Page 45 of Mistletoe Sky
“We have all this fudge that we want to deliver,” she explained. “We were going to do it on snowshoes, super slowly, but…” She pointed at the snowmobile.
Marius got the hint. “I can’t take all of you,” he said.
“Willa will go with you,” Amelie said. “I’ll take care of everyone within walking distance.”
Willa cast her sister a look that either meantdon’t do this to me!orthank you!She wasn’t sure how she felt as she was pushed into Marius Isaacson’s arms.
Don’t overthink this, she thought.
“Unless you have to work at the stables,” Willa hurried to say.
Marius laughed. “I have a few guys up at the stables, monitoring the horses. But honestly, we can’t do much until thesnow melts a bit more. They’re fed and watered and warm. I’m free to deliver fudge, if that’s what I’m tasked to do.”
In the sunlight, smiling at her, Willa thought she never wanted to leave his side.
“I’ll load up on fudge,” she said, whirling away from the sidewalk.
Amelie was hot on her heels, following her into the kitchen to gather the boxes. They separated them into two piles and discussed who would go where based on their mode of transportation. Amelie spoke a mile a minute.
Willa was panicking. She put her hands on the kitchen counter.
Amelie stopped her monologue and touched Willa’s shoulder. “Just lean into this,” she whispered. “You don’t have to take anything too fast. Just feel what you need to feel. Just breathe.”
Willa nodded, flaring her nostrils.
Soon, she was on the back of the snowmobile with the sharp wind in her face and boxes of fudge secured on either side. Marius drove slowly and gently, aware that she hadn’t been on a snowmobile in a while. They went up the hill and stopped at several houses, ringing doorbells and greeting old friends with fudge.
“Happy blizzard!” Willa said each time the door opened.
Most of the islanders recognized her as a Caraway twin immediately, but not all of them knew that she’d returned to film the commercial. Some of them thought she was Amelie, and she didn’t correct them. She was grateful to have her sister’s face.
A woman in her seventies practically threw herself at Willa, crying out, “Willa Caraway! You look just like your mother. But goodness, that hair! Where did it come from? I’ve always wondered.”
She demanded Willa update her on the past decades of her life, and Willa glanced at Marius, shrugged, and said, “I think I’ll be sticking around for a little while. Maybe we can catch up properly when the Christmas Festival starts up again.”
It took a little more than two hours to hand-deliver the boxes of fudge Willa’d brought from the shop. By the time she and Marius were finished, Willa sat as close to Marius as she could, her legs wrapped around his body for security as they whizzed down an island lane. Her eyes were filled with tears, possibly from the cold or from seeing so many people she’d loved all her life.
So many of the islanders she’d grown up with were gone: lost to time, but forever in her memory.
And there were plenty of islanders she hadn’t yet gotten to know. Children of the people she’d grown up with, all of them eager to know her name and laugh with her.
When they returned to the fudge shop, they found Amelie and Pascal already back, cleaning up the kitchen, whistling and laughing. Willa’s heart filled. It was so clear they were falling in love. When would they admit it to themselves, or to each other?
When Amelie realized Willa and Marius had returned, she said, “I saw Dad.”
Willa’s heart shifted.Can I handle this?
“I told him we’ll come up this afternoon,” Amelie said, wincing. “Is that all right?”
Willa steeled herself. “Of course it is,” she said because it had to be.
“The guys are invited, if they want to come,” Amelie said, glancing from Marius to Pascal and back again. “What do you say? There will be plenty of food. Grandma Mary’s cooking.”
“I’m not one to say no to Grandma Mary’s cooking,” Pascal said.
Marius nodded, his face shadowed, as though he knew how important the afternoon was for Willa. “I’ll be there.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
