Home on Apple Blossom Road (Life in Icicle Falls) (26 page)

Now Mia’s heart was galloping. She caught her lip between her teeth and held her breath as he scraped earth off some sort of steamer trunk.

“A real treasure chest. Leave it to Gram,” he said, and started scraping away more dirt from the edges.

Another few minutes, and she and Colin were lifting out the chest. He brushed the dirt off the old leather top, undid the hasps and raised the lid. And there inside, in a large sealed plastic bag, was a large manila envelope.

He looked at Mia. “Well, here goes.” Then he pulled it out and offered it to her.

She shook her head. “You open it.” Her hands were shaking too much to do it, anyway. Once more she found herself holding her breath as he opened the bag and took out the envelope. She watched as he opened it and pulled out a document.

His eyebrows drew together, and then he blinked several times in an obvious effort to hold back tears. “Oh, my God,” he said faintly and sat down hard on the damp ground.

August 3, 2016

Dear Mother,

Gerald came to me again last night. He promised to be right there at heaven’s gate waiting for me.

I’m ready to go. This morning I feel awful. I’m perspiring as if I have the flu and I have a horrible headache and a terrible pain in my arm. I think I’d better call Beth.

Chapter Eighteen

C
olin stared at the deed. How could this be?

Mia was kneeling next to him now. “What is it?”

“It’s the deed to this place.” His eyes were seeing it, but his brain was having trouble processing. The home that held so many memories was now theirs? He felt overwhelmed with gratitude, but it came wrapped in disbelief. He had to be dreaming.

“Oh, my,” Mia said faintly.

He heard the sound of heavy footsteps and looked up to see the man he’d assumed now owned his grandmother’s house.

“Saw your car,” Butch Garvey said. “I see you found what you were looking for.”

“I thought you owned this,” Colin said.

Butch shook his head. “Nah. I’ve just been the caretaker. Got a little place over on the other side of town I’ve been renting out to my cousin. Your grandma hired me six years ago to keep the place running for her. If you want, I’ll stay on and help you with it.”

“She bought it six years ago? Who knew about that?”

Butch shrugged. “Your dad, I guess, since he’s the lawyer.”

Colin opened the accompanying piece of folded pink stationery and read.

If you have any questions, you can ask your Aunt Beth. I love you both,

Grandma

Any questions? Yeah, he had a ton of them! Who knew about this besides Aunt Beth, Uncle Mark and Dad? Why had Gram kept it a secret from him? Why hadn’t she moved back? Then there was the most important question of all. What were he and Mia going to do now? He looked at her and saw her wiping away tears.

“I think we need to go see Aunt Beth,” he said.

She nodded and they got up and started for his car.

“Be talkin’ to you,” Butch called after them.

Gram had left them the orchard. More than that, she’d left him his dream. And a house, and a chance for a new beginning.

But Mia was leaving for Chicago. He was supposed to move to Chicago. “I don’t know what to do,” he said. He knew what he
wanted
to do, but that was something entirely different.

“Like you said, we go talk to Aunt Beth.”

He’d half hoped she’d say that they should get married and move into the house on Apple Blossom Road. But she didn’t. Maybe all the implications of their inheritance hadn’t registered yet. Or maybe she was so in love with her important corporate life that she didn’t care. She’d been focused on success since high school. Growing apples probably didn’t fit that definition.

So he could buy Mia out and continue what his grandparents had started. Or he could sell the place and go with her. He felt like the proverbial monkey with his hand stuck in the jar.
Let go of what’s in the jar and you can keep Mia.
It was a no-brainer—he needed to let go of what was in the jar.

They didn’t talk on their way back to the car. They didn’t talk as they drove to Aunt Beth’s place, either, and it wasn’t a comfortable silence. They each had a choice to make. She, too, had her hand stuck in a jar.

They found Aunt Beth at her kitchen table, along with Dad, both nursing lattes. “So you found your treasure at last,” she said.

Yes, he had, and the treasure wasn’t that orchard, special as it was. The true treasure was Mia. He loosened his grip and pulled his hand free from the jar and was rewarded with a giant swell of love and joy. He put an arm around her shoulders. “Yep, we did.”

“So you knew about this all along?” Mia asked. “Both of you?”

Dad wasn’t smiling, but Aunt Beth was beaming. “Yes. Our mother was a very special woman.”

Dad nodded. “Yes, she was.”

“Once she made all that money, she was determined to get the orchard back. She knew how much you loved it, Colin, and she’d always felt a little as if she’d robbed you of your birthright.”

Hearing this made him feel unappreciative, considering what he knew he had to do. “I never thought that.” Yes, he’d been sad to see the orchard go, had envisioned it staying in the family, but he’d never felt
entitled
to it
like some kind of prince or a rich kid waiting for his inheritance.

“I know. Still, selling it was such a blow. When she realized she had enough money from her investments, she approached the owners and made them a nice offer and they took it.”

“Why keep it a secret? Why didn’t she tell me?”

“She was going to,” Aunt Beth said, “but you seemed to be happy in the city and she didn’t want you to feel obligated to come home and take over managing it. So she hired Butch Garvey to run the place and simply sat on it for a while and just enjoyed having it. Then it became apparent that you were...drifting. After she talked with you on your last visit—”

The Fourth of July. She’d stuffed him with pie and grilled him about his job, the city, his love life, even Mia. He’d finally had enough of getting his sore spots poked and told her to mind her own business. Ugh.

“She knew she’d been right to buy back the orchard and that it needed to go to you. It was meant to stay in the family.”

He didn’t deserve it. He wanted to cry. “Why all this running around chasing clues, though?” he asked and saw the corners of his father’s mouth slip farther down.

“Can’t you guess?” his aunt asked.

Actually, he could. He looked at Mia and she was blushing.

“She’d hoped you’d find an even greater treasure than that deed.”

“We have,” Colin said.

His aunt’s face lit up. “So...”

“So we’re going to—”

“Talk about it,” Mia said, and hauled him out of the kitchen.

“What’s there to talk about?” he protested as she led him through the living room.

“What do you mean, what’s there to talk about?”

“We need to sell it.”

“Sell it!” Her frown was as deep as Dad’s. She opened the front door and pulled him to the front porch swing, settling him on it. “You can’t sell your family’s orchard, not when Grandma Justine worked so hard to get it back for you.”

“For us,” he corrected her. “What use have we got for it if we’re living in Chicago?”

Except, maybe they could keep Butch on to run the place. Surely someday they’d get back to Icicle Falls. Unless Mia kept rising in the company. Then what would they do?

She sat for a moment, looking at the mountains rising all around them, seeing something he couldn’t. Then she suddenly stood. “Stay there,” she said, and marched back into the house. What the heck?

* * *

“You’re wrong, as usual,” Aunt Beth was saying when Mia walked into the kitchen. She gave a start at the sight of her. “Oh. You’re back.”

“Could I speak to Dylan alone?” Mia asked.

Beth seemed surprised, but said, “Sure,” and left the room.

Now it was just the two of them, Mia and the man who had never accepted her, and he was looking as uncomfortable as she felt. Her heart was at it again, banging so hard she felt it was going to push its way right out of her chest. Part of her wanted to turn and run, but she knew she couldn’t. She had to have answers. She’d needed answers for years.

“Are you going to sit down?” he asked.

This wasn’t a sit-down conversation. She remained standing. “Why don’t you want me to marry your son?”

He blinked. “I never said that.”

“You told me yesterday not to break his heart.”

“And I meant it. You already broke it once before.”

“He’s the one who broke mine,” she said. “
He
left
me
. Colin never told you that?”

“He told me you’d found someone else.”

“He jumped to conclusions.”

Dylan exhaled a world-weary sigh. “Mia, what’s the purpose of this conversation?”

“The purpose is to find out why you don’t like me.”

He pulled back and looked at her in shock. “Whatever gave you that idea?”

Seriously? “I know you’ve never liked me.”

“And you know that how?” Oh, yes, he was, indeed a lawyer.
Show me the evidence
.

Heat rushed up Mia’s neck and exploded across her face. “I heard what you said to Colin in the orchard all those years ago.” The most humiliating experience of her life, bar none.

He shook his head. “Mia, I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

The heat of embarrassment was so intense she was sure her face was going to catch fire and melt. She couldn’t look Dylan in the face, so she focused on Aunt Beth’s half-full mug. “You said, ‘And Mia of all people.’ That was when I knew I wasn’t good enough. I was the little girl you all took in, just a hanger-on.”

“Not good enough! Was that what you thought?”

She looked up to see him staring at her in astonishment. “What else should I have thought?”

“That I was concerned my son was taking advantage of you, that you were young and vulnerable. You’d been through enough, been hurt enough. Our family needed to be a safe place for you, and Colin needed to understand and respect that.”

Now she did sit down, falling onto the chair and placing her hands on the kitchen table to steady them. “I thought...”

“I suppose you thought I was some kind of monster,” he said. “Well, I’m not. I may not be as touchy-feely as my sister, but I care about this family.”

“And what about me?” she asked.

“You’ve always been a member of the family.”

He didn’t exactly come out and say he cared about her, too. Maybe this was as close as he’d ever get. “Your son wants me to marry him.”

“I figured as much.”

Would it hurt Dylan to smile? “Are you okay with that?”

Oh, wait. What was this? A small stretching of the lips, a slight upward curve. “Of course I am. I assume, since we’re having this conversation, that you’re going to say yes.”

“I am if I’m wanted. If I’ve proved myself.”

“You’ve never not been wanted, Mia. You should know that. And you’ve never needed to prove yourself, not to me, anyway.”

She hadn’t? She could feel tears welling up and her throat tightening.

He stood and opened his arms. “Welcome to the family.”

The tears spilled over and she hurried to hug him. “Thank you,” she managed.

He gave her back a pat and then stepped away. “I guess you and your husband-to-be had better decide what you’re going to do with your inheritance.”

She smiled at him, thanked him and then hurried out of the kitchen. She stopped to hug Aunt Beth, who was hovering in the living room, then rushed back out onto the front porch where Colin was waiting.

He was no longer sitting on the porch swing. Now he was pacing. He looked at her, brows knit. “What was that all about?” he asked.

“Just making sure everyone wants me in the family.”

He frowned. “Of course everyone wants you in the family. And even if they didn’t, I don’t care.
I
want you.”

You’ll always have a family
, her mother had promised. Mama was right. She’d lost some important things as a girl, but the Wrights had stepped in and filled the void. They would always be there for her, a rock-solid foundation on which she could build her life with Colin. And they could build that anywhere.

“I need to call my boss.”

He nodded, lips pressed tightly together. He was willing to follow her to the ends of the world, or at least the other side of the country. She couldn’t help remembering
The Princess Bride
.
As you wish.

She wished for so much just now that her heart felt ready to explode.

Andrea answered her phone with a curt hello.

Mia’s heart began to hammer in her chest again. “Andrea, I’m afraid I won’t be able to make it into the office.”

The silence at the other end was like the silence before the guillotine fell or the trap door opened and you wound up swinging by your neck. “Mia.”

“I know. I know what this means. I’m only coming in to wrap things up. I’ll be giving my two weeks’ notice.”

“Have you gone mad?”

“No, I’ve inherited a fortune.”

“Well,” Andrea huffed. “I hope you enjoy spending it. You’ve certainly left me in the lurch.”

“I’m sorry. But I know you’ll find someone to replace me,” Mia said, and ended the call. Considering how many hungry ladder climbers there were at GF Markets, it wouldn’t be hard. Really, there was only one person who considered her irreplaceable.

And right now he was looking at her as if she’d just chopped off her foot. “What was that?”

“That was me starting my new life.” She closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around his waist, gazed up into those blue eyes, waiting for the smile to come and make them crinkle. “Colin Wright, will you marry me?”

“Babe, the sooner, the better,” he said, and kissed her, his lips hard against hers, filling her with his energy and hope. A moment later he pulled back, brows knitting again. “Are you sure? I said I’d move to Chicago and I meant it.”

“I don’t need that job anymore.”

“This isn’t exactly a fortune.”

“I don’t need a fortune.” And she didn’t need some fancy job to prove her worth. “All I need is you.”

Now it came, the smile that lit his eyes and made them crinkle at the sides. By the time he was fifty he’d have deep crow’s feet. And he’d still look gorgeous.

“We can be us anywhere,” she said softly, “but the best place to be us is right here in Icicle Falls, carrying on the family tradition.” She didn’t need to prove herself anymore. She simply needed to enjoy belonging.

* * *

She knew it. She’d always known it. Beth sauntered back into the kitchen, sat down at the table where her stubborn brother was finishing his coffee and picked up her mug.

She cocked an eyebrow at him. “Are you ready to admit Mom and I were right?”

“You were eavesdropping” he accused her.

“Of course I was. Honestly, Dylan, it’s a good thing we all love you or we’d have to kick you out of the family.”

“I had no idea she felt like that,” he protested.

For such an intelligent man, he had a shocking lack of wisdom when it came to people. “I think you owe Mom and me an apology. Since she’s not here, I’ll accept it on her behalf.”

He rolled his eyes.

“Come on, say it. Repeat after me. ‘You were right.’”

“Yes, yes. It looks like, for once in your life, you were right.”