People in town were very private and too proud to take handouts. The town’s only food pantry was in the back of a nondenominational church. That location wasn’t good for the fridge, and they needed an electrical outlet.
An unlikely hero had rescued them.
Darren Duarte, the town veterinarian, had outlets at the end of his driveway for an electric fence, and thus an unusual situation had formed: People in need went to the vet’s house, which was two miles out of town. It was private, yet not too far away.
And occasionally, Darren put in a quart of fresh cow’s milk, goat’s milk, or whatever eggs some hens might have laid, if he was taking care of the animals.
“Sure,” Rachel said, distracted by the knowledge that Kell was probably already at the common by now. “No problem.”
Skylar leaned forward and whispered, “That fridge is keeping Dutch and her sister going. I’m so glad Darren offered to host it. That’s close to Dutch, so she can ride her bike and get food for her and Lissa.”
“Oh,” Rachel said softly, flooded with a sense of helplessness. Dutch was seventeen, her sister fifteen, and Kell had a soft spot for her. When Rachel had first come to town, Kell had paid Dutch to give them both matching henna tattoos of lemurs, a throwback to their time in D.C. Good old Leo the Lemur had been their NGO’s mascot.
She hadn’t thought about Leo in a very long time.
“Lots of eggs in there from all the scratch chickens in the area. Garden produce season is starting. I know Latham Earl puts some cheese and milk from his dairy farm in there, and Kendrill’s Market sends stuff over when it gets close to the sell-by date.”
“I know. I do the deliveries sometimes.”
“It’s helping people,” Skylar said proudly. “We did something good.”
“We’re doing something good, Skylar, and we’ll do even more. No problem on getting the coffee shop leftovers down to Darren’s place.”
“Thank you!”
Rachel’s phone buzzed.
Kell: Where are you? I’m up soon.
Rachel did a double take, and replied: In an hour..?
Kell: Ten minutes. They changed my time slot.
Be right there! she typed back. Pressing her lipstick-covered lips together, she enjoyed the creamy smoothness. Skylar peered at her, then cocked her head.
“Hey. You look really good,” Skylar said. “Your skin is so smooth.”
“Thank you!”
“Did you do that threading thing Annabeth talks about all the time?”
“Something else. It’s called dermaplaning.”
“I’ve seen those videos on YouTube! You shave your face?”
“It’s not shaving. Not in the classic sense. It’s more like exfoliating.”
“But it’s done with a razor.”
“Yes.”
“Then why not just call it shaving?”
Every so often, Rachel got tired of how deeply practical everyone in this town was.
“Because it’s different from shaving.”
“My mom says the only difference is that people are too stupid to realize they’re paying three times more than they’d pay to have their face shaved.”
“Skylar?”
“Huh?”
“You realize you just told me your mother thinks I’m stupid.”
“What? No! Not you. Just people like you.”
Rachel gave her a flat look.
“I’ll stop talking now.”
“That sounds like a good idea.” Rachel smiled, though. Skylar was young and often put her foot in her mouth. But then again, maybe she was right…
Which was probably why her comment stung a bit.
Oh, how good her skin felt, though.
“See you at the festival. Kell’s singing!”
“I know,” Rachel called out as Skylar walked toward the coffee shop. “Can you believe it?”
“NO!”
So far, whenever the topic of Kell singing in the festival had come up, people had expressed incredulity. No small amount of ribbing had been inflicted on her poor boyfriend. Replying to it all with a well-timed glance or an aw, shucks grin, depending on who teased him, Kell had taken it all in stride.
Now she knew why he was doing it.
And the zing! of excitement that shot up her spine at the thought was just so delicious.
Rachel had turned a corner to head to the common when she came to a halt.
The scene before her was magical.
Living in the “love-liest” place on Earth had its upsides, and festivals certainly were one of them. In a town devoted to love, where love wasn’t just a feeling–it was a way of life–Rachel occasionally found herself feeling cynical about it.
Not in terms of her feelings for Kell, of course. More along the lines of how Luview, Maine marketed love so successfully.
Never one for cheesy, over-the-top expressions, when she’d first come to this town painted red, white, and pink, she’d rolled her eyes and written it all off as commercial fakery. It didn’t help that she’d hated her job at the time. Being a corporate drone had seemed like a necessary step up the ladder to success.
A certain kind of success, anyway.
As it turned out, coming here to Love You, Maine to broker a deal and running into Kell again was the best thing that ever happened to her.
And now, as she took in the scene at the I Will Always Love You festival, her sense of belonging here only deepened.
“Oh! Hi!” Selena Martinez, the main on-air personality for the local radio station, WLUV, stepped out from the alley between Love You Flowers and Love You Coffee, nearly crashing into Rachel and dropping two red woven totes overloaded with what appeared to be flowers and small boxes of crackers and cheese.
“Hi! How’s it going?” Love songs were all WLUV played, twenty-four/seven, with brief interruptions from the announcer for weather and news. In fact, right now, the station’s music was being piped in along the streets of Luview, a Carly Simon tune playing in the background.
“Good.” Selena suddenly got a little cagey, which set Rachel’s radar off. “Where’s Kell?”
“Probably at the festival. He told me his spot got moved!”
“Moved?”
“He’s on at–” Rachel checked her phone. “In four minutes!”
“Better hurry, then. You definitely don’t want to miss this!”
“No kidding!” Holding back a snarky comment, Rachel waved as Selena rushed toward the radio station offices. In her old life, she’d have made a bad joke about Kell’s singing, not because he had a rough voice, but because it would be funny and score points for being clever.
Two years into living here in this small town where almost everyone had grown up with each other, she’d learned something very specific:
It was fine to snark gently, but she didn’t tear down, even in a small way, someone she loved.
She could find humor in other ways, and besides, Kell had a great voice. Rumbly and soulful, it wasn’t professional, but that was the point, right? Amateurs weren’t professionals. They sang for the love of it.
And today, Kell would sing for the love of her.
Moving quickly, she walked toward the sea of love before her. From spring through fall and even in winter, almost every weekend there was at least one event in town, and Rachel loved them all. Not just personally, but also professionally.