at her skill. “That looks amazing.” Each painting was only $1, but I put a five dollar bill in the jar. All the proceeds went to buy new playground equipment for the school.
“Thanks sheriff.”
Ava’s harvest pumpkin looked great too. It was clear that the kids had taken this seriously and practiced their skills. I was encouraged at the kids Pine Hills was raising.
Once we were back on our way to the pie tent, Ava snaked her arm around my waist. “In fourteen or so years, we’ll be the parents here.”
I stopped in my tracks. “Good Lord. You’re right.”
“Does that scare you?”
“Not when I look around all see all these kids joining in and helping their community.” I leaned down and kissed her on the nose. “And our baby will have you as a mother.”
She blushed. She was so tough, and so confident, so I loved that I could still make her blush like that.
I’d considered proposing right before the pie was tossed. Later tonight, the whole town would show up to see someone throw a meringue pie at my face. But I didn’t want to put that kind of pressure on her. She would be put on the spot, having an entire town video recording her while the sheriff was down on one knee with his grandmother’s ring in his hand.
So I’d decided that we’d go on a private hayride, but I’d nixed that -- the trailer was too bumpy.
The petting zoo, while cute, smelled at times.
I almost gave up and went for the obvious proposal on the front porch of our house, but in the end, the Fall Festival was important to both of us, and I was actually trying to be romantic in a way she’d appreciate.
So we were going to walk through the corn maze. And if she said yes, I would text my sister to let her know, and then everyone was going to show up and celebrate with us. At that point, I didn’t mind if every single person in town pulled out their phone and started recording.
I judged the pie eating contest. The flavors were varied. We had blackberry cobbler raspberry cobbler peach pie cherry pie chocolate pie and everything you could imagine. I tried to do my best, but honestly, it was a blur. I was starting to sweat.
Yes, I was apprehensive about proposing to the mother of my child.
Barrett, who was also one of the pie contest judges, knew about my plan.
He looked me up and down and then started chuckling. “Are you nervous?”
“Yes, I’m fucking nervous,” I said under my breath.
Barrett shook his head. “I saw you face down unbelievable odds with machine gun ammo whizzing by your head. I saw your crazy ass jump off the roof of a building into a waiting ambush. But proposing to one tiny spitfire woman has you sweating bullets.”
That was different. I’d been fighting an enemy, and defending my country. I didn’t have time to overthink it. I’d relied on my training. There was no training for proposing to the only woman I’d ever loved. But I’d never have the words to explain that to Barrett. “You should shut your mouth. We’ll see how you do when it’s your turn.”
“There’s one big difference between you and me. I ain’t gettin’ married.”
We laughed some more, and that helped distract me from what I was about to do. The pie winner was announced, and the blur continued. Then my sister picked up the microphone. Her voice booked over the loudspeaker.
“Make sure you're all back over here by six p.m. That's when we'll have my brother, the respectable Sheriff Whittaker, stand up here on stage and let the winner of the pie contest toss a meringue pie right in his face.”
The crowd cheered.
She looked at me and winked. My sister was not subtle. I wiped my hand over my jeans and then took Ava’s hand in mine. “I promised one of the football players that we’d check out the corn maze. Are you up for that?” Over the last few weeks, the morning sickness, which turned out to be all day sickness, had come and gone seemingly at random. But so far today, she seemed fine.
“Of course.”
I texted her sister, who was going to alert the football team to keep the maze clear for a few minutes.
We walked along, with the fresh smell of fresh hay floating around us. The wind breezed over us.
“What a perfect fall day,” she said. “I can’t get enough of all the