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Epilogue

Epilogue

C

hristmas Day.

Davis stood on the front porch of the bed and breakfast. It was eerie how quiet it was with the film crew gone. He opened the door, swinging it back and forth. That should hold. Eli Hunt had attempted to fix it a few weeks earlier but had done a lousy job of it. Amateur.

Over the years, he had seen many people attempt home repairs on their own when they shouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near a hammer. At least it kept him in business. When they weren’t purchasing their own supplies, they were paying him to fix their mistakes.

Mrs. Warner walked in just as he was grabbing his bag of tools from the floor next to the check-in counter. Her lips parted in surprise. “Davis, what are you doing here?”

“Your door was broken,” he said, equally surprised that she’d be confused by his presence. “You asked me to fix it.”

“Yes, but I didn’t mean on Christmas. It could have waited until tomorrow.” She released a small laugh and shook her head. “Go home, Davis. Enjoy Christmas Day. Better yet, join my family for dinner.”

Davis had received a few similar offers over the past week, but he hadn’t accepted any of them. The town couldn’t imagine that he’d want to spend Christmas on his own, but he was actually enjoying it. It wasn’t often he had quiet. Before his parents had retired and left the hardware store to Davis, there had always been people around. If it wasn’t customers, it was his parents, or his twin brothers, who were twenty years younger than he was. People liked to tease him that his folks had had a honeymoon baby, realized what a mistake that had been, and taken a couple of decades to muster up the courage to try again.

And then they’d decided they needed a little more adventure in their life. They talked about eventually returning to Starlight Ridge with his teenage brothers, but for the time being, they were out exploring the world. Last time Davis had spoken with them, they had been in Southeast Asia. Thailand, he thought.

Even with them gone, he still had to deal with Adeline and her reggae music, though she was currently in Oklahoma, which was a bit of heaven for him. Yes, a little peace and quiet was just what he needed. The perfect Christmas gift. Going around town fixing things, that was just a bonus. He’d always loved repairing what was broken, many times breaking things on purpose just to see if he could fix them, much to the chagrin of his parents. So, no, fixing a couple of busted hinges on Christmas Day wasn’t an imposition.

“Thank you for the invitation,” he told Mrs. Warner. “But I have plans.”

Mrs. Warner’s lips quirked up. “Really.” Her skepticism was obvious. But Davis really did have plans. He’d be spending most of the afternoon fixing Jessie’s shutters. Erwin had attempted it himself a couple of years earlier, which was surprising in itself, given his and Jessie’s confrontational relationship. The repair had lasted longer than the hinges on the Warners’ door, but not as long as it should have. The shutters each now hung by a single corner.

“I’m going to Jessie’s house,” he said truthfully, though knowing Mrs. Warner would interpret it differently than he intended.

She brightened. “Oh, that’s wonderful. You’ll have a lovely time, I’m sure.” Mrs. Warner paused. “Though I have to admit, I had hoped you would go out and visit your parents this year. I don’t think you’ve had a proper vacation since they left. Might even meet a woman while you’re at it.”

Davis’s heart sank.

Meet a woman. Get a wife.

What Mrs. Warner and the rest of the town didn’t realize was that he had already done just that, several years earlier. Well, nearly.

Davis had done the unthinkable. He’d fallen in love. And asked her to marry him. And been happier than he’d ever been.

Until his worst nightmare had happened.

She had died. Courtesy of her damn motorcycle.

And his only saving grace had been his family leaving him their store. At least then he was given projects he could fix, even if his own life wasn’t one of them.

“I’ve had a lot of work lately, more than usual. Maybe next Christmas,” Davis hedged. This was also true, thanks to Eli Hunt and his large film crew.

Davis shuddered just thinking about it. Eli Hunt. White trailers. The town overflowing with noise and people. Isaac running around, sure that a mime was waiting around every corner, even though Leanne had assured him they wouldn’t be shooting that scene until after the new year. The idea of sticking around when all of that resumed after the holidays seemed equally nauseating.

Maybe visiting his family wouldn’t be so bad. They were volunteering their skills in an isolated village, and however it turned out, it certainly had to be quieter than Starlight Ridge would be.

Part of him wondered how the town would survive without him and his store if he left. And then he realized how ridiculous that sounded. It was absurd to think the town would crash and burn because he left for a couple of weeks.

And just like that, the idea that had sounded crazy when first mentioned by Mrs. Warner took root, and by the time Davis had finished fixing Jessie’s shutters and been bribed to stay for dessert, Davis had made up his mind.

He was going to get on a plane—a flying bullet where he’d have to sit much too close to people he didn’t know—and travel to a foreign country to see his family.

And hopefully not die from a panic attack on the way.

Enjoy Starlight Love? Read Davis’s story in

Building on Love

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