Page 87 of Always You (A Lilac Bay Novel)

“The fairies were so sorry for the poor princess that they turned her tears into the most beautiful flowers to cheer her up.” The woodland creatures had changed into purple costumes, and they came on stage, waving fake bunches of lilacs in the air. “But the king was so very cruel that he cut them down, making the princess cry even harder.

“The fairies couldn’t bear to see her so sad,” Libby read. “And so they turned the water surrounding the island into ice so that the woodsman could come and rescue his true love.”

Andrew appeared again on the stage, reaching out a hand to me. “I’ve come to rescue you, Princess,” he said.

“You could sound a little more excited about it, woodsman,” I said, and the crowd laughed. Andrew even cracked a smile.

“So the princess and the woodsman escaped across the ice bridge. And to this very day, the fairies bring back the lilac flowers every spring to remind us of the power of love. But they only bloom for a very short time, just like the flowers that the King cut down, to remind us that love is precious and fleeting and not to be taken for granted.”

The fairies danced around with the boys in purple, waving their lilac bunches.

“You may wonder what happened to the king and his daughter,” Libby read. “Well, the king spent the rest of his days very angry, searching for the princess.” The mayor stomped around on stage, waving his fists. “But he could never find her, because she was guarded by the protection of the fairies.”

I high-fived a passing fairy.

“Instead she lived happily ever after with her true love, the woodsman.” Libby looked over at us, her eyebrows high.

This was where we were supposed to kiss. I shook my head at her, crossing my arms.

“What kind of love story is that?” Jake called from the crowd. “He’s supposed to kiss her!”

“They always kiss at the end of the story,” Fran agreed.

“Yeah, kiss her, woodsman!” Eddie shouted.

“I hate everyone,” Andrew muttered, but he bent down and pressed his lips against mine, lightly, to the cheers and catcalls of our friends and neighbors. He started to pull back, but Libby’s arm darted out, pushing his back, forcing him a step closer, his lips pressing tighter on mine.

I grabbed his arms to steady him as he stumbled, and the crowd went nuts.

I thought he would pull away but his lips remained there, pressed against mine. And then he seemed to increase the pressure, his arms coming up around me, responding to the crowd that was cheering and whistling.

Putting on a good show, I thought to myself, feeling a little annoyed. He just has to show off and be the ladies’-man.

But then one hand came up to my face, and I stopped thinking about the crowd, and I stopped being annoyed. Because this didn’t feel like showing off.

This felt like being kissed.

He was cradling my face, and I could feel every millimeter of the work-roughened skin of his palm. His other hand was still on my back, drawing me close to his body. He was bending me backwards a little but I knew I wouldn’t fall. I wouldn’t fall, because Andrew was there under my hands, his body strong, substantial, exactly the kind of thing you’d want to be anchored to. And his lips were moving against mine, insistent, demanding, and I was pretty sure I had stopped breathing several minutes ago.

And then, just like that, it was over. He had pulled away, and I felt like I was falling, like I wasn’t sure where I was. Over his shoulder, Libby was laughing. The fairies were still dancing around us, the crowd obnoxious with their cheers. Everything exactly the same as it had been before that kiss, like nothing had just changed.

But Andrew was standing there in front of me, his gaze fixed on mine, his blue eyes unreadable. What was he thinking?

I couldn’t even begin to wrap my mind around what that kiss had felt like, and Andrew was giving me no clues as to his take on it.

“Thank you for listening to the Legend of the Lilacs,” Libby was saying. “We’d like to thank all of our participants tonight.”

Andrew pulled me to the front of the stage to take our bows with the fairies and Mayor Jones. From the corner of my eye I could see that Andrew was once again smiling his smug, cocky smile, so I tried to mimic him, fixing a huge grin to my face, hoping that no one could tell how my brain was spinning in that moment. I just wanted to get off the stage and go somewhere quiet with Andrew so that I could figure out what in the hell had just happened.

But when we stepped off the stage he immediately pulled his hat off.

“I need to get out of these tights,” he said, his voice as normal as if we had just finished a baseball game, rather than locked lips in front of the entire town. “You gonna grab food?”

I realized, belatedly, that I was staring at him. “Sorry, what?”

“Food,” he repeated. “Are you gonna change or eat first?”

“Uh, change, I guess.”

“Alright. I guess I’ll see you over there, then,” he said, giving me a little nod before heading back to Libby’s, leaving me alone by the stage to wonder if I had just imagined the entire thing.