Page 69 of Peach Blossom Hollow

“Yeah? Big or small?”

“Can we not do this right now?”

“Do what?”

“This.” She waved her hand. Why had she told him she hadn’t minded the kiss? Why?

“I’m curious, though. I want to understand and see it the way you do.”

She stared at Jenny’s float again, mentally choosing which dress she’d wear to her own wedding. What was the danger in telling him what she wanted? It might actually protect her, send him a step or two further away from her, widen that distance she so desperately needed in order to think straight tonight.

She faced him, voice firm. “I want biggish.”

“Why’s that?”

Her breath left her as the familiar image came to mind of what her wedding day would be like. Her walking down the aisle as the center of attention. Everyone standing to watch her pass. The little girls wanting to grow up to be like her.

“You’ll never look as radiant and beautiful as you do on your wedding day. I want that day,” she said firmly. “The whole, entire day. Not just the dress-up part. I want everyone in my life to celebrate with me. To celebrate love. I want the wedding to mark the beginning of an unbreakable bond I hope we’ll always have. A husband and partner who’ll be there even when his fears are striking at him. A man who’ll be there with me through all of the changes life throws at us. Moving in together, having children, changing jobs, vacations, retirement, sickness, health, grandchildren. Everything. Shoulder to shoulder, through thick and thin.”

“That sounds beautiful.” Leo squeezed her hand again.

She gently extracted it from his. His gaze was filled with genuine caring, and she knew she trusted him implicitly. Maybe even more than she’d ever trusted Wyatt. Leo was filling so many holes in her life, holes she hadn’t even realized existed.

But he was just a friend. An important friend.

She turned away, afraid that her true feelings, which had been growing stronger and stronger, might show.

She reminded herself that his sweet words and attentiveness were an exercise, a workout drill that would bring him closer to his ultimate goal of finding a partner, not a lover, friend and wife all wrapped into one.

Leo wished Violet would look at him, allow him to show her he might be boyfriend material. But she kept gazing past him. She was being that fierce, angry panda he so adored, and he wanted to gently swing her face to his, and kiss her. Not an exuberant kiss this time. A real one.

The kind a girlfriend would want.

He was working on opening up his thinking and was realizing that he wanted love, weddings and happily ever afters with someone he understood and enjoyed being around.

Someone like Violet.

Somehow, those popular visions around relationships that he’d never understood all seemed to make sense when he was with her.

“I like that you still believe in love and want a wedding,” he said.

She crumpled the paper cup her cider had been in and tossed it in the trash. “Yeah, well, Wyatt doesn’t get to destroy me or what I want. He left town, you know. He couldn’t take the heat after leaving me at the altar.”

“And you stayed.”

“I did.”

“I think I’d like a wedding. In a church.”

She yawned, the angry panda suddenly gone, replaced by exhaustion. “I think I need to go home.”

“Want to grab your costume? I’ll give you a ride.”

He’d parked at the school after driving them in from her place. He’d thought they’d have a bit more time together tonight, mingling during the event, but something was irking Violet and he longed to settle her.

“I’ll pick up Dezzie tomorrow when the streets are less busy.”

They weaved through the crowds and walked the few blocks to the school.

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