns over to be judged.

  She was just as much of an goober over him now as she had been at eighteen. Why couldn’t she get over this inappropriate crush?

  Darby followed at their heels, although the registered therapy dog kept sneaking glances at the yummy foods right at her level – some held precariously by uncaring children. Olive snapped her fingers to keep the dog’s attention where it should be.

  Jesse rolled the wheelbarrow right up to Gran’s front steps and released the handles. The rancher wasn’t even sweating.

  “Thanks,” she said, putting down the smaller box she carried and wiping her dusty hands on her jeans.

  “Anything else I can do?” Was him rubbing one hand down the back of his neck a sign of nervousness? What did he have to be nervous about?

  “Um, Angie’s going to set these out and do the judging. Here she comes now.” She waved to her neighbor who was heading their way.

  Jesse looked like he wanted to say something else, but at that moment Josh ran up to his father.

  “Daddy, daddy! They’re doing hayrides! I want to go, I want to go! Cassie’s going, and Tommy—”

  Jesse laughed, interrupting his son’s chatter. He swung Josh up in his arms and then there was a mad scramble as the boy settled in for a piggyback ride. “All right.” He looked right over at Olive, his gaze intense.

  “Oh, Miss Olive! Can you come too?”

  She signaled Darby to stay in step with her. “I’ll walk with you. I’m supposed to drive the truck, though, so I won’t be able to sit in the back.”

  They talked of mundane things with Josh present, She’d settled in the cab of the well-used pickup – borrowed from another neighbor – relieved to be out of Jesse’s intoxicating and confusing presence.

  The passenger door creaked open and the object of her thoughts slid in, shoving Darby into the middle seat. “It’s way too crowded back there. Mind if I navigate?”

  She blinked. “I guess not. Will Josh be okay without you?”

  “Oh, he’s fine.”

  Olive twisted to see through the back window. Josh was surrounded by friends and two responsible-looking adults sat nearby. She shrugged and started up the truck. In addition to being well-used – i.e. old – it was a diesel and plenty loud. Maybe she wouldn’t have to talk to Jesse during the ride.

  They’d made it past her mailbox and onto the dirt-packed country lane when Jesse spoke. Shouted, really.

  “I’m sorry about what I said to you – about you not having what it takes to stick it out in Peaceful.”

  She glanced at him, trying to gauge his sincerity. She’d gotten real good at that – had to – over the years.

  Jesse kept his face mostly averted, eye out the passenger window. His neck and cheekbones were endearingly pink-tinged.

  “I’m glad things’ve worked out for you and your grandma,” he continued, still speaking loud over the truck’s roar and the rattle that came from driving on a rutted dirt road.

  “Worked out?” she cried. “Worked out?”

  “I mean—” He quickly tried to backpe
dal. “You’ve worked really hard—”

  “Exactly right, I have!” She smacked the steering wheel, her action matching the force of her words. “You have no idea. No idea. The farm was almost bankrupt when I got here. If I hadn’t figured out this co-op with the neighbors and these different festivals, Gran and I would probably be out on our tails. And that’s after I talked everyone into it, handled all of the marketing—did you know we have an online presence now? Did you? And then planning four events in the last four months.” She took a breath, but she wasn’t done yet. “Do you realize that it took me two months of cajoling, begging and then bribing to talk Mr. Thompson into doing the corn maze?”

  “Bribing?”

  Argh! That’s all he got out of her whole diatribe? She spoke through gritted teeth. “Yes, with several of my gran’s pecan pies.”

  By now they’d reached the end of the dirt lane and Olive carefully pulled a u-turn before heading back to the festival grounds in her driveway. Jesse was blessedly silent, but Olive’s thoughts and emotions churned.

  She stopped the truck and trailer well outside the rope fenced area, so there was less chance of running over any kiddos, fully expecting Jesse to hop right out of the car and escape the awkwardness that descended with the silence when she turned the truck off.

  He didn’t. Jesse blew out a gusty sigh. “I really admire you.”

  What? Had she heard him right? Never in a million years would she have expected those words to come out of Jesse Parker’s lips. Her face flamed.

  “You’ve done good since you’ve been back in town. I’m happy that things are going well for you. I really am.”

  She held her breath; she could tell something else was still coming.

  “I guess…” He forked his fingers through his thick brown hair and spoke to his lap. “When I saw you last year, it brought back… I mean… I realized I still had feelings for you.”

  She swallowed hard and tried to formulate a reply, but she couldn’t seem to find any words. Jesse Parker… had feelings for her?

  “I thought all my… feelings,” the word seemed to be hard for him to say, “had disappeared when you left right after graduation. I met Carrie, we got married, Josh came… and then after Josh’s mom died I was too busy raising my son to feel much of anything, but when you came back…”

  Olive’s chest felt as if a heavy weight rested there, crushing the air from her lungs. She’d known Jesse would move on after she left Peaceful right after high school, but she hadn’t had a choice. She’d had secrets, and if Jesse had known them back then she felt sure he would have thought differently about her.

  If he knew her secrets now, it still might change his feelings for her.

  Jesse went on, oblivious to the turbulence of her thoughts. “Everything else did too. At the time, I wanted you gone – thought if you didn’t stick around then things could go back to normal for me and Josh.”

  The weight on Olive’s chest turned to fire. He didn’t want her around?

  “But now…”

  At that very moment, Josh’s head popped up in the window at his father’s side. “Daddy that was sooo fun! Can we go to the maze now? Please, can we?”

  PART THREE

  Olive practically ran from the truck, claiming she had to check on the soundstage, but Jesse thought it was probably an excuse – the country music blaring from the speakers set up around the perimeter of the guest area was plenty loud for his tastes.

  That hadn’t gone well. She’d bolted.

  Again.

  If he blinked long enough, he could pretend he was back in high school. He’d been on an adrenaline rush from getting through graduation; he’d thought the world was his oyster back then.

  After the graduation ceremony, he’d done the unthinkable for a shy, quiet guy like him – he’d invited the prettiest girl to take a ride in his truck. They’d never made it out of the parking lot, had sat on the tailgate outside the high school gym until the sun came up. Just talking. He’d flown higher than ever before.

  And crashed. The very next day, Olive had left Peaceful and taken his heart with her.

  “Evening, young man.”

  Jesse looked up from his depressing thoughts to see he and Josh had walked right by Olive’s grandma, sitting on a rocker on her porch.

  “Hi, Mrs. Thomason.”

  Josh scampered up the porch steps for a hug – Olive’s grandma had been his favorite Sunday school teacher before she’d had her stroke.

  “Whatcha doin’?” Josh asked, standing at the old woman’s knee.

  “Why, I’m guarding these prize-winning Jack-o-lanterns. Hafta make sure no young rascals mess up the ribbons or knock them over.”

  By the time she’d finished speaking, Josh had already turned to examine the display of what looked like forty or fifty Jack-o-lanterns spread on a stair-step shelf.

  “Daddy, there’s our punkin! He has a ribbon! What’s it say?”

  Jesse came up the porch steps to stand behind his son and read the green ribbon glued to the top of their jack-o-lantern. “It says: honorable mention.”

  “What’s that mean?”

  “It means you did a wonderful job on your jack-o-lantern,” Mrs. Thomason answered before Jesse could. “And the judge thought it was special.”

  “Oh, wow!” Josh bounced twice, feet thudding on the porch. “That’s so cool!”

  Jesse gave an internal sigh of relief that Josh wasn’t too disappointed they hadn’t won. He didn’t point out to his son that all the pumpkins that hadn’t won had green ribbons on them.

  Josh moved to the end of the porch to look at the winning jack-o-lanterns and Jesse leaned one hip against the porch railing, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “You look too serious for an event like this, Jesse. I saw you with my granddaughter earlier. She do something to upset you?”

  “No. No, of course not.” No, he’d done it, by making a fool of himself over Olive. Again.

  “Hmm. You know, my granddaughter has been through a lot of pain. I’d be obliged if you’d tread carefully with her heart.”

  He didn’t know how to respond to that. What about his heart?

  A cell phone jangled nearby and Jesse’s head came up in time to see Olive round the corner of the house, carrying a couple of paper plates piled with slices of pie. Smelled like blackberry. She handed one to her Gran and juggled the other while trying to fish her phone out of her jeans pocket. Finally he took the pie from her and she shot him a grateful half-smile.

  It was better than no smile.

  “What’s up, Sue Ann? You’re kidding.” Olive groaned loud enough to turn even Josh’s head from his pumpkin-watching.

  The boy came to stand next to Jesse, both of them watching her finish her conversation.

  “Uh huh. I’m on my way.”

  She clicked her phone closed.

  “This for me?” Jesse asked playfully, holding up the pie plate.

  “You can have it.” She hardly glanced at him, knelt next to her grandma. “Someone lost their kid in the maze. I’m going to go help look for him. You okay here?”

  The older woman nodded and Olive kissed her worn cheek, then turned to go.

  “Wait—” Jesse followed her off the porch steps. He motioned to himself and Josh. “We’ll go with you. Maybe I can help find whoever got lost.”

  “Daddy, I don’t wanna go.”

  Jesse looked back to his son, now clinging to the arm of Mrs. Thomason’s rocker, torn between his duty as a father and his desire to help Olive. “I thought you wanted to do the maze?”

  “I changed my mind.” Spoken like a five-year-old. “I don’t want to get lost, too!”

  “Don’t worry, young man,” Mrs. Thomason put in. “Joshua can stay here and help me guard the jack-o-lanterns. We’ll wait for you to get back.” She patted Josh’s hand and he beamed at her.

  It was all Jesse needed to see. He jogged off after Olive, who was already weaving her way through the crowd toward
the banner that read “Maize Maze” on the far side.

  He realized he was still carrying that piece of pie.

  “You mind if I eat this?” Jesse asked, waving it in Olive’s direction. She shook her head and he scooped the dessert up with his fingers, not bothering with the plastic fork tucked underneath it. The warm, gooey deliciousness melted in his mouth.

  “Mmm, mmm!” he hummed, mouth full.

  She shot him an amused glance over her shoulder and shook her head. “If I remember right, you always did like my Gran’s pies. Seems like you bought one or two at every bake sale since fifth grade.”

  It was true. “Your Gran bakes like no one else in the world.”

  He disposed of the paper plate in a nearby trash can and when he turned back to Olive, found her face turned a pretty shade of pink.

  “Um, I made the pies. The blackberry ones. Sue Ann from down the lane made the peach cobbler.”

  “Really? Wow. Then I guess I’d better turn on the full power of my charm and convince you to marry me,” he teased.

  When she looked miserable instead of cracking a smile, Jesse’s own smile faded. “Nevermind. Let’s just find this kid we’re looking for.”

  He tromped forward into the mouth of the maze made of corn taller than he was. Better hope the kid had stayed on the path or they were in for a very long night. The sun was already getting low in the sky, turning the low-lying clouds all shades of orange, pink and red.

  “Jesse.” Olive touched his arm and his senses went on red-alert. “This way.”

  He followed her on the westerly of two paths, and the deeper they went into the maze, the quieter it got. As if they’d left everyone behind. He kept his eyes peeled for a child wandering by themselves, but so far they hadn’t seen a soul.

  “When I left Peaceful six years ago, I had a secret.” Olive’s surprising statement hung in the air between them for a long moment.

  Jesse wondered if her secret had to do with the painful past her grandmother had mentioned.

  “I left because—well, it wasn’t because of you. Not directly.”