Page 270 of Castleton Hearts Boxed Set

“Do you know someone who does that?” I asked.

“Yeah, do you know Randy Collier?” she asked. He was a jack-of-all-trades in town who mowed lawns, plowed driveways, built decks, and hauled old junk to the dump for people with his truck.

“Yeah, he does refinishing furniture too? He’s a busy guy.”

“I know, but his work is beautiful. I was lucky to find someone so close to the inn. I can’t count how many things he’s fixed or patched for me. Our furniture can take a beating,” she said.

Alivia added the chair to her order and we took one last look before loading up her car and heading to the next location.

“I’m looking to spruce up the den with some new throw pillows. We’ve had the same ones, and I’d like to change them out with the seasons,” she said as she pulled into the parking lot of a sweet little independent home goods store.

By the time we left with six new throw pillows that had fall leaves embroidered on them, I was starting to get tired.

“Do you need to take a break?” Alivia asked as I yawned.

“No, I’m good,” I said. “I’m not this bad at shopping, I swear.”

“No, it’s fine. I tend to just power through and crash later and regret everything. I make a lot of bad purchases when I’m tired.”

I laughed. “I’m always ordering stuff when I have a few too many drinks. Then the boxes show up and it’s like drunk Santa visited me.”

She burst out laughing.

“I know where we can take a little break,” she said, taking the next exit off the highway.

I figured out where we were going when she turned right at the sign for The Midnight Vineyard.

“Oh, very nice,” I said as we parked. I’d never been to a vineyard before.

“We don’t have to drink, we can just take a walk through the vines. It’s really beautiful. They’re one of our vendors at the inn, so we can take a tour if you want.”

I was happy to just wander around. There were other people clearly on a wine tasting tour, and judging by the volume of laughter from the group, they were several glasses in.

The vineyard sloped downhill toward a little pond with a bridge over it and several benches.

Alivia and I sat down and watched ducks paddle on the surface as turtles and fish swam below.

“This is really pretty,” I said.

“Yeah, they do weddings here too,” Alivia said.

“It would be a beautiful place for a wedding,” I said. I could just picture it. If I were the one getting married, I’d want to be on the bridge, with all the guests sitting around us on the banks of the pond so everyone could see.

“Does helping a lot of people with their weddings make you think about your own?” I asked her.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I do know that the stress of a wedding is almost never worth it, and weddings are mostly not about the couple, but about everyone else. Personally, I think elopement is the way to go.”

I went back and forth on whether I wanted a big wedding, or to just run off to the courthouse. It didn’t really matter, because it wasn’t like I had anyone to marry me anytime soon.

“What kind of wedding would you want to have?” she asked me softly, leaning a fraction closer on the bench.

“I’m not sure. I change my mind a lot. I think it would depend on who I was marrying and what they would want.” I met her eyes and stopped breathing.

My body was drawn to her, wanting to be closer to her.

She licked her lips, drawing all of my attention to her mouth.

“We should go,” she said, almost with regret.

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