Cinnamon Roll Set Up (Cinnamon Rolls and Pumpkin Spice)

32. Georgia

Chapter 32

Georgia

Fun fact: I never actually rode the bookmobile bike before today. It’s heavy, impossible to pedal, and—get this—a cruiser bike. No gears. I’m starting to understand why this dumb thing was free in the first place.

It’s taking me three times as long to ride to the store as it would have if I’d walked. I’m sweating through my undershirt despite the cooler weather. And I suspect the back tire already has a flat. But at least I’ll be able to pull up to Dogeared and give it to Miles months earlier than I’d originally promised.

It’s pretty meh as far as grand gestures go, but it’s all I had at the last minute.

When I park it in front of the store, it’s an incomprehensible joy to get off that bike seat. My poor behind wasn’t ready for riding miserable miles on a seat I should have replaced when I fixed it up. Maybe my new fitness goal will be to get strong enough to easily ride it to the farmers market and back every Saturday.

Ha. Good one, Georgia.

I straighten my sweater that’s striped like a candy corn, and push through Dogeared’s door, ready to make my love declaration to Miles. As scared as I’ve been to risk my heart, I wouldn’t trust it with anyone else but him.

Only, he’s not at the front counter. Arlo’s there, talking about a book series with one of the guys from the fantasy reader group. I wave at him and head for the back room, but Miles isn’t in the kitchen, either. So…where is he? He’s always in the store.

Maybe he got another migraine?

As soon as the fantasy fan leaves with his purchase—of an entire series he hasn’t even finished book one in yet, no less—I go up to Arlo. “Is Miles sick today?”

“He’s doing the corn maze thing.”

The Kissing Corn Maze careens around in my head.

“What?” I run over to the front window and pull the flyer off the glass. There’s Miles’s cute little face printed out in orange and gray, right next to today’s date. I completely forgot about it. Never put it on my calendar because why would I? And I’m terrible at checking my calendars even if I had. “No, no, no.”

The bachelor portion of the Kissing Corn Maze starts in just over half an hour. My stomach bottoms out. I can’t let someone else win my man. I have to get over there. I head for the door but stop short.

I didn’t drive here. And I definitely can’t pedal the bookmobile bike out to Mackay Farm. That would take me days. Maybe if Sam can get here right away?—

Ava walks through Dogeared’s doors with the littles following behind her. As usual, she looks remarkably stylish for doing nothing but wandering around Magnolia Ridge.

“Georgia, I’m so glad I caught you. Do you mind if I leave Finn and Willa with you for a little while this afternoon? I need a dose of retail therapy, and you know how they get so bored with shopping.”

My little siblings each hug me on their way to claim two of the bookshop’s cozy chairs. Ava’s already heading out the door without even confirming with me that I can babysit. Which, to be clear, I can’t.

“Ava. I’m not working today.”

She barely pauses in the doorway. “Then it’s that much better!”

“No, it’s not.” I pull her outside onto the sidewalk so Finn and Willa don’t overhear. I wait for the door to shut before I go on. “You can’t keep bringing them to me to babysit without warning.”

She rears back, a perfect pout forming on her face. “I thought you liked spending time with them.”

“I do. I love them. But I also love having my own life. I need you to give me some advance warning. Call. Text.”

Amazing how her phone works whenever she’s planning a party or a holiday gathering, but never does when she needs last-minute babysitting. She just appears, like a rabbit in a hat shoving her babies onto the magician.

Ava’s shoulders sag beneath her fashionable wool coat. “I just want you to have a close relationship with them. The way you do with Sam.”

Oh. Well…that’s asking a lot, considering the age gap between us and how young they are. But I guess her springing them on me makes a little more sense in that light.

“We are close. I love them, and they love me. But sometimes I have things to do. Like right now. Except—” I look up and down the sidewalk as if a taxi might be waiting. I don’t think even ride share apps get much use in this town. “I think I’m going to miss him.”

She looks me over and perks up again. “Miss who?”

I sigh, but I might as well tell her. “Miles is one of the bachelors in the Kissing Corn Maze at Mackay Farm, and I totally forgot about it. I was going to go down there, but I rode here on that.”

I toss a hand at the bookmobile bike. Super cute as a book display. Super impractical as actual transportation.

“You were going to go down there, and…” she prompts.

“Tell Miles I love him, obviously. But now I don’t have a way to get there.”

It’s fine. It’s not like the Kissing Corn Maze ends with a wedding or something. I’ll just tell him how I feel after his date.

With a woman who’ll probably figure out how incredible Miles is a lot quicker than I did.

“Oh, yes, you do have a way to get there.” Ava pushes open Dogeared’s door. “Kids, come along. We’re going for a drive.”

Fifteen minutes later, Ava drops me off outside Mackay Farm’s front entrance.

I open the door and start to get out. “I owe you one.”

“I think I’ve owed you for a while.”

I turn back to her, and she smiles softly. She’s doing her best, in her own way. Mothering her kids and trying to ensure they stay close to me and Sam. That means something. And she totally came through for me today.

I scoot closer to hug her. “Thank you, Ava.”

She hugs me back, but then pushes me toward the door. “You’re welcome. Now go get that man.”

“Go kiss Miles!” Willa screeches.

She had a lot of questions for me from the back seat on the drive over. Most of which I deflected, but our next family get together will put me straight in the hot seat .

“Or don’t,” Finn adds.

But preferably do, I say under my breath as I close the car door behind me.

I go straight to the ticket booth to pay my fee. There’s no line, thankfully. Maybe there won’t be as many women out there as I’d feared.

“I’d like a ticket to the corn maze bachelor thing, please.”

The woman behind the corn-shaped cutout gets this knowing look on her face. “Twenty dollars.”

I pass her the bill. “Is it very crowded today?”

She nods and slides me a pink wristband. “It’s our most successful fundraiser yet. You’ve got about five minutes before they drop the rope. And a whole lot of competition.”

Terrible pep talk.

Mackay Farm is massive. Thankfully, huge directional signs are everywhere, indicating where their featured areas are. Pumpkin patch. Apple launch. Bouncy houses. Petting zoo. Wagon rides.

Naturally, the corn maze is the farthest from the entrance. I jog past toddlers being pulled in wagons along with their pumpkin hauls, a live music stage, and food trucks. The smell of apple spice donuts frying gets my stomach growling, but there’s no time for treats.

When I reach the corn maze entrance, my heart sinks. It’s teeming with people. Maybe a hundred women wait to be let in, and at least twice that many people crowd around watching. Even if I were to join them, the odds are extremely low that I would be able to find Miles before anyone else does.

Worse, the reality of the situation finally hits me—he’s inside a corn maze . And it’s not small and contained like the fake one at the Abandoned Manor. It’s so gigantic, I can’t see where it ends on either side. I actually thought I could run around in there instead of curling up in the fetal position and hyperventilating?

“Georgia!”

I turn to find Miles’s mom and aunt waving me down.

“We were just checking out the potentials,” Cece says with a wink.

“What are you doing here?” Lydia asks.

I gesture vaguely at the corn. “Well, I…”

I can’t tell his mom I love him before I tell him. Can I? Then again, my stepmom and the littles already know, and none of them are likely to keep it quiet for long. And I don’t want them to. I don’t want to hide it.

“I wanted to win Miles. I’m in love with your son.”

They both light up and come in for hugs at the same time, each exclaiming about what great news this is.

“But I don’t think I can do this.” I look past them at the towering stalks of corn. “I have very specific fears about cornfields. Running through that is literally my worst nightmare.”

I’m already getting a little sweaty just looking at it. Two “friendly” scarecrows guard the entrance. There could be more inside. Just the thought of them waiting around blind corners makes my stomach cramp.

Lydia squeezes me gently on the arm. “I’m sure he’ll understand.”

“I’ll just call him and tell him before it starts.” I move to get my phone, but Cece stops me.

“They took the men’s phones away to ensure nobody can cheat. Each man has a map to get out once he’s been claimed, but that’s it.”

“Ladies, are you ready to pick your bachelor?” the announcer asks over the loudspeakers.

The waiting women crush even closer to the entrance. A lot of them are dressed like they’re prepared for a marathon—athletic leggings and sneakers everywhere. Most are roughly my age, but some are considerably older. As they crowd around, it starts to look more like they’re ready for a rugby match than a love match.

I’m wearing a candy corn sweater, jeans, and Converse and haven’t shoved someone out of my way in my life. I am zero percent prepared for the Kissing Corn Maze.

“Begin!” The rope falls away, and women stream into the field, laughing and jostling at each other.

Well, that’s it. It’s too late. I’ll just stay with Lydia and Cece and be here waiting when Miles comes out.

With some other woman on his arm.

Not really an ideal moment for a love declaration, but maybe it will be one of the older women and she’ll be understanding? But what if it’s one of the younger women, and she’s not?

Even if it’s all for charity, I don’t want him going on a date with anyone else but me.

The last of the contestants disappears into the field. My heart rate amps up higher and higher. I know the stupid, scary, stupid-scary thing I’m about to do roughly three seconds before I do it.

“I’m going for it anyway,” I yell, and dart forward through the crowd.

Lydia and Cece cheer me on, but their hurrahs are quickly lost in the noise of all the people I have to push past.

“Coming through!” I shout, my eyes on that small break in the corn. I do not look at the scarecrow guards.

A man who works at the farm tries to step in front of me, but I dodge him, raising my arm to reveal my pink wristband.

“I’m a contestant!”

“You’re a little late,” he yells back.

Yeah, about two years late. I’m not wasting any more time .

I dash through the corn, and I’m immediately back in the fake maze with the haunted scarecrow. Sweat beads down my back and the nape of my neck, and my hands are balled into tight fists. The faster I move my feet, the faster I can get to Miles. And then the faster we can get out of this demented version of fall fun.

It doesn’t take long to catch up to the very back of the crowd of contestants. They clog the narrow maze aisles, and I slow to a walk. I’m never going to find Miles first if I wait around at the back.

“The man I love is in there!” I shout.

“Join the club,” one of the older women shouts back.

It was worth a shot. Fine. It’s time to get pushy.

I slip past everyone I can, ignoring the tiny ball of shame in my gut that normally stops me from even considering cutting in line. But this isn’t a line. It’s a weird free-for-all, and my Miles is up for grabs. You bet I’m cutting.

Some of the gals push back a little bit, but most just laugh as I barrel past. Someone says, “Way to be desperate,” but I don’t care. Watch me be desperate for Miles.

After a while, we’ve hit enough forks in the path that it’s less crowded but considerably more confusing. No surprise, I’ve never been in a corn maze before. I don’t know if there’s a strategy to it, or if you just take your chances and hope for the best.

I hit dead-ends and have to turn around. I find more toy scarecrows than I care to acknowledge, each one sending a jolt of panic up my spine. I stumble on one set of turns that, after three times through it, I realize is running me and everyone else in it in circles. They’re not exactly making it easy to find the guys.

That’s the point. Still.

But ladies are having success. I come across one dead-end and see a man who’s already chatting up his winner. It’s not Miles, thank goodness, but it just proves how unlikely it is I’m going to come out of here with him.

Someone could already be with him now. Ignoring the stitch in my side, I run faster.

I stumble around another corner and find a man who hasn’t been won yet. He smiles wide, but I turn around and retrace my steps.

“I’m sorry,” I shout behind me. “It’s not you. It’s me!”

The fewer women I see around me, the quieter the cornfield gets, and the quicker I run. It’s too spooky to be alone like this. Do the farm owners do a sweep of the maze every night to make sure nobody’s lost in the cornfields? It’s broad daylight, but I have a very clear picture of what it would be like in here, lost in the dark.

Nope. Not going there .

I keep running, but I have no concept of where I am in the maze. With zero sense of direction, I could be circling back toward the entrance. All I know for sure is that I haven’t reached Miles yet, and I can’t stop until I do.

I turn a corner, and finally, finally I’ve found him. I might cry.

After this morning, tears are a very real possibility.

Miles looks at me for a second like he can’t believe it’s me, and then his face lights up with the biggest, brightest smile.

“Georgia,” he breathes as I jog the last few feet to him.

I stop in front of him, breathing too hard to speak, the pain in my side reminding me I am not and have never been a runner. But I can grin back at him.

“What took you so long?” he says.

I launch myself at him, laughing as he scoops me up. I’m sweaty and covered in corn silks and still majorly freaked out to be in a cornfield in the first place, but I found him.

I pull back so I can see him clearly. “I didn’t want anyone else to find you. You’re mine.”

This delicious look of triumph crosses his face before he leans down and kisses me. He lifts me up, encouraging me to wrap my legs around him. Oh, yes, let’s do. We’re frantic and happy, and for a few glorious minutes, I don’t even care that I’m in a cornfield.

I’m with Miles, and that’s all that matters.

“Tone it down, girl. You got him,” a woman’s voice behind us says.

We break apart, and he guides my feet back to the ground, but I don’t let him go. I cup his face in my hands.

“I love you, Miles.”

The sheer happiness on this man’s face makes my heart sing. Mine, mine, mine.

“I should have realized it a long time ago. Yes, I love you as my best friend, but I love you as so much more than that, too. I love you in all possible ways. On your good days and bad days and everything in between. You’re the best person I know, and the sexiest bookstore owner on the planet, and I am in love with you. Desperately.”

“Did you read my letters?”

“All of them.” Several times over, but we can get to my sleepless night later.

“Then you know already that I want you. And only you.”

I kiss him again softly.

“You have me. Now, can we please get out of here? This corn maze is really freaking me out.”