“Trying to figure out what to do for you for your birthday.” I threw my hands in the air. “I admit defeat. I can’t possibly make it as good as you made mine.”

  Tori chuckled. “First of all, it’s not a competition. Second, my birthday’s on Halloween. I kind of assumed that meant we would spend that night trick-or-treating, as is the case on every Halloween.”

  Emery glared over at me as if I had said that wasn’t happening. “Yeah, Mama. We need to go trick-or-treating.”

  “Together,” Bella added as she pointed between her and Emery. “We never see each other.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle. “You girls live together and share a room.”

  Bella crossed her arms in front of her chest and scowled just like Emery. “Yeah, but we don’t go to the same school. We don’t have a Halloween parade together.”

  “You’re right. I’m sorry. That must be very hard for you girls.” I had to work hard to hold back my smile. The problems of toddlers were comical.

  Emery nodded, luckily missing my sarcasm. “So hard.”

  “Yes. Trick or treating on your actual birthday is a must, but that’s a Monday. What should we do the weekend before?”

  “The weekend before, I will be working. People love Halloween weddings.”

  “Okay.” She really wasn’t going to make this easy on me, was she? “But that’s why you have employees. Surely, someone else can do the bulk of the work so you can have some time to celebrate your birthday.”

  “Marley has been taking on more responsibilities at Stone Barn Events. Speaking of which, that’s something I wanted to talk to you about.” Tori stood from the couch. “You girls okay if we go out to talk in the kitchen?”

  Now that the Halloween debacle was solved, all of their attention was back on the movie they were watching. Emery nodded and Bella gave a thumbs up, neither of them moving their eyes from the screen.

  “That appears to be a yes,” Tori said with a laugh. She motioned toward the kitchen. “Shall we?”

  As soon as we were in the kitchen, I leaned against the counter. “So, what’s up?”

  “I’m thinking about bringing Marley on as a co-owner of the barn. It’s hard to keep up so much work with Bella getting older. Soon, she’s going to be playing sports on weekends, and I don’t want to miss that. I know I was just complaining about money, and co-ownership is going to cut down on that, but time with my little girl is definitely more important.”

  “Plus, the barn is doing great now. Even with splitting ownership, you’ll still make a lot more money than you did during COVID, and you made it through that.”

  Tori rolled her eyes. “Barely. But seriously, you’d be okay with that?”

  Why was she asking me? “That’s not up to me. It’s your business, and I support any decision you make. If you’re asking me because that means you two will have to stay here longer, that’s totally fine. You can stay as long as you want. Emery and I love having you both here.”

  Tori furrowed her eyebrows. “I actually hadn’t thought about that, but that’s good to know. I was asking because it was you and Willow who bought the place together. You’re the whole reason it was renovated in the first place. I know it’s sacred to you. I don’t want to do anything without making sure it’s okay with you first.”

  “Tori, the barn is yours. That was always your and Willow’s dream, not mine. You’ve done an amazing job with it, and I trust that whatever you decide to do moving forward is going to be perfect.”

  Tori’s body visibly relaxed and her smile became more sincere. “Great. I’m so happy to hear that.”

  “Okay. Now that that’s taken care of, let’s talk about your birthday.”

  Tori’s eyes lit up as if she suddenly had an idea. “What if we took the girls to a pumpkin patch on Sunday afternoon then crashed a wedding on Sunday night?”

  “Crash a wedding? Is this wedding taking place at your wedding venue?”

  “It is! It’s going to be awesome. All of the guests are coming in costumes and the decorations I picked out with the bride are amazing. The perfect mix of scary yet chic.” She brought her hands together in a praying motion and stuck out her bottom lip. “Please tell me you’ll crash with me.”

  “Is it really crashing if it’s a wedding that you’re hosting? Are you trying to get free labor?” I asked, the tone of my voice light so Tori knew I was joking.

  “Absolutely not.” She squinted her eyes and brought her thumb and forefinger close together. “Okay, maybe I’ll ask for a little bit of help, but then we’re going to put on costumes and sneak in to dance and party. No one will ever know since everyone will be dressed up and most likely very drunk.”

  “So, crashing a wedding?” A nervous excitement shot through me, even though there was nothing to actually be nervous about since Tori literally had every right to be at the wedding being hosted by her venue. “It’s something to check off my bucket list, I guess. Let’s do it.”

  ***

  A week later, we woke up early to take the girls to a farm that had a pumpkin patch, plus a lot of other fall activities, including a corn maze. After doing pumpkin rolling and apple shooting, we decided to try to take on the corn maze.

  It only took a few minutes to realize none of us actually knew what we were doing. That wasn’t very surprising for the toddlers in the group, but Tori and I weren’t any more help than they were.

  After our third wrong turn, Tori threw up her hands in frustration. “That’s it. It looks like we’re stuck in here forever.” She sat down right where she was standing and let out a long sigh.

  “Forever?” Emery looked up at me with wide eyes. “If we’re here forever, we’ll miss trick-or-treating!”

  “Don’t worry. Your Aunt Tori is just being dramatic.” I tried to glare at Tori, but couldn’t stop myself from smiling. “We’ll find our way out of here. I promise.”

  As if things couldn’t get worse, it started to sprinkle. The little bit of warm rain didn’t feel bad to me, but Bella screamed as soon as the first drop hit her.

  “Well, this is going great,” I whispered under my breath.

  I was about to lose all hope as well, when I saw a rainbow form out in the distance. Words that Willow said years ago immediately popped into my head. “I’ll be the rainbow that shows up after the storm.” This wasn’t exactly a storm, but I still had no question that was Willow trying to lead the way for us. Willow—the woman who actually happened to be very good at corn mazes.

  I pointed to the rainbow and laughed as I looked down at Emery. “I think your mommy is trying to help show us the way out.” I focused on Tori next. “I know it sounds crazy, but I think we need to follow the rainbow.”

  Tori jumped to her feet and wiped off her pants. “You heard the woman. Let’s follow the rainbow.”

  I guess I wasn’t actually that crazy, because following the rainbow worked. Five minutes later, we were out of the corn maze. Sure, we went back out the entrance, but at least we were out.

  “I’m beat,” Emery said as soon as she walked out. “Can we go home?”

  “Of course.” I scooped Emery into my arms. “And do you know who’s going to be at the house soon?”

  “Who?” Emery wiggled around in my arms.

  “Meemaw and Peepaw.” It still made me laugh that my parents were actually okay with those ridiculous names.

  “Yay!” Emery wiggled around even more now. “Let’s go!”

  Less than a half hour after we got back to the house, my parents arrived. After catching up for a few minutes, Tori asked if I was ready to get my things together and head to the barn.

  “You girls should just stay there tonight,” my mom said as I went to stand from the couch. “We can get the girls to school tomorrow.”

  “Oh no. That’s fine. I have to get up for work tomorrow, so I’m not planning on doing anything crazy tonight.”

  “Still. No sense walking back here after dark. There’s more than enough space for you two to stay at the barn, right?”

  “Yeah, definitely.”

  “Then stay. Please. I need some time with my granddaughter without her old mama around.”

  Emery jumped off of my mom’s lap and stared up at me with her hands on her hips. “Yeah, Mama, stay. I want Meemaw to take me to school.”

  I put my hands in the air as if I was surrendering. “Fine. We will stay at the barn.”

  “Are you sure?” Tori asked my mom. “I feel bad making you take responsibility for my daughter too.”

  “It’s nothing. Bella is just as much of a granddaughter to me as Emery is.”

  “That’s really sweet of you to say.” There was a crack in Tori’s voice, and I could tell she was trying not to cry.

  “Do you think your mom really meant that?” Tori asked as soon as we loaded our bags into her car. “You know, about considering Bella her granddaughter.”

  I opened my door and took my spot behind the wheel of my car. “Seeing as how I have never heard my mom say something just to be nice, I’d say she definitely meant it. Emery and Bella are practically sisters. It makes sense my mom would see her as a granddaughter. She’s definitely more than just your daughter to me.”

  Tori blinked her eyes rapidly as she stared straight ahead. “So, was this your plan? Make me cry on my birthday weekend?”

  “I promise it wasn’t, but crying isn’t a bad thing. Especially when they’re happy tears.”

  Tori laughed as a few tears fell from her eyes. “That sounds like something Willow would have said.”

  “What can I say? She did rub off on me a little bit during our time together.”

  “She had a way of doing that.”

  “Oh, I know. No one came in contact with Willow Stone and walked away without being changed in one way or another.” I smiled as I thought about her. I valued the times when thinking about her made me happy rather than sad, and now was one of those times.

  “She really understood how to live her life, didn’t she?”

  “Of course she did. That’s where the phrase Live like Willow came from.”

  “It's almost as if…” Tori shook her head. “This is going to sound crazy, but it’s like subconsciously she knew she didn’t have as much time, and that’s why she lived the way she did.”

  You have no idea. Guilt coursed through my body once again. I hated having this secret. “We never know when our last day is.” At least most of us. “That’s why we need to live every day as if it was our last.”

  “Like, by sneaking into weddings? I don’t think that’d be a terrible way to spend your last day. Do you?”

  Her question made me laugh. Sometimes, Tori was so much like Willow that hanging out with her made me feel like Willow was still around. At the same time, there were enough differences between them for Tori to keep me on my toes, even after being friends for all this time. “Definitely a pretty good way to spend my last day. You know, as long as we don’t get sent to jail for crashing.”

  “Don’t worry. I know the owner.” Tori looked over at me and winked, and my stomach did somersaults once again. That had happened a lot around her these past few months, and I had no idea what it was about. Sure, Tori was good looking, but I was close enough to her that her charms didn’t work on me the same way they did on other girls. Obviously. Because she was Willow’s best friend, practically her sister.

  Once we were at the barn, we got our bags out of the car and took them into the house that used to belong to Tori. She was slowly trying to renovate it to make it into a nicer space for wedding parties to get ready, but luckily, there was still a bed in the guest room, which just so happened to be the room that used to belong to me and Willow. I sighed as I laid my bag down on the bed and looked around. I had completely avoided this room since losing Willow. Even when I spent the night here in December, I had slept on the couch so I didn’t have to be in the space where so many memories lived. It actually made the most sense for me to do that again. I’m not sure why I had even assumed that Tori and I would share the bed tonight. It was probably because we ended up sleeping together so much at my house, but it wasn’t like that was our thing. Sleeping separately was what made the most sense.

  “You can have the bed tonight. I’ll take the couch.”

  Tori furrowed her eyebrows and pursed her lips as she looked over at me. “Really? I just assumed we’d both sleep in here. It’s not like we’re not used to sharing a bed.”

  “I’d rather sleep on the couch.” I attempted to smile, but it was no use.

  “But wh—” Tori’s eyes went wide when the realization hit her. “Oh, duh. I’m an idiot. I’m so sorry, Rosemary. Honestly, I completely understand if you don’t even want me to sleep in here. I can just sleep on the floor or something. I don’t work tomorrow so I’m not planning on holding back on the drinking tonight. I’m sure I’ll have no problem passing out anywhere.”

  “Tori. It’s fine. It’s just a bed. You should sleep in it. I’m okay. I promise.”

  “Are you sure? Because I don’t mind.”

  “I’m positive. Don’t give it another thought.”

  Tori took a deep breath and blew it out. “Okay. Just as long as you’re okay. That’s all I care about.”

  “I’m great.” I grabbed Tori’s hand, but dropped it when a shock ran through my body. “Plus, this is your birthday weekend. I should be making sure that you’re happy.”

  “I’m extremely happy. Don’t worry about that.” Tori pointed out the bedroom door. “Want to see how the festivities are going and then once we make sure Marley has everything under control, we’ll enact the plan?”

  “You mean the plan to crash a wedding at your own venue?”

  Tori wiggled her eyebrows. “Exactly.”

  It didn’t take long for us to realize that Marley had everything under control. She was actually a wizard at making sure things went smoothly, so it was clear she would have no trouble handling the rest of the night, especially since Tori and I would be right there just in case anything went wrong. When Tori told Marley the plan to crash the wedding, Marley simply shook her head and smiled. All Tori ever had to do to get her way was flash that perfect grin of hers and people were putty in her hands. Of course, Marley wouldn’t be any different, even if she was straight and married. Tori whispered in Marley’s ear to tell her what we would be dressed as since she still hadn’t told me.

  When we got into the bedroom, Tori finally took the costumes out of her bag to reveal them to me. “Which one do you want? Abominable Snowman or Sasquatch?”

  I took in the big wooly costumes. The night was cool, but definitely not cool enough for either of those costumes to keep me from sweating my ass off on the dance floor. “I’ll take the Sasquatch, but I hope you don’t expect me to dance in that.”

  Tori scoffed and brought her hand to her chest. “How could you even say that? Of course I expect you to dance in it.”

  Instead of arguing with her, I grabbed the Sasquatch costume and took it to the bathroom to change into it. I was able to get into it by myself, but couldn’t get the zipper all the way up, so I walked back to the bedroom so Tori could hopefully zip it before she put her Abominable Snowman hands on.

  “Hey, Tor, do you think you could—?” I stopped dead in my tracks when I realized Tori wasn’t even close to having her costume on. In fact, all she was wearing was a bra and a thong. My mind blanked as I looked at her body, which was arguably perfect. Once my thoughts caught up with my eyes, I stopped them from moving across her skin and looked toward the wall instead. “Shit. I’m so sorry.”

  Tori laughed. “No big deal. We lived together for years. I’m sure this isn’t anything you haven’t seen before.”

  That was true. Tori was far from shy. She had changed in front of me multiple times throughout our friendship. The only difference was that this time, it was difficult for me to look away. And, in reality, that was a huge difference. Because why couldn’t I look away? Was it because I had gone so long without seeing another woman’s body? That was still no excuse for checking out my friend. Willow’s best friend, I reminded myself.

  “I need a drink.”

  I didn’t even realize I had said the words out loud until Tori stood right in the path of my gaze and gave me an incredulous look. “I realize I’ve let myself go a bit over these past few years, but surely, it can’t be so bad that you need a drink to forget about what you saw.”

  I could feel my face turning red and was happy I had already put on my Sasquatch head so Tori didn’t notice. “Let yourself go? Really?” I asked. “Tori, your body is perfect. If anything, I need to drink to forget how much I’m lacking.” Not a complete lie.

  Tori stepped into her Abominable Snowman costume and finally pulled it up over her body. Her eyes took in my costume from top to bottom. “Trust me, you are in no way lacking.”

  I held my arms out to the side, because I was sure she was referring to my costume. “Oh yes, I know. The fur really does something for me.”

  “You do pull off that costume really well, but that’s not what I was referring to.”

  “Wh-what do you mean?” My throat went dry.

  “Good god, Rosemary, are you really going to make me say it? You’re hot, okay? I’m scared Willow might strike me down for saying that, but it’s true.” Tori looked toward the ceiling and waved her hand. “Not trying to steal your girl, I promise.”

  “Willow would probably tell you to go ahead and steal me.” It was supposed to be a joke about how laidback Willow always was, but as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I wondered what the hell I was thinking. I wanted to swallow them up in hopes that Tori somehow wouldn’t realize what I said. Really, I just wanted the floor to swallow me up at this point. Because why would I say that? Why would I make any sort of reference to Tori stealing me as if that was a possibility at all? Smooth, Rosemary. Real smooth.

  Tori just stared at me. Her eyes didn’t blink. Her lips didn’t curl into a smile. She honestly looked like she would rather be anywhere else other than standing in front of me at that moment. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, as if she couldn’t possibly figure out what to say in response to my idiotic comment. And I honestly didn’t blame her.

 

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