Page 90 of Lovewell Lane

“How would you feel about telling Tessa about us?” Derek murmured while he pulled one of his T-shirts over my head.

“Do you want to?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m sure about this,” he said. “Are you?”

I nodded sleepily.

“We can talk about it more later. I just wanted to run it past you,” he said before helping me get underneath the covers.

I barely remembered falling asleep. One blink, and it was daylight.

Honey Festival Day.

The moment I opened my eyes, the anxiety crept in. But Derek’s arm was heavily draped across my waist.

And I knew everything would be okay.

31

Derek

“Big day,” Margo whispered.

My eyes fluttered open at the sound of her voice. “Happy birthday,” I slurred.

I was half asleep, but I’d been waiting weeks to tell her that. She giggled in my ear and turned over to roll out of bed. I swung my arm up and around her waist to drag her back to my chest.

“Not so fast,” I murmured.

She wiggled to turn around to face me. “We have to get ready. It’s a big day.”

“The day can wait. This is the best part.”

I watched her face flush pink before she grabbed a pillow that wasn’t being used and shoved it in my face. “It’s too early for sap. It’s the day of the Honey Festival! We’ve been waiting for this for months. Get up!”

“Okay, okay,” I placated. “I’m up.”

“Let’s go. I’m so excited,” Margo gushed.

I wondered if we’d overhyped the Festival when telling her about it, because she was up and ready like it was Christmas morning. She rushed to get ready and was out the door after a quick kiss from me.

Tessa was just as eager once she was awake. We got in the truck and I had to pick my jaw off the ground as we drove closer to thepark. The Festival didn’t even start until ten am. Yet, it was eight in the morning and people were parking their cars and getting out to see the booths unpack their goods.

The town looked different when it was so full of life. It reminded me of when I was a child and went to the Honey Festival with our whole family. Mom loved big events like this. Jack and Calli were too little to do anything, but Sam and I would run around the whole Festival looking for things to get into.

Booths lined the circle loop of the park with colorful signs and flags hung. As the day went on, the smell of baked goods filled the air as people walked around with concessions and giant cartons of strawberries. Banners waved in the breeze. Kids ran around with sticky fingers and paper crowns.

There were more people than I could have ever hoped for.

I was starting to get anxious.

We’d pulled it off, that much was clear. People were showing up in droves. I reminded myself to thank Margo’s friend Scarlet later, whenever Margo found her way over to our booth. I nearly made Tessa pinch me when another giant crowd of people filed in to look at our tables filled with produce.

No, I wasn’t nervous aboutthat.

I was nervous about what came after.

About Margo, and the way she looked at me last night when I asked if she wanted to tell Tessa about us. Like maybe she was starting to believe this thing between us was more than just ‘taking it slow’.

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