“Sure, but I need to find Fern first.”
Cooper points to where Fern is sitting next to Jake at a picnic table in the shut-down street, and I pull him over to her.
“What’s she doing here, anyway?” he asks.
“Making Falling Leaves Festival posts,” I tell him.
“Why?”
“Because tourism is good for generating money, and Fern’s videos go viral every time. She’s declared Bramble Falls a must-visit destination.” I turn to face him. “Which is also why I had her make a video about your cookies.”
“Um, what?”
“It’s not a charity offering,” I quickly clarify. “I swear Fern literally could not stop talking about that lemon cookie you gave her when she visited. And now, whenever you’re ready to sell them beyond the Caffeinated Cat, people will know your name. Just wait until you open your bakery.”
He smiles and leans in to kiss me. “God, I love you.” His smile falls as he rears back, like he surprised himself. “I mean—”
“I love you too,” I tell him easily.
His eyes widen. “You… do…?”
“Always.”
He grins just before his lips crash into mine.
“Okay, you two, stop making me puke in my mouth,” Fern teases as she approaches.
Cooper lets me go, and I turn my attention to Fern. “Thank you so much, Fernie,” I say, pulling her into a tight hug. “I owe you.”
She squeezes me before dropping her arms and looking at me with a familiar glint in her eye—my best friend is in herelement. “Oweme?” she exclaims. “I should be thanking you! People are going absolutely berserk for this content. I’ve already had two reels go viral from this morning alone. I’m gonna milk this place for all it’s worth, starting with Cooper’s Cookies.”
As she grabs Cooper by the arm and drags him back toward his float, he looks over his shoulder and shoots me a wink, once again awakening those pesky butterflies in my stomach. My lips turn upward in an unbridled grin, and I close my eyes, trying to savor this moment—the chilly breeze on my skin, the crunchyleaves beneath my boots, the smell of cinnamon and apple, the sound of laughter—because I truly can’t remember the last time I was this happy.
And while Fern gets him posed for some photos, I open my eyes to savor the sight of the beautiful boy from Bramble Falls who captured my heart one autumn day at a time.
Epilogue
Thanksgiving on Apple Blossom Lane is unlike any holiday I’ve ever had, full of friends and laughter, and family. Downstairs, Aunt Naomi, Mom, Amanda, and Asher’s mom are yelling over each other in the kitchen. Aunt Naomi suggested a friendly game of rummy, but it turns out I might have actually gotten my zeal for competition from my mom.
She’s lost the last two games and refuses to serve dinner until she wins.
So Cooper, Sloane, Asher, and I are all hanging out in my room, awaiting our cold mashed potatoes and corn because Aunt Naomi won’t just let her winone.
“I can’t believe you two are working on college applications on aholiday,” Sloane says as she throws a red shell at Asher in an actually friendly game of Mario Kart. “After the month we’ve had, you should be resting. Like normal people.”
Aunt Naomi extended the Falling Leaves Festival another weekend to capitalize on all the attention Fern’s viral posts werebringing to Bramble Falls. We had to help organize the continuation of the event, and then we volunteered to fill in for anyone who couldn’t make it again. I spent two days painting pumpkins and ghosts on kids’ faces while Sloane and Asher handed out mulled cider and Cooper worked his very own Cooper’s Cookies Co. tent.
All the hard work paid off because during that additional weekend, Bramble Falls made more than double what they needed to fund next year’s festival.
Cooper finishes typing something on his laptop, then says, “If we’re going to starve to death, we might as well be productive while we wither away.”
“Oh no. Now you sound like Ellis,” Asher jokes. I throw a pillow at him, causing his Yoshi to fall off a cliff. “Aw, come on!”
“It’s okay. You were going to lose, anyway,” Sloane says to him as she crosses the finish line. Asher gives her a playful shove, and I exchange a knowing look with Cooper.
The last few weeks have flown by. Since the festival ended, I’ve worked relentlessly on creating a portfolio worthy of submitting to FIT, and even though there’s still plenty of time before the application is due, I’m happy with what I’ve come up with. I realized there’s a story to be told across the designs I made freshman and sophomore year through the new ones from this fall, the shift from oxford shirts to plaid ones a representation of the way my family and foundation shifted under me. I’ve been working on a few pieces that synthesize the two, including a maxi dress that starts as a crisp white oxford and then blends into draped flannel from the mid-torso down to the floor.
I think I might actually have a shot at getting in.
