Falling in Love on Willow Creek by Debbie Mason
Chapter Eight
Chase began to second-guess his wedding proposal idea the moment he saddled up Lula Belle. The white horse belonged to Agnes and played the starring role in Sadie’s children’s book series, Lula Belle the Unicorn.
After several tries, Chase had managed to attach the gold unicorn horn but his attempt at weaving wildflowers into the horse’s mane and tail had only served to irritate Lula Belle. Chase and the horse were already on shaky ground so he didn’t think it was in his best interests to further tick off Lula Belle, especially since he was a novice rider.
From where he now sat on the horse in the meadow, half-hidden by a tree, Chase watched for Sadie’s SUV. His phone pinged with an incoming message. Lula Belle shook her mane and then went back to beheading the yellow flowers in the meadow. Chase gingerly adjusted the unicorn horn that had slid over her eye before retrieving his phone from the back pocket of his jeans.
He opened WhatsApp and checked out Hunter’s latest text, smiling at the photo of Bella and Wolf, the couple’s dogs. Bella, a tiny Yorkshire terrier, wore a pink frilly dress with a sign around her neck that read Marry Me. Beside her, Wolf, a white dog who was actually part wolf, wore a tuxedo with a sign around his neck that read On October 23.
Above the photo, Hunter texted:
She said yes.
Chase replied with a thumbs-up and a smiley-face emoji. Seconds later, Gabe did the same.
Gabe followed up with a photo of a bed covered in red rose petals and then a selfie of him and Mallory sitting at a small table on a balcony, enjoying a candlelight dinner with a view of Mirror Lake in the background. From the smiles on the couple’s faces, Mallory had said yes too. Which Gabe confirmed seconds later. Both Chase and Hunter responded with thumbs-ups and smiley-face emojis.
They were followed by a text from Hunter:
Seriously? Emojis? How about ‘You rocked it’? Or ‘Best proposals ever’?
Then another text from Hunter:
Sorry. Abby got hold of my phone.
Chase laughed and texted Abby’s suggestions to both Hunter’s and Gabe’s phones, adding fireworks and a couple of confetti horns. Then he typed, Still waiting for my bride-to-be. Raising his hand, he took a selfie of himself sitting on Lula Belle. Seconds after he’d posted the photo to their group chat, he received a line of laughing/crying emojis from each of his friends.
Lose the shirt, Fabio.
Chase glanced down at the white Henley he wore and typed, Who’s Fabio?
How should I know? That was Abby again. Please keep your shirt on.
Then Gabe wrote:
A male romance-novel cover model. But don’t listen to Abby. You’re going to rock your proposal, Chase.Just FYI, I do not read romance novels. That was Mallory.
Chase typed, This is a private group chat. Keep your phones with you at all times. He added a wedding chapel and a bride emoji so Hunter and Gabe would get his point. They were using the group chat to discuss their wedding plans.
At the sound of a car driving down the gravel road, he looked up from the screen. It was Sadie. He stuck the phone in his back pocket and gathered up the reins. “Okay, Lula Belle. It’s showtime.” He gently nudged her sides with the heels of his hiking boots to get her moving as Sadie’s SUV approached. “Come on, girl. Stop eating. We’re going to miss our window of opportunity.” He tugged on the reins, and Lula Belle stamped her right hoof without lifting her head.
Sadie’s SUV drove by.
Chase opened the saddlebag and pulled out an apple, leaning over to give Lula Belle a look at what he had in his hand. She gave the apple the side-eye.
“You want it, girl. You know you do.” He drew his arm back and pitched it a solid ten yards in a straight line down the meadow. “Yes,” he said when the horse lifted her head. But his yes quickly turned into a no when Lula Belle took off at a gallop instead of the easy trot he’d envisioned.
They passed Sadie’s SUV. Chase, who was hanging on for dear life at that point, didn’t dare raise his hand to wave. “Whoa, Lula Belle. Whoa.” He tugged harder on the reins. The landscape whizzed by. “I said whoa, not go!” he shouted, as they raced past the cottage.
Up ahead, a downed tree loomed in their path. Chase frantically tugged on the right rein to get the horse to change direction before it was too late. A sharp whistle rent the air. Lula Belle stopped short less than a foot from the tree. Chase slid sideways off the saddle.
Heart hammering, Chase was pulling himself upright when Lula Belle started moving again. He was relieved she appeared to be heading back the way they’d come, but he was ready for the ride to end. “Whoa, girl. Whoa. Stop!” he shouted when she shot off at a gallop. Hanging sideways off the saddle, wildflowers slapping him in the face, Chase made out the woman he loved running toward them.
“Lula Belle!” Sadie called, and then whistled.
The horse came to a dead stop. Chase slid the rest of the way out of the saddle, landing flat on his back in the meadow. Breathless, Sadie ran to stand over him, phone in her hand, tears streaming down her face. She dropped to her knees at his side. “Honey, are you okay?”
He raised a hand to her face. “Other than a little battered and bruised, I’m fine.” His ego was certainly battered and bruised, but he doubted the rest of him was.
Her shoulders were shaking, and that’s when he realized the tears on her face weren’t from fear but from laughter. If there was any doubt, the gurgle in her voice when she confirmed that he was all right alleviated it. She must have called emergency services.
“You can cancel the ambulance.”
She lay down beside him on her back and held up her phone. Gabe and Mallory and Hunter and Abby appeared in boxes on the screen. They were laughing hysterically.
“Best proposal ever, bro,” Hunter said, swiping tears from his face.
“No way anyone will top that,” Gabe said.
Chase stabbed the phone with his finger, ending the call.
“I’m sorry but I had to call them. It was just too—” She broke off when Lula Belle came over to nuzzle his cheek, her unicorn horn falling off her head and onto his face.
Chase sighed, turning his head to look at Sadie, who buried her face in his chest, no doubt in an attempt to muffle her laughter. She raised a finger. “Just give me a minute to get—”
“I was going for a romantic proposal, you know. Not one that would send you and our friends into fits of laughter.”
Lifting her head from his chest, Sadie smiled and wiped the tears from her face. “I’d take an unforgettable proposal over a romantic one any day of the week. Besides,” she said, pressing a sweet kiss to his cheek, “you did romantic the first time.”
“Are you forgetting I fell out of the rowboat?”
She pressed her lips together, her eyes sparkling with amusement. “Don’t make me laugh again. My stomach muscles can’t take it.”
“You’re so beautiful.” He took her hand, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “Especially when you laugh.”
“You’re the only man who’s ever made me laugh, Chase. I’m happier with you in my life than I’ve ever been or than I ever thought I could possibly—”
“Hold that thought.” He released her hand and pushed himself to his feet. Hiding his pained grimace, he did his best to walk to Lula Belle without a limp.
“You are so hurt,” Sadie said, getting up to come to his side. She wrapped her arm around his waist. “Let’s get you to the cottage and get some ice on your ankle.”
“We can’t. You’ll miss the best part of my proposal.”
“Better than you riding Lula Belle?”
“Yes, especially considering how that turned out.”
“How was it supposed to turn out?”
“After I wowed you with my equestrian skills, I was going to sweep you off your feet and onto the back of Lula Belle, and we were going to ride to Blue Mountain and—”
“Watch the sun set over the valley. Oh, Chase, that was an extremely sweet and romantic idea.” She wrapped her other arm around him and tipped her head back. “But you didn’t need to propose to me again. You have nothing to make up to me for. If anything, I’m the one who should be going all out with a romantic proposal after the way I acted. I’m really sorry, you know.”
“You have nothing to apologize for. But I wouldn’t say no to you making it up to me tonight. Say in that little red number you bought from Blushing Bridal.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“Oh, Mr. Roberts, you can count on getting very lucky tonight.”
An hour later, Chase sat with Sadie on the rock that jutted out over the valley. At least this part of his proposal had gone as planned.
Sadie sniffed as she looked through the photo album. “How did you manage to put this together so quickly?”
“I was going to give it to you for Christmas but I thought you might need something other than words to convince you how good we are together.” He turned the pages of the photo album, stopping at one Abby had taken. It was the day he’d proposed to Sadie in the yellow-flower-bedecked rowboat. “What you said in the meadow, it’s the same for me, Sadie. I never expected any of this: falling in love with you, becoming a father, leaving Washington to move here. You’ve changed my life…” He gave her a rueful grin. “Honestly, I don’t think I had a life until you.”
“Now look what you’ve done. You’ve made me cry.” Blinking back the tears in her eyes, she put down the photo album and framed his face with her hands. “Thank you for today, for your proposal, for this gift. It couldn’t have been more perfect.”
He turned his face to kiss her palm and then leaned to the side to drag the saddlebag toward him. “There’s something else.” He pulled out a rolled piece of paper tied with a pink ribbon and a blue velvet box, handing the paper to Sadie first. “I pulled some strings. I hope you don’t mind.”
Sadie frowned as she untied the ribbon and unrolled the paper. Her gaze shot to his. “Is this what I think it is?”
“If you think it’s Michaela’s adoption papers, it is.”
“Take it, take it.” She shoved the paper into his hands. “I’m going to cry all over it and ruin it.” She covered a sob with her hand, shaking her head. “I didn’t think we needed a piece of paper to prove that you’re Michaela’s father. You’ve been more of a father to her than her own since the day she was born. But this…” She pointed at the paper. “It’s important. For Michaela. She’ll know that you wanted her, that you’ve made her your own. Thank you for loving her as much as you do. Thank you for—”
“Stop,” he said, wiping the corner of his right eye. “You’re going to make me cry.”
She took his hand and gave him a watery smile. “You cried the day she was born. You didn’t think I noticed but I did. I fell a little bit in love with you then.”
“Thank God Nate didn’t notice. He never would have let me live it down,” he said, his voice still gruff with emotion. Nate Black had worked with him undercover last summer. They’d had a rocky start, but now they were as close as brothers.
“I’ll let you in on a little secret if you promise not to tell him. Nate cried too.”
“Yeah?” He pocketed the blue box, deciding he’d give it to Sadie the night before the wedding. They’d cried enough for one day. His cell phone pinged with an incoming message and then kept pinging. So did Sadie’s.
“Michaela’s fine,” he said, knowing what she was thinking because it had been his first thought too. “Your grandmother texted us fifteen minutes ago.” He didn’t want anything to intrude on their night together but he glanced at his screen. The first line of the message had him opening the text. He rubbed the back of his neck. “Babe, is there something you want to tell me?”
She frowned and opened the messages on her phone. “I don’t believe it.” She turned to him. “I’m not pregnant. It’s just a big misunderstanding. Abby, Mallory, and I got a little emotional at Blushing Bridal, and someone assumed I must be pregnant too.” She sighed. “Babs. It’s probably all over town by now.”
“That’s a given,” he said, wishing he hadn’t opened the message from his grandfather. It was putting him in a bad mood, which probably came out in his voice. “Just so you know, no one would have been happier than me if you were pregnant. But I’m just as happy to wait another year.” This, at least, was something he and Sadie had talked about, and he knew they were on the same page.
“Who texted you?”
“No one important.” He put down his phone and wrapped an arm around Sadie’s shoulders. “And we have a sunset to enjoy.” His phone rang. He hit Decline. Seconds later, it rang again.
“It’s your grandfather, isn’t it?” Sadie sighed when he nodded. “Take his call, Chase. I bet he’s heard the latest gossip and thinks I’m using my supposed pregnancy to trap you into marriage.”
She was probably right but he wasn’t about to let his grandfather ruin their night. “I’ll call him in the morning,” he said and went to decline the call.
But Sadie was faster and grabbed his phone. “Hi, Jonathan. It’s Sadie.” She paused and then said, “He’s busy at the moment but I have a feeling I know why you’re calling and wanted to set your mind at ease.” She frowned. “I’m sure I can if you’d just hear me out.”
Chase retrieved his phone and whispered, “Trust me, you won’t get a word in when he’s on a roll.” Then he said to his grandfather, “It’s me, and you should know better than to listen to small-town gossip. Sadie isn’t pregnant, but even if she…Oh, so now you think she’s faking her pregnancy because of Gwen? Honestly, I don’t know how…What do you mean you invited Gwen to Highland Falls?”
Chase glanced at Sadie, and she made an apologetic face. She must’ve known. “This has to stop, Judge. I love Sadie, and I’m marrying her. And if you don’t cancel Gwen’s visit, I will,” he said, and disconnected.
“Sorry, I forgot to tell you about Gwen. It’s kind of why Abby, Mallory, and I left the bakery the way that we did. Ellie called to give me a heads-up that your grandfather booked a room for her at the inn.”
“So I was right. Gwen’s the reason you want to get married.”
“No, of course not…Okay, so maybe she was in the beginning. Abby thought if we set a date your grandfather would realize he couldn’t use Gwen to come between us. Obviously, that didn’t work. He just upped his game.”
Chase put his phone down and took her hand in his, rubbing her engagement ring with his thumb. “There’s nothing I want more than to marry you, Sadie, but if the only reason you agreed to this is because of my grandfather and Gwen, I think we should hold off,” he said, struggling to keep the disappointment from his voice.
“It may have started out that way, and then I got caught up in the excitement and I wanted to make Abby happy. But all that changed when I was at Blushing Bridal, thinking about how I’d messed up at the bakery and about how much I love you.” Sadie took his hands and brought them to her cheeks. “There’s nothing I want more than to pledge my love to you in front of our family and friends, so please, will you marry me?”
“Nothing would make me happier than to marry you.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Except maybe seeing you in that little red number from Blushing Bridal.”
She grinned, settling herself between his legs and resting her back against his chest. “We have a sunset to watch first.”
“You’re right, and I have a grandfather to shut down.” He reached for his phone.
“No, don’t.” She covered his hand with hers. “We might as well deal with this head-on. Tell your grandfather you’ve had a change of heart, and Gwen is welcome to come for a visit. That way he’ll see there’s nothing between you and her, and he’ll let it go.”