Page 131 of Darling Daffodils Farm
“And then Rayna hit her,” I finish.
Penny nods. “Cool, cool. Business as usual.” Then in a louder voice she yells, “Let’s give the people what they want, Fletch! Announce our Daffodil King!”
Fletcher blinks down at the piece of paper in his hand and shakes his head before opening it. “It is my great honor,” he says, a huge smile spreading across his face, “to be the first to congratulate Jesse Walker as our grand marshal.”
My sister, my mother, and I all let out loud whoops of excitement as Fletcher motions for Walker to come up to the mic to address the room. Walker steps up and Fletcher holds out the daffodil flower crown that my mother made this afternoon. He stares at it before shaking his head, dumbstruck.
“Come on, Walker. Say something,” I mutter aloud.
“Hi, Walker!” Rosie screams from behind the bar.
Walker’s chin falls down as he chuckles.
Eli follows with it up with another “Hi, Walker,” and then suddenly the entire room is greeting the man who always claimed he doesn’t like peopling. Too bad for him.
His gaze searches the room, and when it settles on me, his face brightens.
“Hi, everyone. Thank you for—ugh—making my girl-friend’s dreams come true.” He motions toward the daffodil crown in his hand and finally places it on his head as everyone laughs. “As most of you probably know, I didn’t grow up here. I didn’t know my neighbors. People didn’t say hello to me; they didn’t really say hello to one another, either. And I thought that was good thing. And I suppose it was until I came to Hope Harbor and you all refused to let me by without acknowledging me.”
Penny nudges me in the arm. “Look at Walker with all the words.”
“Right? Who knew! By the way, Jake Montgomery!”
Penny’s cheeks pink right up as my mother shushes us. “Girls, pay attention.”
We look back to Walker, whose attention is still on the three of us. “Meeting Peter Darling was the greatest thing to ever happen to me.” My hand goes to my chest. “Because he introduced me to this town; he gave me community, a purpose. And now I’m lucky enough to live on a farm doing the things I love, with the woman I love by my side.”
Walker closes his eyes for a second, and when he opens them again, it’s as if something settles within him. “So thank you all for making me your grand marshal. It’s an honor.”
The entire room erupts in applause when he steps back and then it takes him a good twenty minutes to make it through the crowd as everyone congratulates him.
“Want to get some air before you speak to anyone else?” I ask him when he finally reaches me.
He presses a kiss to my forehead. “You know me so well.”
“Hey,” my best friend calls. “Before the two of you disappear, we’ve got to do a toast.”
Walker and I look at each other nervously. If the expression on Rosie’s face is any indication, she’s about to hit us with a doozy of a cheers. I shrug. “Make it Fireball.”
Walker’s hand settles on my back, and he pushes me toward the bar, where my sister, Fletcher, and Eli sit.
Rosie lines up the shots and then waits until we each grab one. “To going after our dreams, each and every one of us.”
“I’ll cheers to that,” Walker says as he holds up his shot glass. He tips his against mine and winks.
Smiling, I watch as every one of my friends hesitates to do the same. Guess I’m not the only one who struggled with figuring out what my dreams were before I started chasing them. I nudge my sister in the shoulder. Her eyes have already circled the room one too many times searching for her long-lost friend. “Remember, the only thing worse than no sex is bad sex.”
She coughs out a laugh, taps her glass against Rosie’s, and says, “Okay. To chasing our dreams.”
And because I’m not about to risk being called a liar, as soon as I finish my shot, I grab my dream by the hand and tug him out into the warm spring night.
We don’t return for the dance marathon, but I do spendthe night in Walker’s arms with only the moonlight as our witness. Amidst the pink and yellow tulips, the lavender lilacs and bourgeoning white hydrangea, we sway in the fields I’m lucky enough to call my home as I make a whole list of dreams I still want to achieve.
And I tell Walker every single one of them.
