Helena laughed and we kept walking. Ashton was beautiful, even at night. Tonight the town was decorated with holiday lights leftover from Christmas. Someone hadn’t been bothered to take them down, so the world still looked lit up and lovely.
Nothing glowed nearly as brightly as sweet Helena did, though.
Nobody could hold a handle to that gorgeous woman.
“I love you,” I told her.
“I love you, too.”
We were passing by a small bakery, and we stopped and peered in the window. Ashton was known for its sweet bakeries and tiny restaurants. Because it was such a small town, a lot of people came here to retire. That meant that grandmothers and aunts tended to open up little shops to keep them busy after retirement.
It was kind of wonderful.
“Let’s get a cupcake,” I said.
“We’re about to go eat dinner,” Helena laughed.
“I know, that’s true,” I said, nodding solemnly. “What would our mothers say?”
“Okay,” she shook her head. “You had me at upsetting our mothers. Let’s go get one.”
We scurried inside of the little bakery, which was obviously about to close.
“I’m so sorry,” I said to the woman behind the register. “I know it’s late. Are you still open?”
The old woman looked from me to Helena and back again, and then a soft smile spread over her face. Obviously, she recognized two people in love when she saw them.
“I can’t do any custom orders tonight, but if you’d like a cupcake, there’s one left.”
We peered in the
little display. Sure enough, there was one dark chocolate cupcake with bright red frosting on the top. Helena looked over at me and grinned.
“We’ll take it,” I said proudly, standing up straight.
The woman chuckled as she packaged up the cupcake.
“First date?” She wanted to know.
“Actually,” Helena looked over at me and smiled. “We’re getting married tomorrow.”
“Is that so?”
“It’s so,” she said.
“In that case,” the woman handed the cupcake over. “It’s on the house.”
*
“It’s been a long time since we walked down this road together,” Helena said, bringing me back to the present. I looked over at her. Her silver hair hung past her shoulders. It was curled and beautiful. Time had passed, but it had been so kind to her. She looked every bit as lovely as she did that day all of those years ago.
“A long time,” I agreed quietly.
“Do you ever think about it?”
“Main Street?”
“No,” she laughed, shaking her head. I was caught off-guard by just how young and girlish she seemed right now. It brought back even more fun memories that we’d made together over the years. “Do you think about our wedding day?”