Page 44 of Love Letter Lost
“We sit here and pretend like we don’t have more work to do?”
Ridge sat quietly, considering. “Do you think, if we sit here long enough, magic elves will come and make everything for us?”
“Not unless you’re Santa Claus or a shoemaker,” I said glumly.
“I haven’t completely ruled out those career options, though I’m guessing they might pay about as well as a teacher, so I don’t think Amber would be on board,” Ridge joked. He paused for a moment longer before pushing to his feet and moving into the kitchen. “Come on. Let’s get to work.”
I groaned but remained seated. “If I never see a peach decoration, dress, or flower again, I’ll be okay.”
“What about peaches?” Ridge quirked an eyebrow at me as he walked back to the couch.
“That would be a tragedy! My disdain for peach extends only to the color. Peaches are in a completely separate category.” I was full after our late lunch, but the thought of peaches made my mouth water.
“I don’t know if the two are mutually exclusive. After all, the color peach has to come from somewhere.”
“Notice I didn’t include peachfruiton my list,” I persisted, wagging a finger at him.
Ridge bit his lip and didn’t reply. Instead, he sat back down on the couch next to me.
“Rustic-looking wood might be added to that outlawed list as well,” I muttered as I thought about the supplies waiting to be made into centerpieces.
“What about tea lights?” he asked. “Or picture frames?”
I glanced around the room, taking in the few picture frames I had hanging on my walls. “My house would look kind of sad if I skipped the frames and put my pictures directly on the walls. But then again, it would make decorating significantly easier.”
“That’s true,” Ridge agreed. “But regardless of your personal feelings towards the color peach and rustic wood, we’ve got to get these centerpieces figured out so we can help with set up in a couple days.”
Ridge and I had been moving through Livvy’s list faster than anticipated, meaning tomorrow would give us a break from wedding preparations so long as we finished the centerpieces tonight.
Ridge’s words spurred me into action, and I pushed up from the couch, ignoring my ankle, and made my way to the table. My ankle ached a bit with each step, but not enough to indicate a serious injury. “Honestly, the easiest place to start would be to load the pictures into the frames, but since we won’t get those from Livvy until we’re setting up, we’ll just have to make the best of what we’ve got.”
Ridge moved around the table and retrieved the bags of picture frames, wood pieces, and mason jars that we’d purchased. Sticking them on the table, we began to unload everything. The hodge-podge of items was overwhelming but thanks to Pinterest, I had an idea of what to do. Leaving one section of the table open for our mock display, I got to work.
I stuck a picture frame in the center of the space and added a mason jar off to the side. I then took a couple of leftover roses from our flower arranging and stuck them in the jar. I put one of the wood pieces next to the jar and frame to create a grouping of three and stepped back.
“What do you think?” I considered my work. Somehow it didn’t look anything like the pictures I’d seen.
“Uh, that’s one idea.” Ridge stood next to me, taking in the simple display. “Are the flowers supposed to lean like that?”
The roses I’d stuck into the jar were leaning away from each other, looking like they were trying to escape.
“I think their stems are too long. Maybe if I cut them…” I grabbed one of the roses and a pair of wire cutters that had been left out from the day before. Quickly, I snipped off the end of the rose and stuck it back in the jar, but the rose fell into the jar, disappearing below the lip. I’d cut it too short.
“Let’s try that again.” Ridge grabbed the wire cutters from me and picked up another rose, measuring it against the mason jar. He cut off the end and placed the resized rose in the jar, repeating the process with a couple more roses.
“It looks better, but it’s still not great.”
I looked over the pile of random craft supplies littering the table. We had ribbon, lace, tea lights, and the other leftover flowers from the wedding arrangements. Not a whole lot to work with. A small bag of polished peach and white stones caught my eye. They reminded me of something I’d find in a fish tank. I had grabbed them on a whim, thinking we could sprinkle them on the tables for an added bit of peach.
I pulled the roses out of the jar, picked up the stones, and poured them into the jar. They made a satisfying clinking sound that helped ease my tension. “What if we did something like this?” I held up the jar for Ridge’s inspection.
“A jar full of rocks?” He gave me an incredulous look. “It seems kind of childish.”
“Well, I am an elementary school teacher, but that’s not quite the vibe I’m going for.”
I set the jar next to the picture frame and wood stand and we continued to stare at the items in front of us. Ridge reached over and gabbed a tea light, setting it on the wood stand. It was a nice addition, but the arrangement still looked incomplete. I picked up the ribbon and toyed with it between my fingers. Finally, I reached over and wrapped a bit around the middle of the jar. It added a nice touch of silver that matched the picture frame. I quickly cut a piece of ribbon and did my best to tie a bow at the top of the mason jar. The result was a bit lopsided but gave the basic idea.
“I like that,” Ridge said. “It’s still simple, but I think it works.”
